A half an hour after we set out Fell took off his hat and bent over to readjust the earbud and microphone setup he was wearing. The early evening sun was beaming in the back window at my left shoulder. He brushed his hair back as he replaced his cover and I noticed the roots of his hair were blond, not white-blond like the rest of his hair, but gold. I didn’t know why he’d prefer white over gold. I thought maybe he was trying to make a fashion statement or he thought the white look made him look distinguished. I didn’t think much of men who dyed their hair.
Another half hour in the van had us taking a vehicle lift up to the platform where BluCorp’s compound was. We stopped on a street west of the office building and Fell, the hackers, and I stepped out of the van.
“Good luck,” Fell said with a smile. “Remember, Lolly can call us if there is trouble. We’ll be near. Follow the plan and everything will work out fine.”
Fell climbed back into the van and they drove off.
“Anybody else get the creeps from those guys Fell brought with him?” Lolly asked.
“I’m sure they’re warm and caring once you get to know them,” I said.
The kids laughed.
I looked at Worm. “You bring that tracking device from Fell’s data reader?”
He smiled. “Yeah. I left it in the van.”
It was closer to dark than daylight by then, so we slowly made our way to the office building. As far as we could tell the place was deserted.
We went to the office where Lolly would set up for her role in our little enterprise. We wanted to make sure we could get in and that everything was still in order.
Once we saw that everything checked out, Lolly and her brother set up the data reader and beamed data carrier unit while Hap, Worm, and I prepared the gear for crossing over to the BluCorp compound. We had plenty of space to do this in the hallway outside the office. By the time we had the gear ready to go the twins were ready as well.
“We’re already into the camera system,” Lolly said. “I have the data reader recording the cameras closest to us so we can use the data to mask us while we are on the roof and when you guys are inside. Lob is timing the patrols. You might want to take a look, RR.”
I went into the office and joined Lob at the data reader by the window. I could see the beam emitter was mounted to broadcast through the plass panel.
“What do we have?” I asked.
“Near as I can tell the patrols run the same pattern as when we watched them the other day. The same pairs of guards run the same routes throughout the place. There’s only one patrol that can see us where we will cross. These guys here,” Lob said as he switched camera views to show a pair of uniformed men armed with small autopistols walking near the northern edge of the compound, “they cover the outer perimeter on the northern half of the compound. Another pair does the south. There are a few patrols that have routes in the interior parts.”
“How much time will we have once they go out of sight from us until they return?”
“Fourteen to fifteen minutes. That seems to be how long it takes them to make a circuit.”
It was almost like clockwork, a sign the mercs were not security experts. Trained security people will vary their patrol routes and pace to make it difficult to predict gaps in their coverage. These guys were doing it like they were on a schedule.
“Fourteen minutes should give us enough time to set up on the roof of this building. We can get Worm across on the next pass so he can get set up on the other roof, then the rest of us will go on the third one.”
“Okay, RR. We got six or seven minutes till they get to this side of the compound again.”
“Let’s be ready to go as soon as they are clear.”
I told the others what we were going to do, and then we waited.
The roof access door had a fire alarm that would trip if the door were opened. Worm made quick work of that.
“The feedback on the data we recorded makes me think they are time coding the video in the security office as it is recorded there,” Lolly said as we waited. “I have no way to do anything about that, but it will only be a problem if they go and look at the video on replay.”
“Is that any kind of danger to us?” I asked.
“No, unless they see a need to look at a replay of a camera I am feeding a loop and recognize that’s what is going on. If they do, then they’ll know something is up, but they still won’t see you guys.”
“Would you be able to tell if they did discover what you are doing?”
“Not until they scrambled security personnel or something. I can’t see inside the security center.”
I went back into the office and watched the patrol pass by to a point about 200 meters south where they turned to the east down the alley Fell wanted us to use. As soon as they were out of sight we went to the roof.
We got the rope, snap rings, grappling hook, and come-along out and laid them on the rooftop.
When we had it ready to go I picked up the rope with the grappling hook attached and spooled it neatly beside the spot from where I would be throwing while Worm and Lob tied a rope around the base of an air conditioning unit.
We attached the come-along—a ratcheting winch which winds a cable around a spool—that we would use to make taut the rope we strung between the buildings. Our other ropes and snap rings we laid out on the rooftop so they would be ready for the next session once the guards passed through again.
As soon as the guards were out of sight, we went to work. I picked up the grappling hook and part of the coiled rope. I began twirling the grappling hook vertically and when I felt I had enough speed I let it fly. If you know what you are doing you can hurl a grappling hook fifty meters easy. I only needed to make twenty. I got it first try, the hook flying over the roof access structure on the other side. I’d like to think it was skill.
“Where’d you learn how to do that?” Lob asked.
“A faraway place during a misspent youth in service to a dead government,” I said.
“Huh?” Hap said.
“He was in the Gulf Confederation Army,” Lob said. “We looked it up, remember?”
“I guess I thought it was still around or something,” Hap said.
