by Britt Ringel
“Check, check.”
“Aoife,” Danzy continued rapidly, “go find yourself a club. We’re switching from shoot their face to bash their face.”
“Chin,” Joab corrected. “Make sure you strike them on their chins.”
“On my way,” Covington said as she bolted for the nearest unlocked door.
It was a storage closet containing cleaning supplies. She searched the room quickly before deciding upon a mop handle. Using a shelf as a brace, she wedged the handle between it and the wall and yanked viciously to snap the synthetic handle into a more appropriately-sized club.
“I got something,” Covington announced as she hefted it. She wished it were heavier. Exiting the closet, she moved back to the awaiting elevator.
“Good. You and Alden will have to hide inside the elevator so the nearest guard can’t see you through the opening. When he steps in to check, you’ll knock him out.”
“What about the second guard?” Covington asked.
“Sprint, sweep and neutralize,” Joab recommended.
Covington’s voice soured. “Wait a minute. Won’t I be riddled with bullets by the time I get to him?”
“Inn?” Danzy asked.
“I can’t hack their datalinks, Kyle,” Soto admitted. “Their security is too good.”
“I sense a ‘but’ coming,” Danzy said.
Haunting electronic laughter filled Covington’s ear. “I can’t hack their datalinks to activate the safeties on their guns—”
“That’s why we don’t have safeties on our pistols, Aoife,” Joab remarked over Soto.
“But,” she continued, “I can access the disarmament protocol. Wait one second.” After a moment, Soto squealed in more triumph. “There’s the proof I like you, Aoife. I’ve also disrupted the alert beacons on their armor and muted their mics, by the way. They can call for help all they want but main security won’t hear them.”
Wills escorted Covington into the elevator. “Is the camera taken care of?”
“Paused,” Soto confirmed. “You have as long as it takes main security to figure out that their guards are standing perfectly still.” She snorted. “It might be a while; these guys looked like statues even when the feed wasn’t frozen.”
The doors closed behind Covington and she took her place to the side of the elevator. She plotted the coming melee.
“Wait,” she said, gesturing rapidly. “Switch places with me!”
“Why?” Wills asked.
“I’m right-handed. I’ll get a better swing from there.”
Covington took her new location and raised the makeshift club into position. Her hands trembled.
“Don’t rush it, Aoife,” Joab coached. “You’ll have a good two seconds before they react.” For the first time since she had met him, his voice was filled with something other than antagonism.
The elevator stopped moving. This is it, she thought as her entire body tensed.
Chapter 37
The elevator doors retracted. Covington anxiously waited for what felt like hours. Her club now weighed a hundred kilos.
Just when she was beginning to believe the guard would not search the “empty” elevator, a helmeted head entered into her field of view. The guard was much taller than she expected, forcing her to correct the angle of her swing in mid-stroke. She overestimated and the club smashed into the man’s nose with a sickening crunch.
Even with the miscalculation, the guard dropped like a ragdoll.
“Scott!” screamed a voice down the hall. “Control, Two-two is down!”
Covington sprang from around her corner and sprinted down the hallway. The second guard was no longer at the far end of the hall. He had moved forward as his counterpart had entered the elevator. His left hand pressed his communications set against his ear as his right hand leveled a daunting submachine gun.
Despite knowing the barrel’s diameter, the muzzle of the gun appeared many centimeters wider. Covington threw herself to the hallway’s left side, hoping to throw off the man’s aim. She needed only a few more seconds to reach him.
The barrel tracked her remorselessly. After a moment of sheer terror, Covington saw the man look down at his weapon and squeeze the trigger in rapid succession. The trigger depressed entirely but the gun refused to fire.
Covington shot her feet out in a slide and took the guard’s legs from underneath him. The submachine gun clattered away as the heavily armored man landed harshly onto the floor. Covington popped up in a flash and raised her club high with her right hand. Seeking the only vulnerable spot, a narrow gap between the hard, ballistics shell on her target’s head and the high, protective collar of his vest, Covington brought the club down to the back of the man’s neck. The guard reflexively covered his neck while emitting a sharp cry of pain and rolling onto his side. His face now exposed, Covington kicked hard underneath the prone man’s chin.
That’s why we wear alloy-tipped shoes, she thought cruelly in Joab’s voice. She brought her foot back for another kick but saw the man was not moving.
“Joab, we may have found your match,” Wills muttered. The handsome man was only two steps away with the submachine gun. He tossed the gun to the floor. “It wouldn’t have fired anyway.”
Covington dropped to her knees and searched for plasti-cuffs. “Okay, if Inn couldn’t hack their safeties, why didn’t this second guy cut me down?” She found what she was looking for and secured the unconscious man’s hands behind his back.
Soto’s electronic voice answered her question. “Simple. You said it yourself when you sparred against Joab. You practice tantō dori.”
“What does taking someone’s knife away have to do with this?”
“Silly,” Soto teased. “You don’t just disarm a person with a knife, do you?”
“Of course not. I trained in disarming gunmen too.”
