Infiltrator

by Bob Blink

  "Code?" Fred asked, already intrigued. The risks didn't seem to worry him.

  "I can explain when we meet. Do you still visit that nudie bar that you dragged me to?"

  "Nah. It got a bit rough even for my taste. I have a new place I go to."

  "Well, tonight, go to the old place, and make certain you aren't followed. I'll meet you there if you are clear and explain what's going on and give you a thumb drive with the code I need looked at."

  "What time?" Fred asked.

  "How about around eight?"

  "See you there," Fred said, and had hung up the phone. Mark had hoped to say something more to Tammy, but decided Fred's ending the call might be for the best.

  Jessie had also made a call to a friend ay her office. She was being sought as well, although her boss was inclined to doubt the FBI's claims and wished to talk with her about what was behind the Bureau's motivation. He'd passed the word that anyone who spoke with her was to alert her to his wish to speak with her. Her friend indicated he would forget she had called, but advised her to consider checking in.

  "How much farther?" Mark asked, breaking away from his daydreaming, wondering how she'd ever located this place.

  "Two more blocks. On the right up ahead," she added pointing toward a rundown building that advertised self-storage units.

  Wondering if this was going to work out, he turned into the litter strewn driveway, and following more of Jessie's directions after punching a code into a access gate, worked his way around toward the back of the complex.

  "That one," she said suddenly.

  Mark pulled to a stop just short of the unit Jessie had indicated, and looked around. There was no one else around.

  Jessie was already out and working the combination locks that secure the solid metal door. There was also a large rollup door, but Mark could see that had to be opened from the inside.

  Once the three sturdy locks had been removed, they went inside, Jessie flipping on a light switch as they stepped into the darkness. Mark had somehow expected a room filled with chests of supplies or some such, but instead the room was empty other than a somewhat battered, decade old Jeep and three medium sized chests against the back wall.

  "We're switching vehicles?" Mark asked upon seeing the car.

  "I think it would be a good idea," she replied. "With both of us on the FBI's wanted list, I'm certain both of our daily vehicles are on the police watch lists. No one will be looking for this one."

  She'd opened the trunk and had worked a hidden combination that allowed a large pull-out drawer to be accessed under the floor of the storage area in the back of the Jeep. She extracted a pair of rifle cases and set them aside, along with a pair of thin thirty caliber ammo cans that Mark assumed contained cartridges for whatever weapons were inside the cases. There were boxes of .40 S&W and 9mm inside of a padded partition on either side of the drawer, but nothing in .45 auto that would work in his Kimber.

  Jessie lifted out a thin attaché case and thumbed the combination, opening the case. Mark could see several passports and other documents, grouped inside several zip lock bags. There was also a great deal of cash. She grabbed a couple of packets, one much thicker than the other and handed them to Mark.

  "Put those in your pockets," she directed, as she grabbed another pair for herself, slipping them into the inside pockets of her jacket.

  Mark noted there was considerably more cash still in the case that she locked closed and set it on top of the two rifle cases on the floor. He saw that one packet was worn hundreds, he figured about ten thousand dollars worth, and the other, thicker packet held worn twenties. Maybe another five thousand dollars, he guessed. Since she'd pocketed about the same amount, they probably had thirty grand working capital.

  Grabbing a packet that contained a couple more of the cheap phones that she seemed to have in abundance, she pushed the drawer closed.

  "Get in and start her up," she directed, "but first let me prime the engine."

  As Mark climbed into the driver's position, Jessie sprayed something into the engine, put a part back in place and screwed it tight. She removed the wires from a charger that had been keeping the car's battery charged. Lowering the hood, she signaled him to give it a try. Mark turned the key that was already in the ignition. Much to his surprise the Jeep started right up. Jessie grinned and signalled him to drive it out of the unit.

  "Leave it running while I back your Explorer inside," she said.

  Once the Ford was inside, she started tossing the items she'd removed from the Jeep into the back of his SUV.