I guess history lessons took a back seat when survival was the prime concern growing up on the streets of Sowtown.
“The GC went down twenty years ago, Hap,” Lolly said.
“Yeah, I remember now,” Hap said. “Sorry, RR.”
“Nothing to apologize for. Water under the bridge.”
“Huh?” he said.
“Never mind.”
I slowly pulled the rope until the grappling hook caught itself on the structure, then I tied it onto the snap hook on the come-along while Hap and Lob kept tension on the rope. A minute of ratcheting it made the rope nice and taut. Worm tested it and pronounced it “good enough.”
A minute later he was on top of the rope pulling his way across. The downward angle made it a little tricky, but he made good use of his right ankle hooked over the rope to help steady himself. A snap ring attached to a rope on his harness trailed behind, there in case he fell. If that happened he would fall less than a meter and he would be able to pull himself back on top or simply finish the trip primate style.
None of that was necessary. Worm made quick work of the rope and was soon standing on the building inside the BluCorp compound. He looped a doubled rope around the roof access structure and attached a large snap ring to it. We loosened the rope from our side until Worm had enough slack to unhook the grapple from the building. He detached the hook and hurled the rope clear of the building and the wall at ground level. We hauled the rope up and waited for the next pass of the guards.
Once they were clear I hurled a coiled end of rope that Worm caught and secured to his end. We attached the rope on our end to the come-along and tensioned it until the rope was once again taut.
We assembled the pulley with a sling seat hanging from the bottom around the rope and att
ached the retrieval line to it. Hap was going over first.
“Keep your hands behind the pulley if you reach up to grab the rope. Got me?” I said.
His look told me he didn’t understand.
“Stick your finger in the pulley,” I said.
“Why?”
“So you can see what happens when the pulley rolls over the finger.”
“It would break my finger.”
“Worse than that. It’ll crush it into burger. Think about being halfway across when that happens. Keep your hands behind the pulley. Got it?”
“I get you, RR.”
Some people require illustrations as explanations. Hap was one of those. He made it across without incident.
We hauled the pulley back up and Lob went next. He crossed without a problem as well.
Before I went I gave Lolly the automatic knife I had packed in my shoulder bag as a backup.
“What’s this for?” she asked.
“Two things. First, just in case you can’t get the come-along to release, cut the rope and leave the come-along where it is. Second, you’ll be by yourself over here. If you run into trouble that blade beats having to punch your way out, understand?”
“Got it, RR. Thanks.”
Lolly had no trouble with the come-along once I was over, and a few minutes later, after we pulled the rope to our point in the compound, all signs of our crossing were gone.
So far, everything was going according to plan. Hap and Worm went to work on the conduit, while Lob and I set up the data reader and beamed data carrier receiver. A cable ran from the receiver to the data reader, while another cable ran from the reader to an earpiece and microphone setup that I would use. Lob took the receiver and set it in view of Lolly’s position. Within seconds, I heard her voice over the earpiece plugged in my right ear.
“You hear me?” she said.
“Loud and clear. How me?” I answered.
“Good, RR. There will be a patrol going past you in a couple of minutes. I’ll give you a warning when they get close.”
“Roger,” I said.
“Who is Roger?”
I grumbled. “It means okay, yes, or affirmative.”
“Affirmative?”
“You’re yanking my chain, right?”
“Roger,” she said with a laugh.
Worm had sifted through the large bundle of wires inside the conduit and marked several as likely candidates for tapping with rat’s tails.
“Watch the noise, boys,” Lolly said. “Guards passing by in about fifteen seconds.”
I held a finger in front of my mouth and quietly said “shhhh,” as I pointed toward the ground.
Worm stopped his work even though he was making virtually no noise. His fellow hackers were equally quiet. Another lesson Sowtown had taught them.
Thirty seconds later Lolly gave me the all clear and I passed it on to the three hackers. They immediately resumed their work. A few minutes later Worm said, “I think we have it. You want to check, Hap?”
He nodded and pulled a small satchel from a breast pocket on his jacket. He unzipped it and pulled a plug wire from the bag. He unwound it and handed me one end.
“Plug that into a data port, RR.”
As I did, he plugged the other end into a plug in the back of his head. A dangling earbud went in his left ear. He closed his eyes.
“Here, RR,” Worm said as he handed me another wire.
“That goes in the port on the side of the data reader, correct?” I asked.
“You got it.”
I pushed the data plug home.
“Shit, Worm,” Hap said. “It’s a fucking maintenance datastream. It sounds almost as bad as Omsk techno propaganda. Next one.”
“Give me a minute,” Worm said.
“You don’t like Omsk propaganda music?” I said.
“No. I mean, you can dance to it, but the girl better be really scorching to put up with that shit,” Hap said. “Why? Don’t tell me you like it.”
“No. I’m partial to Dean Martin.”
Hap’s expression told me he was clueless. “What the hell kinda propaganda is that?”
I laughed quietly. “The propaganda of cool.”
“Cool?”
“Try this one, RR,” Worm said, ending our discussion.
