“I think she trusts you,” I admitted. “If she did this, we never would have had to make this trip. The buyer must have a bionic team.”
“That doesn’t mean the job is over,” Jennifer reminded me.
“I’m aware of that,” I said, picking up the revolver in my fingerprint free hand to examine it. “The people signing the checks need names.”
The pistol was beyond repair, but still held information. Every round in the cylinder was spent, but I had yet to see a single bullet hole in a wall or floor. Zhao’s bodyguards hadn’t even had time to draw their weapons, yet he had emptied his into one of his assailants, and then been killed before he could reload.
Logically, the buyers couldn’t have walked in wearing combat helmets, or Zhao would have been out the back door with the prototype before his attackers knew what was happening. It also wouldn’t have taken Zhao more than two shots to realize his attacker was wearing body armor under his clothes, at which point he would have changed his target to the unprotected face, which the attacker would then have to protect with a bionic arm. If my arm had taken four shots, pieces would be lying all over the floor, but there was nothing on this floor but a body and a half inch of dust.
I turned to speak to Jennifer. “Your legs are more durable than that ME-Limb garbage, right?”
“Not to brag,” she responded, “but this model is the best that’s ever been on the market.”
“So, how many bullets do you think they could take?”
Her head cocked to the side. “What kind of gun?”
I held up the one in my hand. “Snubnose forty-four.”
She took a moment, tapping a finger on her chin. “If the fire was concentrated on the thickest part of my outer thigh, two would likely smash the outer plating. A third would render the leg useless.” Her hand gestured toward her leg as she explained. “It’s not really the bullet that does the damage, per se, but the shockwave from impact, dislodging connections and possibly cracking the control chip.”
I placed the gun back where I found it. “That’s what I figured, but that means those guys came in here with military hardware.”
“Military?” In the dim light, I saw the exposed whites of her eyes. “You think the military was involved?”
“Not at all.” I stood and brushed the thick dust from my knees. “But since this kind of bionic is only issued to active service members and replaced with civilian limbs when they leave the service, that would seem to only leave one possibility.”
“You mean the manufacturer.”
I nodded. “I do indeed.”
I thanked Jason and his crew for their assistance and dismissed them. I was certain “Dr. Alexander Marshall” wasn’t the name Rossi had expected me to send to him, but it was the name of his attacker. Marshall was widely known to be a control freak, so there’s little chance he hadn’t given the order for the bomb, and the attack on my apartment.
On the way back to report the news to David Wright, Ms. Nadee called in the crime scene on Meadow Rd. Her position as a corporate investigator meant that she didn’t have to deal with all the questions, doubt, and suspicion I would have had to deal with. In fact, the last time I called the police as a witness to a crime, I spent three days in a cell before they finally just called the victim so she could clear me and confirm that I had, as I said, attempted to assist her.
Lost in my own thoughts, I hadn’t realized how close we were getting to our exit until the blue arrow in front of us changed direction. I followed Ms. Nadee’s lead, moving to the slower lanes and stepping off onto the AlterBionics entryway. Glass lobby doors slid open. A uniformed security officer exchanged a glance and nod with Ms. Nadee as we passed.
Wright rose from his desk as we stepped off the elevator, the partition already sitting open, expectantly. “You have results?” he asked.
“Worst case scenario,” Nadee answered.
“Marshall Engineering?”
“We can’t be one hundred percent certain, but it looks that way. They beat us to the buy, and killed the sellers, who were most likely the original thieves, members of the Z.A.C.”
“I see.” He went to the window, clasping artificial hands behind his back as he looked down on the city. “We haven’t lost, yet. Mr. Bell, with your knowledge of Marshall Engineering’s security protocols and systems, we can still make a go of this.”
“Sorry, sir,” I said, not letting him go any further. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
Ms. Nadee’s brow creased as she turned sharply toward me. “You know what’s at stake here. We need you.”
“No, you need a damn ninja. This is beyond what you and I can accomplish. Storming castles is outside of my job description, and frankly forbidden by my contract. I’m out.”
Ms. Nadee looked to her boss, awaiting instruction. He turned to meet her gaze, giving her a slight nod.
“Your contract is not concluded,” she continued. “Federal law allows corporate representatives to retrieve, by any means deemed necessary, any stolen corporate property. Stealing back the prototype is perfectly legal, and therefore not in violation of the contract.”
“I’m not going to force you,” Mr. Wright added. “We need your help, but if you choose to walk away now I’ll conclude your contract and you’ll receive full payment. I don’t want anyone working for me who doesn’t want to. On the other hand, if you choose to stay, I will provide any resource you might need, and additional pay for your work, but if we’re going to do this, I need to know you will be one hundred percent in.”
I didn’t want his money. What I wanted was a guarantee that I was going to make it out alive. I’ve done plenty of difficult jobs before, but not the kind that get tactical teams sent to my home. Sure, I was angry about what Marshall had done to me, both recently and in the past, but what good was my revenge if Nikie never saw me again? Yes, I was concerned about Marshall getting the prototype and establishing a full blown monopoly on the bionics industry, but it just wasn’t worth my life. When giants go to war, the smart thing is to just get the hell out of the way.
