by Kai O'Connal
Keandra settled back down, shifting to get comfortable in the dirt. As much as she didn’t want to take the break, it had done wonders for her body. The bruises and aches made their presence known, but they were more of a distant memory: battle scars rather than fresh wounds. Tentatively she moved her shoulder around. It protested when she got to the top of the circular motion, but no longer throbbed constantly. When she touched it with her other hand, she discovered it was warm and swollen. That was something that would take either time or magical assistance. Considering their timeline, she opted for the latter. They’d need to look into that once they got to Sacramento.
After a short while, Lance and Paz both came back to join them in their hiding spot. E-jekt projected a small map of the facility, using the information and recordings from Lance and Paz to update it. It hovered in the air before them, and E-jekt spun it around so they could all see the entire perimeter. The fence surrounded the facility, and it was electrified. Other than that, the only guard either of the scouts had seen was the one at the front gate. Cameras topped every fifth post on the fence, with an additional unit on each of the corners. Finally, a couple of turrets maintained a watch, one in the front and one in the rear of the facility.
E-jekt shook his head.
Paz frowned.
E-jekt and Paz both turned toward Keandra. She took control of the AR display and zoomed in so everyone could see a detail they might have overlooked.
E-jekt narrowed his eyes and traced meaningless designs in the dirt with his fingers as he considered the question. The rest of the group focused on him, waiting to see if it was possible.
Keandra knew it was their best bet, at least that they’d be able to come up with on short notice.
Everyone settled down to wait while E-jekt worked his magic. Lance kept an eye on the guard, periodically peeking up over the edge to make sure nothing had changed. Keandra looked up at the sky, disappointed how the proximity to the lights from the manufacturing plant blocked out the stars. Even though they’d only been in the clearing for a few minutes, she remembered glancing up and being amazed at how many stars she could see. This was her first time out of a city. Not just Seattle, but any urban area. It really was a different world.
The longer they waited, the more Keandra became aware of how hungry she was. As if in response, her stomach growled. Paz chuckled as the face wrapped her free arm around her stomach, as if that would contain the noise. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten. That was something else to add to the list when they got to Sacramento, or maybe even sooner: find a good restaurant. Take that back: at this point she’d have settled for a cheap and greasy soyburger.
Keandra stood and smoothed out her clothes as best she could. The biggest mess was her hair, wild and crazy from the trip on top of the train and the subsequent tumble. She grabbed clumps of it, threading her fingers through to separate them with fierce tugs so she could at least make a decent braid. It wasn’t perfect, but hopefully it would suffice to fool the guard at the gate.
Paz handed her one of the cleaning rags from her medkit, and Keandra scrubbed her face with it. If she was impersonating a corporate manager, it would be inappropriate to walk up with a dirt-caked face, no matter the situation. When she was done, she looked over at Lance, the one she trusted the most to give her an honest assessment. He pressed his lips together and nodded—a less than stellar recommendation. I know how to handle this, Keandra reminded herself.
The final step of preparation was removing the sling. She took it off and tossed it to Paz, who caught it and tucked it into her pouch. Keandra moved her shoulder, rolling it forward and backward once again, stretching out in all directions to see what pain that triggered. As it turned out, she could reach up behind her, but if she moved her hand around to the front, anything higher than chest level sent stabs of fire through her shoulder and into her skull. With a final deep breath, she stepped onto the road in plain view, Lance following close behind her.
They got all the way to the gate without being noticed by the guard in the small watch station. His head hung low, with his chin resting against his chest. For a brief moment, Keandra was tempted to reach inside and press the button to open the gate, to see if that woke him up. If not, problem solved! She decided against it, though, thinking it would be much harder to explain if he did awaken.
Instead, she took up position a full stride away from the guard window and widened her stance. She crossed her arms, using her good arm to support her injured one, and compressed her eyebrows together, looking every bit the annoyed professional. Then she coughed.
The guard stirred at her first cough, so she did it again, adding a growl at the end. That time he snapped to attention. To his credit, the first thing he did was draw his small handgun.
Keandra heard Lance’s foot slide across the ground, kicking up a few rocks as he shifted to be ready to spring into action if need be. Once the guard saw he wasn’t under immediate physical threat, he tucked his gun back into his holster and faced the open window.
“May I help you?”