“Exactly,” Soto agreed. “Corporate security types know that they’ll be going up against disarmament experts so a lot of them install contermeasures into their weapons. I mean, who wants to be shot with her own gun? I simply found the weapon’s A-D program and convinced it that the guard was no longer the gun’s owner. I got your back, Aoife.”
Covington smiled as she looked at Wills. He’s no combat expert yet he must’ve been running right behind me during my charge. They all have my back.
“Inn, did you make a copy of the melee with the security camera?” It was Joab.
“Naturally.”
He chuckled maniacally. “I’ll be going through that video, frame by frame, Aoife.”
Her stomach plunged. Uh-oh, no doubt critiquing my every mistake.
“She did great,” Soto insisted. “So good, in fact, that she has earned the right to proceed to the next challenge in Malatech’s dungeon of doom.” The doors to the server room opened ominously. Soto amplified her voice further and announced dramatically, “Enter, my dear heroine, if you dare!”
“There is something so wrong with you,” Joab muttered.
The server room was cold. Covington stared dumbly at row after row of impressive but foreign hardware. “What am I supposed to be doing?” she asked.
“Nothing," Wills stated, sitting in the only chair in the room. He searched the terminal on the desk while pulling out his breath mints to pop one into his mouth. “We’re ready to dock, Inn.” He looked up to Covington. “Datapad, please.”
She pulled out her datapad but said, “I thought we couldn’t dock our datapads because security would catch us.”
“She’s right,” Soto seconded. “There’s no way I can prevent these watchdogs from seeing it.”
“They’ll go into total lockdown,” Joab predicted.
“But you can’t access and download the data without a hardlink, right?” Covington said.
“Right.”
She looked up irritably at the ceiling. It was either painted a soothing blue or the lighting from the servers made it appear that way. Her eyes tracked back to Wills. “So, what are we doing
here?”
“Sacrificial Lamb?” Joab asked.
“That was the plan the whole time,” Danzy admitted. After a moment, he stated coldly, “Aoife, you’re going to have to trust us.”
“This isn’t fair!” Soto protested.
“Shut up, Crazy, or you’ll unplug with a plastic bag over your head,” Joab growled.
“Do you trust us, Aoife?” Danzy asked pointedly.
She gulped before answering. “Sure… I guess. At this point, do I really have a choice?”
Danzy ordered, “Inn, since you already have access, make the call.”
Wills held out his hand expectantly.
Covington took a breath and with it, a leap of faith. “Here.” She handed over her datapad.
Wills took it and smiled. “Preparing to dock.”
Soto’s voice was full of tension. “I’ll give Elec-Sec a run for their money but they’re going to catch me. Wish me luck.”
Unsure exactly what was happening, Covington responded anyway. “Good luck, Inn.”
“You too.” Soto took several rapid, short breaths before muttering, “This is going to hurt. Do it, Alden.”
Wills docked the instrument to the terminal. “Go, Inn.”
Three seconds later, he undocked the datapad and ran for the elevator.
Covington watched him run, mystified. A moment later, she bolted after him.
The pair reached the elevator and Wills used the manual controls to request the ground floor. The doors closed painfully slow.
“What’s happening?” Covington asked.
“Innocencia downloaded the research onto your datapad,” Wills explained. “When she did that, she attracted the attention of every security program in Malatech and right now she’s running for her virtual life.”
“Why can’t she just unplug? We have the data.” Covington felt the elevator shake as it started to move.
Wills shook his head. “She has to remain connected to give us access to this elevator and to keep the cameras blinded so we can return to the show floor unnoticed.”
“How long do we have?”
Wills shrugged. “I’ve never fully plugged in like Soto does. Not only does it require extensive cybernetic surgery but it’s dangerous as hell. You really do have to be crazy to do it.” He drummed his fingers on the elevator controls nervously. “Hellhound watchdog programs are top of the line and when they catch you, they trace your digital footsteps back to the terminal you’re plugged into and do some nasty things.”
“Like what?”
“Like send a resonant energy surge through the connection and into your body. Or just signal your body to forget about one or more surprisingly simple, yet vital, life functions.”
“My god!” Covington gaped at Wills. “When will she be able to unplug?”
“Depends on how quickly we can get to the Expo. I know Inn better than anyone else and she absolutely will not unplug until she knows we’re safe.” He casually tossed the datapad back to Covington. “Here. Protect it because we’ve risked a lot for what’s on it.”
The doors opened and the two spilled out of the elevator into the wide hallway. Heedless of the possibility of running into a roving security patrol, the duo retraced their steps back to the Expo at breakneck speed.
The return trip took far less time. The only people encountered were the chefs in the kitchen who merely watched with bemusement as the pair raced through. Back on the main floor, Covington tried to ease her ragged breath.
“Inn, we’re clear,” Wills stated calmly.
There was no answer.
“Joab,” Wills called, “how’s Inn?”
Again, there was no answer.
“We’ve lost contact with them,” Danzy stated tranquilly. “It’s time to go. The order is Aoife, myself and then Alden. Let’s move.”
Covington walked briskly toward the exit. Her heart was still racing. “Kyle, is Inn okay?”
