by Jay Posey
NINETEEN
They arrived with the end-of-day commuter rush, under the nearly invisible membrane that shielded the Martian People’s Collective Republic from the extremes of the Martian climate. For all Lincoln’s nervous sweating and loss of sleep the night before, the journey in had turned out to be nearly effortless. Elliot escorted them the entire way, without taking any apparent measures to conceal their connection. In fact, he openly, actively advertised it. It was obvious the man was a frequent visitor to all the main travel ports. The only minor scare came when a customs agent approached and without explanation pulled them out of the line and asked them to follow him. As it turned out, the agent was friendly with Elliot, and whisked all six of them through a special expedited line. Elliot explained how Lincoln and his companions were in town to evaluate the MPCR as a potential location for expanding their business, but it came out through small talk rather than any sort of official inquiry.
If Elliot’s manner gave the impression he was unconcerned with drawing attention, his “safehouse” did nothing to dispel the notion. When he’d told them the apartment was in the financial district, Lincoln assumed he’d meant in the cheapest part of town. Like most assumptions, that had turned out to be grossly mistaken. Elliot’s safehouse was in prime territory, in a towering apartment complex that looked like it wanted everyone who saw it to know it belonged amongst the most lavish buildings in the entire district.
“You think the taxpayers know about this?” Mike whispered as they stared up at the facility.
“I hope not,” Lincoln said. “And I don’t think we should tell them.”
The group took a lift to the ninth floor. It was so quiet and fast that Lincoln wouldn’t have realized they’d moved, if not for the numerical display catapulting from G to 9. Elliot took them to apartment 919. When he swung the door open, Thumper let out an uncharacteristic and involuntary curse. Elliot ushered them in with the gracious air of a generous and humble host.
“Sorry it’s only a two-bedroom deal,” Elliot said, as he closed the door behind them. “Usually we only use it for one primary, plus either a security or interrogation team.”
The apartment didn’t disappoint. Standing in the entryway, Lincoln immediately felt like he should take off his shoes. The team fanned out to inspect their new, sadly temporary home. And while it was true that it was “only” a two-bedroom affair, each bedroom was cavernous. All five of the Outriders could have bunked together in one of them, and still considered it obscenely luxurious compared to what they were used to.
“This is uh…” Thumper said, “maybe not the most inconspicuous place in town, yeah?”
“More than you might think,” Elliot said. “A fair number of CEOs and political types spend a lot of their time in the district. This is where they bring all their mistresses and boytoys.”
“Ugh,” Sahil said, the first time Lincoln could ever remember him expressing an opinion.
Elliot shrugged. “Makes for amazingly incurious neighbors. Everyone’s real polite and stays out of everyone else’s way. Well, except for one lady up on the fourteenth floor. Pretty sure she’s rich, retired, and bored. A real busybody, always up in everyone’s business.”
“And you’re not worried about her?” Wright asked.
“Nah,” Elliot said. He flashed his grin. “She’s on my payroll.”
“You got a place here, too?” Mike asked.
“Me? Pff, no, I’ve got a studio over in the cheap part of town. I’d bet you’d be surprised at how little we civil servants make.”
“Not that surprised,” Mike said.
“Speaking of which, I’ve got a couple of things I need to check on around town. I’ll let you guys get settled in. Fridge is stocked, dishes are clean. I’ll stop back in a couple of hours?”
“Sounds good,” Lincoln said.
“Make yourselves at home,” Elliot said. “Try not to get in any trouble. At least until tomorrow.”
“Roger that,” Lincoln replied.
After Elliot left, the team went through their usual routine for setting up in a new location; they went through the apartment checking the doors and windows, noting vulnerabilities and escape routes, talking through the best use of each room, getting a general feel of the place. Once that was completed, Wright and Mike went out again together to scout the surroundings; elevators, stairwells, general layout of the floors above and below. Lincoln and Sahil handled getting their gear moved and unloaded, while Thumper got to work setting Veronica up in the apartment’s study. The fact that the apartment had a study was not lost on any of them. Of all the assignments Lincoln had ever been on, he knew there was no way anyone back home would let him complain about it, no matter how hard the work actually was.
When Mike and Wright returned, they raided the fridge and threw together a quick meal, sketching rough ideas for how to handle the approach to their objectives while they ate. By the time Elliot returned, the team was already gathered around Veronica, looking at imagery of the target facility and marking up routes and locations for their surveillance op. Elliot joined the session in progress.
“That’s your first objective?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Lincoln said. “We tracked a signal back to here. Pretty sure this is the origin point for command-and-control we’re after.”
“Probably going to be a four-man job, at least,” Wright said.
“Oh, well…” Elliot said. “I’m pretty sure we can get it done with three.”
The whole team went still. Wright wasn’t sensitive about being contradicted, but there was no question that she had an eye and a mind for tactical planning. Lincoln doubted Elliot had anything like the experience necessary to be able to make that sort of call, and even if he did, Lincoln wouldn’t ever trust the Directorate officer’s judgment over that of his master sergeant.
