Alex again squinted up at the windowed brick building in front of them. It stood ten stories high and had a great deal of glass. The building itself was dark, since it was just after two in the morning, but the front was bathed in security lighting. Just inside the large transparent front door, he could make out a good-sized desk and, sitting behind it, a uniformed guard. The three of them were hidden some distance away in the darkness and could not be seen by the guard.
Doug jerked a hand to the left and pointed to a corner of the building as he looked at Emily and Alex. He then moved off to the right.
Emily tugged gently at Alex’s arm, then moved off quietly. Alex followed.
They crouched down next to the building in the shadows and waited. It wasn’t long and everything went dark. And man, it was dark. They had chosen a perfect night. There was a low marine overcast that blocked out the stars and moon. Oscar blacked out their part of Cambridge, but in the distance, over the Charles River, they could see the glow of Boston lighting up the bottoms of the clouds. Where they were, it was like being deep inside a cave.
“Lights on,” came Doug’s voice over the headset.
Alex put a pair of ultraviolet glasses over his eyes and switched on the UV lamp attached to his headband. The darkness flashed away and was replaced with a surreal world bathed in a green glow. Very cool, even if a bit weird. Man, he sure could have used these in high school. His imagination wanted to take him places he hadn’t been in a very long time.
Inside the building, a light flashed on and waved about the lobby.
“Get ready,” said Doug.
In a few seconds, the guard stepped outside through the front door. He held a cell phone to his ear with one hand and a large flashlight in the other. “Yes, sir,” he said. “I’m outside now, but I don’t see a thing.” He walked toward the curb, shining his light up and down the street. “Are you sure it’s here? Look, we’ve had a power outage. I can’t be out here looking for a cat just now.” He took a few steps toward the right and swung the light around. “Yes, sir, I do like my job and I want to keep it. But I can’t leave my post right now.” He moved off down the street a short distance. “Okay, okay, I’ll look for five minutes and that’s all. But I’m not going to leave the front of the building.” He turned the light back toward the front door. He put the phone down to his waist. “I can’t believe this asshole wants me to look for a damn cat. Shit!” The light went back to the sidewalk and the surrounding bushes. “Here, kitty, kitty.”
“Clear left,” whispered Emily.
“Clear right,” whispered Doug. “Move! Now!”
Alex and Emily moved quickly toward the front door and met up with Doug. Doug reached out with a key card Oscar had given him and unlocked the door with a soft click. Alex nervously looked down the street toward where the guard was, the light still weaving back and forth and moving away from them. Doug swung open the door and Emily and Alex went inside. Closing the door behind him, Doug moved past them. “Thank you, Oscar,” said Doug.
“I’m impressed,” said Richard over the radio. “I’d be out looking for a cat too if Oscar pressed me to. You guys inside?”
“We’re in. Oscar can let the guard go.” To Alex and Emily, Doug said, “Follow me.”
They moved deeper inside, past the large desk and toward the elevators. “This way,” said Doug as he veered off to the left. They went through a door and found themselves in a stairwell. “Third floor.” Doug was climbing the stairs two at a time.
Outside of apartment 302, they paused, while Doug probed the door lock with his picks. “At least we don’t have to worry about an alarm.” There was a click and the door opened. “We’re in the apartment,” said Doug. The three of them stepped inside.
“Roger,” said the radio in Richard’s voice. A second later, “Oscar’s off the phone with the guard.”
Todd’s condo was definitely upscale - plush carpet in the entry way, rich-looking paintings on the walls, leather furniture in front of large plate glass windows beyond. Everything looked tidy and clean. “Doesn’t have much of a ‘lived-in’ look to it, does it?” remarked Emily. “Not very homey.”
“With all the projects he has going, he’s probably lucky to have enough time to sleep here,” said Alex. He moved around the living room, taking in as much as he could. “There’s not even a newspaper lying around. Sofa looks like it’s brand new. Maybe he just uses the apartment for storage of his personal things.” They took a few moments, looking behind pictures and into drawers. Nothing.
