“Um, that would be shoot-on-sight for all three of us,” Quirk corrected, wiping a tear from his cheek.
True, but the hackers were used to it. Even a few hours of life on the lam left a sour taste in Zach’s mouth. His badge hadn’t just been a form of identification. It had been him.
“If there was any other way…” Ronnie said as her fingers slid down to his hand and gave it a squeeze before she went back to surveying the area.
But there had to be, didn’t there? The answer to their dilemma couldn’t be breaking out a known arsonist from his FBI field office. Could it? Yet running through all of the other scenarios, Zach came up with nothing. Even if they went to Washington and tried to get Ronnie directly into Langley, no guarantees existed—for her or their safety.
Still. He had contacts. Contacts whom he trusted. Maybe they should try to work through established channels before taking such rash action.
He went to open his mouth when lights across the street flickered, and then went off.
“Quirk, we are still at T minus five,” Ronnie hissed at her assistant.
“Hey, that was not me.”
Well, clearly the power to the field office and the entire side of the street had been cut off.
“This couldn’t just be a coincidence?” Zach asked, pretty much knowing the answer as emergency lighting bloomed to life, then crackled brightly, blowing itself out. In the darkened office, agents scrambled for flashlights. Zach scanned the building, his eyes finding the tech support department. Warp rushed into the room, nearly knocking over his Green Lantern coffee cup. “But if that isn’t us, then who?”
Ronnie sucked in a breath. Her eyes widened with surprise. “Um,” she said. “I think I just spotted some ninja priests.”
“What?” Zach asked as he raised his own binoculars. But sure enough, four men draped in black made their way into the building. Zach would have assumed that they were a mercenary team, except each of the men had a bright, white collar at his neck. A priest’s collar. Ronnie’s assessment was pretty damn accurate. They did appear to be ninja priests.
Quirk grabbed the binoculars from Zach, and then whistled. “Sometimes I love my job.”
Then the flash of a gun muzzle, and then another. Those were shots. Shots fired with a silencer. These assailants didn’t give a damn about the agents’ welfare. His friends’ welfare.
Zach leapt up.
“Wait!” Ronnie called out as he made his way to the fire escape. “We’ve got to modify our entry plan.”
Zach swung his leg over the metal ladder. Whether Ronnie followed was her business. He couldn’t let his colleagues get slaughtered. Securing his insteps on either side of the ladder, he loosened his hold and let gravity take him down.
* * *
Ronnie watched Zach slide down the ladder. Her eyes flickered to Quirk, whose jaw had dropped. And to think that she might one day, after they got clear of the CIA and ninja priests, she might actually date the guy who had just performed that feat? She watched as Zach hit the ground, unholstered his weapon, and crouched in perfect FBI-trained position, running across the street.
Shaking off the awe, Ronnie grabbed as many items as she could carry.
“Figure out how they got in,” Ronnie ordered Quirk as she climbed onto the ladder. She tried to replicate Zach’s maneuver, but nearly broke a finger and risked plummeting three stories. Reverting to the step-by-step method, Ronnie rushed down the stairs—the metal clanging.
“What did I tell you about clod-hopping?” Quirk complained, not seeming to realize or perhaps care that his voice was equally painful against her eardrums.
Trying to strap the diversion disc onto her back, Ronnie raced across the street. Guess their meticulous plan to enter through the rooftop and come down the elevator shaft, exiting right next to the locked prisoner’s cell where Quirk, in a perfectly timed hack, blew the lock. As she caught up to Zach, it looked as though he planned on walking, or more accurately, barging, in the front door.
He stopped at the entrance, and then held up three fingers. Each one that went down tightened Ronnie’s chest. Sure, she was a worldly, elite hacker. Sure, she liked to be out in the field. But she also went up against kids with water guns. As another muzzle flash flared from the interior of the building, Ronnie realized that she wasn’t quite so fond of live fire exercises.
Shoving open the glass door, Zach charged in, gun at the ready.
