by Alex Siegel
"What do you mean?"
"The accountants tried to hide it by fixing the books, but the project is bankrupt. If it can't secure a fresh round of financing, construction will stop within a few days. The banks won't loan the project more money unless it can get long-term commitments from customers."
Marina furrowed her brow. "Oh."
"The plant has to sell the water it will make before it even makes it."
Aaron came over and nodded his head. "Now I understand why they tried to blow up the dam. It all makes perfect sense."
"Why, sir?" Jia said.
"It would've jacked up the cost of water in the state. The desalinization plant would have a much easier time lining up customers in that case. Panic would make them sign at ridiculous prices. A nearly bankrupt project would suddenly be a gold mine."
Marina whistled. "Talk about hardball business tactics."
"Indeed," Aaron said. "Jia, keep digging. Find out who stands to profit the most. That must be the guy calling the shots."
"Yes, sir." Jia looked at Marina.
Marina nodded. "Do it."
"Yes, ma'am."
Aaron turned to Marina. "And if Jose Roberts uncovered a major environmental problem at the plant and mailed the report to Dr. Midler, it would explain why the former is missing and the latter is dead. A scandal would wreck any possibility of financing. Midler had to be silenced. The threads are finally coming together."
"You're so smart." She kissed him on the lips. "But now I'm worried. The plot to blow up the dam failed. The bad guys will have to ruin the water supply some other way, and they don't have much time." She looked at Jia. "How long until the construction project runs out of money?"
"Technically, it already has."
"Ah." Marina grimaced.
* * *
Hanley glanced over his shoulder. Six men were following him, Ipo, and Katie across the dirt parking lot in front of the desalinization plant. The pursuers were dressed in construction worker clothing except for one who wore a business suit. The last was clearly the leader, and Hanley guessed his name was Fuchs.
"Hey!" he yelled. "Stop! We want to talk to you!"
The legionnaires kept up their pace. The plan was to reach the van before getting into a confrontation so they wouldn't have to carry bodies far.
The pursuers broke into a run, so the team did the same.
Hanley could see the van up ahead. It was brown, and there were no windows on the sides or back. The windshield looked normal but it was actually bulletproof. The engine was a 500-horsepower, turbocharged beast.
"I told you to stop!" Fuchs yelled.
The legionnaires didn't stop until they reached the van. Finally, they turned and faced their adversaries.
Fuchs staggered ahead of the rest, gasping for breath. He had brown, curly hair which was cut in a lopsided manner. Large spectacles made him look academic. His blue business suit had an expensive sheen.
"I heard you were cops," he said. "Let me see your badges."
"I'll take the ones on the left," Ipo murmured.
"And I got the right," Hanley said.
"And I'll cover you both," Katie said.
Hanley attacked immediately. He had been a great fighter before joining the Society, and Marina's tutelage had raised his game to the next level. Since getting his gift, he had felt an additional boost of strength and confidence. He wasn't a normal human anymore. He was an elite warrior who had received a miraculous blessing from God.
Hanley took out his first opponent with a spinning kick which almost had lethal power behind it. His second adversary was still trying to get into a good defensive position when Hanley landed a crushing elbow attack. A third broke and ran. He didn't look dangerous so Hanley let him get away. The legionnaires were mostly interested in Fuchs.
Hanley looked around for somebody else to hit, but the fight was already over. Ipo had pounded his enemies into unconsciousness. Only Fuchs was left standing, and he had a very anxious expression.
He drew a revolver from a holster under his jacket. "That's enough!"
Ipo, Hanley, and Katie drew their own guns, and theirs were bigger.
"Correct," Ipo said. He took Fuchs' gun away from him. "Get in the van. We're going for a ride."
* * *
Fuchs was hanging upside-down from a tree limb. His feet were tied to the tree, and his hands were tied to stakes in the ground. He had been stripped naked.