“How do you figure that?” Lincoln asked, hoping he didn’t sound completely dismissive.
“Because me and two of you makes three?” Elliot said. He let it hang in the air for dramatic effect, and then added with a smile, “I know a guy.”
“You know a guy?” Wright said.
“Yeah,” he said. “Well, a lady, actually. That’s Manes-King Quantum? Out in the north quarter?”
“It is,” Lincoln said. “You’re familiar with it?”
“Sure. Their chief of security is a buddy of mine.”
“You’re kidding me,” Wright said.
Elliot shook his head. “No joke. Selah Coulibaly. She’s great. One of the first contacts I cultivated when I got here, in fact. When I met her, she was just an analyst for uh… oh who was it? I forget now. They were small time, got bought up by Manes-King.” He looked at the floor, trying to come up with the name of the company.
“She’s an asset?” Wright asked, prompting him to continue.
“Oh no,” Elliot said. “Just a friend.” He chuckled to himself, and then shook his head. “Actually, I was trying to get her to go out on a date with me. By the time I’d worked up the nerve to actually ask, she’d already had my intentions pegged for like six weeks. But she had a good sense of humor about it. Anyway. You know where you need to get in the facility?”
“Not exactly,” Thumper said. “I’d been assuming getting on site was going to be the hard part.”
“But the people you’re after, they’re in there somewhere?” Elliot asked.
“Not the people, no,” Thumper answered. “They’re running remote access to Manes-King’s on-demand comm system. I need access to hardware that’s managing that traffic. If I can get to that, Veronica can crawl it from there, get us to what we need.”
“Oh,” Elliot said. “I’d assumed you were after the bad guys.”
“That’d be a nice-to-have, certainly,” Lincoln said. “But our priority is recovering the asset.”
“Oh OK, got it,” Elliot answered, nodding. “You just need access to the array farm.”
Thumper nodded.
“The part of the faci
lity they keep under tightest control,” he continued.
Thumper shrugged and then nodded.
“The one place they guarantee their vast client base is absolutely, one hundred percent secure and tamperproof,” he said.
“Sounds like the one,” Thumper said.
“Sure,” Elliot said. “Let me give her a call, see what I can work out.”
“Kind of late, isn’t it?” Mike asked as Elliot was stepping out of the room, but Elliot just waved a hand like it was no big deal. A few moments later, they could hear him talking, words indistinct through the door of one of the bedrooms.
“It can’t be that easy,” Wright said.
“Another lucky break?” Lincoln said.
“We never get two on the same op,” Wright said. “And even when we get one, it usually only gets us in trouble.”
“Give him a chance, Mir,” Sahil said. He had his chair tipped on its back legs, and was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. “He’s been at this a long time.”
“Maybe so,” Wright said, turning back to the images on Veronica’s display, “but we’re still posting up. No way we’re going in with just three. And I’m not counting him as one.”
The team waited around for a few minutes until Elliot reappeared.
“All right, all set,” he said. “You, and you,” he pointed to Lincoln and Thumper in turn, “have an appointment with Ms Coulibaly at 10 am tomorrow. I told her you guys are thinking about expanding, but are concerned about maintaining the security of a high-availability system, and that I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to see her. I didn’t mention the array farm. That might be too much of an ask even in person. We’ll see how it plays when we get there. I’m positive she’s not going to give away any secrets about how they run their systems, but I think we can get you on the right floor at least.”
“Just like that,” Wright said. She wasn’t being openly hostile, but it was clear to everyone in the room that she wasn’t going to go along unless she could confirm for herself the viability of the plan.
“Just like that,” Elliot replied, with a half shrug. “If we can’t get the work done when you’re inside, at least you can get a look around, see what you’re dealing with. Though, I gotta be honest. If you can’t get what you need while we’re there, I don’t envy you the job of trying to get back in. Selah’s top notch.”
“And you don’t have any issue betraying your friend’s trust?” Wright asked.
“For my country?” Elliot said. “Would you?” In response, Wright’s eyes narrowed and her lips disappeared in a tight, thin line. After a moment Elliot smiled to take the edge off the comment, even though it had obviously had its intended effect.
“Anyone ever tell you the way you operate kind of makes it seem like you might be involved in some sort of organized crime?” Thumper asked.
Elliot looked at her, still smiling. “Anyone ever tell you that the way the government operates would be organized crime, if only they weren’t the ones making the rules?” He waved his hand back at Veronica’s display. “Anyway, I do think it’s a good idea for you to get out there and do some ground work on your own. Never hurts to double-check and plan contingencies. What’s the delivery mechanism for whatever it is you need to do to the farm?”
Thumper sat back and ran her hand back and forth over her head a few times, thinking it over.
“Physical access would be best,” she said. “Barring that… I might be able to do it with a skeeter. That’s going to take longer, though.”
“How long?”
“Eight, ten minutes. Depending on their protocols.”
“Better count on twenty, then,” Elliot said.
“Then I’ll take two,” Thumper replied.
“Getting any gear in is going to be tricky, so it’d be good to travel light.”
