Trial Run

by Thomas Locke

  Trent searched the system and realized, “He’s only got the security system here.”

  “So?”

  “I need access to the system computer.”

  Eli shrugged. “If it’s not there, it doesn’t exist.”

  Trent realized the physics research group had to be operating from their own mainframe. Which was both good and bad. Good, because it suggested any preliminary findings would be backed up only within the system itself. That made sense if this group was paranoid about keeping everything hidden away from other intel departments. Bad, because he would have to go down and access the mainframe from inside the division.

  “Is anybody working in the physics department?”

  “How should I know, man. I’ve never even spoken to them. They come, they go.” Eli yawned. “I need to crash.”

  “Ten minutes.” Trent figured it would be about that long before the kid lost any interest in sleep. “Right now I need you to go tell me when the physics department door opens up.”

  “Man, you’re gonna set off every alarm in the state. Those security goofs don’t mess around.”

  “Don’t worry,” Trent said. “It’s going to be fine.”

  The kid cast a doubtful look as he left the room. Trent hit the various buttons by each of the departmental checkpoints, sealing the doors open and memorizing his way into the main lab.

  He then went online and drew up a site he had spent hours sneaking around. He had always considered it time wasted and lost forever. Until now.

  The latest generation of physicists took quiet pride in their computer prowess. They were all secret hackers at heart. Only their hunger to probe the boundaries of human knowledge kept them legal. But nothing stopped them from fooling around on their time off.

  Any late-night gathering of physicists eventually descended to the point of softly whispered abandon. One of the group would cast a quick aside, merely to check the group’s tone, make sure they were all on the same wavelength. Then they started talking about other boundaries. They snickered like kids and knew the gut-tightening thrill of sliding under the barbed wire of legality.

  They loved nothing better than sneaking into supposedly hidden hacker sites. Looking around. Mostly they left little “Killroy was here” signs and snuck out. But not for the special sites. These they shared over the last pitcher of beer and pretended they weren’t just another bunch of lonely nerds. Times like these, they were electronic pirates. Spies making their way through fields buckled by land mines. People of power.

  Trent had not shared this particular treasure trove with anyone, for the simple reason that he had not had a chance to do so in person. He had still been working his way through the find when he received the first dream and met Shane and watched his life shoot off on a totally different course. And this site was simply too good to talk about online.

  A group of Soviet hackers had built their own version of a safety deposit box, filled with every electronic worm and virus and bomb and spawn they could find. Trent had worked his way through about two dozen of their collection and come upon some real gems.

  Eli popped back into the room. “The doors downstairs all just opened up.”

  “Great.” Trent searched through Neil Townsend’s desk and came up with a memory stick. He jammed it into the laptop’s USB port, then selected four truly deadly specimens from the website, viruses that ate away the host system in a matter of nanoseconds. He downloaded three, then fed the fourth into the building’s security system. “Okay. I’m all done here.”

  73

  Kevin whined, “I still don’t understand why Brett Riffkind’s name is in our system at all.”

  “It makes perfect sense, if you’d stop complaining about getting woken up and think.”

  “I’m thinking as hard as I can at four in the morning.” Kevin sounded almost petulant. “And it doesn’t make any sense at all.”

  “I’ve told you all this, Kevin. This whole program is based on a system Riffkind helped design, then stole and sent to us. Our agreement was that he would come join us and be given the right to claim any physics-related discoveries as his own.”

  “Tell me you weren’t actually going to let this guy go public about our work.”

  “Kevin, will you please wake up.”

  “You’re the one who sounds drunk.”

  Reese knew she did and there wasn’t anything she could do about it. The drug left her feeling like her blood was congealed, her brain still mostly asleep. The road in front of her windscreen swam in and out of focus. The only reason she had made it this far was because she had the roads to herself. She had the cell phone hooked to her car’s Bluetooth. She disliked the way her voice rang in the empty vehicle. “Riffkind wouldn’t be allowed to do anything without my approval. Which he wasn’t going to get. But we needed him on-site. Who knows how far we can take this thing? If anybody can help us refine the process, it’s the guy who made it work in the first place.”

  “I still say it was a bad idea.”

  “And I’m telling you, it was the only logical course. Riffkind was coming over. We had his room ready, lab space, the works. Then he vanished. Now I’m thinking I shouldn’t have called you at all.”

  “No, no. I just didn’t get much sleep, is all.”

  “That makes two of us.”

  He made a rustling sound. Reese realized he must have dragged his hand across his unshaven cheek. He asked, “Where are you?”

  “Just pulling into the parking garage.” Her phone chimed. She checked the readout and said, “Hang on, I’ve got a call coming in from Jeff.”

  The security chief said, “The building’s whole security system has just gone down.”

  His laconic tone was the only thing that kept her from flipping out. “That can’t happen.”

  “I wish. This is the third time in eight months. It’s always been some glitch that the techies take hours to find. Which is why they should have stuck to human monitoring.”

  She didn’t have the time or the mental energy for this. “What do you mean, down?”

