The gunner immediately sees the un-camouflaged canopy rising in front of him and instinctively follows it with the minigun. As the rounds connect, it creates a nice little fireball over their heads. Even better, the shredded canopy falls back into the Jeltev’s path. As the big vehicle runs over the canopy, it skids sideways and the minigun falls silent.
Josh flips the suspension to off-road mode and jumps the road’s small embankment. Catching air, they land hard in the desert still doing 90. Josh squints through hurricane-speed winds and heads for the perimeter fence. His genetically superior eyes allow him to see in the dark almost as well as with the headset.
His photographic memory calls up a topographic map of the area. He pictures a small hill that sits close to the perimeter and sees it in the distance as a dark smudge obscuring the fence. Heading that way, he yells back, “You ok?!”
“Yeah! Going to have a nasty bruise but … apparently, my seat back’s made of titanium!”
Josh yells back, “Hang on!”
As he approaches the little hill, he floors the Gecko. They hit the slope doing 100 and fly over the fence. The back tire catches and rips out a chunk of the cyclone wire. Landing hard, the Gecko bounces and then slides sideways, kicking up a curtain of sand. They hear the gyros whining, trying to prevent the vehicle from tumbling. Finally, sliding to a stop, Josh turns around to see Greg rubbing his neck. “Ouch!” Then looking at Josh, he grins. “That was awesome!”
Josh checks the Gecko’s instruments. With some of the battery cells damaged, it indicates a range of less than 20 miles and the rear tire is losing pressure. He hopes the engineers built in some reserve. Accelerating toward the highway, he gives Tim and Jen their location.
The Jeltev is staying on the access road, but it’s joined by conventional security police cars moving at high speed with lights and sirens.
Tim says on the radio, “As soon as you hit the highway, head south.”
Josh slides onto the highway, resets the suspension and runs the Gecko as fast as it will go. The range indicator drops to less than 10 miles. He presses the emergency reserve button and is able to maintain 90 mph, but can hear sirens approaching from behind.
Squinting through the wind, Josh yells into his mic, “Is that you ahead?”
“Yup, bring it home.”
As they close on the semi-truck from behind, Josh sees sparks. The truck’s running at highway speed but has lowered its ramp to within inches of the road. Smiling, Josh yells to Greg, “This should be interesting!”
Too late, Josh realizes he’s coming in too fast. The second his front wheel hits the ramp, he slams on his brakes. The Gecko skids up the ramp, just missing Tim’s parked Gecko, and slams into the back of the trailer, mangling the front wheel.
Josh looks back and sees the ramp coming up. Unstrapping, he joins Tim at the back of the trailer and they watch a display from the truck’s backup camera. Josh frowns. “Who’s driving the truck?”
“Jessica.”
Greg joins them and with a shrug adds, “She likes to go to tractor pulls.”
On the display, they see several cars with lights and sirens approaching rapidly from behind. Their truck slows down as the cars speed on by.
Greg does a fist pump. “We kicked their butt!”
Tim shakes his head. “The battle hasn’t even started.”
V
TEAM
40
RECRUIT
As they sit in the Air Stream trailer, Jen says, “I’m still working on decoding the text you pulled out of Solak, but I just finished unencrypting the diagrams. I think you need to see them.”
They appear on Josh’s tablet.
Tim and Josh study them. Finally, Josh says, “Sheri, take a look at this. It looks more biological than mechanical.”
She slips on reading glasses and takes the tablet. After a few seconds, she says, “Hmm. Looks like a surgical placement diagram.” She points at a branching line and says, “That’s got to be an artery or vein.” She pauses, studying it. “It’s showing that these tracking capsules are supposed to be implanted next to an artery or vein.” Looking up, she frowns. “But why?”
Tim points at the capsule near where the hooks come out of it. “Look carefully at the picture. See where the capsule touches the vein? What do you see?”
Sheri and Josh crowd closer as Sheri zooms in further.
