by Michael Todd
“Thank you, Jeeves,” Anderson said with a wink before he returned his attention to his opponent. “Don’t make empty threats,” he said mildly like he’d suggested the possibility of rain. “I certainly don’t, so I’ll make myself very clear. I know who you work for and you should definitely look into the kind of trouble he has invited. Examples were made the last time a spring cleaning was required, but we’re not seasonal. We deal with the trash no matter what the weather’s doing. You’d do well not to get caught in the fallout. Have a nice day.”
As if on cue—with help from Anja, Savage assumed—the doors pinged open and allowed the visitors to step out before either man could respond. Not that they would have. The security guard looked confused and a little embarrassed, whereas the executive was pale. He wore the look of a man about to be sick but didn’t want any of the puke on his pristinely shined shoes.
The duo strode to the car and Savage held the door open for Anderson to step inside before he took his place in the driver’s seat again.
“Well, that was intense,” Anja remarked once they were on their way toward the gates. “I wasn’t able to see if any of the stuff was Pegasus property, but I was able to find a back door into the cybersecurity. I don’t think I’ll be able to turn any of the software off since their hard drives are all contained offline, but I should be able to get you guys in if you decided to…oh, I don’t know, break in at a later date?”
“We are breaking in, right?” Savage asked, looking up at Anderson. “Plan B.”
“Fuck yeah,” Anderson replied with a grin. “It would have been easier to do it this way, but once that dickwad showed up, all bets were off. I’d originally thought to simply let him think he’d won—that he’d cowed me into running home to mother—but he pushed my buttons, I’m afraid. I couldn’t risk shoving the grenade up his…never mind. Hopefully, he’s rattled enough to not consider the possibility of a night raid.” It looked like he now actually enjoyed this sordid spy business after all.
Did he really mind that all he’d done was babysit an actual child? No. Terry had never been the kind of man who needed much money. He had been able to survive relatively comfortably on the pension he received from the army, so the payment he now earned from Pegasus hadn’t been the incentive that drove him to join the team.
He’d read up on Anderson—the kind of work the man had done while working at the Pentagon, the reasons why he left, and why he’d chosen to do what he now did. What he’d learned was why he’d decided to come out of his retirement and do this job.
When Savage had arrived and left a file and an offer behind, the sniper had never imagined that his job would entail keeping an eye on a surly eight-year-old with authority issues.
He supposed it was a more honorable job than killing people, but there was still the fact that minding little Damon while his mother was out with Sam at the range, getting some training in, was not exactly the best use of his skills.
“Can you help me make a snack?” the boy asked in a whiney voice and drew Terry’s reluctant attention.
“I…what kind of snack?” He looked up from his phone and narrowed his eyes, suspicion stirring.
“I don’t know,” Damon replied with a shrug.
“Why do you want a snack if you don’t know what you want?”
“I’m hungry but I don’t know what for.” He scowled, not a pretty sight.
“Well, what do you think you might be in the mood to eat?” Terry pushed himself bravely from his seat. “Do you want a…pizza? Popcorn? An omelet? Cereal?”
“I’m a vegetarian,” the kid declared proudly. “I don’t eat meat or eggs. I can eat dairy, though.”
“Well, fantastic.” The unwilling minder made a face. “I’m happy for you, I really am, but I won’t cook anything vegetarian for you.”
“Popcorn is vegetarian, and you offered that,” Damon pointed out.
“Well, yeah.” Terry rolled his eyes. “But the point remains. Humans developed large brains because they started to eat meat. That’s a scientific fact.”
“Well, it’s a theory, but it’s been heavily debated in recent studies.” He folded his arms.
“Well, da—ndy Joe. Do you want some popcorn?”
“Nah, I want pizza now.” The cheeky grin might have been cute if not for the suggestion of smugness behind it.
“I won’t make you a vegetarian pizza,” Terry stated in a warning tone.
“You’re not making me anything, dumbass.”
“Language.”
Damon chuckled and ignored the reprimand. “Mom gave me money and there’s a pizza place down the street. We can order two—a vegetarian for me and a meat-lover for you.”
“Well, I don’t want a meat-lover. Maybe one with pepperoni or something.” His charge stared at him for a minute before he shook his head with almost adult patience.
“Look, they have an app on my phone. We can look at the menu from there.” He handed the man his phone with an exaggerated eye-roll. “Pick out what you want and get the Thai vegan for me.”
Terry studied the kid suspiciously as he opened the app. “You’re a weird little kid, do you know that?”
“And you’re a weird old man,” Damon snapped in response with a grin. “Oh, and Terry’s a girl’s name.”
“Keep talking, and you can tell your friends at school that a guy with a girl’s name ordered a pizza for himself and didn’t give you any.” Not his best comeback, he decided. Still, he chose a ham and mushroom pizza for himself and the Thai vegan option for the kid and paid for it with his own credit card. “They should be here in half an hour.”
“Thanks, Uncle Terry.” The boy flashed him a good-natured smile as he took his phone back.
