by Gini Koch
“Why?” Chuckie asked.
“Because we can determine how far under Ronaldo’s control Gladys really is,” White replied.
“Mister White, it’s like you read my mind. Exactly. If the pipe’s open, or we can get in with relative ease, then Gladys took off the security somehow and is fighting back. If not, then we know she’s fully under Al Dejahl’s mind control.”
Jeff looked thoughtful. “It might not prove anything, either way, but the whole excuse used to get our people herded here and captured was Security training. So maybe the guards normally stationed in that area won’t be there. Either by accident or design.”
“But I thought we were assuming the Center is empty,” Dad pointed out. “Should we spend the time?”
“Yes, because, if nothing else, we’ll be able to get into the tunnel system close to where Al Dejahl and the others did,” Jeff replied.
“So the question is, should we try the drainage pipe to verify the Center is empty?” White asked. “And, if so, should all of us attempt the entry?”
“How sure are you that no one’s inside the Science Center?” Chuckie asked.
“Our captive is sure,” Jeff said. “If she’s not an android and not fooling me, then there’s no one in there that she knows of.”
“That she knows of . . .” Closed my eyes. “Wait, wait. Don’t say anything. Let me think. How likely is it that Al Dejahl has hooked back up with the same gang he used to run with, or at least their new counterparts?”
“Why are you talking if you’re thinking?” Christopher asked.
“Three plus years together and you have to ask that? Chuckie’s right, you’ve spent too long on non-active duty.”
“I’m going to say something since you asked and answer your question,” Chuckie replied. “My guess would be extremely likely.”
“Okay, we know that Jeff couldn’t feel anyone at the Science Center earlier today, so it’s a safe bet that they have emotional blockers somewhere in the facility, maybe all over it. Probably at Home Base, too.”
“That’s a safe assumption,” Jeff said. “Where are you going with this?”
“Why can you feel Mahin?”
Opened my eyes to see Chuckie nodding. Jeff shrugged. “They didn’t give her a blocker or overlay, or hers are broken. Or something like that.”
“Or Al Dejahl expected you to read Mahin and think no one’s there. Sort of like in The Princess Bride.” This earned me a chuckle from Dad, blank looks from everyone other than Tito, and an exasperated sigh from Chuckie. Wanted to call Buchanan back, but figured he’d have sided with the Exasperated Sigh Team.
“So she was told what they wanted Jeff to read and us to know,” Chuckie finished quickly, presumably so I wouldn’t describe the scene from The Princess Bride I was referring to for the others’ enjoyment.
“Which is par for their course. Ronaldo wasn’t the brains of Operation Confusion, but he isn’t an idiot and LaRue was obviously a good teacher.”
“So, what does that mean?” Christopher asked.
“It means they want us on a wild goose chase. Looking in the tunnels, racing back to the Embassy. They don’t actually want us here.”
“Meaning we want to get into the Science Center,” Gower said. “So that would mean all of us go to the drainage pipe.”
“No. It means we need to do exactly what Al Dejahl wants.”
CHAPTER 28
GOT THE BY-NOW-PREREQUISITE WTF looks from most of my team. “You mind explaining that?” Jeff asked.
“Really? I mean all of us need to very obviously go away. So they see us going away and know that their clever plan has fooled us yet again. So that we can sneak back in. Loaded for bear. To catch them unawares. And all that.”
“We don’t know if we can get in,” Christopher said, patience clearly forced. “What’s our plan if we can’t use the drainage pipe? Blasting in? Coming up through the tunnel system?”
“They’ll expect that,” Dad said. “At least based on what Charles and Kitty are saying, which makes sense to me. They’ve told Mahin that they’re in the tunnels and that she’s to stall and stop us here and not give up their location at any cost, I’m sure. So while we may fool them into thinking we’ve left, they’ll have guards on any tunnel access points, just in case we decide to try to access the Science Center that way.”