  "You plan on leaving that behind?" he asked, surprised as she tossed the attaché case with the rest of the cases into his car. "You think it's safe here?"

  "Has been for the several years it's been here. I figure the odds are greater we have to ditch the Jeep at some point, and this way we still have a reserve stash handy in time of need."

  Something told Mark that this wasn't the only such place the woman had set aside, but he shrugged, helped get the rest of the gear into the back of his car, then closed it up. A few minutes later, the unit all locked up once again, they drove away in the Jeep.

  "What now?" he asked.

  "We have a few hours. "Let's find a Walmart and do some shopping."

  They were waiting well ahead of the planned meeting time near the Hotung International Law Center of the Georgetown University, not too far from Union Station. The flow of students moving between the buildings provided good cover for them as they waited for the others.

  Glen was the first to arrive. Tall, straight, and moving with the ease of a former athlete, he covered ground smoothly and effortlessly. They intercepted him halfway across the grassy expanse leading toward the Law Center.

  "Okay, what's this about the FBI looking for us?" he asked. "It sounds like it might be time to reassess our plans with regards to this whole thing."

  "Are they looking for you now?" Mark asked.

  "I honestly don't know. I didn't want to call anyone, that way I wouldn't be guilty of disobeying any orders I might be given.

  Jessie handed him a new phone, one of those she and Mark had just acquired and activated.

  "I assume you've ditched the other one?" she asked. "You came by Metro?"

  "As instructed, but I'm not sure I want to do this any more," he said forcefully. "Are the Feds looking for you two?"

  Both Mark and Jessie nodded.

  "Let's wait for the others to get here, then we can discuss our options," Mark suggested. He could see Stephanie approaching in the distance. That just left Jerry.

  "Hi guys," Stephanie said as she walked over to the small group. Is this it?"

  "We're still waiting on Jerry," Jessie explained. "We've had no luck contacting Monica since she deliberately went off line yesterday."

  "Who gets this?" Steph asked, holding out a thumb drive that presumably had the software from the phone.

  "I'll take it," Mark said. "I'll be meeting someone later today who hopefully can make some sense of it."

  "It's got the code from my phone as well as the official code for the last three update versions for that model," she explained as she dropped it into Mark's hand. "I really hope your tech can find some answers. This whole situation is starting to spook me, and I don't see how I can go back to work if the FBI is going to be waiting for me. I also don't see myself functioning well on the run."

  She said the last with a grin, but Mark sensed she wasn't comfortable with the idea of being on a wanted list. Well, neither was he.

  Glen tapped Mark's shoulder and pointed toward a figure headed their way. Jerry was coming out of a pathway through the trees. It wasn't the direction Mark would have suspected, and he guessed correctly that Jerry had been waiting and watching before showing himself.

  "I'm here," he said as he approached. "Now what do we do?"

  "There are some benches over that way," Jessie said. "Let's go and have a discussion about what we know."

  "I thought you sa
id Monica wasn't coming," Steph said as Jessie turned to set off.

  "They all looked where Steph was focused, and spotted a familiar figure approaching in the distance.

  "How could she know?" Mark asked no one in particular. "She knew about this location, but we never were able to contact her to tell her we had planned a meet, nor give her the time."

  "Well, somehow she found out," Jerry said, walking toward the approaching figure.

  "Wait!" Jessie commanded sharply, and Jerry stopped, some twenty feet away from the rest of the group. She was also trying to understand how the engineer could have learned of their meeting, and was scanning the surrounding area to see if there was anyone else approaching. Other than a large number of students who were exiting the building at the end of their class sessions, there was no one.

  Monica looked much as she had the last time they had seen her, and appeared to be carrying a large shopping bag. She waved at the group as though everything was normal, and smiled, although something about the smile appeared forced. Mark was decidedly uncomfortable with her unexpected appearance, and wished he could see her eyes more clearly. Eyes told one a lot.