  “Cameras, monitors, door-locks, the works. Same as before.” The security chief sounded almost satisfied, as though having an electronic error confirmed his own worth. “Always happens in the middle of the night. Which is good, if you think about it. The landline phones are okay. My guy’s done a check. Everything is cool. Eli and Neil are still in the atrium talking with Elene.”

  Reese stepped from her car. The parking garage was utterly silent. The night air tasted almost sweet. “I thought you said it was just Neil.”

  “Eli’s been drifting around. I saw him before I left. He never sleeps much. But I’ve pulled the duty officer off searching the bedrooms. I want him walking the beat. Let Riffkind sleep.”

  She took as much comfort from his tone as his words. “I’m parked and going in.”

  “Not through the tunnel, you’re not. I told you, the doors are out.”

  “How do I get inside?”

  “Go back to your car and drive to the loading entrance. I’m two minutes out. We’ll do it the old-fashioned way. We’ll walk around to the front door and I’ll use my key.”

  74

  Trent strolled through the building’s physics department. The place was drawn from his fantasies of where he’d always wanted to wind up. It was made up of eight large chambers. Everything he saw defined pristine. The eight rooms were linked by glass panels and sliding doors, all open now. The labs were jammed with equipment, a lot of which Trent figured the physicists probably didn’t need. It was like somebody had gathered a bunch of geeks together and tossed them a checkbook and said, make a list. Three electron microscopes fed into the largest flat-screen monitors Trent had ever seen. A Cray supercomputer stood in its own room. The iconic tower rose from its cooling unit like a polished black sculpture in a pool of glowing water. They had everything.

  Trent was jolted to see his formula scrawled across a wall-length greaseboard. He picked up the eraser to wi
pe it away. But his hand would not obey.

  He jerked at a sound drifting in from outside. Somebody might have laughed. Or perhaps they called his name. He had no idea how long he stood there. Staring at two years of work. Wishing he could do away with the whole nightmarish scenario.

  He rubbed the writing so hard he knocked the greaseboard off the wall. He jumped back, then just felt it all come apart. He stabbed the board with his heel. Again. Stomping down over and over, smashing it into a billion pieces. Just like his thesis and his dreams and his life. Gone.

  His chest heaving, he walked from room to room, moving farther away from the entrance. His stolen hard drives were in the admin desk’s top drawer, just as Elene had seen in her ascent. He used a nickel-plated sampling hammer he found in the same drawer to smash them to a pulp.

  Also as Elene had described, he found a computer station by the isolation chamber that was still up and running. The screen was turned away from the front rooms. A weary physicist had obviously neglected to walk back and power down. It happened all the time. Only today it meant that Trent could sidestep the security system and access the mainframe. He found a standard USB port located on the keyboard and uncapped the memory stick containing the viruses he’d downloaded from the Russian website.

  It didn’t take long. The mainframe gave off a sound that was almost like a human sob. And the screen went blank.

  Trent left the rooms without a backward glance. There was nothing for him here.

  75

  Consuela followed Joss slowly through the Departures Lounge. “We could get in serious trouble.”

  “Hey, what are they gonna do, dock our pay?” Joss reached the stairs going down to the transit room and grinned back at her. “This could be a gas.”

  “I’m thinking more like a disaster.”

  “And I’m telling you, it’s time we see how far we can take this.”

  Consuela took her time going down the stairs. Wondering why she followed him at all. When she arrived in the transit room, Joss was already bouncing on the chair. Like a kid testing out bedsprings.

  She said, “You’re a fiend.”

  He laughed out loud. “No argument there.”

  “I should go.”

  “Come on, lady. See, I remembered and I’m talking nice. Who turned you into a mouse?”

  “Reese is who. Don’t tell me the woman don’t scare you too.”

  “Absolutely. But here’s the thing. She’s got her own ladder to climb, right? She’ll have us waiting, like, weeks before they green-light this deal. Believe me, I know all about officers and how much time they can waste.” He gestured at the empty chair beside him. “Come on, lady. The motor’s primed and running.”

  His smile convinced her more than his words. “You are a wicked, wicked boy.”

  He only grinned harder. “Tell me you don’t love it.”

  “I hate you.”

  “Like I believe that for one minute.”

  “How can we do this without, you know, Reese and the sounds and everything?”

  “I got Karla to show me the ropes. I go upstairs, I turn the stuff on, then I come back and we go. I’ve done it, like, a million times.”

  “You’re such a liar.”

  “Okay, five.”

  “For real?”

  “I get bored sitting there in my room waiting for the next shot. So I go up alone.”

  Consuela found herself drawn by the prospect. “You’re not fooling.”

  “What, you think I’d drag you down here to pretend?”

  “Or something.”

  Joss grinned at her. “That’s an idea.”

  But she was caught by the prospect of a secret transit now. “That means you get control.”

  “Go where I want, when I want. I figure maybe they know about this all along. Karla checking with Reese, the lady deciding why not, give it a go and see how it flies. I think Elene’s done it by herself too, but I didn’t get a chance to ask her. Tell you the truth, when I did it the first time, sitting down here all by my lonesome, I was one scared little puppy.”

