by Terry Mixon
* * * * *
Jess dressed while Sandra stared at her as though she were crazy. “You want to do what?”
“Break back into the house you rescued the little girl from earlier this week.”
“That’s what I thought you said. And Harry signed off on this?”
“Reluctantly. This is important. He’ll get the assault on the reactor plant set up while we make this happen.”
The mercenary shook her head. “We observed the target for more than a week last time. We knew how the guards behaved and what the routine was. This time, we’d be going in blind after we stirred them up like a hornet’s nest. It’s crazy.”
Jess didn’t disagree. Yet, what choice did they have? If they passed up the opportunity, they might be up in space for months before they could try again. The forces of darkness could find out about the manuscript pages and take them.
“Don’t you do this kind of thing under urgent circumstances?”
“Urgent is a child in danger of harm,” Sandra said. “Getting your hands on some papers isn’t in the same league.”
The mercenary sighed. “You’re talking about a daytime incursion. That means the help will be awake and alert. The police, too. We need to get into the office and get the papers, or at least take a close look at them. Going in shooting isn’t the right answer.”
“Who’s the man in question?” Jess asked. “What do we know about him?”
“Alessio Romano. He’s a bigshot in local politics. A judge. Word is that he’s also connected to the mob.”
“Is his art on the shady side?”
The mercenary shrugged. “I have no idea. That wasn’t part of the mission parameters.”
The phone Sandra was holding rang. She held it out to Jess. “This is your new encrypted phone. Only use it going forward.”
Jess took it and answered the call.
“Hello?”
“Jess,” Clayton said. “I just got off the phone with Harry. He tells me you’re on your way to see a man in Italy about some illicit art.”
“That’s true, though I’m kind of hoping he doesn’t find out we were ever there.”
“I’m somewhat familiar with the gentleman in question. He and I have had some dealings in the past. I may be able to make an introduction between the two of you, if you’re willing to employ a little subterfuge.”
She knew Sandra wouldn’t like that, but she was willing to take a few chances. “What do you have in mind?”
“I have a security firm in Rome. Romano has hired them to upgrade his systems. I can get the man in charge to provide you a cover while you examine the building. You’d need to interface with someone knowledgeable about security, but with the right equipment, that shouldn’t be a problem.”
Jess smiled. “That sounds relatively straightforward. Thank you.”
“Your target is a man used to dealing with the seamier side of society,” he warned. “He’s already been stung and he’s looking to make someone pay. If he thinks you’re playing him, he’ll turn on you. Trust me when I say that would be a terrible outcome.”
Jess didn’t want that. She really didn’t want it. “A security consultant can get into every room in the house. If I can transmit the images out to someone else, they can tell me what I need to know through an earbud.”
“All very true, but if he gets wise, you’ll be in very dire straits.”
“How long would it take to get everything we need into place?”
“I can have a man in the area by the time you get there. He’ll have everything you need. The company needs to confirm that Romano will see you, but I expect he’s quite eager to close the holes in his security as soon as possible. Is your guard going to buy off on this plan?”
Jess looked at Sandra. “I can make that happen.”
* * * * *
Clayton hung up. Jess’ plan worried him. Project Liberty absolutely needed her to be hale and whole. Should he really enable her like this? Perhaps Harry had been right to ask him to stop her. Were these pages really as important as she thought?
He sighed. Probably. He’d make the calls. He finished just before his assistant buzzed.
“Pardon the interruption, but you have a call from the security man in Guatemala on the encrypted line. It sounded quite urgent.”
“Put him through.”
The light for the other line lit up and he pressed it. “Rogers.”
The first sound he heard was a long burst of automatic gunfire from very close to the receiver. “Mister Rogers, we’re under heavy attack! They swarmed in from nowhere and they’re pushing us back. We can’t hold onto the site with the underground chamber.”
“Get to safety,” Clayton said. “I’ll call the federal police and get you support.”
“I’d hurry if I were you.” Another burst of gunfire sounded and then an explosion. The line went dead.
He hoped the caller hadn’t gone dead, too. He looked up a number and called his man in the Guatemalan government.
Clayton hadn’t expected something this bold. It had to be Nathan. He couldn’t imagine how the little shit expected to steal a buried spaceship before reinforcements arrived, but the boy obviously believed he could do it. If he got away with the theft, it changed the game.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Harry woke halfway through the flight to Paris to the news that Nathan was trying to steal the spaceship. The plan was audacious. A true international incident. His brother might have to fight it out with the Guatemalan military or police.
Well, there wasn’t anything he could do about it. At least his father hadn’t told Jess. He’d been concerned that the events would throw her off her con. That was about the first thing he completely agreed with his father on.
They’d begun delving into the data drive and Harry now had detailed plans for the facility in Paris. He spent the next few hours going over them with his team on the plane. Cradock linked in via secure comm.
