by Finian Blake
“Yes, they are stored in shock resistant cases and clearly marked,” Lloyd said wondering why he was being so aggressive. “There should be no problem. They open early at seven for the production crews, so we should have them in plenty of time.”
“It’s just after midnight,” Crasher said looking at his watch. “We will not be signing any rental agreements that can be traced, so we will just get them now.” Crasher took Lloyd by the arm leading him out of the room.
The old Suburban pulled up to the building just after one thirty with Crasher behind the wheel.
“Let me show you why they call me Crasher,” He said as the vehicle lurched forward driving it through the front door knocking a wide hole in the front counter. Crasher backed the Suburban so that they could get out of the car and violently pushed Lloyd out the door. “Get the cameras I will back the car up.” The Suburban was backed in the debris. He backed in the shattered doorway opening the back door as Lloyd came out with the first camera. Crasher loaded the first camera as Lloyd went back for the second one. Within three minutes they were both in the car and driving away listening for the sounds of sirens. They were five blocks away when Crasher heard the first siren.
“Shit,” Lloyd kept saying over and over again.
“And that is why they call me Crasher. We could have tried to wire around the alarm, but that usually does not work. This way we are in and out before anyone can respond. It is crude, but effective. Two of my boys are picking up two long bed pickup trucks and the chopper as we speak. The cameras will be mounted in the chopper before first light and we will make our run as soon as there is enough light.”
“Damn you’re good,” Lloyd said in admiration.
“You are pretty good yourself,” Crasher pronounced glad that he could avoid the rough stuff until later. “I thought that I was going to have to boot you in the ass to get you moving.”
“I’m glad that you didn’t,” Lloyd said believing that was entirely possible. “It will take an hour to build the composites using Salvador’s computers, but there will still be some holes in the layout.”
“From what you told me, that will still be a huge improvement,” Crasher said sounding more than a little unhappy. “We know enough about the top and bottom, but damn little about the middle.”
“The large building in the middle appears to be some sort of fitness center. That’s where I saw Mary Lee nude sunbathing.” Lloyd offered.
“Ah yes, ‘Miss Get My Gun Off,” Crasher said sarcastically. “It’s a shame that we are so pushed for time I would like to play with that little bit of fluff.”
“I believe that she lives there. I saw her both times that I was there. The estates at the bottom of the hill were occupied. That was ten, 10 acre estates each with a guest house and out buildings. Those puppies have to go for a few million apiece.” Lloyd offered.
“Yeah, there must be some tall bucks hanging out there,” Crasher observed. “I would like to have more time. Tom Thomas the director for Four Diamonds lives there and so do the owners of the project. I am sure that their security will be extremely sophisticated. Systems like that always use reduced manpower. That is their Achilles Heel. We will subdue their people before they can put their gimmicks into play.” Crasher balled his hand into a fist slamming it down hard on the table knocking all of the drinks over. “We will knock them over just like this shit.”
“There have to be some rich pickings in there,” Lloyd observed.
“Anybody that stops to scoop stuff up gets left behind and we leave nobody alive. I have some tall bucks on the line and we aren’t stopping for trinkets,” Crasher said forcefully. “When it is time to go, everybody not coming along gets a bullet.”
“That seems like a waste.” Lloyd said wistfully.
“A waste is what it will be,” Crasher slammed his fist on the table a second time causing the spilt liquid to bounce into droplets.
Senator Belight found his office locked. Reid had always opened it up so he found it necessary to call maintenance to get into his office. The janitor walked down the hall laughing as he stopped in front of the Senator.
“What’s the matter Senator did you lose your keys?”
“I don’t carry keys Reid is always here first,” Marvin said irritably.
“This is the last year of your second term. Eleven years and you don’t know how to get into your office.” It was obvious that the janitor was on the edge of full blown laughter.
“Just open the door,” Marvin snapped.
“Would you like me to turn on the lights?” Marvin shot the janitor a scathing look that said enough. “Have a nice day Senator.”
Reid passed the janitor on his way down the hall noting the whipped look on his face. He avoided saying anything because he could see the seething look on the senator’s face.
“Where the hell were you?” Marvin barked. Reid wondered if he was going to notice the fashionable new men’s silk suit that Tamar had made for her. It was made of Italian silk and perfectly tailored to hide her secret. The old starched look was gone and it felt wonderful.
“Some idiot spread himself all over the highway and traffic was nuts.” Reid lied thinking that it would not be a good idea to say that the helicopter had to wait for the fog to burn off.
“Well I need you to set up an appointment with Senator Ransom. I need some uninterrupted time with her to see where she stands on the Hall Shipbuilding deal,” Marvin sounded desperate. “Wayne Haggard seems to think that I engineered this cluster fuck.”
“I passed her office and found it locked,” Reid said innocently. “Do you think that she is hiding out?”
“I wouldn’t put it past her. I think that she finally found a bribe worth taking.” Marvin said acidly. “Just find her and get me an appointment.”
“But there is no one in the office, it’s locked,” Reid whined.
“Just find her or you’re fired,” Marvin snapped. “Look you know all of the other aides. Just do what you have to. I need to talk to Senator Ransom. In the meantime, if Wayne Haggard calls. I am in committee and cannot be disturbed.”