Josh says, “There’s a tiny spring and needle inside the capsule.”
Tim rubs his chin and looks at Sheri, “How much toxin is required to stop someone’s heart if it was injected directly into a vein.”
“I’m not a toxicologist but there are some potent neurotoxins, and if it went straight to the heart....”
“The injector could be released on remote radio command.” Tim looks up at them. “This is how they killed Davidson.”
“And Harrison.” Josh whistles softly. “We have the smoking gun but we still don’t know who owns it.”
Sheri says, “I wonder how many others have been implanted with these? Inserted next to a vein, these would be too deep to feel under the skin. We might have missed them even on us.” She turns to Jessica and Greg. “Can you guys figure out how to detect the capsules, so we can find them and get them out?”
Jessica frowns, thinking. “They should emit some alpha particles that we can detect. We’ll get on it.”
Tim exhales sharply. “We need help. A lot of help.” Sheri says, “Yup. Let’s start with those in critical positions or that have skills we need: Turan, Meadows, Casey, Christoff, Elizabeth and Colonel Crow.”
Josh frowns. “Elizabeth and Crow?”
Sheri nods. “We can hold off on Elizabeth for now, but Crow will be launching soon and taking control of the world’s most accurate weapon. We need to get to her before that.”
Greg puts up his hand.
Smiling, Josh says, “You don’t have to raise your hand.”
“I think we need someone on the inside. We need to infiltrate the infiltrators.” He shrugs. “I’m an excellent gamer. I bet I could get a job with Abadon.”
Jessica looks at him with an expression between admiration and irritation.
Tim nods. “Greg, you got guts. Unfortunately, all of us are recognizable by either the public or the intelligence community, and although you’re not quite 30, it looked like those operating the drones are barely twenty.”
Greg frowns, thinking. Then he says, “Wait a minute. I have a close friend who worked with us on the original laser. She’s brilliant, an adrenaline junky, killer gamer and a sports drone pilot. She’s my age but she’s super cute and could easily pass for 20.”
Jessica’s expression goes from admiration to suspicion.
Tim rubs his chin thoughtfully. “That’s actually a good idea … if she’s willing.” He shakes his head. “But we’ll need to make it clear to her this isn’t a game and they’ll kill her in a second if they suspect anything.”
“Tell me about it.” He pulls out the blue bracelet. “Jessica and I took this apart.” He nods to Jessica.
She takes over. “It doesn’t just open electronic doors. Once it’s on your wrist, it can be electronically locked with a titanium band inside, making it almost impossible to remove. It contains a GPS transmitter, microphone and a built-in Taser plus a toxin injector. It’s also powered by a speck of plutonium, so doesn’t need to be recharged. Once it’s on your wrist, it can track you, tase you and,” she raises an eyebrow, “even kill you.” Breaking the serious silence, she adds, “But think of the savings in employee turnover and retirement benefits.”
Sheri and Josh can’t help but laugh as Greg and Tim shake their heads.
Sheri says, “Ok, I think we need to divide and conquer.”
Tim looks at Greg. “Where does your friend live?”
“I think she’s working at the National Reconnaissance Office near D.C.”
“Good. Greg and I will contact his friend in D.C. Then while we’re there, Sheri and I will see if we
can connect with Carl. Greg, can you and Jessica fly to Moscow and scoop up Christoff?”
They nod.
“And Josh can go to Houston and do Crow.”
Josh corrects, “Recruit.”
“What?”
“Nothing. What about Turan and Meadows?”
Tim shakes his head. “With their public positions, we can’t kidnap them and it’s going to be hard to isolate them. Let’s get the others first.”
Sheri adds, “We have to be very careful and assume they’ve all been implanted and are being monitored. Carl almost certainly has.”
Josh nods toward Jessica. “We’ve got some tech that will help.”
“Greg created a cool app that will allow our phones to listen for and localize the high-pitched sound the nano-drones make.”
Greg holds up his phone so they can see the screen. It looks like it’s in camera mode.
