by Vikki Romano
“Well, the good news is that I know the code, so I know how to get into it.”
Calder closed his eyes.
“And the bad news?”
“They have it on a sequencing replicator.”
“English, please.”
“It’s replicated itself in their systems and it’s become so huge, I’m not sure I can shut it down.”
Calder could feel the blood drain from his body at that admission.
“And the floor?” he asked Steven. “Do you know what it triggers?”
“Detonation.”
“Of the building?”
“No, of anything running the code.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
They would be dead.
That was what Steven meant by detonation. If Calder fucked this up like he had in the NE4 mission, they would die.
He and Sierra.
“Fuck me,” he said through gritted teeth. This could not be happening. Not again.
Gage gave him another questioning glance, and he shook his head and brushed him off.
“OK, so we can’t do that. Did you get any further on the pattern?” he asked Steven as he paced in the small hallway.
“I got some of it, but not all of it. Can’t have you stuck in the middle of the room.”
“Wait, how far into the room? I mean, I’m stronger now. I can jump the rest of the way.”
“Sure, but you could also miss and kill everyone.”
There was a beat of silence as that little tidbit hit his ears.
“Fuck,” he said. “So what can I do?”
“Until I figure this out, you can’t do anything,” Steven said.
“What if I just blow the shit out of the building?” Calder offered, as if it was the only obvious option.
Gage chuckled and shook his head.
“As fun as that sounds, in all probability it’ll trigger the floor. We can’t take that chance,” Steven said.
“Fuck me,” Calder said, kicking the wall. “Can’t get a fucking break here.”
“I need an hour, that’s it. I should have it done by then,” Steven said, and the line was silent as he waited for an answer.
Calder chewed on his lip as he looked into the room again, its shimmering blue floor taunting him.
“One hour. I’m counting on you, Jay.”
“I know.”
“Get it done.”
“Right, over.”
Calder tapped his ear and kicked at the wall again.
“Prognosis less than desirable?” Gage asked, coming to stand by him, looking wary.
Calder’s jaw flexed and he looked away. “You need to stop doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Looking at me like you’re prepared, like you think I’m going to reach out and snap your neck,” Calder said, shifting his eyes back to Gage.
“Well, shit, McKenna, I’ve seen you do worse to people you didn’t know. I have a reason to be on guard.”
“Have I ever touched you?”
“No.”
“OK, so as long as you don’t piss me off, you’re golden, so knock that shit off.”
Gage gave him a sideways glance and let out a defeated sigh.
“What did Steven say?”
“Can’t touch the floor. If we trigger it, it’ll kill everyone running my code. That’s me… and that’s Sierra.”
“Fuck,” Gage said.
“Yeah.”
“So now what?”
“We have an hour while he tries to decode the pattern in the floor. I say we use that time wisely.”
“What’s the plan?”
“I say we go hunting for guards, then paint this place with enough plastic to make it disappear once this room is hacked,” Calder said, jerking his chin toward the door.
Gage gave him an evil smile.
“Sounds like a mighty fine plan.”
“I knew you’d like it. You seem like a rugged, blow-shit-up kind of guy.”
“That I am.” Gage smirked and slapped Calder on the back. “Let’s go load up and we’ll get started. I’m feeling like an artist tonight.”
“You and me both.” Calder chuckled as he jogged up the stairs and made his way back to the lobby with Gage following.
Several members of their team were stalking the area, helmet lights on, rounding up guards and herding them into a corner with their weapons on display. The guards weren’t putting up a fight, which was a good thing, but something didn’t seem right.
Clean-up was going way too easy. That sent a burn up the back of Calder’s neck and prickled his scalp.
“Weller,” he said, then cocked his head, looking up at the ceiling.
“What?” Gage asked. He was stuffing charges into a duffel and counting out detonation triggers as he dropped them into the bag.
“Weller, the CEO. He needs to die.”
Gage twisted his mouth and nodded in agreement as he continued with his task.
Calder twisted his own mouth.
“Don’t you think it’s odd that this building went on lockdown the minute I walked in and all we’ve seen have been guards and a couple of lab rats? I mean, no mass exodus of workers or suits? I didn’t see anyone,” Calder said, gripping his hips as he swung around and looked at the area.
Gage’s head came up then, and he looked to Calder curiously.
“You know, you’re right. What the fuck?” he said, his eyes scanning the area.
“These fuckers knew we were coming,” Calder growled.
“Of course they did. We knew they had Sierra; it was a no-brainer.”
“Why do I get the feeling we’re about to get fucked?” Calder said, then gave Gage a hand up and started shouting to the team. “Move everyone out, now! Move, move, move!”
As his team shoved the handcuffed guards out the door, shots started being fired at them. Lots of them. Bodies began to drop.
“Go, go, go!” Gage shouted, and pushed Calder as both of them ran and dove behind a large cement hedge planter that bisected the lobby.
