by Terry Mixon
“No need to shoot,” he said carefully. “I’m just here to see Miss Price and Mister Hale.”
The guards weren’t at all pleased with this turn of events, but Rachel wasn’t going to let them shoot the man.
“He stays with us. We’ll blindfold him before we go anywhere sensitive. Put those away and get this crate out of here.”
She turned her attention to Enright. “How did you find us and how did you get in?”
He smiled blandly. “Being a reporter means you have to be a researcher, at least if you intend to be a good one. I put a few facts together and spotted an unlikely coincidence. It led me here, as I suspect it did for you.
“As for getting in, I merely walked down the street as though I was going elsewhere, my eyes glued to my com like everyone else. I turned in to the building before the men watching the street could stop me. Is that the missing crate from the port? What’s in it?”
Rachel shook her head, took his com, and disassembled it. She patted him down for anything else interesting. He was clean.
She stepped back and scowled at him. “You’re far too nosey for your own good. Yes, it’s the crate. And no, I’m not telling you what’s in it.”
The man pouted. “Ah, well. One can only try. I suppose now is a bad time for an interview?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Adam watched Price stall the reporter until Grandmother Wu’s men had the crate loaded. She only answered peripheral questions about what they were doing. That was to help keep the idiot safe. Janus would kill Enright if he knew too much.
Once they were ready to go, she put a hood over Enright’s head.
They rode back to Wu’s in relative silence once she stopped answering his incessant questions.
Adam arranged with Wu to keep the reporter locked up until this was all over. Things were about to get hot and heavy.
Price took the hooded reporter into the residence. She’d remove their gear and any incriminating data. They’d need some of it shortly. The rest wasn’t safe to let the man snoop around.
Grandmother Wu wasn’t pleased at the complication, but let it go. “What is in the crate your brother hid?”
“An FTL drive and his spy gear.”
Her eyes widened. “That is indeed an unexpected turn of events. I can see why Janus might have killed him for such a grand theft. I wonder how much such a device is worth.”
“A pile of money, but good luck getting it off the station.”
“You’re giving it to me?”
He grinned. “What would I do with an FTL drive? You need a ship for it to be useful. I can build one, and even fly it around in normal space, but I have no idea how the damned thing works.”
“I shall ponder the possibilities.”
Price came out of the residence shaking her head. “That man is a pain in my ass. More curious than a cat and smarter than he looks. He’d have made a good intelligence analyst. Did your people ever get back to you with information on the unguarded entrances?”
“Jason was supposed to gather that,” Adam said, looking around for his friend.
“I sent my grandson to look into a few things,” Wu said. “Mainly to keep him busy. He left a list of the currently unmanned entrances with me.”
The older woman handed Price a data chip, which the spy plugged into her comp.
After studying the screen for a moment, Price nodded. “Several of these will work. Which one is closest to the supply department?”
He looked over her shoulder at a complete set of plans for the Janus building. She must’ve gotten it while she was hacking their system.
“This one,” he said, pointing. “How are we going to fool the guards at the executive level? They might know me or the people we’re masquerading as.”
Price smiled. “I have a plan for that. I just need you to get us where they store everything.”
She turned to Grandmother Wu. “Did you find appropriate uniforms for us?”
“Indeed,” the older woman said. “I got them from the factory that makes them. The owner is an old friend. They are over here.”
Adam followed her to a table and found the packaged uniforms. He pulled his out and read the label. It was his size.
Price picked hers up and gestured for him to turn around. “I don’t allow men who haven’t made me dinner to see me naked.”
He laughed and did as she instructed. Once he stripped down, he found the uniform fit better than the one hanging in his own closet.
Price told him he could turn back around, and he found her dressed in an identical suit. They both looked like regular security personnel. They even had holsters for their pistols.
“Stash extra weapons and ammo in a bag,” she said. “I’ll take another one with my gear.”
He selected ones he thought would be most useful if they ran into serious trouble. He brought more than enough ammunition. He wasn’t running out again.
She gathered a bunch of gear from the crate. He had no idea what, but he trusted she knew her business.
Once they were ready, he commandeered Wu’s van. He’d park it close enough to Janus for a quick getaway.
Approaching the building made him tense, but no one gave them a second look. After all, there were so many security people around already that the two of them blended right in.
The entrance they’d selected was unguarded, but he didn’t relax until Price used her hack to update their badge files and it actually opened for them.
Once they were inside, he led her toward a cargo elevator that Janus used to get basic supplies into storage. It didn’t go to any critical areas, so it didn’t require them to use their badges.
It slowly took them down to the supply area. He stepped out when the doors slid open and scanned for people. The level seemed deserted.
“Now what?” he asked.
“We head to where we really want to go.” She sent the elevator back up and pulled a tool from her bag. She used it to open the elevator doors.
To his surprise, the shaft continued down for several more levels. Ones the elevator had no buttons for.
“That’s tricky,” he said with a smile.