Jessica takes out and blows a high-pitched dog whistle.
On the phone’s screen, they see a little green box form around her. “I programmed the frequency from the Wraith specs. It should be able to detect a micro-drone in flight within 10 feet.”
Tim says, “What if it’s not flying? What if it’s sitting on someone’s shoulder? It won’t make a sound.”
“I’ll turn that over to my beautiful hardware genius.”
Jessica pats Greg and says, “I modified everyone’s phone. The image chip in your phone’s camera can actually see into the infrared, but they put a filter on the lens to block it because it blurs the picture. I replaced the lenses — sorry about the smeared glue on the back of your phones.” She pulls out a lighter and heats the tip of a pin. “This should be roughly the temperature of a stationary drone, a little over 100 degrees.”
Greg holds up his phone again and they see the tip of the pen glowing brightly with a floating green box around it.
“We also modified your encrypted text app. By hitting this button here, it will embed your text into a picture. You’ll see the message but a micro-drone looking over your shoulder will see only the picture due to its limited color resolution.”
Jessica adds, “We’re also trying to find some small radiation detectors that can help locate the plutonium powered implants.”
Josh says, “Great job!”
Tim adds, “Don’t forget there are still conventional video cameras and microphones everywhere. Pick your meeting locations carefully.”
Tim meets Judy Lanier in a coffee shop with Greg. Tim remembers her as one of the optics engineers on the Resurrect Project. Along with Greg, she was part of Dr. Garrett Cho’s team that developed the laser. Judy is short and a little stocky with dark hair and eyes, but Greg’s right; although the same age as Greg, she is extremely cute and looks like she’s 20.
Greg introduces her. “Judy, remember Tim Smith from the Resurrect Project?”
“Yes, I think so.”
Tim can tell she’s being polite and doesn’t remember him. Not surprising. He cultivates invisibility and it’s particularly easy around engineers. When consumed by a project or problem, they’re lucky to avoid walking into walls.
As a trainer at The Farm, he evaluated candidates and begins assessing her suitability. Being cute is both an asset and a liability. It gives her an advantage when dealing with men, but also makes her memorable. The first thing he notices when he shakes her hand is that she’s shy and self-conscious. They sit down and Tim proceeds to ask her a series of normal conversational questions about her background and childhood.
“I was born in the U.S. but my father was from the Seychelles and my mother from Pakistan.”
“What do you enjoy doing?”
“I like tennis and snowboarding, but I’m not good at either. I’ve tried skydiving and I’m going to learn how to fly.”
Her preference for individual sports, specifically ones that require rapid decision-making, is a positive. Skydiving means she has the thrill-seeker gene, which indicates a level of physical courage.
“Judy, how did you get into your current career field?”
She gives him a small smile. “I really wanted to be in the military or law enforcement, but I have asthma.”
Greg, perceptively, says, “Bingo.”
Judy looks at him questioningly.
“Greg’s been working with me on a project that involves national security. I think you would be a great candidate, but it could be dangerous.” He shakes his head. “Let me rephrase that. It could be extremely dangerous.”
She doesn’t hesitate. “I’d like to know more.”
“Let’s go someplace where we can talk privately.”
Once inside the Air Stream, Tim says, “What you’re about to hear you must never tell anyone. If you decide not to get involved, which is perfectly fine, you must pretend we never had this conversation and forget everything we tell you. Is that clear?”
She nods and then asks Greg, “Is he like Commander Fuze, like James Bond?”
Looking at Tim, Greg says, “Us engineers nicknamed Commander Fuze, James Bond.” He turns back to her. “Tim’s like totally the real thing. Ever heard of the CIA Distinguished Intelligence Cross?”
Tim interrupts, “Greg! Have you ever heard of OPSEC?!”
“Sure … that’s like, uh … uh, Operational Secrecy, right?”
“No! It’s Operations Security. It means you don’t go around telling everyone everything you know.”