Keandra focused her best managerial glare on him. “I certainly hope so. Is this what passes for security at the entrance to one of our most important manufacturing plants in the area? Do you have any idea what the gross annual profit is to our company based on this individual structure? How much we spend on research and trade deals to keep it operational? Not to mention the political i
mplications and the bribes necessary to keep doing business in this restricted area? In short, do you have any idea how much nuyen is tied up in this building behind you? The one that you are individually responsible for, and the one at which you were just sleeping at your post?”
She made sure to pause between each of the final four words, watching the guard flinch as each one passed her lips. She marched forward and placed both hands on the edge of the window. He took an involuntary step back, feet shuffling. She saw sweat form on his brow as he looked down and off to the side, unwilling to meet her gaze.
“Do you want me to report back to my boss at Andalusian Light Industries that you are failing to carry out your duties? Do you think you’re irreplaceable? That we can’t find any number of other people to do your job, and do it with more respect and authority for the corporate family that you claim to be a part of?”
“No! I mean yes! I mean—”
“I was in the area for a routine inspection of this facility and others in the area. Unfortunately, my secretary failed to register appropriate transportation. I will be dealing with him when I return. However, I had to walk from the train loading dock all the way here, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to walk to all of the other sites in the area.”
“But, we don’t have any other sites.”
Keandra rolled her eyes. “That you know of. That are part of Andalusian Manufacturing. Did you mishear me? Was I not clear when I spoke? I work for Andalusian Light Industries, your parent company. In short, I’m one of those responsible for making sure that your company even exists in the first place. Just because you aren’t aware of other ventures in the area does not mean they don’t exist. Or do you have information you shouldn’t be privy to? That would be a very serious offense.”
The guard held up both hands in a warding gesture and shook his head rapidly. What had started as beads of sweat turned into full streams running down the sides of his face. Keandra pushed off the window and rested her weight on her back leg, once again crossing her arms.
“Please, let me know if I can be of any assistance.” The guard spoke in a continuous stream of words. “Do you need a tour of the facility? I’m not supposed to leave my station, but I could call someone up if you’d like.”
“No. I’m going to commandeer one of your vehicles for the rest of my tour. You will sign it out to me, and you will not alert anyone else. You can inform them when their shift starts in the morning. It ruins a surprise inspection if others hear about it before I arrive, doesn’t it?”
“Yes ma’am. Yes, of course. Only…”
“Only what?”
“I’ll need to see your ID. I just need to check it out and make sure. Corporate policy and all.”
“At least you’re doing something correctly.”
The guard moved to his terminal and his hands shook as he manipulated the interface. He glanced at Keandra twice, making sure he was entering her SIN into the terminal correctly. She waited until his eyes moved back and forth, scanning the data, and then she stepped forward until she stood directly in front of the window. She shifted her tone of voice and added a smile.
“Very good, officer. I’m glad to see you are able to handle pressure and still manage to stick to appropriate protocol. Rest assured, this will go very well for you in my report.”
He looked away from the display and offered a weak smile, clearly not sure how to react. His hands still shook, and he chewed on his bottom lip.
“Now about that truck?”
“Right! Everything checks out. Here you go.”
He reached behind him and grabbed one of the keyfobs hanging on the wall, then pressed the button to open the gate. As Keandra expected, it let out a loud air-horn blast once it started to roll open. Even if it hadn’t, the rattling of the metal as the wheels rolled across the packed dirt would have been more than enough to wake most people.
She walked into the facility with Lance at her side, idly thinking that the guard had never even bothered to check her companion’s identification. It wasn’t her problem. He’d be in enough trouble when the morning shift came on site and learned that he’d lost a truck. He waved to her as Lance drove them out, leaving him standing steel-rod-straight in the booth and not daring to take a seat as long as she kept him in view.
A half-kilometer down the road, they stopped and met up with their companions. E-jekt went to work on disabling the tracking and recovery systems immediately. Paz went to take the wheel from Lance, but Keandra shook her head.
“Now that we’re out of sight, it’s time for you and Lance to both take a turn to get some rest. We’ve got a long drive to Sacramento. I’ll take the first shift.”
Neither of them argued. Instead, they crawled in the back of the truck and laid down.