“The elevator used to service the executive levels, too. Security must’ve removed the capability after the supposed Disruptor attack, but they didn’t block the shaft. Sloppy.”
Price swung out onto the ladder. “Let’s go see Mister Evans. I have a few pointed questions to ask him.”
* * * * *
Rachel climbed down to the lowest level in the shaft and set her pack on the floor. There was a depression below the elevator doors to allow the elevator car to settle fully.
She used her light to see what she was doing. With the doors above them closed, it was close to pitch black in there. Most elevator shafts were lit, but not this one.
“The other side of this door is the supply area for the executives,” she said. “Odds are good that it’s empty, but we need to be on our toes.”
She opened her comp and brought up the plans. “From here, we can skirt the outermost corridors until we get near Evans’s office. The woman I captured said he has guards of his own, but not that many.”
“Makes sense,” Hale said. “He’s safely down on the executive level. Once he’s ready to leave, he’ll boost his coverage. Are there any back ways into his office?”
“There is, actually. The adjoining office is listed as a spare. Its washroom is directly beside his. While we can’t go from one to the other, we can climb into the ceiling and drop down into his washroom. It’s behind his desk, so we should be able to surprise him.”
She dug out her shocker and stuffed it behind her belt at the small of her back. “We’ll try to leave no traces. It’s best if they don’t find the body until we’re gone. They’ll think he died of natural causes.”
“You’re going to kill him?” Hale asked with a scowl.
“You didn’t have any problems shooting his minions. He’s much worse than they are and he w
ants you dead just as badly.”
“Yeah, but he isn’t a combatant unless he’s actually trying to shoot me. Killing him in cold blood is—”
“An execution,” she said firmly. “Consider him guilty of war crimes. Since he undoubtedly had something to do with the Mars attack, he’s guilty of exactly that.
“Look, we can’t afford to let him escape. I’ll record the interrogation. You might not like this, but it’s the best option. We can’t smuggle him out.”
“But we can. The same way we’re going in.”
She sighed. “Why do you have to be so stubborn?”
“We have this pesky thing called rules of engagement. Murdering the bastard in cold blood isn’t covered, even for war crimes. If we can get him out, that’s what we need to do.”
Rachel rubbed her face. “I’ll consider it, if the extraction looks feasible. But you have to carry him.”
“Done. Let’s open this thing up and go get him.”
She opened the elevator doors. As expected, the storage rooms were devoid of people.
The rooms let out into corridors only used by those who served the powerful. Of which security was a part.
Hale slipped the strap of his bag over his shoulder. “This way, right?”
She nodded. “Go straight until you hit corridor B3 and then turn right. Evans’s guards won’t see us at all. We’ll come up on the other office from the far side.”
Rachel tensed a little when they passed real security personnel, but the others only nodded cordially and kept walking.
Hale led them around the designated corner and then kept going until she cleared her throat. This section was clear of people, but she needed to hurry. Someone might come along at any moment.
She set her bag on the floor and extracted a toolkit. She used it to take the cover off the electronic lock and bypassed it. The door slid open, revealing a darkened office.
Rachel put the cover back on the lock, grabbed her bag, and headed inside. She closed the door behind Hale and snapped the lights on. It was deserted, just as advertised. It didn’t even have furniture. Excellent.
Once she had her kit back together, she manually locked the entrance and stepped into the washroom. It was nice. The counter looked like real stone, and it was roomy. Imported marble had to be really expensive.
The tiles in the ceiling were the kind that pushed up. Perfect.
“I’ll lead the way,” she said. “They trained me to be quiet, and I don’t want you falling through the roof at an inopportune moment. Once I take him down, I’ll call you over.”
“I’m not that clumsy,” Hale objected. “They trained me to be quiet when I needed to be.”
“Uh huh. That was ten years ago and quiet relative to shooting someone. Trust me, I’m the best person for this part of the mission.”
“You’re the spy,” he said with a shrug.
Rachel climbed onto the counter and raised one of the tiles. She pushed her head into the darkened space and let her eyes adjust to the dim light filtering up from the washroom.
Evans’s washroom was indeed accessible, but she’d need to be very careful how she supported her weight.
She looked down at Hale. “The overhead beams are sturdy enough to support our weight, but don’t trust the slats between the tiles. Hand me my gear when I call for it.”
Moving carefully, Rachel reached across the top of the wall and lifted the tile just a crack. Then she listened.
No sounds that indicated Evans was in his washroom, and the lack of light told her it was empty. She hoped he wasn’t out. Waiting for him to come back would be a bitch.
She raised the tile a little further and saw that the washroom door was closed. That was a plus. It would serve to muffle any noise she made as she lowered herself down.
The strut over her head was metal and handy. She touched it with the back of her hand. One of her coworkers had found out the hard way that power conduits occasionally leaked energy into their supports. He’d fallen through a roof and landed on a table in the middle of a busy cafeteria. Talk about awkward.