“Motherfucker!” Calder spat as he pulled the AD452 over his shoulder and into his hands. He tilted it, rolled his thumb across the sequencer, then aimed at the balcony that overlooked the lobby. Focusing his infrascan vision, he could see five men crouched and heavily armed. “Cover me.”
Gage dropped his infravisor into place and could also see the outlines of figures on the balcony some twenty feet above them. He brought his rifle up, leaned out from the planter, and began taking shots as he saw the bullets start to fly from their area. One of his shots hit one of them in the arm. He watched the man move back while another moved forward.
“They have backup,” Gage shouted toward Calder.
Calder nodded. He had already seen them.
He strode out onto the floor like a god, his body pumped and massive beneath his jacket. When he stopped, he stood at an angle from the balcony, his legs planted. Several shots clipped him in the arms, but his jacket managed to deflect most of the damage as he raised them, positioned the AD452 against his shoulder, and fired.
The shock of the pulse jerked his shoulder back, and he watched as the balcony bowed and then collapsed, cement, metal, and bodies falling hard to the floor in front of him.
After thumbing the stock once more and cranking the barrel until he heard it click, he pulled the trigger and turned the heap of bodies and rubble into a bonfire.
Instantly the men that had fallen began leaping up, trying to get away from the flames, but Calder’s weapon emitted an oily chemical designed to cling and spread. There was no escaping it.
He turned when he heard gunfire behind him, and as he rushed back to Gage’s post behind the planter, he unlocked the barrel, thumbed the stock once more, and returned fire on guards who had taken cover near the elevator banks.
These were no rent-a-cops. He could clearly see that several of them were dressed in heavy SW
AT armor. This was GenMed’s army.
Calder stopped firing and signaled to Gage what he saw. Several of his team also joined in the fight, dispersing themselves in several locations behind them.
Double-tapping his comm, he gave the orders, signaled for movement, and stood to rush into the fray.
The guards camped out by the elevators were heavily armed and even more heavily armored, several of them carrying poly shields that were near impenetrable.
He shot a grenade in their direction and dove out of blast range, but their shields protected them and only pushed them back.
That was when a small silver ball rolled out in front of them, blinked a few times, and sparked as a bubble of energy enveloped them men by the elevators.
“They have a plasma shield,” he said into his comm. It would only protect them for so long. Nothing that a continued barrage of pulse blasts couldn’t handle. He signaled to two of his team, and they focused their attacks there as he rushed to where Gage was crouched, picking off guards on a ledge above them.
“I’m going to find Weller,” he shouted, and Gage nodded.
“Do you need backup?”
Calder was about to say no, but this was no time to be a hero. He may be strong, but he wasn’t invincible.
Shaking his head, he motioned to a hallway off the side of the lobby, and the two of them dodged bullets as they made their way there.
Leaning against the marble wall, Gage removed his helmet and wiped his forehead on his sleeve.
“Do you know where he is?” he asked, and pulled a water bottle from a pocket on his leg, drinking deeply.
“Not yet,” Calder said, pulling out his own water to drink. He tapped his comm as he took a breath. “Ghostwolf to base.”
“Go ahead, Ghostwolf.”
“I need Coop.”
“Stand by,” the voice said, and a few moments later, Cooper came on the line.
“Coop here.”
“Coop, I need you to do a building scan for the last hour or so before I came in. Looking for Weller. He’ll be using a high-level clearance code and was probably in the office wing. I need to know if he’s still in the building and where. If not, I need intel to find out where he is.”
“Affirmative. Give me a few minutes and I’ll get back to you.”
Calder looked back to Gage and jerked a chin to him.
Gage put his helmet back on and pulled his rifle into his hands.
“After you,” he said.
Heading down the hall, Calder pushed open a side door and scanned the area for threats. After he gestured that it was clear, they headed up the service stairwell to the first landing. Calder knew very well that the executive offices were on the fourth floor, at the back of the building, and that Weller’s office was at the corner. He knew the layout, knew Weller’s schedule, and knew where he hid his liquor. What he didn’t know was where the fuck he was now, and he needed to find out soon. They were running out of time.
His comm buzzed then.
“He’s not in the building,” Cooper said.
Calder cursed.
“What about the employees?” he asked. “We didn’t notice anyone leaving.”
“It looks like Weller had been preparing for your attack for the last few days, knew you’d be coming. Staff was put on call--only the bare essentials in the building.”
“Shit,” Calder spat, and shook his head. “What a fucking coward. Do we know where Weller is now?”
“No. I’ll have to run more scans to see if I can track him. I have facial recognition running on surveillance around the area for the past week, including transit areas.”
“OK, let me know when you find anything.”
“Got it,” Cooper said.
“Hey, any news on Sierra’s condition?” Calder asked, though he shouldn’t have. He didn’t need to be distracted right now.
“No. Jordan has her in the lab upstairs, but she just got here so he hasn’t had time to do much of anything except sedate her.”