  “I can’t imagine you being scared over anything.”

  His grin returned. “Except you.”

  “Yeah, well, you got a good reason there.” She settled back. “So what do I do?”

  He popped out of his chair. “First we figure what it is we’re going to do. Then I go upstairs and set the stuff up. I say we transit, meet up here, then go straight for the target.”

  “The woman and the guy and the team in Switzerland.”

  “Name the name, that’s rule one in sniper school. You ID the target and you build your scenario around the situation at hand.”

  “You scare me, talking like that. It makes everything so real.”

  “Real as it gets, lady. You in?”

  She reached for her headphones. “What is it you guys say before action? Lock and load, is that right?”

  76

  The knocking at Shane’s door was as unwelcome as it was persistent. Shane moaned and rolled over and found her mouth was so dry she could not tell them to go away.

  The knocking stopped, then started anew. Shane groaned a second time and forced herself up and crossed the room and said, “Not now.”

  “It’s Gabriella. I’m sorry to disturb you.”

  “Hold on a moment.” She shuffled into the bathroom, found a robe hanging from the back of the door, slipped it on, then came back and let Gabriella in. “How long have I been asleep?”

  “Three hours. Not long enough, I’m sure. But I left this as long as I could.” Gabriella entered bearing a tray with a silver thermos and sandwiches and linen napkins and two cups. A leather briefcase was slung over her shoulder. “I need your help. If you are willing.”

  “Sure. Is that for me?”

  “Yes. I thought you might need something.”

  “Let me get on some clothes.” When she emerged from the bathroom, Shane discovered that Gabriella had made the bed and rearranged the furniture. The coffee table had been drawn over beside the bed. The chair from the desk was pulled up beside the table. The tray was set on the dresser by the door. On the coffee table was a cluster of electronic gear. “You want me to ascend?”

  “No. I must do this. I need you to guide me.” Gabriella lifted a sheet of paper. “I have written out everything that is required. We can go through this while you eat. Timing is very important. I must begin in . . .” She checked her watch. “Precisely eighteen minutes.”

  Shane drank a cup of coffee and ate a sandwich standing up. Gabriella stood beside her, walking her through the instructions. The process followed the same pattern as what Shane had heard on the iPod but was much more tightly controlled. She set down her cup and said, “I can do this.”

  “I am certain you can.” Gabriella hugged her very swiftly, then walked to the bed. “Elizabeth should be the one helping me. But I cannot ask her.”

  “You two have argued.”

  “Never. But she is in love with Charlie. And I am ascending so that I can go to him. And join in a very special way.” Gabriella settled onto the bed. “Elizabeth would help me. But I would rather not have to ask. I hope you can understand that.”

  “Absolutely.” Shane watched her fit on the headphones. “So all I have to do is press this button, then speak into the mike.”

  “Be sure and follow the clock exactly. The timing is essential.” Gabriella used both hands to adjust her pillow. “Which is why I could not ask Massimo. He is a wonderful young man. But he and his friends have become increasingly, how should I say, disassociated. They ascend together as a group. For them, it comes natural. These days I feel they are tethered to earth by the thinnest of threads. One hard wind, and poof, they would drift away. I cannot rely on him to even notice the time, much less follow it. How long do we have?”

  The laptop screen showed a numerical clock in the upper right-hand corner. “Six minutes.”

  “The others of my team think Massimo and his group are just
adolescents who play at ascending. They are very helpful and do much of the kitchen work and the cleaning. Yet they only seem to play when they ascend. Then occasionally Massimo says something, usually to me in private. And I am left wondering if perhaps he is why we are here at all.”

  Shane found the woman on her bed invited confidences, both by her words and the manner in which she spoke. “Are you in love with Charlie too?”

  “So much I have spent a year running from him. In truth, I have two professions. I am a psychologist. And I am a specialist in choosing the world’s worst men.”

  Rain and wind pounded on the window. Shane asked, “You think Charlie is wrong for you?”

  “Of course not. If he was, I would have invited him in long ago.” Gabriella’s smile was piercingly sad. “It is so hard to break bad habits, no?”

  “Terrible.”

  “Do you know, I think we are to become the very best of friends.” She studied Shane a moment longer, then reached for the phone. “It is time for me to join with Charlie.”

  77

  Charlie used his fake ID to take yet another motel room. He had spent a small fortune over the past few days on temporary residences. This particular suites-only motel stood where the main airport road met the avenue leading back to the facility. Charlie made a thorough check of his room on the second floor. He disliked being off the ground floor, but this was the last room they had. The night manager had charged him the full rack rate. Two hundred and seventy dollars plus tax. A lot of money for a ninety-minute stay. But from where he stood on the balcony, Charlie could look out over the dark airport runway and straight into the compound where Elene and Trent were now.

  The building where Reese Clawson worked was a featureless block that shone pearl-white under the security lights. Dawn was about two hours away. The roads and airport were still. Charlie knew the quiet was an illusion. He had known the instant he heard Reese’s name that this confrontation would end with a bang.