“Let’s try the other rooms,” said Doug.
“I’m going to check out the bedroom,” said Emily.
Doug moved down a hallway to the right as Emily went up a staircase to the left. He opened a door and looked inside. Turning to Alex, he said, “Study.”
The two of them went inside. A flat computer screen sat atop a large oak desk. Doug moved over to it and began opening drawers. “Check this stuff out,” he said to Alex, nodding toward the drawers. Beside the desk was a file cabinet which he unlocked as well. He then bent down and opened a door on one side of the desk. Behind it was the computer connected to the screen above. Doug pulled the computer out and began pulling off its outer casing and digging into the innards. “How’re you doing upstairs, Emily?”
“Not much up here. I’m taking a few pictures, but I’m not finding anything much that’s interesting.”
“Don’t forget to look for a journal, appointment book, diary or anything like that,” said Richard.
Alex took a small camera out of his pocket and took the contents from the first drawer. The camera was sensitive to UV, so the light of its built-in UV flash wouldn’t be visible. He began sorting through anything that might be of interest. There were a few bills, letters from colleagues, and a couple of larger manuscripts. One letter in particular was addressed to Todd from “Dr. Raj Srivastava.” He began reading it.
“You have to move faster than that,” said Doug. “We don’t have much time.”
“Right,” said Alex as he dropped the letter and photographed it. He sorted through the pile as best he could and photographed anything that looked remotely interesting. The manuscripts were too large, so he photographed the front, what appeared to be an abstract, and the first and last sections. He remembered being told when writing a professional article: “First, you tell them what you’re going to tell them, then you tell them, finally, you tell them what you told them.” He hoped what he photographed would be enough.
The file drawer in the desk and the filing cabinet behind the desk were more daunting. This guy really produced a lot of paper! He went through the tabs on the files and tried his best to select out anything relevant. One file in particular, he paid a lot of attention to. It was marked “Survivors.” As quickly as he could, he photographed everything in it, not taking the time to look too closely. Two other files caught his attention. One marked, “Cellular Membrane Transport,” and the other, “Virulence Factors.” He sorted through them as best he could and thought he got most of the salient information. The rest – well, he hoped he hadn’t missed anything vital. He was careful to replace everything so it would appear as if it had never been touched.
“Alex, you about done?” asked Doug. He had moved around to the wall on the left side of the desk. The computer had been replaced.
“I guess I have as much as I can hope to, with the limited time we have.”
“Good, come over here. I’ve found a safe.”
Alex went over behind Doug and watched over his shoulder. Doug swung a hinged picture out of the way, revealing a combination safe behind it. He put a suction cup device on the door of the safe next to the dial. “Oscar, you back on the radio?”
“Yeah, go ahead, but you only have ten minutes left, you know,” came the reply. “Turn right.”
Doug spun the dial to the right.
“Okay, go left.”
This continued until Oscar said, “The combination is right three turns to 24 – left
two turns to12 – right one turn to 2 – then left to 34.”
Doug did as instructed and pulled the safe door open.
“Wow, is nothing safe?” asked Alex.
“If it can be opened, it can be opened,” said Oscar with an obvious tone of pride.
Doug reached in and handed Alex a pile of paper. Alex set it on the floor and began photographing with the idea that if it was important enough to be put in a safe, it was important enough to photograph.
“How’re you doing, Emily?” asked Doug.
“Bedroom had nothing. I’m checking out the rest of the house now. I don’t think a woman has been in here for years, if ever. It has as much warmth as a walk-in freezer. Very stark, down to business.”
“Alex, you have one more minute, then whatever you’ve got, that’s it. We need time to get out. Emily, wait for us in the living room.”
Alex flipped pages and snapped pictures as quickly as he could.
“Okay,” said Doug. “That’s it. We gotta go.”