“We use a gate.” Now I got the WTF looks from everyone, other than Buchanan and Adriana, but presumably only because they were too far away to hear me. “Look, the agents were bounced back by whatever when they tried to use a standard gate that was in a base. However, I don’t think there’s a way to flip a switch and turn off all floater gate activity.”
“No, there’s really not. It could be done from the Dome, but nowhere else,” Jeff confirmed. “The trouble we had getting here was more of a security issue—making sure that no one could track the floater’s signature.”
“Great. And I know there’s a way to use the gates when the shields are activated, because we do it all the time.”
Jeff nodded. “Yes and no, but I’m willing to discuss intricacies later.”
“Then let’s obviously leave, taking Mahin with us, and use a floater gate to get inside.”
“What if someone can read our emotions?” Tito asked. “Or if they have the imageers watching us?”
“The beauty of the emotional blockers and overlays is if they’re active, they can’t feel us any more than I can feel them,” Jeff confirmed.
“No way to tell on the imageers,” Christopher said. “But if we stand around long enough, I’m sure someone will come up with the idea.”
“I agree we need to move, but I want Mahin searched for bugs,” Chuckie said.
Knew without asking that this task was going to fall to me. Always the way. But we couldn’t trust the princesses with it, mostly because they could miss something that just didn’t seem suspicious to them. We shouldn’t have one of the men do the search, because it was going to have to be a strip search. Probably a cavity search.
“Tito and I will do it.” He was a doctor, he was used to searching cavities.
“Bugs or trackers could be internal, and that means a strip and cavity search,” Chuckie said.
Tito heaved a sigh. “What’s wrong with all of you? I have an OVS with me. It looks for anything suspicious, both organic and inorganic. She doesn’t have to be stripped, or have her cavities searched. While I’m verifying if she’s an android or not I’ll verify if she’s carrying something we don’t want as well.”
“The emotional blockers and overlays are cloaked with a substance our equipment doesn’t pick up,” I reminded him.
“If Jeff can read her, those aren’t on her person,” Tito reminded right back.
“Works for me, I just wanted to point it out.”
“Good. I’m going to go either put our minds at ease or have Malcolm and Adriana deactivate an android with extreme prejudice.” Tito trotted over to our other little group and started wanding.
“Uh, one question.” Rahmi sounded hesitant, which usually indicated she was about to counter something I or, more likely, Tito might have said. “Why are we taking this Mahin with us?”
“She’s a prisoner of war.” Figured I’d put it in terms the princesses would understand immediately.
“Yes, I understand that. But, we have determined she is being used.”
“That’s right,” Jeff said. “At least we believe she’s being used. She might see the light and join our side, but she might not, and we don’t want to let her go back to rejoin our other enemies.”
“Do you normally take your prisoners of war with you?”
“Yeah, we do . . . oh. Wow. Good call, Rahmi.”
“You’ve lost me,” Jeff said with a sigh.
“The princess makes a good point,” Chuckie said.
“What point is that?” Christopher asked. “That we don’t kill our enemies immediately or just let them wander off to attack us again?”
“The Planetary Council, for another example,” White said. “And since we know Ronaldo and LaRue attended the Martinis’ wedding reception in secret, it would seem a safe bet that he is anticipating our once again attempting to turn an enemy into a friend.”
Tito returned. “She’s human. So are Malcolm and Adriana, in case anyone was feeling paranoid. Mahin has no bugs or implants or anything else dangerous like that on her. She did have a few weapons hidden, but Adriana searched her and found them all.”
“So, what do we do with her, then?” Christopher asked. “And before we suggest that someone takes her off somewhere, I need to point out that we have no idea what the extent of her talents is. She could be a lot more powerful than we’ve seen.”
