by Dale Mayer
She took several more turns, then ended up outside a very large steel gate with security cameras mounted on both sides. “Welcome to my home.”
*
Devlin’s eyes widened as he took in the stone walls all around the property and the large double security gate. She drove up to a center post, punched in numbers and waited for it to open. He glanced at her. “I hadn’t expected this level of security.”
“My father installed it years ago,” she said. “Otherwise it wouldn’t be here.”
“Your father?”
“Yes, he’s an inventor, a mechanical engineer with an interest in all things computer.”
That explained some of her history.
She pulled the vehicle through the gates just enough to drive to the far side and park. “I have to let the other vehicles through.”
She hopped out, walked back and hit a button that kept the gates open. The two vehicles with the rest of his unit drove through. She quickly hit a series of buttons on the computer panel, waited for the gate to close and returned to the car.
When she was back in her seat, she said, “We’re good to go.”
He wondered just how safe she thought she was once inside the gate with all the cameras and security codes. His mind was already cataloguing the easiest way to get in and access her place. It wouldn’t take much. The fence was not high enough, nor electrified. Cameras were around, but he didn’t find too many. It would be easy to take out the entire system first, depending on the time frame.
She pulled up beside a ranch with Spanish tiles on the roof.
He smiled. “At least a roof like that you don’t have to replace too often.”
“Again, my father. Everything he did, he did for long term.”
“Does your dad work here still?”
She shot him a hooded glance and said, “Somewhat.”
She opened the car door and got out. He followed suit. They walked over to the truck where the rest of her gear was packed and helped the men unload. They stood with the stack on the ground, and he turned to her. “Where do you want these?”
She smiled. “Follow me.”
She walked to the front door and inside the house. Devlin, with one large box in his arms, followed close behind. The house was an open floor plan, tiled and spacious. He fell in love with it immediately. “This is perfect,” he said. “I love the windows.”
The entire back wall was nothing but windows. And from here he could see a huge pool. The ranch wrapped all around the pool on three sides.
“This way,” she said as she took a left.
He saw a very large elevator door and frowned. “Not too many people have a service elevator inside their house.”
“You have no idea what’s downstairs.” She laughed. “I grew up in this house. To me it’s normal, but for the few times I have people over, to them it’s anything but.”
The elevator was big enough for all of them. As he looked around, he realized five people were in the elevator, all with their arms fully packed, so it could easily hold ten to twelve men comfortably. He checked out the panel, noting two levels. And yet a pool was outside, and her home was on flat ground. He shook his head. “Nobody would realize there’s another level to this place.”
She gave him a hooded look again. “Exactly.”
And he realized what she had meant about security. How could anybody infiltrating her company know about this?
The elevator doors opened on the first subfloor. She walked out into a massive lab. He could hear the gasp and whistles from the guys behind them. They all appreciated a good work center, and this was state-of-the-art. To the left was a massive bank of computers and several workstations. To the right were more computers, but these were set up with hardware. Huge long tables—twenty to forty feet each—were put together. Almost like a production assembly line but on a much smaller scale.
“Was Colleen working with you here?”
“Yes.”
“What about Sandra?”
She shook her head. “No, she’s Brent’s assistant at ENFAQ. Whereas Colleen worked full-time for me.”
“Was she on the payroll at ENFAQ as well?”
Bristol looked over at him and frowned. “I actually don’t know, but I don’t think so.”
Devlin exchanged a glance with Easton. “Espionage is always easiest when somebody is within the company.” If it was just her and Colleen, then that didn’t look so good for Colleen.
“Anybody else work for you?” Ryder asked.
“Bookkeepers, accountants, and lawyers.” She laughed. “Some come here, some don’t. Very few have been downstairs.”
“Can you tell us who has been down here?”
She turned to study Devlin, her gaze assessing, figuring out what his angle was.
“I’m looking to see who might have had access to place bugs, to see the actual setup and type of software you’re using, and also who could have assessed the security you have in place.” He shrugged. “The more information we have, the easier our job.”
“Just what is your job?” she asked.
He grinned. “Saving your ass.”
That startled a surprised laugh out of her. “I can’t argue with that. As far as answering your original question, the insurance agent came through. He didn’t believe me when I said I had the electronics and setup I have in here. I had to insure everything, all the intellectual property and equipment.”
“That’s something we need to know. Exactly how much is this insured for?”
She glanced at him and in a low voice said, “Seven million.”
Silence came first. “Wow.”
She nodded. “I believe the property assessment came in at three. The rest of it is the business.”
“What has to happen in order to get a payout?” Ryder asked.
Devlin winced at Ryder’s tone, but these questions needed to be asked.
She stiffened. “Basically full loss of property and business. I think a major fire or bomb.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Anything on a large scale like that.”
“I bet your insurance guy didn’t like the pool above here,” Corey said in a light tone. “Just imagine the water damage.”
She chuckled. “No, he did not like that one bit.”
Devlin turned around. “I see you have a filter system. You work with gases and chemicals here?”
