Rocking Hard, Volume 2

by Samantha M. Derr

  Three hours later, P waltzed into the safe room. She grinned at them, which made Dayton blink in confusion and Z scowl at her. P walked over to Z's computer, pulled the rolling chair Z was sitting in away from the console, and started typing.

  "Have I got something fun to show you," she said with a giggle.

  Z's scowl grew, but he still stood to watch over P's shoulder. D and L joined Z, but Dayton just turned his head to watch.

  "It's all over the blogosphere on Kamura," P explained. "On the first continent they're sad the ship ferrying their very favorite band ever has taken off, and on the second continent they're all excited because the ship has been seen in their airspace. They're waiting for the permission protocols to go through."

  "Yeah, and?" Z asked, his scowl not twitching.

  "Why would the ship take off if they were missing their lead singer?" P asked cheekily. "Cole has to be safe on the ship!"

  D didn't even hear Dayton move, but suddenly he was pressed next to P, frantically reading the blog posts that scrolled across the computer console.

  "Cole made it?" he asked, his voice scratchy and tense. "He's alive?"

  P smiled gently at Dayton. "All the evidence points to his being perfectly fine," she answered firmly. "Now, I want you to let Z take you home," she continued when Dayton suddenly sagged in place. "Take a shower, have something to eat, and go to bed. You can come back in tonight to see the pre-show interview."

  Dayton nodded, but didn't seem to know which way to turn. Z snorted and gripped Dayton's arm to steer him towards the door.

  "I'll make sure he gets to the barracks all right," Z agreed. "And I'll pick him up tonight on my way back in for the night shift."

  D watched as Z firmly, albeit gently, guided Dayton out the door. His own relief at knowing Cole was okay had lifted a small rock from his chest. There was still tomorrow night, but for the next twenty-four hours Cole was alive and safe.

  *~*~*

  His throat ached and he desperately needed a drink, but the adrenalin high made those concerns insignificant. Cole swaggered up to the microphone and hummed a few bars; nonsense music right now, but there was the start of accompanying lyrics floating through his head that needed to be put down on paper.

  The crowd went wild again. Cole gave the shrieking girls in the front row a rakish smile and a wink, but then he blushed and ducked his head at his own audacity.

  "Aww, is Cole trying to flirt?" Kingsley laughed into his microphone. "Sorry, Cole, but you've got to stop blushing first," he added, which caused the audience to laugh loudly as well. The girls gave another ear-piercing shriek before dissolving into giggles together as they eyed Cole and Kingsley.

  Sol pouted into his microphone. "How come every time I try to flirt I get slapped?" he grumbled good-naturedly.

  "Duh," Queenie replied with an over-exaggerated roll of her eyes. The audience laughed again.

  Their brief break over, Cole nodded to Kingsley to set the beat. Sol played the opening notes for Willow Tree along with Kingsley's count. The first strains of their platinum selling song renewed the shrieks, but even as Cole's ears were protesting he was leaning into the mic and singing the lyrics.

  He absolutely loved this. The adrenalin was a kick, as were the adoring fans, but to be able to sing his heart out and have real people, not just his bar of soap or his husband, acknowledge his prowess was marvelous. The feeling of letting his voice shine, of singing every note and holding every run, made Cole feel like he was flying. He never wanted it to end.

  After another half hour, however, they finished their playlist and bowed off the stage to continuous cheering and requests for an encore. Misty was waiting for them as usual with bottles of water in her hands as she led them back to their dressing room.

  "Excellent, as usual," she said as the band collapsed into chairs. "You have ten minutes before the contest winners arrive. Let's try to get as much of the set packed up tonight as we can, so you can have more time to sightsee tomorrow before our takeoff time tomorrow night."

  Misty finished explaining their schedule and returned to helping the band get presentable before their guests arrived. Cole levered himself to his feet after returning the damp cloth he used to wash his face clean of sweat to Misty, and he headed out of the dressing room towards the nearby bathroom.

  When Cole emerged, a man in a security guard uniform was waiting for him.

  "This is for you," the man said softly, after carefully checking that no one was around to overhear. The stadium had fewer security cameras backstage, and near the bathrooms there weren't any at all.

  Cole carefully took what looked like a small roll of packing tape from the guard and pocketed it. "Thank you," Cole whispered back before turning to walk back to the dressing room, pretending he didn't have a roll of high explosives in his pocket.

  It was late by the time Cole finally got to the hotel room. He was sharing with Sol again and was quick to commandeer the shower while Sol was still chatting with Queenie in the hallway. By the time Sol entered the room and headed for his own shower, Cole was fast asleep in his bed, clutching his phone in his hands.

  Two hours later, the phone beeped quietly into his ear. Cole shut the alarm off and headed into the bathroom to get ready. The washable hair dye took a long minute to set, so Cole got dressed in his sneaking clothes. The roll of explosives went into one pocket, and the line of detonators he'd found glued to the back of the toilet the night before went into another.

  By the time the dye was set and his newly blond hair was covered under a bandana, it was nearly three-thirty in the early morning. Security would be nearing the end of their shift, tired and irritable, and hopefully a little more lax. Cole was ready to take advantage of that.