The place was just as tough as Harry had expected. The sewers were indeed a trap for the unwary. The general plan they finally agreed on felt too much like the raid on his mother’s headquarters for his comfort. A lot of it came down to taking bold risks.
The major difference in this case being that they’d have a lot more hardware. Including planes to get them on site very quickly. Those came courtesy of his father. He had a group of cutting edge military transports in France for an airshow.
The stealth on them was so good that they were making a few extra test runs for the French military over the next few days. The potential buyers wanted to see the planes break contact, which was perfect for Harry’s strike team.
If the planes carrying his people could slip away from the test area, they could deliver Harry onto his mother’s facility with devastating surprise before going back to play with the French Air Force.
One bit of good news was that they’d packed the reactor. The test wasn’t going to be in Paris after all. His mother’s plan was to ship it out to the US before the supposed demonstration. Apparently, the security team probing the sewers had spooked them.
At least that meant they didn’t need to have Jess underfoot. They could grab the reactor while she was taking care of business in Italy. Then she could fly to Mexico on her own. They’d meet there and she could oversee the loading of the reactor into the lifter.
Finally, something was going their way.
* * * * *
Jess slept until the ship docked. The time zone change had her body confused, but she’d been in that situation before. Sleep cured most of the trouble, given enough time.
Cradock hurried them past a woman who stamped their passports. Jess suspected that their entry wouldn’t appear anywhere official. Which, considering the things they planned to do, was probably for the best.
The team took the vans that Cradock found for them and set off before dawn. They met the man who’d coordinate with her on security matters for breakfast about an hour away from Romano’s villa.
Paolo Sorrentino was an unprepossessing guy with classic Italian features. He laid some gear on the table as he sipped his cappuccino. “They tell me these are state of the art spying devices. Even a close search shouldn’t turn them up. Unless of course, someone looks inside your ear.” His English was excellent, with just a hint of his native Italian.
Jess picked up the device. It looked like a little torpedo with some silicone around the back. “It doesn’t have anything to grab onto. How do I get it out when we’re done?”
“A small hook will catch the flesh toned exterior. Without a grip, it’s much harder to see. It has a small microphone that allows you to hear as well as you normally would. It’s quite clever.”
Jess picked up the glasses next. Classy wire frames. She’d expected ugly plastic. A quick check showed the lenses had no prescription. A good thing, since her vision was perfect. She wondered what they’d have done if she’d needed glasses of her own. Probably contacts.
There wasn’t any indication of a camera, no matter where she looked.
“Okay, I give up. Where is the lens?”
“It’s inside one of the nose pads.”
She examined them more closely. “Now I see it. That’s a good design. And there’s no chance that he’ll detect it sending a signal?”
Paolo grinned boyishly. “I’ll load an app onto your mobile phone and it will communicate over an encrypted wireless frequency. Even though you don’t know it, your phone is always pinging the towers. That will disguise the signal. The phone will record video, even if you go into an area of the building where the coverage is spotty. When you come back out, it will sync up with the base unit.”
“That sounds a little worrying. What if he asks me something I don’t know while we have no connection?”
“I’ll be with you. The plan is for us to examine everything as a team. I’m the primary security specialist and you are my beautiful American assistant. The camera will keep your security team is apprised of your personal situation at all times.”
That was reassuring. Jess wouldn’t have to bluff her way through a job she knew very little about. The sniper could feed her some thoughts so she didn’t sound like an idiot, if need be.
Sandra pocketed the gear as the waitress came over to deliver their food. The mercenary waited until they were alone again to speak.
“The estate is big. He has a number of vulnerable approaches to the house itself. He was lax in his personal security. He didn’t even turn the alarm system on. Honestly, you’d be shocked how many people shoot themselves in the foot by ignoring the most basic precautions.”
Paolo dug into his food with gusto. “This is excellent. I was up early and fast food is a national tragedy.”
Jess couldn’t argue with that.
“When is he expecting us?”
He checked his watch. “I told him we’d be there in about ninety minutes. We should finish up and be on our way.”
She glanced at Sandra. “Where will you be?”
“There’s an unoccupied house nearby. We’ll set up inside the woods there. All it’ll take to get to you is hopping over a stone wall and running through some trees. I figure three minutes, tops. If I get worried, I’ll get the team moving early.”
They finished breakfast and got on the road. Just outside the town where Romano lived, she moved to Paolo’s car. They’d go in separately, just in case someone was watching traffic.
The estate looked imposing. The tall wall and imposing iron gate would’ve kept her out. The armed men just inside were an added incentive to behave.
Paolo rolled down his window and said something in Italian to one of the men. A brief exchange resulted in the gate opening. It shut with ominous finality behind them as they drove into the lion’s den.
They were committed now.
* * * * *
Harry’s plane landed on schedule and Cradock picked them up. They drove to a different part of the airfield and directly into a large hangar holding four sleek planes.
