by Michael Todd
“Do you need me?” the hacker asked, her expression anxious.
“I don’t think so,” Madigan said. “Thanks for your help, Anja.”
The woman nodded and looked away. She clearly wasn’t that comfortable with compliments, so she simply beat a hasty retreat, stepped out of the room, and shut the door behind her.
“What was that about?” Madigan asked, tilting her head.
“She’s not comfortable talking to Courtney, so she wanted me to send the Covington file over to her,” Sal said, waving the memory stick. “What’s up?”
“I spread the word that we’re looking for some people to transport the plant,” she said with a chuckle. “I didn’t outright say it was the plant, but I think I implied it fairly effectively. Anyone who knows anything about anything will be able to connect the dots and make the connection easily, I think.”
“Good,” Sal said with a quick nod. They needed to be subtle about this. “Anything else?”
“Well, you know this little mission will be expensive, so you might want to prepare for that,” Madigan added. “Either way, I spread the net with people I trust to find the guys who will actually run the mission. We won’t hire blind on this one. I hope you feel like walking in your armor.”
“Speaking of armor…” He handed a file to her. “This is the stuff Courtney sent me about the metal Pegasus has extracted. Apparently, much of the research Pegasus did ran through her father’s R&D group. Based on her observations—which are based on her father’s tests—this stuff won’t work very well in the Zoo. She appreciated that we’re doing this for her, but if she hadn’t looked into it, no one would have known that it would work outside the Zoo but cause a lot of deaths inside.”
“From the look of the leg that we pulled out of there, I’d say that it’s already caused a lot of deaths inside.” She gave the file a quick study. “Wait, did she tell you to say that word for word?”
“I might have paraphrased a little.” He grinned sheepishly.
Madigan chuckled. “Okay, I need to keep in touch with my guys. I’ll let you know when I have a full sheet for them.”
“Thanks,” Sal said. “Close the door on the way out?”
Madigan grinned and considered asking him what he would do after she closed the door but decided against it. They were comfortable enough with each other that if he had any needs that needed satisfying, he would come to her. As a result, she simply gave him a coy smirk that told him everything he needed to know and pulled the door shut behind her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Hey…Courtney?” Anja asked, suddenly very aware of the headset that she wore.
“Hi, Anja,” Courtney replied through their secure satellite link. “Sal said that you might give me a call soon. How can I help you?”
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything, and I hope the video I sent was suitable for the task.”
“It looked great,” Courtney replied honestly. “I still haven’t sent it yet, so we’ll see how that goes.”
“Right.” The hacker shook her head. “Anyway, I found a bio-locked laptop that Covington uses. A lot. It’s inside her house and under what looks like a lot of security, so that might be what you’re looking for. I’d like to confirm it, but bio-locked equipment can’t be hacked remotely. I’ll need physical access.”
“So we have to get it out of her house,” she mused, “which is why we’ll need the video anyway. Look, can I talk to Sal about this?”
“I can patch you over to his line,” Anja said with a nod. “He’s probably still working on the paperwork for all the stuff that he’s trying to pull. If you don’t mind me saying so, I think he’s a little too ambitious with all this. All that’s missing is for him to cackle maniacally while trying to take over the world.”
“That’s…a slight exaggeration,” Courtney said, although she knew that it was a lot less slight than she would like to admit. “But he has good intentions.”
“All the guys who want to take over the world do,” Anja retorted with a trace of humor. “Or they think they do, anyway. His comm is open. I’ll patch you into that.”
“Thanks.”
The Russian nodded. She knew the other woman couldn’t see her, but that wasn’t something she was particularly concerned about. Her part, for now, was done, and she could happily go back to things she knew and understood. Computers were a lot less stressful than human interaction. Sal was far better at talking to people than she was, and since he knew Courtney better, as well, he would be able to interpret the squeaky quality she’d heard in the woman’s voice.
Anja looked at her computer. She killed her connection to Sal and Courtney’s conversation and set it to record so she could listen to it afterward. It was still her private satellite feed and no matter what anyone thought, she needed to keep control over what was done on it.
Satisfied that the details were taken care of, she turned to the laptop where she had decrypted the stuff on the hard drive that Anderson had sent them to retrieve. She wasn’t entirely sure what she would find, but whatever it was, she’d make damn sure she accessed every last byte of data. Madigan had made a deal, and any agreement Heavy Metal made was one she made too. That was what being part of a team was all about. You shared the good and the bad and gave all you had to everything you did. Kennedy and Jacobs had given her their all when they took her on blind-sight, as it were. She didn’t particularly enjoy working for third parties like the colonel, but if her bosses felt it was important, she wouldn’t ask any questions.
A section of the hard drive had been decrypted, though most of what she read still didn’t make much sense. Her major had been in computer sciences, and all the engineering jargon that had been included in something that was clearly meant for engineers might as well have been in an alien language. It looked like designs and the pictures were there, so she hoped that someone would know what it meant when she uploaded the section that had been decrypted to her dark web drop box. Messenger sites that were flooded with random chatter tended to be ignored by the major dipper agencies due to the sheer volume of data that was put through them, which made it relatively safe to put untraceable blocks for a short amount of time.