“Keep your focus on the objective, Aoife,” Danzy answered tersely.
She left the cavernous demonstration hall and entered the smaller security vestibule leading to freedom. As she approached, her heart sank as security guards were already locking the exit doors. The hostess at the entrance moved toward her with her hands up. Her voice was congenial but it held an undertone of unremitting authority. “I am so sorry, Madame. We are having a minor security issue and we need you to return to the demonstration area, please.”
Covington stopped dead in her tracks. Behind her, Danzy lightly touched her arm and subtly pulled. “Of course, Mademoiselle.” Covington let herself be led away from freedom.
“Total lockdown,” Wills mumbled. “They won’t stop until they find what they’re looking for.”
“What now?” Covington asked once they were back inside the Expo proper.
“We move forward with the plan,” Danzy answered simply. “Malatech security will begin searching everyone in the building.”
“So...,” Covington said, expecting more.
“You’re also a social technician,” Danzy said pointedly. “Talk your way out.”
“With the datapad,” Covington stated dryly.
“It’s our ticket out of here,” Danzy replied.
Covington turned to Wills and looked at him skeptically with a growing sense of panic. “I can’t do this!” she protested. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
An ill-tempered voice replaced the music playing over the room’s audio feed. It was tersely giving instructions in French.
Wills withdrew his container of breath mints. “Begin with taking a few of these. You can’t con with bad breath.” He shook out the last three mints into her hand. “Swallow, don’t chew. And drop and crush your earbud.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the disembodied voice said in English this time, “we apologize for the inconvenience but we request each guest submit themselves to a full scan at the front of the demonstration room. If you are asked to step aside, please follow the security matron’s additional instructions. Thank you.”
Malatech security, both uniformed and plain-clothed, began herding the attendees into an orderly line.
Covington felt faint. I’m not trained for this! She thought back to the weeklong stay at the C-POE camp during her time at Alternative Warfare School. It was a terrifying and brutal experience that even now made her shiver. I was scared out of my mind back then and that was when I knew the interrogators at the corporate prisoner of espionage training camp were just actors who would let me go after a week.
“Excuse me,” Wills said with a toothy smile as he and Danzy cut in front of her in the queue. “We want to be out of the building in case they happen to discover you,” he explained.
Covington’s mouth dropped open at the audacity. When she closed it, she gritted her teeth hard.
“If you’re caught, Aoife,” Danzy whispered, “don’t say a word.” He stared intensely at her. “Not. Word. One. Got it?”
She nodded nervously.
With that meager confirmation, Danzy turned away from her and never looked back.
One by one, the attendees took their turns through security. In addition to the standard protocol each customer had submitted to upon entry, additional scanners were swept over their bodies. Datapads were methodically searched and analyzed.
Wills stepped forward for his turn, his smile ever present. How can he be so calm? Covington asked herself with growing indignation. Well, I guess it’s because his butt isn’t on the line.
Three minutes of scrutiny later, he was escorted to the growing crowd of onlookers who had passed muster.
What am I going to say? How can I stop them from searching my datapad? She subtly shifted the position of her datapad, now hidden in the small of her back. This is stupid! They’re going to catch me. She would have asked Danzy for more advice but he had been taken up to the security arch ahead of her.
Covington nervously shifted her weight between her feet and judged her chances. If I run when
they bring me to the security arch, I might make it to the doors. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. What good does that do me? The doors are unbreakable and locked.
“Madame?”
She looked up. The security matron was beckoning her forward. Danzy had passed inspection.
Covington tried to hide behind her terrified smile. She stepped underneath the security arch, which chirped immediately.
A guard frowned and pulled her forward.
Heart in her throat, she merely shrugged in fake confusion. She stretched out her arms from her sides. “I… I don’t know why it would’ve beeped,” she muttered.
A scanner ran over her, chirping loudly as dispassionate hands ran over her body. Her flinch would have given her away had the experts not already felt the datapad underneath her clothing. Covington felt her blouse being lifted from behind and a hand firmly dislodging the device.
“That’s… that’s not mine!” she asserted lamely.
“Venez avec moi.”
She stared blankly at the security guard.
“Madame, please go with Mr. Morol,” the security matron translated.
Covington could not resist the urge to look at Danzy. “But, that isn’t mine.”
Joab’s words raced through her mind. I’d never let myself be captured alive anyway; they can do a lot worse than execute you.
A firm hand wrapped around her upper arm and began to lead her away. Neither Danzy nor Wills met her desperate eyes.
Chapter 38
Aoife Covington sat in silence. After her humiliating exit from the security checkpoint, she had been led to a room without wall screens. A small table and two chairs were her only company. It reminded her of the C-POE interrogation room and that small familiarity was oddly comforting. She tried to occupy herself by fitfully counting her minutes in solitude. It was no use; her mind raced far too fast to concentrate on timekeeping.
“Not word one,” she recalled Danzy say. She already regretted her weak protest at the checkpoint. That was stupid of me, she chastised. Rule One at C-POE camp was the less you say, the less you will contradict yourself. She vowed not to repeat her mistake.