“I’ll do my best,” Reid said knowing that he would have the matter solved in minutes.
“Come in my office I have something for you,” Marvin said looking directly at Reid’s crotch.
“How important is this other matter,” Reid asked innocently. “Can it wait until later?”
“No, better get on this right away.” Marvin spun on his heel walking into the inner office and slamming the door. Reid smiled and picked up the telephone calling a few friends in the other offices around the Capitol making it a point to stay on the phone. Just before noon he finally walked into the Senators office.
“Winnie Ransom and her assistant are at Four Diamonds Computer center for an inspection tour she says that it will take the rest of today and part of tomorrow,” Reid smiled knowing exactly what Marvin would ask.
“I need that face time,” Marvin erupted.
“She was quite clear that she would be staying out there,” Reid baited.
“Then get me out there,” Marvin demanded asking himself why he had to tell Reid everything.
“Already done,” Reid smiled. “Rene will pick you up at Regan National at two-thirty. I would love to go home. My ass is dragging I need a short day.”
“I need you out there with me, or Wayne and Salvador will use you to find me. The safest place for you is with me.” Marvin wasn’t buying any excuses. “Here are forty bucks take a cab and pick some things up.
“Alright I guess that I can sleep anywhere.”
“You do sleep anywhere,” Marvin said in a surly tone.
“You really know how to hurt a guy.” Reid said bitterly not believing that Senator ‘Needle Dick’ had spent the whole morning and not noticed the change in her.
“That comes later,” Marvin said maintaining his surly tone hoping that he could get Reid and Mary Lee to do some kind of a display in front of him.
�
��Yes we will do something later,” Reid said with a wicked smile thinking of some of Mary Lee’s instruction.
Crasher backed the Suburban into the loading dock of Ardent Computers kicking Lloyd out with the high resolution cameras. They were moved immediately up to the helipad on the roof. Salvador had his mechanics waiting to follow Lloyd’s instructions for the installation and the job was done before first light. The pilot took an indirect route to Four Diamonds making the four passes as directed. When it returned to the Ardent helipad Henry met the helicopter personally to expedite the data to his lab where he had the mapping program primed and waiting for the input.
“Damn these cameras have GPS on them,” Henry said in a panic.
“Yes, that’s how they know when to start the 3 D fit for mapping,” Lloyd said innocently. “What’s the problem?”
“The problem is that they can be tracked by the police if they have the codes, Einstein,” Henry flared. “My lab is shielded from transmission; let’s just hope that they haven’t given the tracking codes to the police yet.”
“Well I had to have the GPS to establish the fit,” Lloyd said defensively as he watched Henry tear the camera bodies apart. “I had no choice.”
“Well I hope that you didn’t want to keep these babies, because the GPS is built into the cases to prevent theft, so they will be damaged beyond repair.” Henry was out of breath from his destructive efforts.
“Those are $30,000 cameras,” Lloyd protested.
“Exactly and if you get caught with one of those things we are all screwed.” Henry said sourly.
Boris sat in front of his monitor watching the 3D model build at Ardent computers wanting to discover any flaws in the camouflage of Morris Feynman’s design. The computer center and the sound stage appeared to be a house on a rise. Only the swimming pool was obvious with the security center appearing to be associated with the pool. The helipad was obvious as Nadia had intended. The ten, 10 acre estates were impressive looking with the large homes, guest houses and barns screaming that there was big money present. The trails through the complex should be wide enough for a standard pickup truck. Moe had done his job extremely well making the complex look like an exclusive playground for the rich. The exhaust for the tunnel’s ventilation shafts were disguised as boulders. The back of the computer center was built in short irregular sections to avoid any hard lines. The only thing that he could see was the camouflage net over the loading dock which was intentionally obvious.
“Ted, you and Nadia are inviting them to their target,” Boris said surprised that Ted would show them the way.
“We want to divert as many of them away from the residences if we can.” Ted looked at Nadia for agreement finding a silent nod of approval. “I am trying to turn the team that lands at the helipad uphill.”
“But that will put them on their target.”
“We will show them the tunnels later and divert the survivors down there Boris commented.
“Nadia and I will personally lead the high team, Adam and Cherry will lead the middle team, and Tom will take the low team. Noah and Esha will take the loading dock.” Boris was somewhat relieved to find that Ted and Nadia would oversee protecting his interests.
“What if they get past you?”
“Then they will have to deal with Noah and Esha,” Nadia laughed. “If they get past them, they will be stuck in the elevator shaft which we will flood when they get to the basement in the elevator. Remember they have to search 20,000 square feet on each level, but you must understand that they will probably not get that far. I believe that Cherry is capable of eliminating the middle group and Tom will be defending his home with the four diamonds personnel. Tamar will be assisting him with that. We have the advantage of being prepared in depth.”
Crasher looked at the 3D model spotting the camouflage netting over a large area. “This looks like there could be more of a structure over here.”
“Let me see if I can clear that up.” Henry played with the resolution until it became obvious that there was a large camouflage net hiding something. It appears to be a tractor trailer. By the size of that net we are looking at a large dock.