“OK, keep me posted on that, too.”
“Will do. Out.”
No news was good news, and it was a relief, for now. Not that he wouldn’t be thinking about her at all until he saw her again, but at least he knew she was in good hands now.
“Ready?” he asked, and Gage nodded and gestured to the door. They headed down the hall, and when they found a lab with any type of equipment, they took the time to wire it up with enough explosive that it would take out more than just that room. He wanted this place and all that was inside it to be gone.
And that would happen very soon.
“Base to Ghostwolf.”
“Go ahead,” Calder said as he finished wiring one last explosive pack.
“I have the floor sequence, and it’s not pretty.”
Calder sat back on his haunches, looked at Gage sideways, and shook his head.
“How complicated is it?” he asked.
“Do you know how to dance?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Calder and Gage stood at the threshold to the hub room, staring at the floor.
“Play it again,” Calder said, then crossed his arms.
The tiles glowed brightly for a moment, then darkened, and a pattern began--one tile blinking, then another. The sequence played out until a row lit up around the small room in the middle of the floor that was encased in glass.
“Can you do it slower?” Gage asked, crossing his own arms as he glanced to Calder and shrugged.
The pattern played once more, a bit slower, and Calder’s eyes moved with them, watching them. Absorbing the pattern.
“I got it,” Calder said. “We’re going to have to do this together. They made it so the sequence has to be done in tandem.”
“Lovely.” Gage sneered.
“It’s fine. I’ll take the complicated ones. I have longer legs.”
Gage turned to him and twisted his mouth.
“What? I do,” Calder said as he adjusted the weapons on his body.
Gage rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“Let’s just do this.”
With a nod, Calder pointed to the floor.
“Start there, left foot. You’ll have to step with your right foot out there, two tiles over, on your next step.”
Gage shook out his hands and legs, cracked his neck, and blew out a breath. Then he looked to Calder, grumbled, and stepped onto the tile with his left foot.
Calder followed suit by stepping wide and landing on a tile to the far left of where Gage was.
“OK, right foot, two up, one in.”
“There?” Gage pointed.
“Yup, both feet.”
Calder watched as Gage took a hesitant step, then brought his other foot over and stood on the tile.
Calder took a breath and ran through the sequence in his mind again, looking at the tiles as he remembered the pattern. Nodding, he took a long stride and stepped on a tile with his right foot, then stepped to the left with his other foot, standing splayed, looking to Gage.
“OK, right foot, two up, two right. Left foot on the tile to the left of it,” Calder said, pointing to the tiles.
Gage gritted his teeth, looked to the tile, and leaped. He landed on his right foot and wobbled, swinging his arms to keep himself upright.
Calder held his breath.
All he could do was watch as Gage teetered on his right leg, his left nearly coming down on the wrong tile.
Calder hissed through his teeth and then let out a breath as Gage steadied himself and finally put his foot down.
Gage blew out a breath through puffed cheeks. “You gave me the simpler ones?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow…”
Calder nodded his agreement then looked to the floor again. They had two more moves apiece, and they were getting closer to the hub.
He stepped to his right, then placed his left foot on a tile beside it. Letting
out a breath, he turned to Gage.
“Left foot, two up. Right foot, one diagonally above it to the right.”
Gage nodded and took his steps before looking back to Calder.
“Last sequence,” he said.
“Thank fuck,” Gage said, his hands on his hips.
Calder turned his head and looked left. That was when he realized that he’d be out of view for Gage once he moved.
Shit.
“After I move, you need to go up two, left two with your left foot. Up two, right two with your right. Then, when I call again, jump onto the band of light there.” He pointed.
Gage nodded.
“Got it?”
“I got it.”
“I won’t be able to see you after I make this move, so make sure.”
“I’m sure,” he said, and made a motion with his hands, pushing Calder to take his steps.
“OK. I’ll call out when it’s your turn.” Calder stepped out with his left foot, then planted his right foot at an odd angle close to the lit tiles that encircled the room. Steadying himself, he let out a breath. “Take your steps.”
Gage nodded and did as he was told, making quick movements and standing in an uncomfortably splayed stance.
“Done,” he said.
“OK, count of three, jump to the lit tiles. One… two… three!”
Both of the leaped at the same time, and when they landed on the lit tiles, the rest of the tiles in the room lit up and the room audibly unlocked.
They both grabbed a door and entered at the same time, each relieved to be done with the deadly game of Twister they’d just played.
The room was small, about seven feet square. Inside, there was a podium with a screen.
“Ghostwolf to base,” Calder said, his gaze shifting to Gage, noting his look of dismay.
“Go ahead, Ghostwolf.”
“We are now in the hub and there’s a palm reader.”
“Shit, OK, hold on,” Cooper said in his ear. “Look around the screen--is there an identification label?”
Calder knelt and looked at the underside of the monitor that sat on a narrow base.