I plugged in the new candidate.
“I think you got it,” Hap said. “Give me a minute.”
A short time later he pulled the plug from his head.
“That’s it, Worm. I am sure there is another connection in there we can use, but I can’t tell you the specs.”
“I’ll bet you this is it,” Worm said pointing at one of the wires in the bundle.
“Uh uh, not a chance. The last few times I’ve lost. Let me get my visor on and I’ll try the connection.”
Hap pulled what looked like a pair of large black wraparound sunglasses from his satchel and put them on. As he replaced the plug into the base of his skull he said, “Let’s try it.”
Worm passed me the other plug and I placed it into the port next to the wire Hap had already checked.
“What’s the visor for?” I asked Lob who was finished with adjusting the beam receiver.
“We wear them to keep us from getting disoriented. When you’re in psycherspace you can see through the connection in your head via signals to the brain, but you can still see with your own eyes. Like double vision of two different worlds, one electronic and the other meatspace,” he gesturing around himself. “It makes me puke. The visor blacks out your eyes so you don’t have to keep your eyes closed. It’s weird. Forcing yourself to keep your eyes closed for a long time causes eye strain like you wouldn’t believe.”
“That’s it, Worm. We’ll be able to pull data a lot faster with two connections,” Hap said.
“Tell my brother and Worm to get connected so we can make sure they can hear me,” Lolly said in my ear.
I relayed the message and in a few seconds we were set.
“So, we ready to do this?” Hap asked.
“Everything look okay on the cameras, Lolly?” I asked.
“We’re good.”
“Then it’s your call, guys,” I said to the three hackers.
“Let’s do it,” Hap said.
They all put on their preferred method of blocking their eyes and took some deep breaths.
“I’m ready,” Lob said.
“Same,” Worm said.
“Me too. Let’s go,” Hap said.
“We’re in,” Hap said a few seconds later. “Looking for the node Fell told us about. Lob, you know what you gotta do.”
“I’m on it.”
“Worm, stay with me,” Hap said. “We’ll see how much data there is before we touch anything.”
“With you,” Worm replied.
Fell’s hair color was eating at me. My subconscious had been working on it since the van ride. Something wasn’t right. “Can you get into the Security Forces site?” I asked looking across the street to Lolly.
Hap grimaced. “Why? We can’t from in here. Don’t be stupid.”
“Sure I can, unless it’s top secret or something,” Lolly said over the headset.
“That’s who I was talking to,” I said. “Personnel photos, that’s what we’re looking for.”
“You’re supposed to be watching the guards, Sis,” Lob said.
“I can do both at the same time. Who do I look for, RR?”
“Gabriel Fell.”
“Why him?” asked Worm.
“I don’t think he’s Fell.”
“If he isn’t Fell, then who is he?” Worm asked.
“I don’t know.”
“I got the node,” said Hap. “Worm, let’s see what we have here.”
“RR, I got it,” Lolly said. “The Security Forces Fell is not our Fell.”
I fucked up. I should have asked Gene to send me an image of Fell back when he checked up on him for me. “Check the web and see if you can find images of a Lawrence F
reeman or William Leahy. They are with Arc Tau Security,” I said, playing a hunch.
“On it,” Lolly said. “Guards will be passing beneath you in about fifteen seconds so watch the chatter.”
About thirty seconds later Lolly had something. “Leahy! Fell is William Leahy. His hair isn’t white in his ID pic. It’s—”
“A lovely golden blond,” I said acidly.
“On the button, RR. How’d you know?”
“His roots were showing.”
“If he ain’t SecFor, what does that mean for us?” Worm asked.
“We have some problems, that’s what it means,” I said. “It means we are not assisting Security Forces or helping to free captives. It means we are committing multiple felonies.”
“I am looking at transfer protocols for those accounts, Hap,” Lob said.
“Fucking bigmouth, shut it!” Hap said.
I figured they’d be up to something other than just what Fell, or I should say Leahy, wanted from them.
“Never mind me,” I said. “We have to get out of here alive before you can profit from whatever you are up to. Do what you gotta do.”
“Fuck, man. I told you he was okay,” Lob said.
“Fine, cowboy. You were right for once in your life,” Hap replied. “Let’s get to it.”
I brought up the map and satellite images of the compound on the data reader and started tracing the route Leahy planned for us. Leahy was Arc Tau and if he worked with BluCorp, that might have explained his ability to concoct a plan from maps. It wasn’t ability, it was first-hand knowledge. He’d been in the BluCorp compound before.
“Lolly, can you look at the security cams in this place for me? The route Leahy wanted us to follow, the last couple of corners near the exit point Leahy has planned for us. Around the alley.”
“Gimme a second, I need to reorient a camera... got’em.”
“Is he there?”
“Yup, on the street next to a wall not far from the gate. It was a blind spot for the cameras. Two, no three guys with him. Those same guys we met before we left minus one.”
“Where’s the fourth guy?” Hap asked.
The Lowdown in High Town: An R.R. Johnson Novel Page 23