“The system is here, but it’s not connected. I was looking at doing other work. I just haven’t gotten there yet.”
“Other work?”
She groaned. “My father was a weapons designer. The HEPA filter system was my suggestion for some of the work he did.”
All four men stiffened at the words weapons designer.
“That’s how you got into these drones?” Devlin asked.
“Yes. But my father is not the man he used to be. It’s one of the reasons for the security.” Then she clammed up and wouldn’t say anymore.
After an uncomfortable few minutes, Corey stepped forward and said, “I’m not just a pretty face. I’m quite capable too.”
She grinned. “I sure hope you mean that because we have one heck of a lot of work to do.”
Chapter 9
It was hard not to like the men. Corey’s lighthearted attitude seemed to permeate the entire group. She quickly had them unpack the bits and pieces she’d brought home. She set it all up on her main workstation. Then she led them to one of the large cupboards she used for storage. She opened the doors, relieved to see all the parts she needed for her work. Maybe they could pull this off.
“The initial order was for fifty drones. After that, if they were pleased, we’re to manufacture two hundred more. But that was just in discussion, not in the contract. It’s the fifty drones that we have to deliver in less than ten days. I have the bulk of the plastic here. We had a problem with a couple coming through with cracks. Quality is very important when we do our testing.”
She led them inside the storeroom where everything was nea
tly organized and labeled—shelves stocked to the left and right. At the back of the room she showed them the racks of sheets of plastic and the machinery to do the cutting.
“This is just the plastic.” She looked over at them. “You understand that, right? I use the term loosely.”
The men nodded.
“We read up on your work,” Easton said. “These are state-of-the-art materials, superlight, no reflective shiny surfaces for the sun to illuminate. Almost textured nylon.”
“And bulletproof,” she said quietly.
The men’s gazes zoomed in on the material.
She nodded. “It’s one of the reasons why these are state-of-the-art. It’ll require a rocket launcher to take them out. Sure, a bullet might send it off course, but that’s why I’m working on the software. Because once targeted, they should be locked on, and any deviation of their position should be automatically corrected.”
The men looked at each other, smiling in anticipation. “We need these babies,” Easton said.
She nodded. “I’m doing my best to get them for you. But when I say that screwing up on any of these is big money, you know what I mean.”
The men turned with a whole lot more respect and studied the stacks and full shelving.
“Well, okay then. Let’s get to work. Anybody here good with software?”
Ryder nodded. “I’m not bad. Easton’s good too.”
“And when I say, good, I need to know, can you program web languages? Would you consider yourself an expert, intermediate? If not, you get to work on hardware.”
She tried to keep ego out of the question because she understood that often programmers became extremely competitive. Hackers lived in a subculture, and often the challenge for them was beating their own or somebody else’s work. She was hoping a couple were in this group. But they would have to own up to how good they were, because she couldn’t let anything less than an intermediate programmer or a solid hacker touch her babies.
“I’m good,” Easton said. “I can hack but I’ve never tried to do anything too extreme.”
Ryder took a minute before he answered. “I’m slightly below that.”
“Good to know. Hardware.”
Both nodded.
She turned to Devlin and Corey. “And you two?”
“We’re okay with computers,” Devlin said, “but in terms of operating—not fixing or hacking.”
She reached behind her and pulled out two screwdrivers. “Your tools.”
The group cracked up.
“You two will start with the bulk and frames. These have to be 100 percent aerodynamically sealed units. Let me show you.”
She went through the process of building the starter drone. It took her ninety minutes, start to finish, but then she’d been working on these a long time.
When she was done, she looked up at them and asked, “Any questions?”
Devlin shook his head. “We have it on video. If we have any, we’ll ask. And yes, we promise we will destroy the video before we leave.”
She nodded. “It may not matter, if we don’t get these done on time.” She turned to the other two. “If you follow me, I’ll put you to work on the boxes.”
“Boxes?” Ryder asked.
She took them one table over, a completely different space.
There was an odd Plexiglass wall with a series of doors and walls. She undid the security, opened it and let them in. “This is a dust-free zone. I do the best I can to minimize any interference. You’re to build the computer boxes. I had all fifty. However, the chip sets were faulty, and every one needs to be switched.”
Easton said, “You do the first. We can handle the rest.”
She looked at him, and with the reality and truth of his statement, she felt something inside her settle. “Did I say ‘thank you’ yet?”
Ryder smiled, nodded at Easton. “You can say it when we’re done. Let’s just get at it. We don’t have any time to waste.”
Two hours later she let herself out of the room. She walked over to check on how Devlin and Corey were doing and realized they’d set up an assembly-line system where they each did one part. She watched for a moment and smiled. “You guys are used to working in teams, obviously.”
“Teams have saved our ass more times than we can remember,” Corey said. “One can only go alone in life for so long.”
She nodded. “Although I work through the night, I can’t expect the same of you guys. So I figure we’ll call it in two hours. Then I’ll take you upstairs for some dinner and show you to your rooms.”
