by Craig Spence
So you wanted to know where the trucks come from. What now? Cap said.
We need to get a look inside, Einstein answered. See how the operation works.
Are you crazy? I should have let you fall off the damned truck.
I have an idea.
Another one of those “hunches” of yours?
Uh-huh.
Cap rolled his eyes and groaned. Well I’ve got a hunch, too: one of these days your bright ideas are going to get us into trouble, Einstein. If we were cats, we wouldn’t have too many of those nine lives left. Know what I mean?
Still grumbling, he led them up to the corner of the yard where the chain link fence butted up against the building. While Einstein kept watch, Cap considered their options. Einstein heard a slight rattle, then Cap’s voice summoned: Let’s go.
Where to? Einstein asked, turning. Cap! he hissed, discovering his brother gone.
Up here.
Startled, Einstein’s jaw dropped when he looked up and spotted Cap scaling the fence by sticking his paws into the wire mesh and pulling himself straight up.
What are you doing?
Come on, little brother. You want to get a look inside, don’t you?
Gingerly, Einstein stuck one paw through the wires, then another. Hanging on, he attempted to pull himself up, but fell with a thud and a yelp onto the pavement.
Shut up! Cap ordered.
Chagrined, Einstein righted himself for another try. Again he stuck his paws into the mesh, this time hooking them round the wire. Then he hoisted himself up, scrabbling to get a hold with his hind legs, too. Secured, he clung like a bug to the fence.
Good, Cap encouraged. Now start walking.
Walking?
Yeah. You just walk up the fence. It’s easy, once you get the hang of it. Cap chuckled at his own joke. You’ve got to get the hang of it, get it?
Ha ha, Einstein grumped. Timidly he unhooked one paw and reached up. Then the other. Slowly, with Cap coaching him all the way, he crawled up the fence, then flopped backwards onto the roof. Where did you learn that one? he asked.
When you’re running from a man with a noose on a stick, you learn a lot of things fast, little brother. Life is a hard teacher, but a good one.
Suddenly Einstein recognized a feeling he’d had for Cap all along, ever since they were pups: admiration. You know, it doesn’t bother me at all when you call me little brother, he said, righting himself and sitting beside Cap. Not any more.
Shoot! Cap smirked. Now I’ll have to think of something else to call you.
It felt good to laugh. Even in the thick of their dangerous mission, the shudder of happiness made them feel close and invincible. Nothing could destroy what the two of them shared, Einstein realized. Not Hindquist, not the Global Council, nothing in the world.
They made their way along the loading dock roof, then down onto the top of a trailer. From their perch they could see inside the warehouse without much risk of being seen. Forklifts rattled past, men towing crates and pallets on trolleys. The shipping room floor thrummed like a beehive, and like a hive, its frenetic comings and goings seemed a form of organized chaos.
What are we looking for? Cap asked impatiently.
Don’t know, exactly, Einstein said. I’ll know when I find it.
And how long do you figure that’s going to take?
Einstein ignored Cap’s needling. If they were going to get through the AMOS defence screen, this would be their starting point.
The shipments are assembled here for a straight run to the AMOS plant, he pointed out.
Yeah. So?
So if we could stow away in an AMOS shipment, we’d be delivered to the main plant along with all the other stuff.
Oh great! And, assuming we can sneak past the crew here, what are we going to do when we get to the other end. Stick labels on our foreheads and pretend we’re boxes?
Not a bad idea Bro, Einstein said. If we could disguise ourselves as cargo, I’m sure they wouldn’t check too closely on the other side. All the checking’s done here. At the main plant they’ll just want to get the crates unloaded and underground as fast as possible. That’s my guess.
Okay, Cap sighed angrily. Let’s say we do get in, what’s our objective once we’re there? And how are we going to get out with our hides still on?
One step at a time, Cap. First we have to figure out how to get into AMOS. Getting out is part two . . .