She put a timer on the block to erase automatically after fifteen minutes, but it wasn’t really necessary. Someone accessed it and pulled it off the messenger service less than five minutes later.
“Someone’s eager for something to do,” Anja said as she closed the chat room and deleted her account there. It wouldn’t be difficult to make a new one and repeat the process.
“Hey Sal.” Courtney said, the phone held between her ear and shoulder as she sifted through the papers on her desk. “How are things in the Zoo?”
“Same old, same old,” Sal replied cheerfully. “Critters trying to kill us and not succeeding, us killing the critters. Madie says hi, by the way.”
“Don’t fucking call me that!” Courtney heard the other woman yell in the background.
“How are things in LA?” he asked after what she could only assume was Madigan punching him in the arm.
“Annoyingly similar,” Courtney growled. “I received the data from Anja, by the way, but I have a feeling that you don’t want me to use it yet.”
“Trust that feeling,” Sal said. “We have a plan, and our end of it would have to happen before you steal that laptop. Oh, and since we could use as much man or woman power as we can get our hands on, it would actually be best if you could come back here for a couple of weeks.”
Courtney decided not to make a joke about that. Robinson stood not ten feet away from her and typed rapidly into his own laptop as he worked through the various forms the board had sent for her approval. He had been vital ever since she’d taken up her position there—so much so that she’d sent notes to the HR department to improve his benefits and up his paycheck come the next quarter. She didn’t tell him, though, since she wasn’t sure if his input would decrease when he realized that he would receive a pay raise.
&nb
sp; “Why do you need me down there?” she asked.
“Besides the fact that you’re one of the founding members of Heavy Metal and are missed? Well, we need your help to get our hands on data that only you are privy to.”
“Right. And while I’m there, it might be a good opportunity to find someone who might be able to acquire the assets we’re looking into.”
“Anja can probably help you with that,” Sal replied. “She has a lot of connections with various criminal enterprises around the world. It’s actually a little scary when you stop to really think about it.”
“Perfect.” Courtney allowed herself to grin. She’d never met the girl but was sure she’d like her. “I only need to pack and then I’ll be on my way.”
“We’re looking forward to it.” She could tell that he was smiling from the slight warmth in his voice. “Fly safely.”
She pressed the end call button and stared at the screen of her phone as it went black. To be honest, she had wanted to head back to the Zoo for quite a while, now. She missed Sal and Madigan and looked forward to working with the newer members, but there was also the fact that she desperately needed to put some distance between herself and all crazy circumstances in LA.
“So, Robinson…”
“I’ve already put in a request for the company jet to take us to the Staging Area,” he replied and looked up from the screen of his laptop. “They’ll probably send the approval in a couple of hours, which gives us time to pack and prepare.”
“Wait.” She raised her hand to stop him saying anything more. “Gives us time?”
“Well, yes,” he replied. “You don’t think that you’ll go alone on this trip, right? You need me to deal with all the clerical work—which I’d be able to do on the plane—and I’m your personal assistant. That means that whenever you travel on business, I need to be there with you.”
Courtney opened her mouth to raise a question about that, but she shut it again as her brain caught up. Honestly, Robinson’s expertise in the business world would actually come in handy if she had to deal with these kinds of problems involving Heavy Metal. It wasn’t that she didn’t think Sal and Madigan were doing a good job, but he was an absolute miracle worker when it came to streamlining the business process.
“Fine. How long until you can meet me at the airport?”
“I simply need to push your appointments back until you return,” he said. “That would only leave a few calls and—oh, I need to pick up my passport.”
“Huh. That’s your plan to make sure these guys don’t get their hands on what could be the most expensive thing that has been brought out of the Zoo?” Collins asked and looked mildly skeptical.
“It’s not a terrible plan,” one of the other soldiers replied. “Fair enough, there’s a lot that could go wrong, but it’s not terrible.”
“I appreciate the support, guys,” Sal said with a chuckle. “Do you have any questions?”
The twelve men and women who had been assembled looked at one another. They had been brought out to the compound to be briefed on the mission they’d all signed up for. Kennedy’s message had spread a lot faster than had been anticipated, and they all thought that it was a good idea to move the mission up on the schedule. There really was no need to risk another attack on the compound if it could realistically—and safely—be avoided.
“You’ve all worked together,” Kennedy interjected. “And we’ve worked with all of you, so there’s a fair amount of trust already established. There’s also the commission—which, as discussed, will be substantial, especially considering the role that you guys will play.”
“All things considered,” Collins said, “we’ve got your back. You guys have done a hell of a lot more for us grunts on the ground than the big money guys back home. Our honor isn’t for sale out here.”