“And that could mean they’re also expecting us to take her somewhere and then she becomes an infiltrator.” This was really like the poison scene from The Princess Bride. What a pity I hadn’t spent years taking the poison antidote so that the choice didn’t matter. Decided I was still technically the one in charge, so made the Executive Decision. “We take her. No one can read her any more than they can read the rest of us. If she’s going to try something, better with us, where we can stop her, than somewhere else where she might get the drop on whoever’s guarding her and thereby actually infiltrate.”
“So, where are we going?” Gower asked. “Exactly?”
“First to the wreckage of the plane and tank. Then via floater gate to Home Base. Then back to the drainage pipe.”
“Why the bouncing around?” Jeff asked.
“No, that’s wise,” Chuckie countered. “It should at least give us a hope of confusing our enemies if they’re actually in the Science Center and watching us. Gladys may have given them everything and guessed what we’re going to do, but it’s worth a shot.”
“Then let’s get this show on the road. It’s now at least a couple hours after my last meal and I’m starving.”
Jeff heaved a sigh as he took my hand. “Only my girl.”
CHAPTER 29
JEFF HELD MAHIN while I took Buchanan and Adriana aside and shared the plan with them. In addition to Adriana’s weapons search and seizure, they’d spent the time tying Mahin’s hands behind her back using some of the ripped-up parachute.
“We got nothing out of her other than the fact that she thinks we’re all murderous pigs, me most of all,” Buchanan shared when we were done.
“She’s not fond of me, either,” Adriana said with a smile. “I believe Grandmother would be able to get information out of her though.”
“If only we had the time to bring Mahin to Olga. Or knew that it was safe to do so.”
“Which we don’t,” Buchanan said. “However, I think she’ll talk to your father. He did the Good Cop role well and he doesn’t give off the same vibes the rest of us do.”
“Good to know. I don’t want her alone with my dad anytime soon.”
Buchanan gave me a wolfish grin. “I like being Bad Cop, so no worries.”
“I see that. Can’t argue, I prefer the Bad Cop role myself.”
Buchanan and Adriana had no argument with our plan, such as it was, so we all linked hands, Buchanan and Jeff each holding one of Mahin’s arms, and then we took a leisurely hyperspeed run to the remains of the jet.
Since said remains were pretty well covered with sand and such, we didn’t linger long. Mahin, being a hybrid, had no issues with the hyperspeed, which was good in that we didn’t have to watch her throw up. Chuckie texted in the coordinates to Colonel Franklin so the military could do cleanup, then Jeff called for a group floater gate.
We all stepped through together and exited at Home Base. Christopher and the princesses verified there was still no one there but us while I made my stomach settle down. Mahin had no negative reactions to the gate. Decided I might need to hate her.
“Do we keep the mummy look going?” Tito asked as Christopher and the princesses returned and Chuckie put handcuffs onto Mahin while Buchanan removed her parachute bonds.
“No,” Jeff said. “You all look ridiculous, and while the element of surprise is one thing, I don’t think we can reasonably count on all of our enemies falling down laughing when they see all of you. Some of them, yes. But not all.”
We stripped off the impromptu parachute fashion wear. Happily, we were all intact and reasonably unscathed. “Scoff if you like, but I say any fashion choice that allows you to get through a sandstorm without major injuries is a good fashion choice.”
“Last chance to change our minds,” Christopher said, once we were all devoid of parachutes and Mahin was officially in C.I.A. custody, or at least C.I.A. handcuffs.
“Unless you’ve had a genius moment, we’re rolling with what we have.” This earned me Patented Glare #2, but no snide comments, so took that to mean Christopher hadn’t come up with anything better. “I do have one request. Dad, I want you going back to Caliente Base.”
“Absolutely not,” Dad said calmly.
“We don’t know what we’ll be facing, but people shooting at us would be a safe bet.”
Dad shrugged. “I realize you and your mother do this sort of thing all the time, kitten. And I don’t. However, you’re my daughter and I’m here and, therefore, I’m not leaving to let you go off and get shot at without me along to do my best to protect you and the rest of our family and friends.”