“Yeah, get out of here. Make sure that your homework’s done before the pizza gets here, or you’ll have to eat it all cold and soggy.”
Chapter Nineteen
“So how does it feel?” Savage asked. “Being back out in the field, I mean?”
Anderson returned his curious glance with a shrug. “I’ve been out in the field before, you know.”
“Yeah, like a decade ago. Besides, you were in the Marines. I bet you had one of your COs holding your hand every step of the way, teaching you how to swim or how to shout like R. Lee Ermey.”
“Wait, do they not know how to swim in the Army?” Anderson smirked a challenge. “Do they not teach that there?”
“Well, no, but they usually expect us to know how to swim before we sign up.” The operative shrugged expansively. “You know, basic skills like reading, writing, addition, subtraction, that sort of thing.”
“Well, they only do the basics with you grunts anyway.” The ex-colonel strapped the new body armor to his chest. “They need us to be able to multiply and divide in the Marines. Crazy, right?”
“Nuts. Okay, it looks like everything’s ready to go. Anja, do you have an opening for us yet?”
“Well, there’s only one way in and out of the facility,” she replied and sounded a lot less upbeat than she had earlier in the day. “They have seismic sensors on the fences all around, so digging won’t be an option. I think I can get you and Anderson in through the front door, though. Most of the researchers working there have homes in the city, which means that at closing hours, the gate will be hectic, and security won’t actually man it. I can hold the gate when it’s closing to get you inside, but the two of you need to be able to sneak in close enough to access it while I do it.”
“We can do that.” Savage nodded briskly. “We don’t have any water to swim in, but I think I can walk my friend Anderson here through the intricacies of watching and waiting.”
“Hey, I love the fact that you ladies have all these inside jokes to make about your history in the military,” the hacker snarked. “But can you focus a little? We’re right in the middle of an operation here.”
“Are you all right there, Anja? You sound a little stressed. I don’t mean to diminish the work you do on your end, becaus
e you’re all kinds of awesome, but isn’t this only run of the mill for us by this point?”
“Yeah, I guess.” She sighed heavily. “Sorry. Things are a little stressful on this end.”
“Do you want to talk about it? Anderson just started putting his wetsuit on and it’ll take him at least a half hour to realize he doesn’t need it and another half hour to take it off again.”
His companion flipped him off and he grinned.
“It’s just…yeah, people around here are fucked up, that’s all,” Anja replied. “Nothing I need to bother you with. What do you say we get this show on the road?”
“That sounds like a plan to me.” Savage accepted her change of focus without question, actually a little relieved that she hadn’t taken his invitation to unburden herself. Maybe the moments before a critical mission weren’t the best times for help-a-friend. “When can we start?”
He made another slow scan of their surroundings. They’d taken the car off the beaten track and onto a dirt road about a half-mile away from the facility. Under any other circumstances, he would have considered it a literal walk in the park. Unfortunately, they currently stood under the harsh sun that beat down to the tune of over a hundred degrees. That would definitely add extra spice to their little stroll.
“Well, people should start leaving in about an hour, so I guess the two of you should start walking,” Anja said. “There aren’t any cameras that cover outside the facility and not too many people wander around there except for the two guards out front. But if you do need it, there should be enough brush cover around the site to keep out of sight of any of the people inside the fence. Once you get within fifty meters, though, it might be difficult since they have cleared most of the growth.”
“Fair enough.” The operative strapped a pack over his shoulder. “Are you ready to do some walking, Marine?”
“You bet, Grunt,” Anderson replied briskly. “I hope things cool off before we need to crawl on our bellies to get to the gate, though.”
Savage smirked. That hope was unlikely to bring anything but disappointment. He’d been in deserts similar to this one before, and if there was one thing you could count on, it was the fact that the ground that had absorbed heat from the sun all day would remain shockingly hot for at least a couple of hours afterward. Still, he wouldn’t be the one to complain about the heat.
Then again, maybe he would. This wasn’t a competition over who was the toughest and who could endure the difficulties the best. He checked his pack again. A shotgun was tucked inside, and he carried his pistol in the underarm holster. Other than that, he’d kept it empty in case they needed to haul anything out of the place. Anderson’s preparations were similar, except he had stowed a sub-machine gun in his bag and a Beretta under his arm.
They would be ready if they needed to shoot their way out of the location, Savage mused as they began their slow march toward the facility. The structure sprawled in the distance. They were far enough away from the road that their presence should go unnoticed, but they still remained as low as possible through the unbearable heat and moved as quickly as they could without risking detection.
The area was very similar to some of the places Savage had spent a lot of time in—and Anderson too, from the former colonel’s file. Or the parts that weren’t redacted, at least. They both looked like they could handle the long haul and had the presence of mind to bring water for their little hike as well. Hydration was something very rarely remembered in combat situations, but dehydration was the kind of thing that could get a man killed. Failing that, it could knock him out of commission for a couple of days for recovery. That simple truth was heavily stressed to the men and women who fought in desert environments.