Corey brightened. “Food! She’ll feed us too!” He reached out and smacked Devlin on the shoulder. “Damn, man, we are lucky.”
Devlin grinned. “You do realize the guys are kind of big eaters?”
“You do realize I am too?” She smiled right back at him.
She’d already warned her upstairs housekeeper, Carmelita, that four men would be here for dinner and to bring on the beef. Bristol needed to check on her father, but that would wait a little longer. She’d said two hours, and she meant it. She didn’t dare waste time.
She walked over to what she had left from the testing and quickly ran through it, checking for damages. They all appeared to be working. That was something—not a whole lot though. She set her security to do a full sweep on every laptop and locked away the drones. They would need a whole lot more work. But she didn’t have time for that now. After dinner she’d come down and tear that drone apart. She had an idea what had gone wrong, but had to prove it. And that could be a lot more difficult.
Ten minutes before she was ready to call the time, her phone rang. It was Carmelita. “You’ve got more company. I let them in the compound.”
Mystified that she’d do that, Bristol glanced at Devlin. “Are you expecting anyone?”
Devlin pulled out his phone as it rang too. Answering it, he turned and looked at her, nodding. “Looks like you have more help.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “Really? Capable help?”
He gave a crooked smile that made her heart tilt. “Oh, yeah.”
She rapped on the window for the guys in the computer room and called time. They laid down their tools and walked out. With everyone in together, they went upstairs to the main floor. She headed to the front door, unlocked and opened it. And burst into tears.
“Bristol,” Tesla cried, then threw her arms around her. After she hugged her, she asked, “May we come in?”
Immediately everyone inside moved back to allow entrance for the new arrivals.
Bristol shook her head, now understanding Carmelita’s actions as her housekeeper knew Tesla well. Bristol wiped her eyes but clung to Tesla’s hand. “I can’t believe you came.”
“Of course I did. I can’t believe you took that damn contract. I told you not to.” But no hate was found in her voice. She’d been in that situation and understood.
Bristol smiled up at her, then studied the new arrivals.
The first man stepped forward. “I’m Harrison.”
The next man did the same. “Rhodes.”
She glanced at Devlin.
“We owe you guys.” The two men shook hands with Devlin.
“You talk to Levi about that. As far as we’re concerned, when one of us goes down, we’ll always be there to help.”
Bristol understood the sentiment; she just didn’t know what she’d done to deserve it. “Come in, please. Welcome to my home.”
Tesla looked around the place. “It’s still the same.”
Bristol smiled. “Of course it is. It’s home.” She led the way toward the dining room. “You’ve arrived at dinnertime.”
Harrison said, “We didn’t mean to disturb your meal.”
She sent him a sharp glance. “Does that mean you can’t eat?”
He grinned. “Ma’am, I can consume food at any time of the day.”
She glanced at Rhodes, already rubbing his tummy. She shook her head. “Let’s go.” As she led the way into
the massive dining room, she motioned to them and said, “Grab a seat. I just need to check in with my housekeeper.”
She walked away, disappearing into the kitchen, and found Carmelita bustling around. In a low voice, she said, “Three more arrived. I’m sorry.”
Carmelita laughed. “No worries. I have lots.”
Relieved, Bristol turned and headed back to the dining room. Her father’s place at the end of the table was empty, as was the spot beside his chair—waiting for the presence of her and her father.
She nodded to the men and said, “Excuse me while I get my father to join us.”
She turned and walked away again. She felt the surprise of the group behind her and knew it would only compound while she was gone. But she lived with this reality. She went into the library to see her father dozing.
She gently patted his arm. He woke with a startled look at her and frowned. “Its okay, Father. It’s dinnertime.”
She helped him to his feet and led him into the dining room. Devlin stood and walked around the table, pulling the chair back for him.
Her father looked at her, Devlin, then back at her and asked, “Do I know you?”
She smiled sadly at him. “Yes, Father, you do. Come and sit down. Your meal is coming.”
He sat down. With a look of thanks at Devlin, she took her own seat.
Before any need for conversation, Carmelita pushed in the food cart. Devlin hopped back up and helped her. He lifted platters laden with roast beef onto the table. More were full of vegetables, a huge salad, and Carmelita’s favorite addition to any meal, rice.
She pushed away the empty cart and came back with a single plate, which she placed in front of Bristol’s father.
Bristol reached over and stroked her father’s hand. “Father, your food is in front of you. Please eat.”
He looked at her and frowned. She placed the fork in his hand, and in a very shaky motion, he spooned up some of the soft food on his plate. But he ate. And for that she was grateful. With a close eye on him, she motioned at the others with a smile and said, “Please serve yourselves.”
The men dove in. She put a little bit on her plate, with her eye forever on her father. It was so damn upsetting how he didn’t recognize her. He didn’t miss her when she was gone and didn’t know her when she returned. She’d been living with this for the last few years. And it was getting worse. She would do something more permanent soon. But she hoped to keep him home as long as she could.