“I have only about ten more pages. It’ll take me only another minute.”
“Now,” said Doug and reached down for what had already been photographed.
Finally, Alex took the last picture and handed the rest of the paper to Doug. Doug arranged them in their original order, placed everything back in the safe, and closed the door, spinning the dial. He then moved the picture back into place and pushed Alex out the door. He took one look around before stepping out himself. “Everything is as it was. I don’t think Todd will know we were here. Let’s get out of here.”
Emily was waiting for them in the living room. “Did you get anything interesting?” she asked.
“Yeah. More like information overload. I think there are some real nuggets in what we got, though,” said Alex.
They moved over toward the front door and stopped short. A light shone under the door. Its brightness wavered as they watched.
“The guard,” whispered Doug. “Stay quiet. He’s probably just checking the halls in the black-out.”
“The clock’s ticking,” said Oscar over the radio. “You have about three minutes.”
Alex’s heart began pounding in his chest. Had it taken longer than that to get in here from outside?
Finally, the light faded and Doug risked opening the door a crack. “He’s moving to the stairwell. Let’s go.”
The three of them silently went into the hall after the guard disappeared. Emily went ahead and peaked through the window in the door to the stairwell as Doug closed and locked Todd’s door behind them. “He’s going upstairs,” said Emily.
Alex’s heart was beating so hard, he was sure the guard could hear it, even though they had given him enough time to get well away. Sweat began running down his cheeks from under the UV goggles. He put the camera back in his pocket. His palms were so moist, they were beginning to soak his gloves. He tried to swallow, but he didn’t have enough saliva.
“We’ve run out of time,” said Doug. “Let’s go down the stairs to the garage. When the lights come on, we can hide in the shadows and between the parked cars and figure out what to do next.” He moved quickly to the stairwell, Alex and Emily close behind.
They opened the door to the garage just as the lights came back on. The brightness was staggering through the UV glasses. Alex tore his off and restrained an urge to utter something loud. Without the glasses, the garage was dimly lit.
“This way, quick!” said Doug. “We have a few seconds while the system reboots before the cameras come on.” He looked around the garage. “There,” he said, pointing to a corner by the garage door. “We can hide there for now.”
The three of them ran, crouching between parked cars and settled in a corner on the hard cement. “Now what?” asked Alex, breathing hard.
“We wait,” said Doug.
. . .
“Wake up!” whispered Emily as she shook Alex’s shoulder.
It took Alex a few seconds to orient himself to where he was. The cement under him was hard, as was the wall he had been leaning his head against. His neck was stiff and he had a cramp in his left leg. “How long have I been asleep?” he asked.
“About an hour,” she said. “How can you sleep?”
“A well-honed talent developed in medical school, then polished to perfection in residency,” he replied. He was still groggy. “‘Never pass up a chance to sleep, go to the bathroom whenever you can, and don’t forget to eat.’ Resident’s motto.”
“Well, I’m impressed.” She pointed over toward the door they came through earlier. “Someone just entered the garage.” A man was approaching a car over to their left.
Alex looked at his watch. It was a little after four AM. “Where the hell is he going at this time of day?” Then he remembered he was in Cambridge, in an upscale apartment complex, owned by professionals working at high pressure jobs, trying to compete against a lot of very smart people. “Never mind,” he said.
“Oscar, Richard, you guys still there?” asked Doug.
“Still here,” said Richard. “It’s going to get light soon. You’re playing it awfully close.”
“Stand by,” whispered Doug. “We’re on our way out.” He looked at Emily and Alex. “Here’s the plan. The garage door will open and when the car passes through, we’ll be on the passenger side. We’ll keep low and go out with the car. The driver won’t see us and we’ll still be out of sight of the surveillance cameras. As soon as we get outside, we’ll go right and crawl along the wall until we get to the corner. Ready? Here he comes.” There were cars parked right up to the door so they could hide from view until the last moment.