Hanley sighed with unhappiness. He didn't like to watch torture much less perform it. He was learning it was part of almost every mission though. The quickest way to extract information from an uncooperative subject was inflicting unbearable amounts of pain, the more horrifying and brutal, the better. The psychological aspect of the interrogation was even more important than the physical aspect. He had to put aside his natural compassion and become a cold-blooded instrument of God's wrath like Marina.
A setting sun was casting a red light on the scene. They were on the western slope of a hill in the Santa Cruz Mountains, far from any town. The valley below was already dark. It was a pretty setting for a very ugly event.
The legionnaires had already received their instructions from Marina. She expected another attack on California's water supply, so getting that information was top priority. She also wanted to know who was calling the shots, what Jose Roberts had sent to Dr. Midler, and whether Fuchs knew anything about the rat control technology. This interrogation was probably going to be a long one. Fuchs was already shaking with fear.
Ipo walked up to him. "You're going to tell us everything you know. How long it takes and how much pain you suffer is entirely up to you."
Fuchs kept his mouth shut.
The team had stopped at a hardware shop on the way to the mountains. Ipo was carrying a white plastic bag, and he took out a big box of half-inch drywall screws, some pliers, a propane torch, and a battery-powered drill.
"Katie," Ipo said, "heat up the screws one at a time and give them to me."
Katie knelt on the dirt and lit the torch. She used the pliers to hold a screw in the flame.
In the meantime, Ipo put a screw bit into the chuck of the drill. He rarely showed emotion under normal circumstances, and now he was as cold as a block of ice.
The screw became red hot. Katie transferred it to Ipo, and he used the drill to drive it into Fuchs' stomach.
Fuchs screamed. The sound went straight through Hanley's palms and into his brain, causing him to wince. He stuck his hands into his pockets and stepped well back. He realized he would have to bring thick mittens on missions for these kinds of situations.
Ipo looked at Hanley. "Are you OK?"
"It's too loud," Hanley said. "I'll just stand watch on the road."
He jogged up the hill to reach the crest where there was a two-lane road. The brown van was parked on the shoulder. He could just barely see glints of sunlight reflecting from the Pacific Ocean in the distance.
The pads on Hanley's hands could still hear Fuchs screaming, but at this distance, the noise was bearable. Hanley decided to distract himself by picking up other sounds. He detected a rabbit sneaking through the brush. A squirrel was chewing on a nut in a tree. A red-tailed hawk screeched in the sky. He closed his eyes and enjoyed nature's symphony, and it painted a glorious picture of life in his mind. He felt a little closer to God.
It took an hour for the interrogation to run its course. Finally, Ipo yelled for Hanley to come back down.
Night had fallen, and Hanley had a flashlight, but he decided not to use it. Instead, he made clicking noises with his tongue and used his palms to listen for the echoes. It didn't work as well as he had hoped. A sharper, higher sound would've produced crisper results, but he could still tell where the trees and rocks were. He carefully worked his way down the slope in the darkness.
He arrived. Katie was shining a flashlight onto Fuchs, and it was a horrifying sight. Screws were drilled into every part of his body including his face.
"Tell hi
m what you told us," Ipo ordered.
"They're going to poison the California Aqueduct," Fuchs gasped.
"Who is?" Hanley said.
"I don't know, but it's happening tomorrow near the San Luis Reservoir. They're going to drive a truck full of something nasty off the bridge and into the canal."
Hanley grimaced. The California Aqueduct supplied water to most of Southern California including all of Los Angeles. Millions of people depended on it. Any kind of contamination would be catastrophic.
"How did you get this information?" Hanley said.
"My boss told me."
"Who is that? Who do you report to?"
"Just a voice on the phone," Fuchs wheezed. "I think it's an executive back at corporate. He knows everything about me."
"What about the rat control technology?"
"Never heard of it."
Hanley furrowed his brow. "And what's the story behind Jose Roberts?"
"I never saw the report, but it was big trouble for the project. A surveillance camera caught him hiding it under his shirt and sneaking out. The next day, some guys from corporate had a conversation with him."