  This time he headed upwards to the roof of the hotel. The security alarm on the fire exit had been disabled, so Cole was able to sneak out onto the graveled surface without being noticed. He held out a small gadget in his hands, and the band's symbol flashed into the air twice very briefly.

  Cole only had to wait a few seconds before the muted whine of an engine appeared overhead. The car was specially modified to run in illegal speed races; the owner had been easily bought with the promise of some sweet upgrades. Cole climbed into the cab of the car and held on as the vehicle drove off, keeping low over the rooftops and off the sky-highway somewhere above.

  There were cloaking devices all over the car, otherwise the authorities would be able to track it whenever it was in one of the illegal races, and so they bypassed the initial fence surrounding the science complex without notice. The actual building had night vision cameras on the roof, so the car dropped slowly onto the lawn right outside of a side door that led into the complex.

  After a little work with a set of lock picks, Cole had himself inside of the building before the whine of the departing car's engine fully faded from his hearing. The upper level of the complex had minimal security. It was a History of Science Museum, so having extreme security measures would raise too many awkward questions. Cole didn't take the time to notice the Old-Earth spaceships as he hurried over to an Employees Only sign.

  One of the operatives killed in a similar mission to Cole's managed to infiltrate the building far enough to send back basic schematics before he had been caught and executed. Thanks to him, Cole knew which door inside the employee area was locked tight with a keypad for reasons other than keeping ancient artifacts safe from harm.

  He poked around the innards of the fingerprint scanner with his trusty screwdriver, searching for the only wire the correct size and length to belong to the power circuitry. When he found it, Cole reached in with a tiny knife to strip away the plastic casing and to find the one copper wire amid a jumble of silver and black. He snapped the copper wire before carefully putting the scanner back together. No one would be able to tell it had been tampered with from just a cursory examination.

  The quiet snick of the door sliding open greeted Cole. He hurried through and forced the door closed behi
nd him. Just ahead was a short hallway, empty and windowless with only security lighting keeping Cole from total darkness. He headed down the hallway in the only direction he could go. There weren't any cameras in the facility thanks to the need to hide illegal research. Recording devices of any kind weren't permitted, so Cole only had to worry about human security.

  He knew he needed to get underground, and he wasn't surprised when he found a staircase at the end of the short hallway. There were no other doors or directions to go, so Cole knew he had found the correct entrance to the underground complex.

  He listened at the top of the staircase for a long moment, trying to hear voices or footsteps on the stairs that would indicate he wasn't alone. The last thing he wanted was to be caught sneaking down the stairs without any excuse that would explain his presence. When he didn't hear anything below, Cole walked forward and quickly began to descend into to the basement complex that housed the research and building site for the chrono-bomb.

  The stairs ended and Cole stepped into a large warehouse. The top of the warehouse had skylights designed to only let in sunlight with special windows that blocked entry and photography from above, but they couldn't hide the necessary smokestack or special generators that had to be outside the warehouse for the chronation process to work properly.

  A flickering light from an office doorway high to the left, up on the catwalk that circled the perimeter of the warehouse, alerted Cole to the location of the security office. He could hear the faint strains of a television playing and knew the guards were perfectly distracted. Still, he avoided the sparse motion sensors as he padded into the warehouse on silent feet.

  Cole navigated along the wall first. As he walked, he made sure to place the explosives in hidden locations. He peeled a round of explosive off the roll and added a detonator before tucking the small mass into a crevice or permanent shadow along the wall. Only once he had gotten all the way around the perimeter did Cole carefully head towards the middle of the room. The computer banks and the unfueled prototype of the bomb held center stage in the warehouse. The computers and the machinery used to put the bomb together all circled the evil looking mass of metal and wires that could blow a black hole into space and effectively destroy a galaxy. All of these received some explosive rounds in various nooks and crannies.

  The warehouse finally finished with, Cole headed to the only other doorway across the warehouse from the staircase he had used to enter. The doorway opened into a warren of cubicles and offices, all of which were empty. Each cubicle had a computer and data pad on the desk inside; Cole had no doubt that each computer housed important data on the building of the bomb. It took about fifteen minutes for Cole to lace the maze with explosives, making sure to tuck one round into a gap in the plastic housing of each computer. He was trying to hurry because the offices would only stay empty for maybe another hour before the early workday began. Still, he couldn't be sloppy despite dawn and the opening of the office nearing.

  The final office Cole found was located at the very back of the maze. There was light shining underneath the closed door, which made Cole worry that it was occupied. He spent a very long moment with his ear pressed to the wood of the door, listening intently for any rustle of cloth or cough to let him know not to enter.

  He heard nothing.

  It was quite possible that the light needed to stay on for scientific or safety reasons. Cole thought this might be the actual lab where they conducted experiments on fuel cells, so that reasoning made sense. He hadn't found the lab anywhere else and this was the very last place in the entire complex left to look. Only after a good few minutes of listening did Cole finally reach up to turn the doorknob.

  He opened the door enough to peek into the room through a tiny slit. When his judgment proved correct and the room was empty, he opened the door the rest of the way and quickly stepped inside.