  Monica was still more than fifty feet away from Jerry when she suddenly reached into the bag and pulled out an oddly shaped device. It seemed to fit into he hand quite naturally, and four oddly shaped cones stuck out the front of the thing, which she pointed at Jerry. Almost immediately a bright flash erupted from the object, striking Jerry in the chest. Glen expected the man to collapse, but instead he simply glowed momentarily, and vanished!

  "What the hell?" Glen swore.

  "The sharp crack from Mark's Kimber split the air, causing Monica to jerk back as his bullet struck her in the center of the chest. She'd been in the process of turning the device, weapon, whatever it was, toward Glen when Mark fired. A second shot followed almost immediately, this one striking the strange object in the woman's faltering hand. Jessie's shot was only seconds behind Mark's, and she had chosen as a target the object that had been used on Jerry. Mark was already on the move toward the woman, who was down and still twitching on the ground. He'd have liked to have fired a double tap, but that was something he'd never mastered, usually causing all his shots to miss, so he'd gone with the one aimed shot. Seeing she was still alive and uncertain whether the strange weapon that she still clutched was a threat, he took aim and fired a second shot. That ended all movement.

  "Good reactions," Jessie complimented Mark. "I guess I was still trying to figure out how she got here. Why the head shot at the end?"

  "I was close enough, and that was the more certain shot. I also didn't want her to vanish like Johnson. I guess I figured that hitting her there would be more likely to prevent that."

  "What is that thing?" Stephanie asked, pointing toward the twisted hunk of hardware that lay on the ground next to the body. What did it do to Jerry?"

  "I have no idea," Mark admitted, as he looked around. "We have to move. There are a lot of witnesses and I can see people on their phones. If we weren't wanted before, we're certainly on the police and Feds lists now. They are going to get some very good descriptions of all of us from this group."

  "Do we bring that thing, or leave it," Steph asked.

  "Leave it," Jessie directed. "I'm not certain what it does, or whether it can be used to track us. Let's go, now!"

  Mark led the way to where he had parked the Jeep, the others close behind as the distant sound of sirens could already be heard.

  Chapter 17

  "What the hell was that about?" Glen asked heatedly. "Why did you have to shoot her?"

  There hadn't been time to talk as they'd made a run for the car. Now they were crowded into the Jeep and Mark was speeding away from the University. They hadn't decided just where they were going, and Glen was clearly pissed about what had happened.

  "I saw at least a dozen students with their phones out taking video," he added. "We are going to be primetime news tonight. If the Feds weren't after us before, we are definitely going to be the center of their attention now. Any chance we might have had of telling our side of this thing is long passed."

  "Do you want me to let you out here?" Mark asked, more than a bit annoyed.

  Clearly Glen had no answer to Mark's question.

  "What was Monica doing there?" Jessie asked.

  "She was one of us," Glen protested.

  "We've been out of touch with her for almost a day. She wasn't told about the meeting because we couldn't reach her, so how did she find out?" Jessie pointed out. "Something is going on that we don't understand. I'd really like to know where she has been the past twenty-four hours."

  "Didn't you see what Monica did to Jerry?" Steph asked Glen. "Whatever that thing she had was, she was taking aim at you when Mark popped her. If he hadn't, you would be vanished as well."

  "I didn't see what happened," Glen admitted. "I just realized Jerry wasn't with us after Mark and Jessie shot Monica. "She made Jerry disappear, like Johnson did that night?"

  "Not the same," Steph replied. "But when she hit him with that light beam he simply vanished. We should have brought that thing with us," she added. "It might have been proof of what we've been experiencing."

  "I shot it and could see that the bullet damaged it," Jessie said. "I'd be afraid it might allow whoever is doing this to track us, or they might be able to trigger it in some unpleasant manner if we had it in our possession."

  "Who has technology like that?" Glen asked.