They heard the car start and saw the headlights come on. The car backed out of its slot and came slowly toward them. The garage door motor came on and the door opened. As soon as it was completely open, the car started through the door. Just as the headlights reached the door, Doug got up, still crouching, and moved alongside the car. Alex and Emily were close behind.
Outside, they quickly crawled in the soft dirt beneath small bushes next to the building. In front of them was a poorly lit side street, still quiet in the early morning darkness. They paused at the corner a moment to catch their breath and still their racing hearts.
“I think we made it,” said Doug. “But it was close. We need to get out of here now. The world is starting to wake. I’ll go get the car. You two wait over there in the shadows.” The dim predawn light was beginning to reveal vague shapes in the murk. He pointed off a short ways down the street where darkness went almost to the curb. He slithered off into the blackness and Emily and Alex went to the appointed spot.
“Oscar, Richard?” Doug could be heard over the radio. “You guys still listening?”
“With bated breath,” came Richard’s voice. “Though I’m not sure what we’re trying to catch.”
“Uh, Richard, ‘bated’ has no ‘i’ in it. But thanks for the effort at levity.”
“Well, anyway, it sounds like you guys made it out okay?” Despite his effort at humor, a clear tone of tension could be heard in his voice.
“We’re on our way back. You getting anything over the internet link?”
“Oscar says it takes a little over an hour to get everything set up. We should be getting something soon.”
Doug pulled the car up next to where Alex and Emily were waiting. They opened the back door and leapt into its safety. As they closed the door, Doug started off toward Somerville. Alex and Emily removed their equipment and relaxed. Disencumbered, Emily moved over to Alex and put her head on his shoulder. “Hope you don’t mind,” she said in a vague whisper and fell quiet.
Alex looked sidelong at her and was about to say something when he noticed she was already asleep. He let his head fall back onto the seat. Not all that was happening was unpleasant.
Chapter Fourteen
Alex woke with sunlight streaming past the closed curtains of his second-floor bedroom window. Looking at his watch, he saw it was three PM, time to ge
t up. He was still sleepy, but if he got up now, it would be easier to reset his biological clock to daytime life when he went to bed later.
The house was quiet. Doug’s bed and Richard’s next to it were empty; apparently, they had already gotten up. Oscar had a bedroom down the hall, but he snored so loudly, they made him sleep in the basement in a work room next to the computers. Knowing him, Alex wouldn’t be surprised if Oscar hadn’t gone to bed at all. More than likely, he spent the entire day getting his gizmos working and monitoring the data flow. His bedroom was unusable, it was stacked so full of clothes, equipment and books, so Emily slept in a third bedroom down the hall. She might still be sleeping, so Alex rose quietly, showered and dressed.
As he walked down the steep wooden stairs into the basement, Alex saw Oscar and Richard were there and on the computer. “Are things working?” he asked.
Richard sat in front of the monitor he took as his own. “Finally woke up, eh? Come look at this. Oscar’s had things working for several hours and we’re deluged with data.”
Oscar, who was sitting in front of his own monitor, turned around and smiled at Alex. “It’s easy when you know what you’re doing. We’ve got access to Todd’s computer and whatever it has access to. We have working bugs in his study, though there’s no one there to listen in on yet. Emily placed bugs in Todd’s bedroom and living room and in some of his clothes. If he wears any of that clothing and enters any room having a computer with wi-fi, we’ll have live sound direct from his fruit-of-the-looms.”
“Oscar,” said Alex, looking around, “we’ve been here, what, four days? I swear, every day, you’ve got more stuff down here than you did the day before.” The door to Oscar’s workroom stood ajar and it too was full of pieces of electronic doo-dads, tangled nests of wires connected to various circuit boards and pieces of test equipment.
“Hey, gotta keep up to date.”
“Look at this,” repeated Richard as he turned his screen so Alex could see it.
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