Although Savage remembered it being something of a factor in jungle situations too. Sometimes, even the professionals forgot how much you ended up sweating in the hot, humid environments.
He shook his head and adjusted their course marginally to the left. The sun was starting to set, and the heat grew a little less intense. It still felt like they were trekking through the devil’s ass crack, though.
He indicated for Anderson to cut toward the road when they moved within the right range. It was annoyingly complicated that the gate provided the only point of ingress, but they would manage it one way or another.
The two guards were still in position but lingered in as much shadow as they could manage, even as the temperatures began to drop. They hadn’t moved from their location when the duo reached the last of the brush and were forced to come to a halt.
He glanced at Anderson, who shrugged gently and shook his head when Savage moved to draw his pistol from the holster. He didn’t understand why his partner would hesitate. They could cover the distance rapidly, and if his shooting skill at the warehouse lately had been any indication, he could kill both guards and hide the bodies before any of the tired researchers headed out.
The other man shook his head again, held his hand in a fist, and pointed at the gate. He intended to wait, then. The operative ground his teeth but didn’t argue. After all, he worked for Anderson. The joking moments were a way to keep his boss’ attention away from a potentially mission-ending panic attack, but that didn’t change their fundamental relationship of employee and employer.
Resigned to the irritation of immobility, he remained crouched behind some dried tumbleweed bushes and grimaced when the sweat trickled down his back. It was too hot for most bugs, but he identified a couple of smaller lizards scuttling from shade to shade. The creatures froze when they saw the two men and darted away a second later.
It was too hot even for the cold-blooded creatures. What did that say about the dumbass humans who decided to build their lives out there?
Anderson keyed his comm unit and brought Savage’s attention back to the present. His thoughts had drifted a little since they now waited longer than expected out in the sun. He would definitely acquire a sunburn out there and could only hope it translated into a tan.
A gesture from his companion directed his attention to the gate they needed to access. It pulled open slowly and both armed guards stepped inside. The barrier closed again but opened a few minutes later to allow a silver SUV through. A white sedan followed with an electric car close behind.
“Okay, boys,” Anja said. “I hope you enjoyed your time sunbathing, but we now need to see how quickly you can sprint fifty yards, okay? Count it down with me so we have the timing right. Five…four…three…two… one… Go!”
A small hatchback spilled out of the gap and sped away as the two men sprinted toward the gate Anja’s efforts now held ready for their entry. It was still a close thing, Savage realized. She wasn’t actually preventing the movement, merely slowing it down as they continued to close.
The former Ranger was in better shape than his Marine comrade. It wasn’t all that surprising, considering that Anderson had been out of active duty for a while now. He reached the gates first and assumed Anja would be scrubbing the feeds of the cameras he could see turned in his direction. Once he’d slid through the diminishing space, he immediately cut left, his pistol in his hands, and scanned the area around him to ensure that they were clear of any eyes the hacker couldn’t hack.
His boss pushed through barely in time, although he had to squeeze in sideways as the gates snapped shut.
“Getting slow there, squiddy?” Savage whispered.
He didn’t need any military experience to understand what the gesture Anderson tossed his way meant. The fact that the man was too winded to actually come up with a verbal rebuttal, though, was all he needed to know, and he grinned a cheeky response.
“Okay, the gate is the only way past the fence,” Anja said. “But once inside, there are numerous points of entry into the building itself. Follow my lead and I'll find you a place to slip inside unnoticed.”
They sauntered away from the road that now had a steady flow of cars heading out of the facility. Although they weren't dressed too differently than
the security personnel by design, a close inspection was something they preferred to avoid for the time being.
“Okay, I have a service entrance on the side of the building for you to use,” the hacker said decisively. “People working there have already left for the day, and I don't think security will do any sweeps yet, although they should do so in the next couple of hours. I won't have any access to the feeds until you are back in the building.”
He nodded, knowing she could see him now from the lens his boss wore. They circled the building warily, with Savage taking point and Anderson keeping an eye on their rear, and reached the door Anja had indicated. It was locked with a physical lock that required a key. He scowled and tried the handle.
“It's locked,” he said to her. “And I don't have any equipment to unlock it with. We need another entrance.”
“Okay, there's a door leading into the building with an electronic lock I can help you with. About twenty paces from your current location.”
“Why do I feel like this is a good-news-bad-news situation?” Savage asked as they hurried away from the door.
“Your instincts are on point, as usual, Jer. You'll enter through a security hub and should probably expect resistance.”
“Roger that.” Savage flicked the safety off on his pistol and watched as his companion attached a suppressor to his. A few seconds were all that was needed before the two men approached the door she'd indicated. As she'd said, the lock was electronic and tied to a fingerprint reader to its left. After a second or two, the red light over the sensor turned green. He nodded and gestured for Anderson to follow his lead. From experience, the pistol in his hand made a lot less noise than the Beretta, even with a suppressor attached.