“We don’t really have time for this argument,” Jeff said. “Our family, friends, and co-workers are in danger, held hostage or worse, and we have to go. Now. Sol, just stay in the back.”
Wasn’t thrilled, but didn’t argue. Because Christopher argued for me. “Jeff, think for a minute. Where we’re going, ah, echoes. And we have to be single file for a while.” He grabbed me and Jeff and pulled us aside. “I think we’re going to have a problem, more than one, if we try to take our prisoner along.”
“It was hard enough when it was just me, Christopher, and three of the flyboys.”
“I don’t know that we can control a hybrid in there, and she’ll have ample opportunity to shout her head off,” Christopher went on. “Sure, we can gag her, but we still don’t know what she can do. What if it’s a lot more than we’ve seen?”
Jeff ran his hand through his hair. “Fine, I know where you’re both going with this. I’m fine with Sol staying behind with Mahin, but he can’t possibly handle her on his own.”
“But we have someone with us who can.” I motioned for Buchanan and Chuckie to join us and we quickly explained the situation. “I want my dad somewhere safe, and I want Mahin guarded by someone who’s nasty enough to kill her if necessary but smart enough to avoid it if at all possible.”
“I’m the man for the job, and your mother would agree that with the Reinstated Commanders along you’re probably well covered,” Buchanan said. “However, Mahin’s a hybrid. The moment the rest of you are gone, she’s going to try to overpower me, and she probably can, handcuffs or no handcuffs.”
“That can also be handled,” Jeff said. “Where do we want all of you going?”
“Guantanamo,” Chuckie said without missing a beat.
“That’s fine, as long as I can get a floater to get myself and Mister Katt to all of you, or out of there, depending. It’s not someplace I think your enemies would expect and it’s heavily guarded.”
Jeff and Chuckie made the calls while I explained the situation to Dad. “Pump her for information,” I said in conclusion, in part because he was likely the only one who had a shot, and in the other part because I knew he was disappointed to be sidelined, especially right after Jeff had told him he was coming along.
“Will do, kitten. Should we send you whatever information we have as we get it? Or will
that cause a problem?”
“No idea, Dad. I’d say if it’s vital, send no matter what. If not, save it for when we contact you guys.”
The floater gate appeared, hugged Dad and gave him a kiss, then he and Buchanan each took an arm and stepped through with Mahin. Got a text from Buchanan about a minute later saying they were there, all was well, and Mahin was shackled and being taken to a cell designed to hold a bull elephant.
Waited for Chuckie to get confirmation from Guantanamo that our prisoner was secured and that Dad and Buchanan were just fine, and then, confident that we had at least a little part of the problem contained, Jeff called for a new floater gate.
It appeared and the rest of us stepped through. While Jeff didn’t carry me, he did have his arm around me and held me tightly. It was a nice feeling in amidst the nausea and stress.
We exited in a patch of desert I was familiar with—the wash that the Science Center’s old drainage pipe had emptied into.
This location was great for several reasons beyond no one really thinking about it much. For starters, it was about a half a mile away from the back of the Science Center, so not easily seen in the first place. The wash was a big one, wide and deep—the bottom was a good eight feet lower than the main plane of the ground around this area. And the drainage pipe and the area around it were additionally hidden by a variety of cacti and desert scrub foliage.
On the downside, the pipe now had a nice metal grate attached to the opening.
Rahmi and Rhee started to pull at the grate with Chuckie and Tito giving them direction, I pulled Jeff and Christopher aside.
“Christopher, before you and Jeff go help the princesses wrench that grate off and then we all get onto our hands and knees, I have a question.”
“Only one?” Christopher asked, sarcasm knob definitely heading for eleven. “If it’s ‘how are we going to get that grate off without alerting the entire Science Center to our presence,’ I have no idea.”
“At the present time I only have the one question, and that’s not it. When we used this way back when, there was a fork in the pipe. We went to the right. What would we have come to if we’d gone to the left?”