They didn’t look like transports. They looked like something out of a movie, all aggressive lines and angles. That was probably to help defeat the radar. Based on the engine configuration, Harry thought they were probably capable of vertical take offs and landings.
He didn’t know much about planes, but they looked badass.
“The pilots are in on the plan,” Cradock said, “but not the ground crew. We’ll have a meeting with everyone to plan things, but keep mum on the details even out here. You never know who’s a spy.”
Harry couldn’t agree more. French prisons were better than many others he’d risked over the years, but he’d rather avoid the experience.
He walked under one of the wings. “Is it VTOL? How good is the stealth? How many people can each hold? And realistically, what are the chances you can really evade the French radar?”
Cradock smiled. “These are fully VTOL capable and can switch modes quickly in the air. Each one can hold two of your teams. As for the stealth, it’s good.
“We have two modes. One is passive, which is what the French are buying. One is active, which we’re keeping to ourselves. We’ll give them a taste of what these planes can really do when these babies drop off their screens.”
Harry shook his head. “I’m surprised the US is letting you sell these things to anyone other than them.”
“The American government doesn’t know about the active mode. With the way they’ve gutted the military, they can’t afford them anyway. Rainforest is a true international company, incorporated through a country that doesn’t care who we sell to, so long as they get their taxes. We don’t need the US government’s permission to do squat.”
That bothered Harry, but it wasn’t his fight. The American government had done this to themselves. The incredible polarization in politics meant only the most extreme politicians got into office. Nationally, the liberals had occupied the White House for the last three decades. The Senate bounced back and forth, depending on which party had more seats up for grabs, and the penny-pinching, socially stunted conservatives had a lock on the House.
That meant nothing of import happened to address the country’s woes. The debt was out of control, inflation was through the roof, and any country that felt froggy could push the formerly great nation around like a schoolyard bully. Only international terrorism was able to bridge the gap, and even it never got the attention it deserved.
France was teetering on the edge of collapse. Selling them these planes wouldn’t help. They needed to take their country back from the people willing to burn it down. He doubted they had the will to save themselves.
Well, that wasn’t his problem. Once the country fell, these planes wouldn’t be a worry anymore. The fanatics couldn’t fly them.
“Have all my teams arrived?”
Cradock nodded. “They’re scattered around the area, but they’re here. We’ll pull them in once you’re ready to lay out the grand plan. We can get eight teams into the target building with four teams to cover your withdrawal. The reactor is supposedly loaded into a container.
“Word is that it’s scheduled to leave early tomorrow morning. We’ll probably be able to get you there right after dark tonight. That means security will be lighter than normal. They want more people on duty for the move tomorrow, so some people have the day off to rest up.”
That worked. Harry gave the planes one last appreciative look. Maybe he could buy one for his company. It would sure make some jobs easier.
“Call in the teams. It’s time to get this rolling.”
* * * * *
Nathan watched the excavation with satisfaction. The earthmovers had cleared the area around the underground chamber with astonishing speed. The goal was to open the room below to the air without dropping debris on the spacecraft.
That had sounded impossible to him until an expert explained how it worked. Teams would go in through the side tunnel he’d seen the woman use. They’d fire stabilizers into the
roof. A lot of them. The choppers would act in unison to lift the roof off. Then they’d lift the spaceship up on the slings the team was putting into place.
“We’re ready to lift the roof, sir,” the excavation boss said.
A glance at his watch confirmed that they were ahead of schedule. “Excellent. Proceed.”
The local government had failed miserably at sending help to his father’s guards. Most of them were dead. His men were pursuing the rest through the jungle. His mother had sown massive confusion in the Guatemalan government. No one would stop him.
Nathan held his breath as the choppers lifted the roof. The stonework was amazing. It broke into a billion pieces when they dropped it off to the side.
The spaceship looked a little worse for wear in the bright sunlight, but that hardly mattered. The limitless wealth it promised was all he cared about. That and sticking it to his father and brother.
It took them another few minutes to hitch the slings. They’d made an educated guess at the weight. Two choppers should be able to lift it.
In fact, it came up so easily that he made the decision to try one helicopter alone. That would greatly simplify the move.
It worked.
The spaceship headed out on one last journey. Several armed helicopters accompanied it on its way toward international waters and the ship that would carry it back to the US. He had fighter jets that would screen any inquisitive military presence.
He’d disguised them with Honduran markings. He could only imagine what kind of trouble that would cause. He might even be able to get some business out of the ensuing troubles.
Once it was away, he sent his people in. “Pick up every single bit of that ship. Leave nothing. Then plant the explosives. Father can waste his time digging it up to find nothing.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jess tamped her jitters down as Paolo drove the car slowly up the drive. There were a lot of guards on the grounds. A man with some kind of rifle was just visible on the roof.
