The Johnson Run

by Kai O'Connal

  Keandra studied the model hanging in the air in front of her, reaching out to spin it around as she considered all the various entry points. A plan pieced itself together in her mind, and she tried to figure out how to make it work.

  “What do you need access to?” she asked. “Is there a central database, or will any of the terminals work?”

  “Any of the terminals should work. What we need isn’t a trade secret, so I doubt they have it in a secure central location. Plus, that facility doesn’t seem like it’s designed to host a central server. If they did have one, I’d wager it would either be underground or offsite.”

  That made their job easier, assuming E-jekt was correct. But she trusted his instincts. There was something to be said for the voice of experience. All they needed to do was get into the building and get E-jekt enough time at a terminal to work his magic.

  “Their staff, do they work normal standard hours? Do they have a rotating shift? Any contractors on their payroll?”

  “They do use contractors, and they have a normal eight-to-six work day.”

  “Perfect. I know how we’re getting in.”

  24

  It was about six-thirty in the evening, after the grand exodus of workers, but some were still trickling out the doors to their waiting cars in the parking lot. Compared to the satellite imagery, the parking lot looked virtually abandoned. A handful of vehicles remained, and every few minutes, another one left. The lights in the offices turned off one at a time, but the halls and entrance were still fully lit.

  “I still say it’d be much easier just to get up on the roof and break in through one of those windows.” Paz sulked in the driver’s seat of the new SUV, arms crossed as she stared at Gildhall Construction’s office building.

  Keandra sat next to her, also keeping a watch on the building. The vehicle was comfortable, with many features their previous van lacked. However, in exchange for those comforts, it had less space in the back. Rather than one open area, it had a row of seats and a small cargo area. It made it harder to get to supplies, but at least the additional passengers would have a more comfortable ride, as well as seat belts.

  Keandra shivered as she remembered vaulting off the parking ramp at SeaTac airport. Out of habit, she checked to make sure her seat belt was firmly latched, even though they weren’t moving.

  “I don’t think ‘easier’ is the word you’re looking for. More direct, maybe? Definitely faster. But I’m not sure easier applies. We don’t even know what they have for security.”

  “That’s why you send me in with the old man. I can take down whatever they send after us. It beats just sitting around here waiting.”

  Keandra looked back at the other members of her team, but E-jekt just shrugged. Lance shook his head and gave her a look that said she should have known better than to expect anything different.

  She tried to placate their aggressive dwarf. “Well, look at it this way: if the plan doesn’t work, then you’ll have to do a hot extraction, which will involve more than enough violence to whet even your appetite.”

  Paz chuckled and clapped her hands. She looked in the rearview mirror, rising out of the seat so she could make eye contact with E-jekt in the back.

  “That could be fun. Don’t be afraid to mess up a little. I’ll get all of us out of here safe.”

  “There. That one.” Keandra called their attention back to the front doors of the complex.

  An ork in slacks and a short-sleeved shirt walked out of the building, carrying a bag slung over one shoulder. He looked down at something in his hand as he walked, not paying attention to his surroundings. He would be perfect.

  Lance opened the SUV’s back door and slid out of the vehicle, hurrying across the parking lot in the direction the ork walked. It was clear which of the vehicles was his—it was the only one left in that section. Keandra doubted the ork would have seen Lance even if he paid attention. Even she, who knew where he was, had difficulty tracking him as he flitted from one shadow to the next. He stopped when he reached the front of the car, crouching in front of the bumper out of sight.

  When the ork got close to the car, the lights flashed and the doors unlocked on their own. He jerked open the front door and tossed his bag into the passenger side. As soon as he moved to enter the vehicle, Lance burst into motion.

  The elf rushed the door, slamming it and timing his motion so the top of the door smashed into the ork’s skull. The blow dazed him and he stumbled back a step, his eyes rolling and staring at nothing as he put a hand to his head. Lance continued his assault, striking the ork in the back of the knee and dropping him to the pavement. Before the man’s knees hit the ground, Lance drove his shoulder into his back, throwing him into the car with enough force that he slammed into the opposite door. For a moment his face pressed against the glass, stuck there as his body twisted at an awkward angle.

  Lance jumped into the car, next to the ork. A quick slam of his head against the dashboard and the ork closed his eyes, collapsing over the dash. The entire encounter took less than five seconds.

  Afterward, Lance drove the car out of the parking lot, since they didn’t want to leave it where someone might stumble across it. Keandra couldn’t see where he took it, but had faith he stashed it somewhere safe. They sat in the SUV and waited for him to return. E-jekt opened the door, and Lance held out an ID card.

  E-jekt and Keandra got out, leaving the team’s muscle behind. If everything went according to plan, they wouldn’t be needed for the rest of this run. As the two approached the front entrance, somebody else exited right in front of them.

  “Forgot something,” Keandra said.