"You weren't there?"
"No," Fuchs said. "I was just transferred to the Moss Landing project a couple of days ago."
Hanley raised his eyebrows. "What was your previous job?"
"Competitive information gathering."
"Industrial espionage?"
"Yeah," Fuchs said.
"That's all he knows," Ipo said. "I made sure of it."
"Then let's get out of here," Hanley said.
Ipo grabbed Fuchs' head and twisted it sharply. Hanley heard the neck break. The body twitched a few times and then became still. The legionnaires gathered their things and left.
As they walked up the hill, Hanley said, "Katie, can you do a favor for me? Tap a couple of rocks together."
"Why?" Katie said.
"I want to hear the echoes."
She raised her eyebrows but complied with his request. She found two stones and tapped them together.
"Keep doing it," he said, "gently."
He closed his eyes. The clicking sound combined with his gift gave him a nice, sharp mental image of his environment. He was able to hike between the trees at an almost normal speed.
"That's impressive," Ipo said.
"I still have to figure out how I'm going to shoot a gun," Hanley said. "Maybe special, sound-proof gloves?"
"Or a special gun. Let's talk to Imelda. She's the mechanical genius."
They reached the road and climbed into the van. Hanley took the wheel, while Ipo and Katie sat in the middle seat.
Hanley drove off. He headed north in the direction of headquarters. The mountain road was dark and winding, and he proceeded cautiously.
Ipo called Marina and reported the findings from the interrogation. Hanley listened to the conversation as he drove.
"I know what we're doing tomorrow," Marina said through the phone. "Stopping a truck full of poison. Then we'll deal with whoever is responsible."
Aaron broke into the call and said, "Did the captive explain how he knew about the plot to poison the Aqueduct?"
"His mysterious boss told him," Ipo said.
"That wasn't information he needed. Why would a new guy be told anything?"
Hanley's eyes widened. He leaned his head back so his voice would be heard over the phone. "I know, sir!"
"I think I do, too," Aaron said, "but go on."
"So he would give the information to us. Our enemy knew we would grab Fuchs and get the truth out of him."
"Exactly, which means the Aqueduct business is a trap meant for us."
Marina spoke again. "We still have to assume the plot is real, but we'll go in with our eyes open. For now, go home and get some sleep. I'll let you know what the plan is when we figure it out."
"Yes, ma'am. Bye."
Chapter Twenty-three
Marina looked at Aaron. She never grew tired of staring at his handsome face. The odd hints of darkness that clung to his features would've frightened a normal woman, but she found them very attractive. Death was never far from her lover, just as it was never far from her.
"Now we need a plan," she said.
"We should start with satellite photos and maps," he said. "Min Ho, we need to look at the California Aqueduct near the San Luis Reservoir."
The two commanders turned to the hacker who was dressed in his usual gaudy style. His white shirt had three sets of buttons down the front. He was wearing a tie with an eye-watering, green and red checkerboard pattern.
"Yes, sir," Min Ho said.
He started typing on his keyboard, and images appeared on his computer screen.
The Aqueduct was easily visible even from high altitude. It looked like a river except the banks were concrete, and it was wider than a nearby interstate highway. The water was dark green. It ran along the boundary between the farmland of California's lush central valley and the adjacent mountains. Irrigation channels branched off to supply the farms.
The San Luis Reservoir was actually two bodies of water separated by a narrow finger of land. The Aqueduct passed through the smaller section which was labeled "O'Neil Forebay."
"We're looking for bridges that cross the Aqueduct," Aaron said.
Min Ho panned the satellite view. "There are two in that area: Interstate 5 and California Highway 152."
"Is there any security?" Marina said.
Min Ho typed for a moment. "No, ma'am. They're just bridges."
"Which pass over critical water supplies." She sighed with exasperation. "It was the same problem at the dam. You'd think in this age of terrorism, the government would have armed guards in these places. So many people depend on the water."