“Always is,” Lincoln replied. “You have any fancy spy gear you can hook us up with? Shoes with secret compartments, laser watches, that sort of thing?”
“I’m not that kind of spy. And I kind of figured you’d brought your own.”
“I’m working on a list now,” Thumper interjected.
“And I’m going out to take a look,” Wright said, getting to her feet. “Link, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be walking around up there before tomorrow.”
It was a good call. No need to risk getting noticed casing the joint, when he’d be getting an up-close-and-personal view in the morning. It was a key part to the functioning of the team that Lincoln didn’t feel the need to discuss the point or put his stamp of approval on it. And an equal part was the fact that even though she’d made it a statement, Wright showed her respect for his position by waiting for him to officially release her to get to work.
“Keep your head down out there,” Lincoln said.
Wright nodded, and headed for the door. “Mike, Sahil, you’re with me.”
The three of them departed, leaving Thumper, Elliot, and Lincoln with the job of working out the details for their morning appointment. Lincoln understood why he had to go in, but there was no denying he would have much preferred to be working the perimeter. Instead, he spent the next few hours at a table, devising a plan to get the necessary gear through security.
Selah Coulibaly was a tall, dark-skinned woman, six feet or possibly a hair under, with the long, elegant grace of a ballerina and eyes that were unsettlingly like those of a panther, not in color but in subdued ferocity. She met them in the large, marbled lobby of the Manes-King facility, and embraced Elliot warmly. Despite the welcome, Lincoln felt exposed, vulnerable from every angle. This wasn’t how he was used to working, and judging from the woman in front of him, a single mistake could easily blow the whole operation. And already he felt that walking through the front door might have been a mistake.
The rest of the team was outside the facility on the distant perimeter, with a standard obstruct and escape plan in case things went wrong, but from the inside Lincoln was no longer confident they’d be able to make it far enough out to matter.
“Selah,” Elliot said. “Thank you for doing this. I know it’s a hassle.”
“Not at all, Elliot,” she answered. “It’s nice to have an excuse to see you on the clock. It’s been too long.”
He nodded. “Been traveling a lot lately. Hoping it’ll slow down here soon.” He stepped back and offered the black box he had tucked under one arm. “A small thank you.”
“Hmm, this looks familiar. And completely unnecessary,” she said, but she accepted the gift anyway, and held it to an ear as she shook it gently. “And I hope not too expensive to be a small thank you.”
“A medium-sized one, then,” Elliot replied. “Mr Kim here actually insisted on it.”
Elliot drew Lincoln and Thumper into the moment by waving them closer, introducing them by their assumed identities. “Allison Cooper and Simon Kim, from Ready Vector Solutions.”
When Selah shook Lincoln’s hand, whatever affection she had for Elliot seemed to have transferred directly to them; it was more personal than professional. He almost felt guilty for the false name.
“Ms Cooper, Mr Kim, a pleasure.”
“You can just call me Allison,” Thumper said.
“And Simon, please,” Lincoln added.
“Very well. Simon, Allison. Thank you for this,” she said, holding up the gift.
Lincoln tipped his head in a shadow of a bow, “The least we could do, for your generosity on such short notice. Elliot advised us on the selection.”
“I’m sure it’s extravagant almost to the point of ostentatious, then,” she said with a smile. “Follow me, I’ll take you back.”
She led them through the access control point and had them sign in as visitors. While they filled out some standard documentation agreeing that they wouldn’t reveal any details of their visit under threat of stiff legal penalties, Selah chatted amicably with the security personnel manning the station. From their interaction, Lincoln could tell she was personall
y familiar with her staff and had a sharp mind for details. She was also apparently well-liked by her subordinates. That was all likely a bad sign for their chances of infiltrating later. If she took that much care with her staff, he could only imagine what she’d done for the facility as a whole.
When they had completed the documents, Selah directed them to pass through a small chamber.
“You can keep everything in your pockets,” she said. “The scanner’s just going to do a quick inventory. We won’t restrict your communications while we’re here, but this just lets us keep track of traffic coming in and out of the facility. No recording devices I should know about?”
“I already told them,” Elliot said.
“I assumed you had,” Selah replied, and then added with a smile, “but I never assume.”
“We’re not here for pictures, Ms Coulibaly,” Lincoln said.
“Selah, please. Friends of Elliot’s are friends of mine.”
“You scan all your friends?” Elliot said.
“Every one,” she answered.
Elliot went first, followed by Thumper, with Lincoln bringing up the rear. He tried not to hold his breath.
“I don’t know why, but these things always make me nervous,” he said as he passed through. He and Thumper were both carrying disassembled components of a control device, each element disguised as typical pocket litter. As far as he could tell, nothing registered on the scan. Once they were all through, Selah waved for them to follow her, but then stopped.
“Oops, one second,” she said, and took the gift Elliot had given her over to the security station for the guards to run through a scanner.
“You’re kidding me,” Elliot said.
“Surely you understand, my dear,” Selah said. “What kind of example would I be setting if I didn’t follow my own rules?”