by Cameron, TR
When she finished, she had an armful. It included several pairs of khaki tactical pants and t-shirts with Army, Navy, and Marines emblazoned on them, enough for a week plus a day between washing. She also had several dress uniform tops in different colors, sufficiently heavy to keep her warm if that became an issue. She grabbed a web belt as she passed it, along with some pouches and a canteen to attach to it.
Cara stopped at an unmarked door near the back and stood on her tiptoes to look over the racks at the owner. He nodded, and the lock gave a soft click. She moved through it quickly, closing it behind her. This was the part of the store you only got access to if you already knew it was there. Bayonets and machetes rested on shelves climbing one wall, but she wouldn’t need those as long as she had her daggers.
I do need something other than the revolver, though. Bull—once she mustered out, she was given the honor of using his name rather than his rank—wasn’t willing to break the law in a big way, so he didn’t carry guns. Instead, the room held heavy-duty Tasers, along with canisters of mace and pepper spray. She took a couple of each, then grabbed a police nightstick, technically a tonfa, wadding them all up inside the clothes filling her arms.
She used the eyehole in the door to time her exit, slipping out when the coast was clear. The walk to the counter resulted in a handful of protein bars added to the load. He rang up each item separately, moving the secret ones under the cover of the t-shirts. He named a number, and she handed over the requisite amount of bills. Quietly, he asked, “You okay?”
She nodded. “You know it. But if anyone asks, I wasn’t here.”
He packed her belongings in a duffel bag he’d thrown in for free, military surplus, of course, and set it on the counter. “Nope. You weren’t. Haven’t seen you in years, whoever the hell you are.” He smiled. “If you need to ‘not be here’ again, come by anytime.”
“Hooah, Sarge. Until then.”
Chapter Eighteen
Kevin Serrano strode into his team’s shiny new offices for only the second time, and his sense of satisfaction was as keen as it had been on the first. His direct subordinate, Tash, was waiting inside the door, doubtless having watched his progress through the tracker in his car and the exterior cameras mounted surreptitiously on the facade of the office park building.
Their facility was small, more or less a cube that was three floors high. Two of them merged in the back to create a garage with a training area for his team. The space above it housed their main meeting area. The front of the building contained individual offices, smaller conference rooms, a kitchen, and the usual business stuff. After exchanging greetings with the witch, they walked to his office, where he held his palm against a sensor outside to unlock the door.
His desk was corporate casual, as was all the furniture in their space. No one, least of all him, had cared about any of those details. He only needed a functional place. Form didn’t enter into it.
Tash, officially Natasha Kline, plopped down in the chair across from him and put her feet up on the desk. “So, what’s the deal, Bossman?”
Kevin chuckled. During their first few months together, he’d tried reining in her attitude, which he’d initially judged unprofessional. It hadn’t taken him much time to conclude that as long as her actions were professional and effective, which they were, he didn’t care about her manners. “The senators were impressed with the vimana. They said so after you left. Not real thrilled we failed to capture any of the agents, though.”
She shrugged. “Stuff happens. They had a good plan and executed it well. We’re lucky to have gotten what we did.”
“Agreed. I told the senators as much. They’re politicians, though, so they probably only understood every third word and spent the whole conversation thinking about how to get a donation out of me.”
Her laughter showed that her opinion of politicians matched his. “Well, at least the glad-handing is over for a while, right? They don’t need you there to wipe their noses for them until something else major develops?”
He nodded. “If there’s any mercy in heaven, that’ll be awhile. Now, what’s your take on our initial op?”
Tash straightened in her chair, dropping her boots to the floor. “The team worked well as a unit. Everyone did what they were supposed to. The anti-magic backpacks held Makka and me back, but that’s fine. We knew we wouldn’t have our normal abilities going in. That’s what target practice is for.”
He nodded. Making the magicals cross-train had been his idea, although he hadn’t had a specific purpose for it when he’d told them to do it.
She continued, “I don’t think we could’ve done anything better. The assault seemed to achieve total surprise, given how much stuff they left behind, especially the artifacts. They did some good contingency planning, executed the plan efficiently, and it worked out well for them. Not a damn thing anyone can do against that.”
“Too true. How did the team take it?”
The witch laughed. “They went out for drinks that night and celebrated their total success, Makka tells me.”
The unit hierarchy was pretty simple. He was in charge, Tash second in command. Together, they constituted the officer corps. The rest were under them, including the wizard who’d worked with Tash on countless other occasions. They could count on Makka to report truthfully on the actions of the others. It wasn’t that Kevin didn’t trust his people. He just believed in verification whenever possible.
He stifled a yawn and made a mental note to install a coffeemaker in his office. “And the rest of our base here?”
“Offices are assigned. We have a few rooms devoted to bunks in case we need to sleep over. Kitchen is fully stocked. Armory is in good shape, next to the garage, so we’ll have no delays rolling out. Gun ranges are great for pistols but only okay for rifles. Too short. But you can’t have everything.”
“Outstanding. I’ll be sure to kick that problem up the ladder to our oversight committee, who will doubtless take it up as their primary concern.”
