Of course, there was the detail of the cars in general. Eddard walked them through that part the night before, when he'd shared the surveillance photos his team at Mi5 had collected. The main, covered lot filled most of the area behind the acre or so of dirt housing rows of transformer towers. Eddard's Mi5 team already knew from x-ray images that over half the parking slots were taken during weekdays, despite the fact that most substations were almost fully automated.
On weekends, like now, the parking lot still contained over a dozen cars. Yet none of the people driving those cars walked in or out of the organic doors to the main building.
Varlan's team had been in place since dawn, and they'd only seen one person, period, and that had been the gardener watering the landscaped trees and bushes rimming the main office complex.
High, razor-wire barriers stood around the entire structure, including the two-story building, the parking lots and a low equipment shed on a lower service road. A checkpoint let cars in and out...automatically, it appeared...but still, Chandre had to admit it was strange. Not exactly high-grade security, but more than was usual for a structure of this kind.
Further, where did the people go? Were those cars in the lot simply company cars? Or did some of the techs actually sleep somewhere in the complex?
Chandre had already picked up the hum of current from the fence, as well.
"Look closer, sister. That's not just an electrified fence," Varlan murmured beside her, sliding the gun up to his shoulder on its jointed harness. He gave her a level look. "How many electrical substations do you know of that have OBE fields protecting them?"
Chandre didn't answer, but she extended her light briefly to confirm his words.
Once she had, she clicked out, frowning.
He was right. She'd missed that, too.
OBE, or organic binary electrical fields, were generally only found around military bases...and often not even around those. They had been designed and implemented by Black Arrow Industries, the same group that collected most of the big ticket defense contracts involving sophisticated seer tech. They designed and manufactured most of the organic tech contracted for by the government...and not only the government of the United States.
"You still think it's underground?" she said, just as soft.
He gestured a 'yes' in seer. In the same instant, she felt him ping the seers on the other side to let them know to be ready.
He'd felt something. Likely in the security station.
Chandre glanced down the line of the cement wall, wondering again what possessed her to come along on this little jaunt, even though she hadn't been able to clear it with Balidor. She managed to catch Maygar's gaze from where he stood beside two of Varlan's people. Eddard was with that group, too, standing on Maygar's other side and showing the other female infiltrator something he had on a portable monitor. It had been agreed to split into two teams, with Varlan on one and Eddard on the other, since they were the only two who seemed to have detailed information about the existence and layout of the facility.
Even though he was human, Eddard provided not only the basic plan, but also the majority of the input into organizing this little outing. He convinced Varlan, with not a small amount of money, that it would be better if they all did it together, and not only because they all shared essentially the same goals.
He also convinced them to do it sooner rather than later. According to intelligence he had from his superiors in England, the disease would be deployed again soon...although whether as another demonstration or for real this time, no one knew.
Eddard was convinced that he could help them on the inside, as well. His only price had been to collect at least a sample of the antiviral for the disease, as well as a sample of the disease itself. He said the antidote would be replicated back in England once he returned, mostly as insurance, in the event that another supply of the virus existed elsewhere.
Why he'd been so insistent that Chan and Maygar come, she could only guess. She'd tried to read him to determine if he was working for the Seven, too, but there were blocks on his light that felt like military. Even Varlan admitted to her that Eddard was well shielded...which likely meant he hadn't been able to fully penetrate those shields, either.
In any case, Varlan seemed content to be paid.
The whole arrangement made Chan nervous...and not only because a frontal assault on the compound was a lot riskier for all of them.
She also still had her doubts about who hired Varlan in the first place...much less what their true motives were in wanting to destroy a disease that only seemed to kill humans. Eddard called Varlan's client 'Shadow,' but that name could mean anything, since it was obviously fake.
Moreover, Varlan was a Rook. Chandre could feel it in his light as tangibly as she could feel it on any of her brothers or sisters who had worked under Galaith. The Dreng seethed through his light...so did traces of the Pyramid. In fact, it felt like such a part of him she had trouble distinguishing Varlan's own aleimi as a separate vibration. Varlan may not have followed Terian after Galaith's demise, but he had not lost any of his allegiance to the cause...nor to the Dreng.
The idea of conducting a joint op with one like him made her nervous.
The realization that she could disappear out here and no one would know where she had gone, or who she had gone with, made her nervous as well.
Varlan gave her a sideways smile, but Chandre brushed it off, unapologetic.
"Do not pretend such sentiments surprise you," was all she said.
"I do not," he said, his voice low. "But I do wonder at the loyalty you feel towards the Sword, in spite of this aversion..."
"I don't know what you mean," she said stiffly.
"Of course you do." Varlan smiled. "He is, after all, my master, too."
Chandre didn't answer. She knew Varlan didn't work for the rebels, not directly anyway. So he must be religious then. That, and he clearly viewed the Sword as the new Head of the Rooks network down on Earth.
"Who else did you imagine held that spot?" Varlan asked, his amusement plain once more.
"Salinse," Chandre said at once.
Varlan gave her a dismissive look, but didn't comment.