“We appreciate that,” Sal assured him. “When the sale for the plant goes through, we’ll move out quickly. We have places for you to bunk here in the compound, but if you’d rather not, we’ll need you on call for three or four days. Obviously, we’ll pay you the retainer, so you don’t have to worry about taking other jobs in the meantime.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“What do you mean, the sale went through already?” Carlson asked and leaned in closer to the screen on his phone. “I thought we had numbers on all the bids and that we out-paced the highest bid by two million?”
“Two point one million, technically,” Rodrigo said smoothly. “Which was as high as Pegasus was willing to go, if you remember. My question is why? I thought you people were looking at profits in the billions if you managed to keep the monopoly on the production from that plant.”
“I still need to answer to a board of directors, and that was all they were willing to part with on an opening bid,” the CEO retorted coldly. “We would have been willing to go higher if they tried to bargain with us.”
“They didn’t even send a reply.” Rodrigo peered at the tablet he carried. “They simply closed the bidding.”
“Do we know who made the winning bid?” Carlson asked, his mind already sifting through the list of competitors.
“Again, they kept this on the down low, so…” Rodrigo paused and tapped his tablet. “Well, one of my boys back in the lab figured their algorithm out. They’ve used a third-party proxy to run the sale, so we don’t get any more than the only bidder that was actually contacted afterwards. It was…Sanctum. A German company. They were the second highest bidders at seven point two million, American.”
Carlson made a face. “Why would they take the lower number? That has to be a terrible business policy.”
“It seems these people in Heavy Metal don’t like you that much, Carlson,” Rodrigo said and chuckled dryly. “I wonder why?”
“That was your fuck-up,” the CEO pointed out, a menacing edge to his tone. “If the dumbasses you hired hadn’t failed in their mission, we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with. Twice.”
“And if my men had succeeded twice, you never would have had the chance to get your hands on a Pita plant,” his contact retorted with a grin. “See, Carlson my friend, you need to look on the bright side of life. You’ll get ulcers otherwise.”
“Yeah, bright side,” he muttered and shook his head as his mind considered the options. “What’s your men’s situation outside the compound?”
“I have a drone already in place, so we’ll have eyes on the target when it is moved out. I alerted the rest of the boys whom I have in the Staging Area that the sale went through and that they will be needed to run an intercept, so they are standing by at the moment. At the same time, we have intel that they’ve run a hire on the base to have muscle for the transfer, so we anticipate some action when the time comes.”
“How ready are you to deal with Jacobs and Kennedy?” Carlson asked. “Let’s be realistic here. Our attempts to eliminate them haven’t been successful, by any stretch of imagination.”
“That is a problem that has been anticipated and planned for. Don’t you worry about it, Mr. Carlson. We’ll have the plant to you before too long,” Rodrigo assured him with a smile. “And with that said, I think it’s time to hang up. The drone operators say that people have begun to load up in a couple of Hammerheads in the compound. It would appear that the intercept operation is a go.”
“Good luck.” Carlson hung up and stared at the phone, his expression tense. “It would seem that you’ll need it.”
Sal stretched in his armor and adjusted to the feel of it. It would take a couple of minutes for his muscle memory to recall that the suit would actually operate on a slight lag. A tenth of a second never sounded like a lot, but when you were in the middle of a gunfight and had to deal with a barrage of bullets and animals hurtling all over the damn place, a tenth of a second could measure the vital difference between life and death.
The other men and women in heavy armor were quiet and focused as they loaded up beside him. Kennedy was there too and she quickly gave him a thumbs-up t
o indicate that she was ready.
“I really hope this works,” he said as he leaned back in his seat and his hand settled on the rifle he carried on the back of his suit. He held his other hand on the pack that they carried at all times. The thought of anyone else getting a hold of it would ruin this whole plan for everyone involved, including the other men whom they’d hired for additional muscle. It wasn’t something he really wanted to get into, but Kennedy had made sure that they were the ones who would head into the teeth of the fight, and she had insisted that he be the one who carried most of the muscle. She obviously didn’t trust him not to get his ass shot.
“Hey, Jacobs,” Collins said and picked up the screen that displayed the readings from the sensors set up on the outside of the Hammerhead. “It looks like we picked up a tail.”
Sal looked into the screen that now displayed a small drone that followed them as they started to drive along the road toward the Staging Area. That wasn’t actually their destination, but it was where the only road went. Well, it was either there or into the Zoo, where most of the roads leading to the various construction sites for the walls had already been overrun. They only had one way to go.
“Well, they’re a little early, but it’s not like we didn’t expect them.” He strapped the pack to his suit and drew his rifle. It wasn’t his first choice to drive around with weapons in hand and ordinarily, he wouldn’t even consider something that could be regarded as stupidly dangerous. Needs must, however, and if they were to fulfil the mission as quickly and as efficiently as possible, they needed to ensure that they put as much distance between themselves and the compound as they could. With pursuit already in place, it almost definitely meant that they might need to face a pitched battle before they got to where they needed to be.
“We’ve got this, Sal,” Kennedy said over a private comm line. “But from now on, we’ll go into radio silence.”