“I can’t tell FBI from ninja priests, but we’ve got three bodies moving together down the corridor to your right,” Quirk informed.
“They’re off to the right,” Ronnie whispered to Zach as they made their way through the lobby.
Zach nodded. “That’s the direction of the holding cells.”
Behind the desk, they found their first victim. Even Ronnie recognized the man. It was Special Agent Markum. Blood splattered his white shirt, pooling around his head. Zach knelt, tried to find a pulse, and then shook his head.
Oh, God. Zach used to play basketball with him.
Ninja priests were no longer so cute.
* * *
Zach tensed his jaw. Revenge would come later. Now he had to put aside the rage building just beneath his breastbone. Not just his office was under attack. The entire world was. And this crazy old man was important enough to lay an FBI field office under assault. Important enough for Zach to bottle that pressure in his chest and put it up on a shelf, brewing and growing until he let it out again.
He moved them forward in the near dark. His memory of the office guided them around desks and potted plants. Zach pulled Ronnie behind a hibiscus as two bloodied agents ran past them into the street. He didn’t blame them. At least they were alive—unlike Markum. They were up against a callous, callous enemy. As soon as the agents left his line of sight, Zach motioned Ronnie to get them on the go.
Tightening the grip on his gun, they pushed through another set of glass doors into the main bull pen. Even in the low light, blood glistened. Men he’d known and worked with for years lay dead on the ground. Their unseeing eyes stared blankly at him. So many wives, husbands, and children to be notified. But no more. Not if he could help it.
The tiniest pop sounded at his left. Jerking Ronnie with him, Zach dove under a desk. So they’d left a sentry. A gunman to secure their exit and provide sniper coverage against reinforcements.
Zach lifted his weapon to return fire, but Ronnie grabbed his arm.
“Wait.” Ronnie indicated the screen of the palmtop device she held. Zach assumed that he’d be looking at an infrared screen to track body heat, but instead, the image was the polar opposite. It tracked the least-warm objects in the room. Unfortunately, that meant the rapidly cooling bodies flared a bright blue. “Quirk, do you have control over the power supply yet?”
Zach watched as she cocked her head, listening. Either she had an earbud implanted, or, as Warp had long suspected, Quirk and Ronnie truly did have mind talk. She nodded at the unknown reply. “Copy that. You see that vent behind him?” she asked. “All right. You know what to do.”
Zach queried her with a look as shots rang out from the other side of the office. He glanced down to the screen. Their guy held on tight to his position.
“Just be ready,” Ronnie whispered.
“For what?”
Ronnie indicated the sniper. “Quirk. Now.”
Billows of cold air rushed from the vent, startling the gunman. Instinctively, he surged forward, away from the cover of the desk. Zach shot, tagging the guy in the shoulder and spinning him around. Pings sounded above their heads as the guy’s shots went far wide of their mark. Zach aimed for the chest and pulled the trigger.
Perhaps revenge wouldn’t have to wait. The shot drove the guy back, but not down. He must have been wearing a vest. Well, the vest did not protect one place. Zach popped off a shot, square to the forehead. The assailant wobbled, and then crumpled to the ground as Ronnie gasped behind him.
He turned to find her face blanched, and
the usual spark in her eye extinguished.
* * *
Ronnie felt Zach catch hold of her arm as she stared at the gunman. She’d seen death before. But never up close. She’d even killed a man, Jorge, to save Zach. But she had simply had to press a button from far, far away. Even Quirk’s simulations of the C4 earbuds had used the Powerpuff Girls as examples. A little hard to get queasy over cartoon blood.
This time, though, she’d actually seen a man die. She had seen the life vanish from his features. Even though he was an enemy, she couldn’t shake his desperation in the end.
“Ronnie, get down!” Quirk yelled in her ear.
She shoved Zach down with her as the too-familiar ping of a silencer sounded as bullets whizzed past her ear. Well, not past Zach’s. The tip of his ear now bore a red line. A bullet track.