Just then a buzzer sounded. As if on cue, everyone dropped what they were doing and trudged off, leaving forklifts, trolleys and boxes sitting. Suddenly the warehouse, which had been filled with boisterous, bustling humans, seemed deserted. Where had everyone gone? Astonished, Einstein glanced at his brother, as if Cap, with all his worldly experience, might know the answer.
Cap shrugged.
“Hey, Frank,” a straggler shouted to another human. “Break!” Then the two of them shuffled off after their mates.
Break? Cap echoed. What’s broken?
Einstein grinned. Nothing, brother, he replied. He’d heard the term before, way back in their Triumph laboratory days. Elaine would announce that she was taking a break for coffee. Bertrand often took a break from his homework. These men must have been doing likewise and, judging by the regimented way they went about it, their break was a nightly routine.
I think we’ve just found our way into AMOS, Einstein said excitedly. This is a break all right; it’s our break, Cap.
What the heck are you on about?
Don’t you see? This rest period happens nightly. While these guys are off doing whatever they do during their break, we can sneak into the AMOS truck and bingo! We’re on our way.
Yeah. On our way into trouble, Cap grumbled. Let’s get out of here before someone sees us.
They trotted along the trailer roof, jumped down onto the cab, then made a dash for the perimeter fence. Einstein had to admit, the plan to get into AMOS would be perilous. Still, if you were going to plan an infiltration into AMOS this would be the jumping off point, he thought. It was the chink in Hindquist’s formidable armor.
Moron! Pigheaded, lard-brained, bull-necked, thick-skinned moron!
Genie had long since run out of names to describe her so-called partner Charlie Gowler. A more loathsome specimen she could not imagine. If there was something stupid to say, something cruel to do, Charlie was bound to say or do it.
She ordered him to patrol the edge of the wood, where her siblings had set up their surveillance. For three nights their lookout had been abandoned, which could only mean one thing: they were planning to make their move soon.
“Why do you think that?” Hindquist had asked during their last briefing.
They’ve ended their surveillance, which means they feel there’s nothing more to learn through observation, she reasoned.
“Yes.”
When you’ve learned all you can about an enemy it is time to plan and execute your attack.
“Unless your intelligence leads you to the conclusion that your enemy is too strong and any attack would be suicidal,” Hindquist challenged.
The “do nothing” option is available only to an adversary who believes his neutrality will be respected — that if he signals his intention not to interfere, you will leave him alone. Einstein and Bertrand both know your determination to destroy them no matter what. There’s no neutral ground left for them to stand on.
“So they must destroy me,” Hindquist chuckled. “Absurd. No matter how desperate they are, they would surely see that any plan of attack on AMOS could only end in disaster.”
We both know that and so do they, she replied.
Hindquist smiled at his favorite pupil.
So what they will try to do is expose you and give the proper authorities the information they need to move against AMOS.
“They will plan an infiltration, in other words.”
Precisely, Genie concurred.
“And since there is only one possible way they could think of to penetrate this
facility, it should be easy for us to detect and capture them when they make their move.”
Exactly. We know they’ve traced our trucks back to the Vancouver warehouse. We received a report from the warehouse that a couple of dogs had been spotted by one of your employees. That is their only possible point of entry.
Hindquist nodded.
Genie accepted his acknowledgement stoically. Her assessment had won even greater favour with a man who trusted her so entirely now that he confided to her all his plans. He had even introduced her via satellite link to Global Councillor Vladimir Petrovitch. The layout of AMOS, the type and quantities of ordinance in stock, Hindquist’s backup plans, his backup to his backup plans — he entrusted knowledge about everything to his canine operative.
She watched Charlie lumber like a particularly clumsy bear along the wooded fringe of the AMOS property. If any SMART dog had been out there, it would have been long gone. Even a reasonably smart child could elude such an unfathomably stupid brute.
Her siblings were planning an infiltration, not an attack. That meant a small team would carry out the operation, two or at most three operatives. Genie had no doubt they would be spotted the moment they arrived. A mouse couldn’t get past AMOS security, let alone a dog or child. But what about the support team that would be stationed in the woods outside?