"So you really think Eddard's plan will work?" Chandre said. "With only six of us...and a human...you think we have enough to succeed with a frontal assault?"
"He claims he can shoot straight," Varlan mused, smiling at her again.
"You know what I mean, Varlan."
"I do," he conceded. "We planned this op initially with only four infiltrators, sister Chandre...and no human Mi5 agent. It was not a frontal assault, true, but I could find no fault with the plan the worm laid out...and it shaves months off my operating time." He glanced up from where he'd been surveying the charged fence, smiling at her faintly once more. "...Besides, blind or no, a worm who can shoot is still an asset. You have worked with humans yourself over the years, have you not, sister...?"
Chandre heard the faint dig behind his words. Her face hardened, but she acknowledged his comment with a gesture, holding the harnessed rifle close to her body.
Varlan hunkered down, once more in a waiting posture.
Chandre knew he was monitoring time from the Barrier.
Since she had gone over the plans with all of them the night before, she knew also that they were now waiting for the shift change for the outside security guards to occur. She still couldn't see the guard of course; supposedly the booth lived just inside that green-glassed structure that stood between them and the substation transformers. The building, despite its relatively tall windows, was as bland and featureless as a military barracks building, and looked like it hadn't been painted in at least a decade. It also, despite the expensive organic doors and the cars parked in front, seemed to be entirely uninhabited...and more than a little shabby. Browning trees dotted the entrances, all the way down to a long and even more featureless shed in the lower driveway, where trash barrels stood in rows next to a yellow dumpster a
nd a hill of rusted scrap metal.
In all the time they'd waited, not a single person had walked between those buildings or out into the substation itself.
Chandre was watching the main doors to the green building, checking her own watch periodically, when a dark blue pick up truck grew visible in the distance, bumping down the long service road to the fenced main gate. The road was paved...barely...but the truck's massive tires still kicked up a thin cloud of dust when the truck swerved, making the final turn before the substation's main driveway. Slowing as it reached the perimeter gate, the truck came to a full stop beside a stand-alone terminal located directly outside the line of the OBE.
"Do you have him?" she asked Varlan.
He didn't answer her at first.
Looking away from Varlan, Chandre watched the man in the truck. He only sat there for a minute, engine idling. Just when she was beginning to think the pause was too obvious, that they'd know something was wrong on the surveillance feeds, she saw the truck driver lean over to roll down his window. The truck was old enough that he had to crank the window down by hand...but like the antique parked in front of the glass doors, it also looked refurbished. She wondered about the obsession with antique cars, and then it clicked.
Non-organic components. The military often used older models in their civilian-based fleets, to keep them from being hijacked. The station probably logged every kilometer they traveled.
"Do you have him, Varlan?" she asked again, feeling her pulse rise a little.
Varlan gestured an affirmative. His eyes clicked back into focus, even as the gates opened in front of the truck's grill.
Neither of them moved or spoke as the driver threw the vehicle into gear, and drove through the OBE. Chandre found herself watching Varlan's face. By the time the driver was steering the truck down to the lower lot, where the long storage shed lived, the tautness in the older infiltrator's eyes had relaxed. Glancing up, he nodded to her, and she felt herself relax a little, too...but not much.
The truck parked next to a number of other less-expensive vehicles, just to the left of the long shed. The security guard got out a few seconds later, holding his uniform jacket over one arm and what looked like a lunchbox in his other hand. Even from where they crouched, Chandre could see his gun belt and shoulder harness. He began walking leisurely back towards the shed's main entrance, sipping from a paper coffee cup.
"Well armed for a rent a cop," she commented.
Varlan didn't answer, but continued to focus on the guard.
In order to get through the OBE and the secure Barrier construct, they needed someone on the inside. Rather than doing the usual and getting their own person hired with clearance, Eddard proposed they wait until the shift change and establish a tap with the new security guard on duty. It was risky, of course...something they couldn't have even attempted without Varlan with them. A lower-ranked infiltrator couldn't have pulled it off without being seen by whoever held the lab's construct.
But the main risk for that part had been overcome already. Varlan had gotten to the guard and established the link before they entered the construct. Given the short window they had, that initial tap had been the difference between success and failure. Anomalies in a seer's or a human's light wouldn't be noticed as easily if they entered the construct that way. Once inside, however, any changes in an individual's aleimi...especially a human, especially a human working in a high-grade security capacity...would show up like a flare in an otherwise predictably gray backdrop.
"You're sure you have him?" she repeated, rearranging her hands on the gun.
"Yes."
"They didn't notice you in the entrance scan?"
"No."
"You are sure, Varlan?"
Giving her an amused look, he clicked softly. Then he glanced down the wall, making a series of hand gestures to the other seers. He looked up at Chandre again once he had, his eyes serious. "Down," he said, pointing to the lower level of the fence, the part by the long shed and surrounded by trees. "I read him while I arranged the tap. He can open the OBE for up to fifteen second intervals. Any of the guards can...to run perimeter checks...but only within certain intervals. We have five minutes before the next. There's an access tunnel there..."