He managed to put the perfect amount of sarcasm into the sentence to inspire a laugh from his subordinate. “How is that committee?”
He sighed. “A bunch of chuckleheads. Still, since the two senators from Nevada who are very clearly on our side lead it, I don’t see too much trouble coming from the group. We might occasionally have to give one of them the dollar tour, let them wear a uniform, shoot a gun, that sort of thing. As long as our reports look right, I don’t think they’ll hassle us.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “I noticed you specifically said, ‘look right.’ That’s rather different from ‘are right.’”
“It is. We’ll take an ‘honesty optional’ approach with those folks. We tell them what we want them to know and keep back the things they might not be comfortable with. I’ll be sure to feed the two at the top some extra information, but they still probably won’t have the whole picture.”
“Is that wise?”
Now it was his turn to laugh. “Honestly, I don’t know if it is, but it’s the only way we’ll manage to get anything done. Far too many cooks trying to crowd into the kitchen for an op like this. Looks good on the resume to say you hunted down some traitors.”
Tash nodded with a completely serious expression. “That’s exactly why I’m here. Figured it would open up the job opportunities later.”
He laughed at her dry delivery. “Sure, sure. My earlier warning still stands. Leave me, and I’ll have you killed.”
She returned the laugh. “Yeah, whatever boss. I’d fry you to a cinder before you had the chance.”
“So I’ll use a sniper rifle.” He stood. “On that comradely note, get everyone together in the conference room. Time to switch from looking backward to looking forward.”
* * *
It took about a half-hour to get the whole team in place because a couple of members were out to lunch. For the moment, they were operating as normally as possible, treating the job as a regular nine to five with some added mome
nts of excitement here and there. That would have to change in short order, though, since their quarry had escaped and gone to ground.
Kevin paced in what he called the green room. The small office next to the conference room provided a nice view of the wooded area in the rear of the office park. It would’ve been so much better if we’d been able to catch them all, or, hell, at least one of them. Would’ve looked better, would’ve provided a source of intel. Especially if it was the computer bastard.
He shook his head. That person had done their job exceedingly well, leaving no useful shreds of data behind.
They’d only been aware of a couple of potential locations the unit’s members might run to. Local FBI had been watching them from before the attack at his request, but they’d reported no activity. So, for the moment, those folks were still keeping an eye on them. The files on most of the agents hadn’t provided any particularly likely destinations for them to run to, so they were more or less at ground zero, aside from continuing surveillance on obvious contacts.
That’s fine. Sheen and her team are in a worse position than we are. He laughed inwardly. It must’ve come as one hell of a shock to have their precious hidden base in freaking Antarctica invaded.
He’d read through Sheen’s file so many times he felt like he’d lived with her. Same with her boss, Bryant Bates, who had also evaded the government’s efforts to snag him. That operation had been against his better judgment. He’d told the people above him to wait and keep quiet surveillance on the ARES boss, but they’d decided differently.
Well, maybe next time they’ll listen to me, with the wisdom of experience. His focus now was finding the agents in the wind and bringing them in, if possible. If not, putting them down was a less desirable but entirely valid option.
He got a text message from Tash stating that the others were ready. He squared his shoulders, opened the door, and strode through. “Let me say it again. Well done, people. I mean that. We took their base with no losses, which is a total win.
“The fact that they had an excellent contingency plan in place for dealing with an invasion isn’t a mark against us. If anything, it underscores how skilled our team was to overcome it without taking major injuries.” A couple of the faces seated around the long conference table had looked nervous as he entered, but they slid into relaxed confidence at his words.
He sat at the head of the table and leaned his elbows on its surface. “So, now it’s time to talk about how we move forward from here. We have surveillance on potential hideouts where we know about them. Either these people didn’t have complete files to begin with, or they’ve been well-scrubbed. I think the latter, given how good their computer person is.”
The tech expert on his team, Cassandra, interrupted. “We’re pretty sure he’s an infomancer. His file didn’t say so, but some of the data had magic about it.” She was only human but was nonetheless fantastic at what she did. Her long red hair and pale skin are easy on the eyes, too.
Kevin nodded. “That explains a lot. Marry great tech with magic, and it can be a bitch to overcome. That illustrates how unreliable our records on Sheen’s team are. Clearly, from the start, either Sheen, Bates, or both have been holding back information. The discovery of more artifacts in their vault than they’d reported confirms that, and we know they got away with even more because of the empty boxes.”
He shook his head, letting his frustration with how much latitude their foes had enjoyed fade. It didn’t escape his attention that he was taking every bit as much leeway, but obviously, those two had deserved less, given how they’d behaved. “Okay, final thoughts or debriefs on the mission?”
Tash said, “In future missions, where possible, we should probably keep the anti-magic backpacks away from Makka and me.”
“Definitely. We’ll adapt our plans to that. This first one happened too quickly.” His group had been together for less than a week before circumstances threw them into action. They’d received an indication that someone had breached their project’s security, and they didn’t want to give Sheen’s team enough time to react if that was true.