“It’s absolutely essential we capture them, too,” Hindquist had instructed. “This will be our only chance to get the lot of them.”
And do what? Genie had asked.
“Whatever must be done to preserve the integrity of our cover,” he answered with a grin, “and to secure our monopoly over SMART technology.”
Technology, she snorted, remembering the remark. That’s how he sees me. That’s how he will see my children: part of his machinery.
She submerged her anger and disgust. The only way she could destroy this monster was to embrace him; become his dog and make him her human. Cap, Breeze, and Blizzard; Einstein, Bertrand, and Ariel . . . they were pawns. They had to be sacrificed to the main objective: building a relationship of trust with Frank Hindquist.
So be it, she resolved. She would do what she could to forewarn them, but she would not jeopardize her mission to destroy AMOS.
Charlie Gowler approached in the darkness. She needed him to do one more thing that night, a small but crucial assignment. “Check container out back,” she commanded awkwardly through the prototype Thought Matrix Translator that Doctor Molar had installed in her helmet.
“I already looked round there,” Charlie griped.
“Look on top,” she ordered. “Get ladder and check up top.”
“But . . . ”
“Leave ladder in place,” she overrode his objection. “I check later too.”
Grunting, Charlie headed off to do as he’d been told.
Bertrand thumped on Ariel’s door.
“Okay! Okay!” she shouted from inside. “You don’t have to break it down.”
“Come on Airee. We’ve got to go.”
The door jerked open and Ariel slipped out onto the Krieger’s front stoop. She glanced warily about the complex.
“How do you know we’re not being watched?” she asked.
“Breeze and Blizzard are patrolling the perimeter,” he assured her, sounding far more confident than he felt. “If anyone’s trying to crash the meeting, we’ll know.”
“I’m scared, Bertrand.”
“Me too.”
They hurried through Forestview in silence, heading for the Nicomekl gate. “We can’t do nothing!” he said emphatically, sensing her deep reluctance. “You realize that, don’t you?”
“It wouldn’t be doing nothing to tell our parents and go to the police. That would be the sane thing to do, don’t you think?”
He sighed, resisting the impulse to argue. “We’re not in a sane situation, Airee,” Bertrand pleaded. “We’ve gone over this: tell our parents and they’ll panic and restrict our movements. We’d be lucky if they allowed us out the front door ever again.”
“Fine then, let’s go straight to the police.”
“They can’t do anything, Airee. They already know about Libra’s murder and the attack at Ponderosa Point; they couldn’t do a thing about it. Hindquist would laugh in their faces. He’d tell them we’re kids with overactive imaginations.”
“We are kids!” she objected as she blazed a trail through the tall marsh grass, angrily knocking aside the troublesome stalks.
Again, Bertrand breathed deeply, calming himself. “They’ve struck twice already, Ariel,” he reminded her. “Do you think they aren’t getting ready to strike again?”
“Why should they?” she turned on him, her green eyes flashing. “Hindquist doesn’t have any reason to attack us. It’s the dogs he’s after. It would be best for all of us to lay low, not plan an attack on AMOS.”
“Even if Hindquist doesn’t already know we’ve been in contact with Einstein and the others, he’s sure to suspect it.”
Bertrand groaned, losing patience. “AMOS is huge, Airee. Hindquist wouldn’t hesitate for a second if he thought getting rid of a couple of nosy children and four troublesome dogs would make his operations more secure, and sooner or later he’s going to come to that conclusion.”
“Maybe that’s why we shouldn’t be so nosy!”
They stopped and faced each other. The conversation had taken a wrong turn.
“Sure,” he said angrily, “we could shut up and keep our noses out of it. Hindquist might even leave us alone, if he figures we’re no threat. But what about Einstein? Cap? Breeze? And Blizzard? He’ll kill them for sure.”