“Pay my bill, or don’t,” I said, already turning for the door. “The contract is done.”
“Jackson,” came Jennifer’s voice, but I didn’t look back.
She caught up with me as I reached the door, placing her gentle hand on my shoulder. I stepped away from her, into the elevator. As I turned to face her, big brown eyes red with stress and a lack of sleep gazed straight into me. They weren’t angry, or even confused. I knew she understood, and yet, her jaw tightened for the briefest moment before she spoke.
“Sarah Donovan,” she said.
“Damn it,” I said, looking away.
“She’s seventeen. Two years ago, her stepfather threw her out of a window. She broke two vertebrae when she hit the ground. They never healed properly, leaving her with leaking spinal fluid and severe neuropathy. For two years, she’s woken up every night, screaming from the pain. Currently, there is no medication or treatment that can help her, unless you help us.”
The fingers of my right hand squeaked against each other as my fist tightened. “God damn it.”
Chapter 17
“I need a good car mechanic,” I began, “and your best driver. Go ahead and call them now, and send them to the Westside Park junkyard. I’ll call ahead to let my aunt know they’re coming.”
“What will they need?” Wright asked, dialing his phone.
“Tools, to repair an armored transport. Ms. Nadee, I’m going to need blueprints for the Marshall Engineering building. I was only front end security back when I worked there, so my access was pretty limited.”
“On it,” she said, activating the desk’s display to begin a search through the city’s public records. “I should warn you, though, corporate building plans are rarely accurate. The city allows its top earners to have unregistered rooms for their most top secret projects.”
“That’s alright. We’ll just look for hallways that lead nowhere.”
>
I drew my phone from my pocket to call my aunt. She appreciated the heads-up, and I could hear the smile in her voice as we discussed the rest of her role in my plan. Most people only saw Aunt Lou as friendly and funny, but when it came to getting even with people who had screwed over her nephew, her mean streak started to show. After she promised to have her power armor fully charged and ready, we said our goodbyes and hung up.
“Here,” Jennifer said, enlarging the plans for the top three floors of Marshall Engineering. “If I’m looking at this right, all their little secret rooms are on the top three floors.”
I could feel my brow furrow as I looked over the floor plans. Something looked off about them. I pulled out my phone and looked up a picture of the exterior of the building. Forbes had an excellent photo, likely taken by a drone, of the building from above the Skyway. I placed my phone on the desk and brought the picture up next to floorplans.
“There,” I said, pointing to where the building tapered toward the top. “The top ten floors get smaller every other floor. There’s only about a foot difference each time it shrinks, but look at the blueprints.”
“On the plans, the top floor is smaller than all the rest.”
“There’s an entire floor missing from the plans, either the ninety-ninth or one hundredth, the top or second to top floor.”
“That sounds like the right place.”
“That’s forty-nine floors above the Skyway,” I said. “How the hell are we going to get up there? Or in there?”
“Well, I’m not seeing any conveniently human sized air ducts,” she joked, “so either we can try sneaking in with stolen uniforms…”
“Which would never work due to how many people there know my face.”
“So, that leaves breaching.”
“Okay, then we’ll just climb up the side of the building, King Kong style, wearing oxygen tanks so we don’t pass out, while we just hope that no one sees us out the windows and no police drones pass by.” I wasn’t entirely sure how sarcastically I meant that.
“Solid plan, but dropping in from above would probably be easier.”
“Company jet?” I asked.
“A jet would be too fast, but we have something that can do the job. I’m more concerned about the army of bionically enhanced security that’s going to be down our throats the minute we’re inside the building.”
“Well, the good news is that only their top security have those military grade bionics. The rest are all one hundred percent meat and bones, because, ironically, Dr. Marshall believes the bionically enhanced intimidate the public at large. I already have something in the works to distract them. The bad news, of course, is that they probably keep those heavy hitters outside their hidden rooms on the upper floor.”
“Probably?”
“As I said, I was front end security. It was kind of an open secret that those guys existed, but they were never seen. It was always assumed they were assigned to the top floors, where there’s no security cameras. Only called down when there was a situation you couldn’t carry guns into.”
“We’re risking our lives on rumors,” she remarked.
“I’m aware of that, but it’s the best plan we have so far. We use a distraction to pull away most of the security force. Then, we crash in from above and sweep the top few floors for the prototype. But once we have it, how do we get out?”
“You said those high end security guys are never seen coming or going?” I stared at her blankly, so she continued. “They must have a way up and down, some way that security can’t see them.”
“The executive elevator.”
“Exactly.” She brought up the plan for the top floor, pointing to the small square denoting the elevator shaft. “It goes from the top floor to the Skyway.”
“So we’re going to carry a re-stolen prototype out of one of the most prestigious companies in the world, onto the populated Skyway, and just play it cool?”
“We’ll need to cover our exit. Maybe we could sabotage the elevator after we exit.”