"The Aqueduct is hundreds of miles long. The government can't guard the whole thing."
"Apparently, that's our job." She snarled.
"Stay focused," Aaron said. "We have to assume one of these two bridges is the target."
"The obvious solution is setting up roadblocks and checking every truck, but we don't have the manpower for that. If I bring in the police, they could get caught in the crossfire, and we're supposed to solve our own problems." She sighed and looked at the images on Min Ho's screen. "Unless...
"What?"
"We think the enemy is going to ambush us, right?" Marina said. "They'll be waiting in prepared positions, and the flat, open ground limits their options. It's just farmland around there. We should be able to find the ambushers and force them to tell us which truck to look for."
He nodded. "Indeed. The legionnaires will search the area in teams: Hanley and Katie, Ipo and Liam. You'll be in the air in your helicopter. Those pop out chain guns might prove very useful."
"And where will you be, dear?"
"On the ground by myself. I prefer to hunt alone. It will just be me and my big, beautiful sniper rifle." Aaron smiled, but there was no mirth in his expression.
"OK. We'll arrive before dawn under the cover of night."
Marina walked around to Jia. The Chinese girl was typing at a rapid pace and focused on her computer screens. Marina looked over her shoulder and saw financial statements.
"Still trying to follow the money?" Marina said.
Jia glanced at her. "Yes, ma'am. The Moss Landing Desalinization Plant is owned by a complicated web of international shell corporations. It's not clear who is really in control or where the profits will go. Whoever set this up is a master of financial trickery, but I have a good feeling. By tomorrow, I should have a name for you."
"Great." Marina smiled.
Corrie came over. She was wearing a black shirt with traditional Native American symbols embroidered in the fabric in red thread. A matching skirt went down to her ankles. A turquoise necklace completed the attractive combination, and Marina was impressed. Corrie wasn't known for dressing well.
"I'm making progress too, ma'am," Corrie said. "I'm still working on the circuitry that I pulled off o
f Rat's skull."
"You told me the chips were custom and untraceable," Marina said.
"Yes, but some extremely unusual batteries provided power. They incorporated a radioactive thorium isotope and had a unique geometric configuration."
"OK. Why is that helpful?"
"I found a research paper describing the technology," Corrie said excitedly, "and it involves very specialized equipment. I'm trying to figure out who purchased that equipment recently and where it was shipped. Min Ho is helping me."
"This is forbidden technology?"
"I don't think the batteries are. The research is public knowledge."
"Be careful anyway," Marina said sternly.
"Yes, ma'am."
Marina put her hands on her hips. I hope we're finally near the end, she thought.
* * *
Marina, Aaron, Ipo, Hanley, Katie, and Liam were standing at the edge of a farmer's field. The flat landscape reminded Marina of the farmland around her home city of Chicago. Only an occasional tree broke up the monotony. She knew there were mountains to the west, but she couldn't see them in the darkness. The first rays of dawn were lighting up the clouds in the east.
Everybody was wearing advanced body armor and all the weapons they could comfortably carry. The black and gray, striped armor was designed for night operations, and as the sun rose, the camouflage pattern would become more of a problem than a feature. Marina was hoping for a quick engagement.
"Ipo and Liam will inspect the area around the Interstate 5 bridge," Marina said. "Hanley and Katie will take the Highway 152 bridge. Be extremely cautious. We're looking for people who are trying to ambush us, so this will be a game of cat and mouse played with deadly weapons. Do not let yourselves be seen. Silent movement at all times. If you locate the enemy, call for support before you engage. We will attack as a unit."
"Yes, ma'am," all four legionnaires said.
"What about Aaron?" Ipo said.
Marina looked at her lover. He had a giant sniper rifle slung over his shoulder, and a suppressor made the barrel even longer. His grin was visible in the darkness.
"He'll be operating independently," she said. "Ipo, I need a moment in private with you."