Ariel lowered her eyes, then looked away, as if she expected to see something off on the other side of Little Dipper. Without another word, she turned and they set off again, Bertrand wishing the swamp mud would suck him under.
Einstein and Cap greeted them with tense nods as they climbed the Fort Nicomekl ladder. Obviously the dogs were on edge, too, which only heightened the sense of danger. Einstein did step forward and touch noses with both the children.
Ahem! Cap interrupted. As soon as this little love fest is over with, we do have important business to conduct. The longer we’re here, the greater the danger to us all. So, someone please tell me quickly how a piddling force like ours is going to defeat the armed might of AMOS?
Well, Einstein coughed. I have given the matter some thought. We have to expose Hindquist’s operation . . .
Brilliant! Cap exploded. But how?
Well, you and I are going to infiltrate the AMOS facility, film it, and deliver the evidence to the authorities, Einstein announced.
Cap stared in disbelief. Oh! he mocked. I’m thrilled you’ve picked me for this little adventure. I would have been heartbroken if you’d left me out!
I knew you’d be excited, Cap, Einstein jabbed.
And tell me, how are we going to get ourselves inside AMOS?
Have you ever heard the story of the Trojan Horse? Well, we’re going to do a modern variation on the theme: we’re going to be delivered to AMOS by AMOS.
You mean we’re going to sneak onto one of the trucks headed from the waterfront warehouse back to the main factory?
Exactly! Einstein grinned.
And how are we going to avoid being spotted once we arrive? They aren’t going to consider two SMART dogs part of their regular shipment, are they?
We’re going to package ourselves, Cap. We’ll be boxed up like the rest of the cargo, so they won’t notice us on the other side. Bertrand, you’re going to build our container . . .
Our coffin, more likely, Cap grumbled.
And during the mission you, Breeze and Blizzard will be posted outside AMOS. Your job will be to create a diversion at the right moment so Cap and I can get out.
Bertrand nodded.
They were about to turn back to their planning, when Ariel interrupted. “What about me?” she demanded.
For a second it didn’t register with the others that s
he had joined the conversation. Bertrand hadn’t translated for her. Then Bertrand grinned. “Airee!” he whooped. “You understand what we’ve been saying?”
“I guess.” she grinned.
“Since when?”
“I’ve been picking up snippets for a while,” she said. “I guess I wanted to know so badly what was going on today that I sort of forgot I couldn’t understand.”
Suddenly they were all chattering and clamouring for her attention. She couldn’t transmit yet, so she acknowledged their compliments out loud.
In time you’ll be able to send talkies, too, Einstein assured her.
“Then watch out!” Bertrand joked, earning a hard punch on the shoulder. “Ow!” he complained happily.
Cap coughed, reminding them they had plans that needed making.
“What about me?” Ariel repeated, now that the excitement had died down.
Einstein yawned and stretched, a sure sign he was uneasy.
Look, he began at last, glancing first at Bertrand then at Ariel. Everyone has to play their part in this operation. There’s no room for heroes. Ariel, you’ll be mission backup. We need someone with a human voice for that.
“Mission backup? I feel like the last kid picked for the team.”
Not true, Einstein said. If things go wrong, we need someone to contact the police. You will remain off-site, out of Hindquist’s reach. At an appointed time, or if you sense we’re in trouble, your job is to dial 911.
“I see.”
“He’s right,” Bertrand consoled. “We all have to do what’s best for the team.”
“Why don’t you be mission backup, then?” Ariel said. He shrugged. “Because I have a different job to do. I have to go into the AMOS facility with Einstein.”
No! Einstein corrected. You’ve got it wrong Bertrand. You’re in charge of the diversion, remember?
“But you said we all have to do what’s best for the mission.”
You’re not going in! Cap growled. You wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Unless you choose me, the mission can’t succeed,” Bertrand insisted.
What are you talking about kid?
“Well, tell me Cap, how are you going to operate a video camera to record what’s happening inside AMOS?”