  "No one," Mark said simply. "I've never seen or heard of anything like that outside of the movies."

  "I think you're right," Steph said. "But what does that imply? The logical conclusion is even more far out. I'm not ready to accept that just yet."

  "Maybe Pam was right and we should have gone to the cops in the beginning," Glen said, a bit subdued, not liking where the conversation was going.

  "You might recall Johnson said something that biased our thinking against doing that," Jessie said.

  "Yeah, well I don't feel quite so strongly against doing so any longer," Glen replied. "Not that we are in a position to do so any longer."

  "It does feel like the suggestion has worn off," Steph agreed. "It's as though without reinforcement, the reluctance has faded."

  "Maybe if we'd gone back to our normal lives, the matter would have been overcome by events," Jessie suggested. "Then again, if we'd been carrying those doctored phones, some kind of reinforcement might have come from them."

  "You might have noticed that there are only four of us left," Steph added. "Pam and Monica are dead, and who knows what has happened to Jerry."

  "Four and a half," Mark argued. "There's still someone who may or may not be Johnson out there."

  "I'd like to get him alone somewhere and really have a question and answer session with him," Jessie said.

  "Feds probably have him in custody already anyway," Glen mused.

  "This is all fascinating, but we have the small matter right now of where are we headed?" Mark pointed out. "Until we figure out what our next moves are, we need a place to stay out of sight. I don't think checking into any hotels is going to be practical. All our faces are going to be on every news channel before much longer. Any ideas, Jessie?" Mark was used to the Homeland Agent being ready with an answer all the time. He was circling counterclockwise on the Beltway, but it wasn't something they could continue doing much longer. No one had the license number to the Jeep, unless someone had spotted them getting into it, but they'd have to stop for gas sooner or later and then they'd be exposed.

  "All my assets and contacts are going to be compromised," she admitted. "My boss would want to hear me out before allowing the Feds access, but he would be insistent that I come in immediately. That doesn't seem like a good plan."

  "Turn west on Highway 66," Glen directed from the back seat.

  "What are you suggesting?" Jessie asked.

  "I have a friend with a cabin out in the hills," Glen replied. "It'll be empty this time of y
ear, but has supplies and is out of the way. We'll turn south at the 81 intersection and head toward Maurertown. It's outside the town there. About an hour and a half away."

  Mark glanced at the next freeway sign and saw that the 66 exit was about eight miles ahead.

  "Maurertown it is," he said.

  "I'm going to need to contact Fred," Mark said. "I arranged to meet him tonight to pass along Stephanie's code for him to look at."

  "I suggest you simply mail it to him with an explanation," Jessie said. "Any type of contact at this point could point people toward us."

  Two hours later they pulled up to a tired looking structure mostly hidden by tall trees. The nearest other structure was almost a mile away up the road, and had looked empty as they drove past. The five inch layer of snow that covered the gravel road hadn't been disturbed, which further convinced them they were alone in the area. They hadn't stopped for supplies. Glen assured them there was everything they would need at the cabin, including several cans of gasoline they could use to fill the Jeep.

  Shortly after transitioning to Highway 66, Mark had pulled off, and mailed the thumb drive with a brief explanation of what it might contain to Fred. It had cost a considerable sum, but the package would be expedited and would get to Fred today, hopefully before he set off for the strip joint to wait for Mark.

  After pulling into the snow covered driveway, Glen had been first out. He reached up into a nitch in the wooden beams and retrieved a key that would let them in.

  "We'll have to get the fire going," he said, "but Frank keeps a good supply of wood on hand. It'll be cold until the fire has a chance to warm things up."

  Now, as they examined the small cabin, it was clear they would be existing on old canned goods, and some of them sleeping on the floor. There were only two small beds, but a goodly supply of blankets.

  "We made the news," Steph said, as the others returned from outside. She'd turned on the small television after getting the gasoline generator started to provide power, and caught the police bulletin of the incident at the University.