Ronnie gulped. She didn’t have time for shock, survivor’s guilt, or even freaking out as shouts carried from deeper in the building.
“Quirk, get Warp whatever juice he needs,” Ronnie ordered as loud FBI fire was returned. “And try to figure out a way to flag us as friendlies.”
“Will do, but it looks like the main fight is in front of the holding cell. Might want to take the back route.”
She turned to find Zach studying her.
“Good to go?” he asked.
“Yeah.” Totally a lie.
Zach looked down at her hand, which clutched his tightly. “Not that I mind, but it’s probably best if I aim with both hands…”
“Oh, sorry,” she said, dropping her grip, but she didn’t feel quite so stable as a moment before. “Quirk thinks that we should take the side hall and double back around through the kitchen.”
Ronnie went to point out the route, but found that her finger was shaking too badly.
“Got it,” Zach said, but studied her face again. Ronnie put on her best “I’m ready for a good ol’ gunfight” face. He must have bought it, for he turned and checked his corners before ducking under an adjacent desk.
She followed close on his heels, relieved that the shouts and mayhem subsided the farther they followed the side hallway. Ronnie knew that at some point they would need to head back toward the action, but for now, she would rest her ears and nerves.
Zach put up a hand. Ronnie stopped as he ducked his head around the corner. “Crap.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Warp’s got all the lights back on. We’re never going to be able to sneak past the doorway.”
Ronnie pulled up the schematic. “No worries. I can just have Quirk—”
The sound of metal bouncing its way down the hallway diverted her attention. There, spinning end over end, was a grenade. A live grenade. Strangely, all Ronnie could think was… damn, these ninja priests are well armed.
“Move!” Zach yelled, grabbing her arm and flinging her around the corner. He was on her tail as the explosion lifted them up and off their feet. Fire hit the end of the hallway, splashing some in their direction. They scrambled back, dancing from the flames.
“In here!” Zach jerked open the door to the tech room.
Warp rose from his chair. “Agent Hunt!”
“Get down!” Zach demanded, shoving both her and Warp to the ground as he spun on his heel, firing behind them. A grunt answered as a dark figure retreated beyond view. “Stay here,” Zach whispered as he inched his way to the door.
The FBI tech tried to rise, but Ronnie tugged him back down. “When Zach says to stay, you stay.”
For the first time, Warp seemed to register that she was even there. His interest had been so focused on Zach that he seemed shocked that another person was in the room. Ronnie had always suspected that the shaggy-headed Warp had a guy-crush on Zach, and now she was sure of it.
“But, but…” Warp pushed his glasses up on his nose. “They are saying that Agent Hunt is doing this.”
“Warp, you don’t believe anything the ‘man’ says,” Ronnie scolded. For a Government-sanctioned hacker, he had a very trusting view of Big Brother. “I need you to coordinate with Quirk.”
He blinked twice. “Quirk?” Pulling away, the geek ran his fingers through his hair. “But that would make you… That means you are…”
“The Robin Hood hacker, yeah,” Ronnie acknowledged, really needing to get him back to his keyboard.
“Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God,” Warp said, wheezing as his hands flew to his chest. “Oh. My. God.”
Ronnie was used to tech boys gushing over her…online. To see one do so in person was a bit disconcerting. Plus, the whole “another grenade could fly in at any moment” thing was a problem.
“Breath, dude, breathe,” Ronnie encouraged.
“Yeah, have him hang around you for a week and see how he feels,” Quirk added in her ear.
The tech’s eyes darted from Zach near the door to Ronnie and back. “If you aren’t attacking, then why are you here?”
“Okay, so we did plan to break in,” Ronnie admitted, not having time to develop a plausible lie. “But come on, Warp, is this my style at all?”
The tech shook his head sharply. “No. I told them you would have tried to breach through the elevator shaft after incapacitating all the alarms.”
“Not bad,” Ronnie said. Actually, he was too freaking close to their original plan. She and Quirk were going to have to get more creative. “So, you have got to know that we wouldn’t come in with guns blazing.”