“I knew it,” Crasher howled slamming his hand down heavily on the table. “If they go to that much trouble to hide something it must be pretty damned valuable. Our target is there.”
“You’re betting a lot of money on that,” Salvador said flatly.
“I have set up enough of these deals to know what I am talking about,” Crasher said with rock solid conviction. “Our target is there. I am not going to waste resources on items of no consequence. You want to take out the main frame computers and their programmers. We will put three pickup trucks with seven men each through that top entrance dropping eight men onto the helipad as a blocking force.”
“We won’t get the programmers at that hour.” Salvador protested.
“If we catch their night crew we can do maximum damage to their facility. If we wait for their programmers, we will catch their day shift security and possibly catch them at shift change. The whole job could jump in the toilet.”
“Alright Crasher, we go for the facilities, but I would like it to go somewhere around ten PM.” Salvador said hoping to catch at least some of their programmers.
“Alright but we need to start working on a plan right now. I am not going to wait another day.” Crasher insisted.
“What’s the big hurry,” Salvador pressed.
“We stole the cameras, pickup trucks and a helicopter for the raid. We need to go now before things start to unravel.” Crasher would accept no delays. “Any more recon work and they will tighten things up. Either we go tonight or I keep the initial payment and you can get someone else.”
“Alright I can settle for putting their computers out of action.” Salvador was not happy, but was resigned to the changes.
“Good, my crew should be here by four o’clock. We will equip and brief at six.”
Rene, Senator Belight, and Reid climbed out of the Helicopter at Four Diamonds around three o’clock in the afternoon. Cherry Greeted them warmly.
“Mary Lee will be here tonight. We are having a reception in Boris’s laboratory at nine Senator Ransom, Molly, and a few other people will be there. There will be a live security exercise at ten to answer any questions that you may have about our fitness to keep national secrets secure.” Rene said in a confident tone. “The exercise will be live fire so you will have to watch the exercise over a video feed. Cocktails and other refreshments will be served to nonparticipants.”
“Live fire sounds serious,” Marvin commented.
“The NSA, review team will be monitoring the exercise, to approve our security.” Cherry said in a matter of fact tone. “This will be our ‘make or break’ moment, so the need for realism is absolute.”
“Why so late,” Marvin asked missing Cherry’s point.
“Most assaults of this nature occur when manpower is at its minimum level. The NSA requires a realistic example for their approval,” Cherry lied.
The satellite phone rang, “Cherry since you are by the helicopter would you fly over to Tipton to pick up Noah and Esha.”
“They are both here,” Cherry squealed hopping in the Westland 109.
“My brother Noah and his wife are here,” Cherry said not giving Senator Belight time to exit. “He hasn’t been out here for over two years. “You will just love Esha my sister-in-law. We can’t miss on the exercise now!”
“What is his talent that makes you so sure,” Marvin asked.
“Noah is a brilliant strategist,” Cherry claimed intentionally being vague. Cherry made the short flight to Tipton setting the helicopter down in front of a small Cessna Citation with big fan engines. A well-dressed couple in their mid-thirties was standing in front of the jet. Marvin noticed that the woman was very dark skinned.
“Is Noah’s wife black,” Marvin said having assumed that they were both white.
“No Senator she is Indian,” Cherry sa
id with a smile having forgotten that Senator Belight was from the South. “I must warn you that Noah does not tolerate derogatory comments.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Senator Belight said defensively. As soon as the helicopter was on the ground Esha rushed forward yanking the door open hugging Cherry.
“Nice ride,” Esha said giving the 109 a quick once over. “Noah bought us a new toy. It’s a Cessna Citation 10 and I flew it here.” He walked up behind Esha with a fiberglass case.
“Noah, I didn’t think that you would bring any luggage. I had the family suite stocked with your things.” Cherry had a rotating assortment of clothes depending upon which family members were visiting.
“No this is an electronic gadget that Esha developed with Yuki that we wanted to field test,” Noah said with pride. “It is an infrared signature detector. We can identify a specific infrared signature such as a special person. We developed a way to read individual infrared signatures like finger prints. Yuki thought that we might use it to identify friendlies. We will take images of our people and see how true the program is.”
“We have other passengers on this run,” Cherry said jerking her thumb over her shoulder. “I think you would be better off discussing that with Boris when we get to the center.” Noah took Cherry’s comment as an invitation not to discuss his business in front of strangers. He gave the Westland 109 a quick look over.
“Nice toy, does it have any goodies on it,” Noah smiled.
“Boris has had his people all kinds of electric goodies on it. He says that Yuki and Suki have been co-operating with him and some of the NASA engineers. They are using it for a test platform for god knows what. How about your little toy?”
“It has three stage fans and ‘two kitchen sinks’ as far as goodies go,” Noah said sounding more than a little boastful. “Yuki and Suki are using the Cessna the same way. Is your chopper the 109E with the auto pilot on it?”
“Boris has the GPS dialed in, so that it can land itself.”
“I’ve been taking lessons can I check yours out,” Esha said eagerly. Marvin was not happy when Cherry hopped out of her seat to let Esha fly.