Kevin rose and placed his palms on the table, leaning forward to meet each person’s eyes in turn. “Here’s what we’re going to do. One, we’re going to research the hell out of these people yet again. See if we can figure out where they might’ve gone.
“Tash and Makka will help with transport, and you’ll put boots on the ground in any place that looks like it has possibilities. We’re now pretty much operating a manhunt. And womanhunt. Think The Fugitive or U.S. Marshals.”
Nods came from around the table as he continued, “Since we need to run these bastards down as quickly as possible before they can find their footing, item two is to distribute their pictures to the media and set up a tip line. Run that through the FBI. If we’re lucky, the public will handle flushing them out for us. Any questions?”
None came, and he dispatched them to their tasks. He headed back to his office to dig into the history of the organization Sheen had been a part of. Maybe I can figure out when and why she decided to turn traitor. That’ll help me know what she’s going to do next.
Chapter Nineteen
Kayleigh said, “I’m ready over here. How about you?”
Deacon was sitting across from her at the dining room table, which they’d piled with computer gear they’d been wiring up for the past hour. “I think I’m ready, too. Okay, let me juice this thing.”
She laughed inwardly. She loved how he described using his magical link with computers. Right now, he would use it to mask their hack into a local Internet Service Provider’s line, wirelessly of course, and to activate a voice chat room he’d created on a Russian server long before. He’d said it was one located in a nuclear missile silo, but she never knew whether to believe him or not when he made claims like that.
Hell, I don’t accept half the things I can verify because I figure he’s probably faked verification information, too. His hands moved, but his eyes were closed, his magic somehow providing an interface with the system. She didn’t understand, and she didn’t need to. Finally, he said, “All right, we’re good.”
She logged onto the server and launched the chat room. For almost thirty nervous seconds, it was only her and her boyfriend in there. Deacon wouldn’t interact much. His role was to monitor everything, ensuring no one was trying to trace them through their communication. It was exceedingly unlikely anyone could unless they were doing so from the user’s end. No reason existed for anybody to be looking at the Russian server at all, at least not outside of Russia.
Then her heart leapt a little as others popped on. Protocol was not to speak until two minutes after the room had opened, so she waited, despite desperately wanting to know who users two, three, and so on were. Finally, the time came. She said, “Glam. Alice.”
“Deke, Mad Hatter.”
The next user announced, “Boss, Gandalf. Rambo, Frodo. Bark, Samwise.”
She sighed in relief as Diana, Rath, and Max checked in. The book and movie references were a conditional code. Certain characters meant things were fine. Others signaled the user was under duress. They’d never written down the information, only discussed it verbally in secure spaces.
The rest checked in, one by one. “Face, Frankenstein.” “Croft, Adler.” “Khan, Scotty.” “Hercules, Paul Atreides.” “Class, Bond. James Bond.” “Stark, I’ll be your huckleberry.”
Everyone laughed as Tony finished the cycle with the quote from Tombstone. Kayleigh breathed, “Thank heaven.” She looked up, and Deacon nodded. “Deke says the room is secure.”
Diana said, “We’re fine, primary location. Status?”
Khan replied, “I’m pretty sure someone's watching me. I haven’t been outside or anything, but there are some government-looking sedans parked nearby. Maybe FBI. I could simply be paranoid. I’ve put out a bunch of surprises for anyone who tries to break in here.”
“Need one of us to come get you?”
“No. Not yet. If I do, I’ll send the signal.”
Hank said, “I’m safe. Primary location. I’d like to go get the truck, though.”
Everyone laughed, and Kayleigh replied, “Well, of course, you would.” The rolling battleship of an eighteen-wheeler was his pride and joy, and he hadn’t gotten the chance to use it very often since their last night in Pittsburgh.
Diana crushed his hopes, as Kayleigh had known she would. “Sorry, Hercules, but our enemies will definitely be watching that. It’s on the record. My guess is they’ll keep it safe and sound for us, hoping we’ll drop by to pick it up. So, until we really need it, not an option.”
Cara asked, “Will it be safe from them?”
He laughed. “It’s keyed only to open for one of us. Sure, they could cut their way inside, but I also set it for self-defense. The AIs would stop that attempt in its tracks. I don’t think anyone’s getting in there, not without disassembling it from the ground up with robots they’re willing to replace.”
Tony drawled, “Primary location. All good. Sunshine is a nice change.”
Sloan said, “Stepped into some old shoes. Reactivating some past contacts. Hoping I can figure out what’s going on here.”
Bryant replied, “Let’s coordinate on that before we leave here. I have some people you should reach out to and a list of those to avoid. Also, safe at primary.”
“Sounds good.”
Cara said, “I had to go to my secondary. Primary wasn’t there anymore, which was a bit of a surprise. I’m good for the moment, but I should probably stay on the move.”
Kayleigh asked, “Need assistance?”
“Nah, I’m good. If I need help, though, I’ll call for it, believe me.”
She said, “You better. Deke had to abandon his primary, too. He’s with me. We had a couple of setbacks, but nothing we couldn’t cope with. Everything’s fine now.”