  It was empty of people, but along one wall two computers were on and whirring. Cole hurried around the perimeter of the room, sticking an explosive round and detonator chip into a crack in the cinderblock wall every few feet. He made sure to tag the desks and any other equipment he passed along the way as well. Cole was heading towards the whirring computers when a discreet door in the very back of the room slid open.

  Cole caught a glimpse of the break room, a fridge and coffeemaker along one wall and a table in the middle, before three men in white coats exited. There was nowhere for Cole to hide, and he suspected he looked just as shocked as the scientists did.

  "What are you doing here?" the tallest of the scientists asked very sharply as he darted forward to grab Cole's arm.

  Cole had a story already arranged for just this situation. The agency wanted him to be completely prepared for this crucial part of the mission, unlike the last time when he had to wing it with the maintenance man to be able to escape safely.

  "Thank god I found you," he gasped, lowering his voice to make it sound gravelly and totally different from his normal one. "I've been lost here for ages and there hasn't been anyone to show me the way out!" Cole really hoped his explanation didn't seem practiced, because he had spent a long time saying just those words in front of a mirror in the training facility back home.

  The scientists seemed to buy it, although they were clearly still concerned. "How did you get down here?" the scientist demanded. "And what are you doing here so late at night?"

  Cole laughed, trying to sound nonchalant, and forced any blush on his cheeks to fade away. Blushing would be a dead giveaway as to his real identity.

  "I'm part of the advance security for The Four Kings," he explained, even more glad now that D arranged for this story ahead of time. "We were investigating the employee areas in the museum for anything suspicious, and I found an open door that led to a staircase. Now, here I am! Could you show me the way out?"

  One of the scientists headed over to a computer near the door. He tapped a few times before nodding briefly. "The scanner is offline," he admitted, showing the other scientists the running computer program of the fingerprint scanner Cole had broken.

  "We'll have to call security to escort you out of here," the third man grumbled irritably.

  "If you point me in the right direction I'm sure I could find my own way," Cole attempted, trying to persuade the scientists who looked very unhappy at the prospect of having to call security down to their lab.

  "Can't do that," the first scientist said with a grumble of his own. He reached for the phone by the door.

  Cole was just beginning to wonder if he could make a break for it into the maze of cubicles just outside when one of the whirring computers let out a loud alarm. All three scientists jumped and rushed over to the computers, the biggest one still gripping Cole's arm and dragging Cole along.

  Apparently the incoming data was important, but Cole didn't understand any of the information the computer was spitting out. It had all three men totally engrossed, however. Cole tried to pull his arm free, but the grip around his bicep was too strong and his attempt almost brought the distracted scientist's attention back to him. Instead, Cole took a chance to attach some of his explosives and detonators to the desk the two computers sat on. He tried to keep his movements slow and careful, and was rewarded when he was able to lace the computer desk with explosives. These two computers were clearly the central brain of the operation, so missing them would be a travesty.

  Still, he wasn't able to use up his entire roll of explosives. There were still ten more to place, but Cole tucked the roll back into his pocket. He needed to get away more than he needed to finish off the roll.

  The second computer let out its own alarm, which made all three scientists twitch with glee. The man holding Cole's arm seemed to realize Cole was still there when he tried to move closer to the second computer and found a weight attached to his hand.

  "I can't deal with you now," the man hissed, trying to see what the second alarm had brought him. With a snort of irritation, the man dragged Cole through the lab and into the
break room. There was an open supply closet in the corner, and he thrust Cole inside. A second later the door closed and Cole heard the click of the lock engaging from the outside. The scientist's footsteps hurried away as Cole was promptly forgotten about once again.

  Cole had a moment of panic then, breathing hard and wondering if they would send his body back to Dayton to bury. When ten minutes passed without the appearance of any security, Cole started to relax. The scientists were in the middle of an experiment and probably wouldn't remember Cole until much later.

  It took a while, but Cole finally got his breathing under control. He took stock of the situation. The room he was in was small and badly lit by a flickering bulb high in the ceiling. An air vent blew cold air in along the floor, but the outlet was too small for Cole to crawl into. There wasn't a handle on this side of the door—it looked like something heavy had fallen on it and broken the handle clean off. Still, the doorway was his only means of escape. Cole reached into his pocket for his lock pick set and grimly set to work.

  *~*~*

  They all watched the lone computer monitor in the safe room that night. L's shift had long ended, but she still hadn't left, and Y had come in early just to watch and listen as the computer beeped and spat out a line of code onto the screen.

  Dayton was back in his usual chair in front of the darkened holoscreen, and he flinched every time the computer beeped. D was standing with the crowd around the computer, watching as every new detonator was set and activated. Cole was working quickly.

  There was a long moment without beeps, which made everyone tense up, before they resumed at a much slower pace. Cole must have moved to another room in the complex where he had to be more careful.

  Then another break came and never stopped. They all stared at the computer, hearts beating heavy in their chests as ten, then fifteen, and twenty minutes passed by. Dayton was starting to hyperventilate in his chair. Cole still had more detonators to activate; he wasn't done yet.