She tugged it to be certain it was strong enough to support her weight. All good.
Rachel set the tile she was holding aside. She then lifted herself up and across before lowering her feet to the wash counter. The lights came on when the sensor detected her movement.
Once she had a solid footing, she dropped to the floor and looked around. This washroom was identical to the other, and it was blessedly empty, as expected.
She listened at the door but didn’t hear any voices. That could be good or bad. Only time would tell.
The handheld monitor she’d pulled from her bag had a small, flexible tip that she slid under the door just far enough to see what was going on in the room. Security forces used devices just like this to scout a room before they burst in.
Unlike the empty office, Evans had decorated his with subtle, if expensive, taste. Dark woods and bright chrome meshed surprisingly well. His desk sat between her and his door.
Evans was present, working on something at his desk, his back to her.
She peered at the room as carefully as she could. The desk obscured the far side of the room, and it would be awkward to sneak in while he had someone sitting in her blind spot.
After a minute, she decided that he had to be alone. She’d take a closer look before actually rushing him.
A scuff behind her announced Hale’s arrival. He had one of the bags in his hands. His disregard for her instructions was annoying, but at least he’d been right about being quiet.
He set her bag on the wash counter and reached back up for his. He hopped almost silently to the floor as soon as he’d put it down.
“What’s the situation?” he said softly, his mouth beside her ear.
His warm breath sent a shock down her spine, causing an unwanted physical reaction. She obviously needed to get out more.
At least he knew that whispers carried. Softly speaking was better for keeping hidden.
She put her lips up to his ear. The scent of his hair was a further distraction. “He’s in there, but I’ll have to crack the door to be absolutely sure he’s alone. We need to get him away from the desk without alerting the guards out front or letting him hit a hidden alarm.”
“What’s your plan for making him whisper while you question him?”
She smiled grimly. “I have my ways. If it looks clear, I’ll open it slowly and then we pounce. You control his arms while I keep him quiet.”
Rachel opened the door just a hair. Not enough for someone on the other side of the desk to see a big gap, but plenty to fit the flexible tip through at the top and see that the rest of the office was unoccupied.
Perfect.
She eased the door closed, opened her bag as quietly as possible, and swapped the monitor for a bulky mask suitable for going over someone’s mouth and nose.
Rachel killed the lights and opened the door. It was blessedly well oiled. She’d have to send a complimentary note to maintenance.
They slipped up behind Evans together, and she slid the mask over his head and clamped it tight on his lower face.
Hale simultaneously wrapped his arms around Evans’s torso and dragged him back in his chair. It obligingly rolled away from the desk as the man struggled.
She was certain Evans was screaming for help, but no sound emerged from the noise cancelling device she’d just put in place.
Once she was sure Hale had a good grip, she let go of the mask, trusting the straps to hold it tight. She pulled a set of cuffs out of her back pocket and locked Evans’s hands behind the chair. She made sure they were brutally tight. A set of leg shackles from her bag secured his kicking feet.
Only then did she step back and smile. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Mister Evans. I understand you’ve been looking for me.” She kept her voice pitched too low to carry.
The man glared at her, but no sound emerged from the mask.
“Oh, excuse
me,” she said with bland cheerfulness. “I’ll need to grab some earbuds.”
She split the pair with Hale. That way he could listen in and they both could have an ear free for trouble.
“That better?” she asked once the earbud was in place.
“You bitch,” Evans snarled. “You’ll never get out of here alive.”
“If you only knew how many dead men have told me that,” she said with a wink. “Now, let’s get down to business. I have some nice drugs that will make you more than happy to tell us what we want to hear.
“And the good part? If you’re half the bastard I think you are, I can give you a nice overdose that will mimic a heart attack and no one will be the wiser.”
His eyes narrowed. “You can’t win. Even if you kill me, there are too many people looking for you. This station will be your coffin. Give up now and I’ll spare your life.”
“Like you did for Zane Hale?”
“Exactly.”
She opened her mouth to keep at him, but lost her train of thought. “What?”
Evans’s eyes flicked to Adam Hale. “Your brother is still alive. He hid something we want. Once we get it, we’re going to let him live.”
“Why would you do that?” Hale asked, his voice a soft snarl. “Why the hell should I believe you?”
“That’s the easiest part of this. I was reading a report on his condition just before you broke in. How the hell did you get in here, anyway?”
Rachel waved her hand in front of the monitor, bringing it to life. To her shock, it had a written report on her partner. It was dated less than two weeks ago. There was an attached video. She played it, making sure the volume was down.
The video came to life, showing Zane in some kind of cell. The lighting was strangely green, but it was him. His hair was long and unkempt, but he had the energy to glare at whoever was holding the recorder.
“Tell your boss he can fuck off and die.”
The video ended with that.
Rachel blinked in shock. Holy shit. She’d given him up as dead, no matter what she’d said out loud. He was somewhere, and she was going to rescue him.