Judy looks at Tim with awe. “OMG, I know what the Distinguished Intelligence Cross is. I read a lot of spy novels.”
Greg looks at Judy, looking at Tim, and says to her, “He’s already married.”
“Oh wait!” She nods her head rapidly. “Now I remember. You were married to that beautiful TV star, doctor, uh—”
“Sheri Lopez,” Greg finishes.
“Yes!” Then, with a puzzled expression, she adds, “Uh … until you were killed in a car crash.”
Looking at Greg incredulously, Tim throws his hands in the air.
Greg smiles at him. “Just trying to give you some street cred.”
“Greg … if you say another word … I may have to shoot you.”
Greg winks at Judy, “He’s really a way good guy.”
Shaking his head in resignation, Tim slowly begins to explain all that transpired and their suspicions.
After an hour, she looks at both of them and says, “Wow. This is incredible and scary.”
Tim nods. “At this point, there’s no shame in walking away from this and forgetting everything we told you. In fact, it’s probably the smartest thing you could do.”
“I know, but I’d always regret it.” She takes a deep breath. “What do I need to do?”
“We need eyes inside. You not only have the intelligence and technical skills, you fit the profile they’re looking for. Please understand, we’re talking about making you an undercover agent in an organization with no compunction about killing you if they find out.”
Tim turns to Greg. “Explain to her about the bracelets.”
Greg pulls the blue bracelet from his pocket and tells her about the plutonium powered transmitter, Taser and toxin injector.
Tim looks her in the eye. “What these kids don’t realize is — it’s the last job they’ll ever have because no one can ever know what they’re doing.” He points at the bracelet. “I got this one from the morgue.”
Greg drops it. “Eww.”
She lets out a lungful of air. “Mr. Smith, when I was young I used to pretend I was an international spy. I never pursued it because I knew my asthma would prevent it and it wasn’t … practical. The closest I got was helping design secret spy satellites. I do understand. If they find out I’m a spy, I die. Even if they don’t, if I try to leave, they’ll kill me. Is that a reasonable summary?”
“Yes.”
She nods. “But aside from protecting the world from these lunatics, someone needs to save those kids. … I’m in.”
Tim shakes her hand. “Welcome aboard. I don
’t have time to take you through a training course at The Farm, so I’m going to give you a crash course in a few days. In the meantime, we’ll give you a new identity.”
Greg pulls out his tablet. “Jen hacked the website Abadon uses for employment so we could see all the job applications.”
Judy asks, “Jen?”
Greg smiles. “We’ll introduce you to her later. Although we can’t see Abadon’s selection criteria, by looking at the questions on the application and seeing which they accepted, we know what they’re looking for.” He pulls up the online application and hands her the tablet. “They’re looking for people between 18 and 23. Add seven years to your graduation date and leave out the advanced degrees. Under hobbies, be sure to mention that you’re a competitive sports drone pilot and gamer. Oh, Jen did a social media background check on the accepted applicants. One thing they had in common was no immediate family. So … you’re now an orphan.”
Tim adds, “They seem to be collecting smart but disenfranchised kids with no families or those that are estranged from family and friends.”
She frowns but nods. “That makes sense.”
“We’ll keep your first name. What was your mother’s last name?”
“Khan.”
“Good. It’s a common name but also a warrior name.” Tim smiles and shakes her hand. “Welcome to the team Judy Khan.”
With a half-smile, Greg pulls out his phone and says, “I’d like you to meet a good friend and another member of our team. Jen, say hi to Judy.”
41
EXAM
Standing inside his hotel room near the door, Josh hears a knock. Cracking the door slightly, he sees Wendy knocking on the door across the hall from his room — the wrong room number he purposefully gave her. He doesn’t hear any nano-drones but scans with his phone. Confirming it’s clear, he opens his door. As she turns and sees him, he grabs her hand and pulls her into the room.
Impossible (Fuzed Trilogy Book 3) Page 20