He pointed to a gate she could just see in the trees below the long shed.
Following the direction of his fingers, Chandre nodded.
When he began making his way soundlessly past the gap in the wall and through the trees, she followed, moving as quietly as she could. Behind her, she saw the other seers following. As they did, something else occurred to her.
They would all be entering at a single point now. Riskier if they got caught, but it would make it easier to communicate without using the Barrier. Once they were inside the construct, there would all have to maintain Barrier silence. Even as she thought it, she saw Varlan hand-signal to one of his people, a female seer with another of those Nazi scars across her face.
Chandre caught the gist of his signal and stared at him in surprise.
"We need one on the outside," he said softly. "We can spare her now. Maygar will take her place, bringing up the rear."
Hesitating, Chandre nodded, watching as the female disappeared into the trees.
Seconds later, they reached the edge of the OBE by the outer fence.
Chandre's eyes scanned upwards, taking in the dense metal mesh fence, and the top covered in glass shards and razor wire. If anything went wrong, they weren't getting back out that way, even without the OBE in place to fry them when they tried to get through.
Rather than speak, Varlan used sign language.
Two teams, he signaled to the remaining six of them. Three and three. Don't risk the fifteen second gap...go straight through. We reconvene after the second fence...
Chandre saw nods and gestures of acknowledgement.
You're with me, he signaled to Chandre.
Swallowing, she was about to answer, when he grabbed her arm.
"Now," he murmured, pushing her forward towards the fence.
Chandre felt herself tense, instinctively reacting to the current she could feel from the OBE...but she didn't fight him. The current dropped dramatically as she reached the edge of the trees, and disappeared just before she and Varlan and a third seer broke cover. She crossed the remaining yards and felt something in her chest relax.
She'd seen what OBE fields could do to a person...
Before she could complete the thought, they were through.
Within a few seconds, she stood on the other side of both fences as well. She crouched in the trees with Varlan and the other seer, looking back at the remaining three, which included Maygar, Eddard, and a hulking giant of a seer that Chandre had heard called Rex. He, too, had the Nazi scar on his face. It hadn't really occurred to Chandre until then, but all of them did, with the exception of the tall, thin seer who'd come through the OBE with her and Varlan. He appeared to be a few centuries younger than the others and had unusual coloring for a seer, in that he looked like a human of African descent, both from the color of his skin and from the texture of his hair. Chandre knew that seers like him went for a cool couple of million Euros on the black market. They were virtually impossible to visually detect as seers, so high ranked ones could cost as much as twenty-million once they were trained. It was the rarest ethnic coloring seers could be born with...even rarer than the blond hair and blue-eyed variety, which only showed up in something like one in a million as well.
Chandre watched the human security guard, who stood behind them, as if looking casually out into the trees while he enjoyed his morning coffee. His blank-eyed stare remained peaceful as he worked the controls of a standing terminal just outside the second fence. He acted like none of them were even there, like he was just testing to make sure the mechanism was working.
All six of them waited for the next interval, five minutes after the first. Then, abruptly, Varlan gestured urgently to the other three still outside the fence.
They didn't wait. Within five of those seconds, the three of them bolted out of cover and across the line of the switched off OBE. They joined them after the second fence, and then the six of them were moving, staying low behind the cover of trees overlooking the long shed.
Varlan turned to Chandre once more, using hand signals.
The entrance is through the shed...
Surprised, Chandre only nodded. So the green building was cover, too.
The security guard, still moving casually and whistling now, walked back to the long, featureless shed in front of them. Instead of going through the main entrance however, he walked past it to the other side. Hanging a left, he followed a cement path that ran between the shed and a high, cylinder-block wall. The seers followed cautiously, but at the edge of the path, once they were shielded by the wall, Varlan raised a hand, indicating for all of them to stop.
The guard walked directly to a featureless segment of the shed's wall. Chandre watched as he laid his hand on the bare-looking metal. There must have been a disguised organic panel there, because seconds later, the guard entered another elaborate code into a terminal that revealed itself from behind a panel that slid open in the dirty gray surface.
A few more seconds after that, a larger door smoothly retreated sideways into the wall.
There was another pause while the guard went inside.
He's disengaging the image recorders... Varlan signaled. Be ready to move. We can't keep them off for more than ten seconds without it being noticed in the control room...
A few seconds later, the infiltrator motioned sharply for them to head for the door.
Following Varlan's hand gestures, they darted from cover to the opening in the shed wall. Chandre, since she was just behind Varlan, was one of the first to make it through the new door. Inside was a surprisingly small, squarish room with high walls.
Every segment of those walls reflected a pale, organic green. Chandre barely glanced at the mirror-like tiles, though, focusing more on remaining silent while the other seers joined them one by one inside the shed walls. She watched the security guard re-engage the outside imaging the instant Maygar entered behind Eddard. It wasn't until they were all there and the outer door was closing that Chandre looked around at where she stood, and realized she knew exactly what the small room was for. Once it hit her, her brow cleared.
Allie's War Season Two Page 87