“You don’t even carry a gun.”
Ronnie nodded. Warp wasn’t just a fan boy; he was a huge fan boy. And because he was tasked with tracking her down, he was king of the Robin Hood hacker fan boys.
“And now, we need your help to stop any more agents getting killed.”
“Hey, you may need his help, but I don’t,” Quirk argued in her ear.
Luckily, Warp couldn’t hear Quirk’s disdain. “Okay, yeah,” Warp said. “What do I need to do?”
“I don’t like it. It’s too quiet.” Zach stated from the door. “Where’s the guy who threw the grenade?”
“Quirk?”
* * *
Maybe it was best that they brought on Warp, since Ronnie clearly thought that Quirk could somehow counter hack the assault hack, keep track of each and every assailant, and grieve the loss of “The One.”
Quirk checked the monitor, flipping into infrared mode. “He’s backed away and stationed himself toward the lobby. I don’t think you’re going to be able to exit in that direction.”
Some static was on the line as Ronnie moved around. If only she’d let him hire a doctor to surgically implant her mic.
“Zach and I are going to head out,” Ronnie said in a rush. “You and Warp work on cutting off the ninja priests’ countersurveillance.”
Yeah, like he hadn’t thought of that. How he hated it when she had to show off in front of strangers. “Wow. What a shockingly brilliant idea.”
“Just patch him in.”
Quirk hit the keyboard, dialing Warp’s number. As he watched the two blips that represented Zach and Ronnie move out of the room, a very nervous voice answered the phone. “Hello?”
Well, at least the civil servant was polite. “Yeah, Warp, get your groove on. There’s a van parked a block away from the building. We need to lay down some serious interference.”
“Wait. Now that I have a communications channel, let me contact the fire department—”
“Done.”
“And the closest field office in Albuquerque—”
“Done.”
“Then the local—”
Quirk cut the nerd off. “Look, we’re going to have every city department plus a gaggle of news choppers descending on us in five minutes. We need to make sure that everyone survives for the next five minutes.”
Something shifted in Warp’s tone. His voice sounded stronger. Less wigged-out. “On it.”
Well. Okay, then. Maybe Quirk was going to like having an assistant of his very own.
* * *
Zach stu
died the palmtop in Ronnie’s hand. Although, he could probably guess what was happening from the gunfire and screams. The assailants had the agents pinned near the holding cell. Given the blitz attack, Zach was surprised that three agents still stood. But soon, the assailants would pull out the grenades, and none would be left.
The Hidden Hand must have wanted Francois alive, or this whole thing would have been over minutes ago. To get to the action, he and Ronnie only needed to pass through the kitchen to get to the bull pen, but there was a gap between the desks. A good ten-foot gap—without cover. And the gunmen had taken up protected positions by the doorway.
“I’m going to need some kind of distraction to get into the room,” he told Ronnie.
She bit the edge of her lip. “The boys are still trying to make sure that they can’t see you get into the room.”
“You got anything in that bag of tricks in your pack?” he asked.
“Well…” Ronnie said, a bit of red coming to her cheeks. “We’ve got a fibrillator.”
“You mean, defibrillator?”
She shook her head. “No, I mean fibrillator.” Ronnie pulled a shoe box-sized device from her pack. “Basically, it creates a sound that is known to put the heart into fibrillation.”
“You mean—it kills people with noise?”
“Temporarily kills people with a finely tuned pitch that overexcites the electrical node of the heart.”
Zach stared at the woman he thought he had come to know over the last nine months. But he didn’t have time to explore the choices that Ronnie made with her spare time. There were more pressing matters. “Exactly how temporarily are we talking?”
“Um…remember how ‘beta’ the ray gun was?” From his nod, she continued. “Yeah, that EM pulser was miles down the production road.”
Since Zach wasn’t going to stop his agents’ hearts on the hope that they started again, he nodded toward her pack. “Anything else?”
Encrypted: An Action-Packed Techno-Thriller Page 20