  The employee smiled and nodded knowingly as he passed. Keandra watched to make sure E-jekt scanned the badge on the reader next to the door before dismissing them from his attention. Keandra was glad they’d bothered to grab the badge rather than trying to ghost in and catch the door before it closed.

  The front lobby had a receptionist desk, now abandoned and dark, as well as a couple of comfortable padded chairs, presumably for guests waiting for their appointments. Another set of glass doors stood in front of them, barring their entrance to the core of the building. E-jekt waved the ID card in front of the reader and the door unlocked with a heavy thunk. Keandra pulled it open and gestured for E-jekt to precede her.

  They headed down the hall to the left. They wanted to stay on the ground floor, and that side had a larger number of dark offices. The fewer people around, the less chance anyone would notice someone using an office that didn’t belong to them. They had no idea where their victim’s office was located, so they couldn’t poach it and hope any random workers passing by thought all orks looked alike.

  After passing three doors, they found an open office with a window facing the parking lot. As soon as they entered, a sensor picked up their movement and turned on an overhead light. The terminal on the desk also powered on, asking for login credentials. E-jekt dropped into the chair, sliding up to the desk to begin his hacking.

  Once he was situated, Keandra went back into the hallway, keeping an eye on both directions. She heard a couple of voices from her right, steadily growing in volume and coming from the central open area. She headed toward the noise, trying to get close enough to hear what was being said. Before she could make out the words, a man and a woman came around the corner, deeply engrossed in conversation. The woman waved her hands around as she talked, obviously excited about the subject matter. They left through the front entrance without so much as a glance in either direction.

  Keandra entered the main room and looked up. From here she saw the walkways all the way up on the third floor. The area was well lit, with few places to hide in such an open space. She closed her eyes for the space of a couple of breaths and listened, but didn’t hear any voices or footfalls. If there were any people in the building, they weren’t walking around this area. She turned to head back to the office where E-jekt worked.

  Movement outside the front doo
rs caught her attention. A pair of janitors came in the front doors, a mechanized cart full of cleaning supplies following behind them. Keandra ignored them as she went back to join E-jekt.

  “How’s it going?”

  “All right. Their security doesn’t seem too strict. But there are a lot of files. It’ll take me a while to find what we need.”

  Keandra leaned against the window, looking into the parking lot. Besides their SUV, only three cars remained in the lot.

  “Take whatever time you need. Cleaners are here, but otherwise we have the place to ourselves. There might be a few stragglers on another floor, but it doesn’t look like anyone’s on patrol.”

  She stood behind E-jekt, glancing over his shoulder until he let out a discreet cough. She took the signal for what it was and headed back out of the office. There wasn’t any place for her to sit there, so she returned to the open room. The cleaning staff saw her, smiling and waving as they continued toward the elevators, their cart audibly clunking along behind them. Keandra dropped into a chair, leaning back and lacing her fingers behind her head. She straightened out her legs and stretched her back, bending backward until her spine shifted with a sharp crack.

  She sighed, relaxed, and sat up in the chair, dropping her hands to the table in front of her. The elevator bell bonged as the doors opened on the top floor, and she heard the idle chatter of the cleaning staff as they exited the elevator and started their janitorial duties.

 

  I knew this was too easy. Keandra hurried back to the office, wondering what the situation was. If it was an emergency, E-jekt would have said as much. When she arrived, he swiveled around and rubbed his forehead.

  “So I found the files, without a doubt. The security they have here is a bit of a joke. Their ice is at least ten years old. That’s not the problem. The issue is that these files, and just these files, are under a special trigger. Anytime they’re accessed, by anyone, it sends out an alert. I don’t know who to. I can trace the signal once it’s sent, but I can’t guarantee that will work.”

  “Can you block it?”

  “No. If I could, we wouldn’t have a problem. It’s wired into the data itself. So I’d have to access the data to be able to reach the alert, but any accessing of the data will trigger it. The only possible way would be to take the entire facility offline. If we do that, it will stall the message, but it will keep trying and as soon as it’s reconnected to the Matrix, the message will get sent.”

  “What about Freyr? Do you think he could do anything?”

  E-jekt shook his head again with a frown. “He might be able to help trace the signal, or even do a better job of it, but he still won’t be able to stop it from going out.”

  Keandra dropped into a crouch and pressed her back against the wall. “Great. So our options are to trigger the alert right now, grab the data, and run. Or, to try and take the entire building offline, dig up the data and run, and hope by the time they get back online it won’t matter?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Looks like Paz might get her wish.”

  25

  Keandra frowned. “The weird part I can’t figure out is why this piece of data is kept under a special lock and key. You said their security was out of date, except for the part centering around the info dealing with this complex. That leads me to think whoever that alert goes to, it’s not someone affiliated with Gildhall Construction.”

  E-jekt nodded, rocking back and forth in the chair. “That was my thinking as well. I even checked into other datastores to see if they had similar alarms, but the few I checked didn’t.”