“That elevator isn’t moving without an executive I.D. We’re already going to be jumping down the shaft and hoping they don’t have some sort of laser death ray grid to prevent just that. Short of planting a bomb, I don’t…”
My voice trailed off as I realized the simplicity of the idea. I, personally, had no experience with explosives, but I knew people who knew people, and at least one of those persons had a score to settle. After running the idea past Jennifer and Mr. Wright, I took my phone from the desk and dialed Rossi’s number.
Two hours later, we were two blocks north of the AlterBionics building. Street level travel was slow, but some meetings have to be in person. Aunt Lou was the first of our distraction team that I saw. She was already suited up in her liquid cooled undergarment, though little of it showed from under the brown wool coat and black boots she wore to fend off the October breeze. Climbing down out of the back of a rough looking armored transport, she wrapped her arms around me and planted a kiss on my cheek.
“That mechanic you sent over did a decent job,” she said. “I’ve never seen a vehicle so damaged up and running so quick.”
“Wright seems to know how to get things done,” I responded.
“Oh?” she said with a wry smile, “you’ll have to introduce us later.”
Choosing to ignore the possible implications of that, I said, “Are we clear on the plan?”
“Very clear, and very eager. Power armor’s in the truck.” She nodded to the hefty mass under a black tarp in the back compartment. “I’m looking forward to this.”
“I appreciate you volunteering for this, but I don’t want you in danger. The minute things heat up you drop everything and get gone.”
Around the front of the vehicle, I could hear Jason and his crew discussing a driving route. At the city center there wouldn’t be much traffic, but the efficiency of the route was still paramount. With random drone patrols scanning the area, there was a risk that the authorities might get alerted to our plan before everything was in place. If that happened, we’d all be lucky to see the inside of a prison cell. When Jason noticed Jennifer and I at the back of the vehicle, he stepped away from his discussion to retrieve something from the front seat of the vehicle.
“Mr. Rossi called the best baker in the city to whip this up for you,” he said, placing a pink cake box in my hands. “Appropriately, it should feed about two floors.” He held eye contact as he leaned in. “But don’t open it until you’re ready to eat.”
“I understand,” I responded. “This is going to be one hell of a party.”
Jason slapped me on the shoulder. “It sure is, Jack, and don’t worry about Lou. We’ll take care of her.”
Aunt Lou backhanded him in the stomach and laughed at his wince, saying, “We’ll see who takes care of who, kiddo.”
I gave my aunt another hug before she and the crew loaded up in the armored vehicle to start their work. I carried the cake box in my left hand with gentle pressure as we made our way back to the AlterBionics elevator. I didn’t want to risk the lack of sensitivity in my right hand causing a small but fatal mistake.
“We really didn’t have to involve your aunt,” Jennifer said, scanning her I.D. to open the door. “She has a lot to lose in this.”
“My original plan was to get Wright’s driver to just slam the truck into the Marshall Engineering tower, but Louise’s idea was better.” I clenched my teeth briefly as the elevator activated, rattling something inside the cake box. “I think she’s more angry about how they treated me than I am, and she doesn’t really take ‘no’ for an answer.”
“I’m getting that impression. Still, someone else could have worn the suit.”
“It takes a while to get used to how power armor moves. Somebody else could have done it, but they would have been slow. That could screw the whole plan and possibly endanger the rest of the team. She wanted to do this, and I’m not going to argue with her about it. She’ll do the job, and
she’ll get out safely.”
We stopped on the level with the security officer’s lockers. “I didn’t mean to suggest she wasn’t up to the task.”
“Other than Nikie, she’s the only family I have left. I’m worried about her, too.”
She pressed her thumb to the locker’s pad, popping the door open. Getting back to the task at hand, she said, “We’ll only be going about four hundred meters up, so oxygen won’t be a problem, but wind will be.” She handed me four woven elastic bands. “Like the setae some animals have, these use million of tiny little artificial hairs micro-woven into the material to increase Van der Waals forces and improve traction. Basically, they can magnetize to any material on a molecular level. Put them on your hands and feet and you should be able to climb like a gecko. They only work in one direction, so make sure you’re wearing them right.” I resisted the urge to hum the Spider-man theme as she drew out a small box with two ear pieces inside. “These are equipped with long range pirate scanners,” she said, passing one to me. “Marshall Engineering’s security recently upgraded to use encrypted frequencies. These should be able to decrypt the signal while keeping us in touch with Jason’s crew.” Next, she drew out a pistol. “I think you should take a firearm. This is probably going to turn into a fight.”
“I understand that, but frankly I’d be more dangerous to you than them.”
“Suit yourself,” she said, sliding the weapon back into the small weapons safe. “Is there anything else I might be able to interest you in?”
“Combat armor would be nice.”
“I’m afraid we don’t carry that, and it would take at least a week to get a set delivered.”
“How about tear gas? Have we got any protection for that?”
“That’s a good point.” She turned to the locker again, rummaging around the back until she finally pulled out two small devices made of rubber and glass. “Here we are.”
She pressed a small button on the side of one. The goggles flipped out and the mouthpiece extended downward. A small digital display in the left eyepiece showed that the air filter was at one hundred percent. She handed the unopened one to me and refolded the other.
Under the Skyway (Skyway Series Book 1) Page 13