22
Keandra drove for a couple of hours, until sleep laid its claim on her once again. The small forced nap she’d taken had done wonders, and she was riding a high from her interactions with the guard, but the need for more rest could no longer be denied. She woke up Lance and had him continue driving as she curled up in the passenger’s seat.
When next she woke, she saw the Sacramento skyline in the distance. Bright sunlight shone through the window, warming her body. She stretched, but stopped short when the pain in her shoulder flared once again. With a growl, she settled for stretching at an angle with one arm up and one down.
“Good morning, sunshine.”
Paz sat behind the wheel, looking refreshed and as energetic as when she’d first jumped off the train. Keandra twisted around and saw E-jekt and Lance both passed out in the back seat. Somehow, Lance managed to sleep sitting straight with the seatbelt buckled around him. In contrast, E-jekt curled on his side in a fetal position, taking up more than his half, but still looking squeezed into the tight area.
“I needed that. I slept like I haven’t in ages. How long until we reach Sacramento?”
“Only another hour or so. Question is, what’re we gonna do once we get there?”
“The first thing is get some food. I was starving last night, but apparently too tired to care. I’d kill for a good soykaf right about now. After that, stock up, set up a safehouse, touch base with Freyr, and start working the job like normal.”
“Right. What do we know about this job, anyways? I mean, besides what Freyr told us with the missiles and the secret base and all that.”
“Nothing really, which is why we need to knock on some doors and open some windows to poke around and see what we can find. E-jekt said there was a bunch of construction equipment and supplies brought into the area. That means someone built something there. Satellite imagery is a bust, we already know that. I’d bet my last nuyen their entire network, and any networks in a large area around it are completely off the Matrix.”
Paz remained silent as Keandra rambled through her thoughts. She usually did all her planning in her head, but this situation was sudden, and she didn’t have all her usual control factors in place. It helped to vocalize her thought process, even when Paz said nothing. She continued thinking out loud.
“But still, someone had to order all the supplies and contract all the work. While a lot of that might be done in house, this isn’t a megacorp we’re talking about, so I’d bet they’d have to hire some of it out. That means there’ll be permits registered with the hall of records. Hell, we already know there are permits registered there. Victoria found them.”
Keandra mentally kicked herself for forgetting they already had that crucial piece of information. She pulled out her commlink and looked through the permit files, checking the names registered with the permits, finding out who had applied for and been given permission to drill, excavate, and build in the area. Almost all of the permits were registered to the same company: Gildhall Construction.
“I got it. Our first step is to find Gildhall Construction. They have an office in Sacramento, and they handled all the excavation and building for the laboratory. If anyone has a schematic of the stru
cture, it would be them.”
“Something tells me they won’t just give us access to their database.”
“Since when have you ever been a fan of just asking?”
Paz chuckled, conceding the point. For the rest of the trip, Keandra considered the plan, pleased as pieces fell into place. Once they got set up, they had their first target. From there, they could hopefully get the needed information to crack the laboratory. She didn’t want to go in there completely blind. While the blueprints wouldn’t give them intel about the security systems in place, they’d at least give them a general idea of the layout. If they were really lucky, they’d show it to Freyr, and he would direct them right to the central database.
Of course, they needed to do all of this before Mr. Johnson caught up with them. The fact that he was able to pursue them into Tír Tairngire and force an international transport vehicle to stop was alarming. It meant that it was much more likely he could pursue them into CalFree as well. Keandra had hoped they’d have some breathing room once they crossed international lines, but it appeared less and less likely. So much for slowing him down by not leaving a debt on the table.
When they reached Sacramento, Keandra woke Lance and E-jekt. She explained the plan, and they split up to save time and get moving as quickly as possible. She didn’t need to remind them of the barghest breathing down their necks.
Her first order of business was to set up a new base of operations. They chose the Omni Hotel. At the upper end, but not completely out of their price range, it provided additional security—and more importantly, additional anonymity. Not knowing how long they’d be there, Keandra rented it for a week. If it took longer than that, a place to stay would be far from their biggest worry.
Before doing anything else, Lance and Keandra swept the room for bugs. Even though the hotel was rumored to be very secret-friendly, Keandra didn’t want to leave anything to chance. She especially didn’t want to give Mr. Johnson any additional resources toward finding them. He had enough at his disposal already without their inadvertent assistance.