  Keandra sighed heavily, dropping the rest of the way to the floor. She supported her head with her hands as she thought through the problem. If they didn’t have that information, it meant they were going in blind. They’d have no idea what they were doing or where they were going while entering a facility that potentially had military-grade security. The best-case scenario she could imagine was a trip to a DocWagon hospital.

  Alternatively, they could retrieve the data, and let the owners of the facility know someone accessed records that were several years old. Keandra couldn’t envision any practical reason to access those records that didn’t involve some type of illegal activity, and she imagined the facility’s staff would come to the same conclusion. That meant they’d go on alert, making them that much harder to infiltrate. It was a slightly better scenario than going in blind, but not by much.

  That, of course, assumed they were the ones who would receive the alert. It could go to a third party, or a company no longer affiliated with the facility. But thinking along those lines was foolish. She’d much rather prepare for the worst scenario than be caught off guard taking a reckless chance. It appeared they had no real choice if they didn’t want to abandon the run right now.

  “How can we take the facility offline for as long as possible?”

  “As I said, a lot of the tech here is old and outdated. That includes the building itself. They had it retrofitted to support wireless networking inside the building, but the main building itself still requires a hardline connection to the Matrix. The entry point for that hardline is in the basement. If we destroy it…”

  E-jekt spread his hands, not needing to finish the thought. Keandra chuckled. It looked like her flippant comment had been more accurate than she anticipated. Paz was going to love this.

  “Get ready to access the data once we take the server offline. I’ll tell Paz the good news and meet her at the entrance.”

  E-jekt passed her the cardkey and Keandra clipped it to her waistband. As she walked out to the front lobby, she sent a message.

 

  She almost felt bad for Lance, being in the car with her when she read the message. Keandra wasn’t surprised when she came around the front entrance and saw Paz running up to the front doors. The dwarf bounced from one foot to the other while she waited for Keandra to let her in. She hadn’t even stepped through before she started asking questions.

  “What do you need blown up? Where is it?”

  “Come on, we’re going to the basement.”

  Keandra led the way, using the cardkey to get into the central room. The janitors had progressed far enough that she could see them cleaning the floors around the open area on the third floor. They kept their eyes down, focused on their work and oblivious to anything happening on any of the other floors. In the elevator, Keandra pushed the button for the basement, but it didn’t light up. She placed her ID card in front of the scanner and tried again, and this time the circle around the button lit up and the doors shut.

  When the doors cracked open, everything was dark on the other side. Keandra heard water rushing through large pipes, and humid, warm air struck her in the face. The lights overhead flickered on, illuminating an underground space where she had to stoop to avoid hitting her head on one of the pipes hanging down from the ceiling. Clearly this area was not designed for regular visitors. Some pipes were cold and had beads of condensation on their exteriors, while others were hot enough that she broke into a sweat when she got too close.

  “What’re we looking for down here?”

  “E-jekt said there should be a hardwired Matrix access point near the center of the building, on the south side. We need to take it out.”

  “Disable it?”

  “Permanently.”

  Keandra and Paz set off toward where the access point should be. Paz had no trouble navigating the cramped space, but the taller Keandra had a more difficult time. Even when there weren’t pipes running just below the ceiling, she couldn’t stand upright. God forbid a troll ever needed to come down here to perform any maintenance.

  Up ahead, they saw a large pillar with several fans blowing hot air through the rest of the basement. The roar of the motors was deafening, and the air smelled stale. As the fans spun, Keandra caught glimpses of glowing LEDs on the other sides of the
blades. This had to be the Matrix access point.

  She leaned forward to make sure Paz could hear her. “I think that’s it. Set your explosives and I’ll meet you back at the elevator.”

  Paz gave her a thumbs-up, so Keandra hurried back to their exit point. She called for the elevator and got in, pulling the emergency hold button so it wouldn’t leave. It didn’t take Paz long to finish her work and she soon joined Keandra.

  “Ready?”

  Keandra nodded, so Paz pressed the detonator. As soon as they heard the first explosion, Keandra pressed the button and the doors eased shut. They caught a glimpse of a wave of fire rolling through the basement before they closed completely. Even so, Keandra felt the heat emanating through them. She pressed the button for the first floor, but it didn’t light up. She tried swiping her badge and pressing the button, but again the elevator refused to respond.

 

 

 

 

  That seemed like a serious safety hazard and significant flaw in building design, especially for a construction company. Keandra looked up at the ceiling. If the only way out was in the elevator, that just meant they would need to go up the shaft even if the elevator wouldn’t move.

  She tapped Paz’s shoulder. “Give me a boost.”

  Paz laced her fingers together for Keandra to step into. Without even a grunt of effort, she lifted the much lighter woman to the ceiling so she could open the hatch and climb on top. She turned around to offer help, but Paz waved her away. With a strong jump that shook the elevator, Paz leaped up high enough to grab the edge of the access hatch and climbed up next to Keandra.