It took longer than expected to round up most of the suspects. Lydia recruited Jando to help, but Arthur recalled Sylvia and the teenagers before they had even half of them. One guard was escorting Barrett, who smoked nonstop and muttered under her breath about how ridiculous the suspicion on her was. Several guards and personnel were unaccounted for, as were Harper and Morella. Brentle had locked himself in his office, and they had radioed for someone to break down the door.
“Find Harper and Morella. I want them here now,” Sylvia ordered a guard as she left.
At least fifteen volunteers had been recruited and were issued weapons in the Center. Scores of personnel and BEPs were escorted out of the Center and to waiting vehicles by the fake wall at the end of the landing strip outside. Lydia searched for any sign of people she knew among those waiting to leave, but she didn’t see any. Some BEPs refused to leave, wanting to stand and fight. Several escaped the guards and a few younger ones refused to budge, thinking the whole situation was a game, and had to be caught and dragged to the cars.
Lydia and the others returned to the ready room, where Arthur leaned over a computer and pointed at the screen. “We have a convoy outside the Cave,” he said as several moving red dots trailed along the screen. “Short-range radar picked them up a few minutes ago.”
“Whyte?” Lydia asked.
“It has to be, but how does he know which mountain?” he asked. “How could he find us? We’ve checked the phones. No recent calls in or out.”
“How come the radar only now picked their exact location?” Aidan asked. “I thought you said Heather was being tracked. Shouldn’t we have seen her movements?”
“The tracking pill only works for a few hours,” Arthur said. He asked the technician to pull up another window. “We already checked it twenty minutes ago, and it had worn off. See?” However, he paused as a tiny dot showed up on the center of the map screen, blinking at a steady pace.
“That’s inside the Cave,” Sylvia whispered.
Arthur rounded on two security guards and Sylvia. “Get down there now. You,” he said, turning to the technician, “track that signal. Where’s it coming from?”
“First floor, sir,” he said.
Sylvia grabbed a couple of walkie-talkies and tossed one to Arthur. Lydia and the boys followed after her. They ran down a set of emergency stairs, setting off another alarm to mix with the droning emergency message repeating through the intercom. “Where is it, Arthur?” Sylvia asked.
“Looks like it’s coming from the kennels. Is that right? The kennels?” There was white noise for a moment, then he said, “Yeah, that’s where.”
“Why there?” Jando asked. Lydia shook her head and ran faster. Within minutes, they reached the kennels. Sylvia hooked the walkie-talkie to her belt and slipped her good hand in her glove. She drew her pistol, positioned the guards around the door, and counted to three. On three, the guards burst in first with rifles drawn. Sylvia aimed her pistol forward and the teenagers waited outside.
“I don’t see anyone,” Sylvia said. The dogs barked and growled nonstop, challenging the armed intruders. Several cats hissed as they passed by. “Where is it?”
“Should be on your right,” he said. They were a third of the way inside. “Stop. Turn to your right.” She aimed her pistol at an empty cage on the top row, and then the bottom row. She holstered her gun, unlocked the cage, and reached in, pulling out a small, excitable dog.
“Petey?” Lydia asked. The dachshund barked and licked Sylvia’s neck.
“Arthur, it’s a puppy,” she said. “Someone fed the puppy a pill.”
Arthur cursed and yelled at someone on the other end. “Where’s the report from this morning about the transfer?” Silence. “Were there any missing pills? You’re not sure? Then go find out and make sure.”
A guard’s call interrupted Arthur’s end. “I have a man down near the laboratories. Need assistance. Over.”
Another guard came in on the line. “Two men down by the restrooms. One’s still alive, barely. Need an EMT. Witness say the shooter fled outside. Over.”
Loud alarms blared through the facility, building into a constant shrill, and a third person interrupted on Arthur’s end. All the ringing noise pierced Lydia’s brain, and a fierce migraine pounded her skull like a drill. “Mr. Stafe!” a distant voice called. “On the screen!”
“What is it?” Arthur asked.
The voice grew louder. “Someone’s opening the Cave doors!”
Ice ran through Lydia’s spine and Sylvia dropped Petey. He kept bounding up to everyone, barking for attention and running in circles. “What?” Arthur asked.
“The Cave doors are open!”
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Rogues of Overwatch Page 63