Jayne crawled as cautiously as she could through the filthy air ducts, trying to land her knees and arms softly enough so she did not make too much noise, or drop through them. Vents lining both sides of the ductwork allowed patches of light to provide enough illumination for her not to smack into corners.
She carefully smooshed herself against the side of the ducts when she happened upon a grate in order to hide herself from anyone who just happened to be looking up.
She waited until she was crawling through a long stretch of ducts without grates before she made contact with Merry again. “Okay, I’m coming up to where you told me. Now what?”
Jayne could hear Merry’s familiar keystrokes in the background. Merry whispered to her. “Do you see a branching point? The branch to the left should look longer than the straight path, which goes on for about 10 feet and veers to the right.”
Jayne squinted. “I think so.”
“You think so? Why didn’t you bring the night vision goggles?”
“Couldn’t risk getting caught with them,” Jayne whispered back. “Plus too much to carry. Anyway, I think I’m about four feet away. Which way do I go?”
“Go straight and to the right. The first grate you encounter will be above a storage room. Tell me what you see when you get there.”
Jayne did as she was told, carefully avoiding being in the line of vision from the floor. She caught occasional glimpses of prisoners going about their normal, incarcerated lives. Most of them were reading or playing solitaire. She wondered if they could hear the noises in the vent. If so, what kind of vermin did they think she was? Jayne laughed to herself.
“There’s no laughing in espionage,” Merry quipped on the other end of her comm.
“I thought it was ‘no crying in baseball’.”
“Don’t do that either. Are you near the vent yet?”
Jayne saw a dimmer patch of light than the rest. She approached the vent and peered through grate. The glow was from a dim safety light. She brought herself about six inches away from it to peer closer. The mustiness mixed with bleach smell hit her before she could get a good look at anything. There were racks of thin towels, almost thinner pea green blankets, and stiff-looking white sheets. “Yeah. It’s definitely a linen storage.” She shuffled her feet around. “I’m going to need you to pop Burrett’s lock when I get closer,” she added.
“What? No. That’ll get you killed.”
“I’m a trained fucking operative!”
“…who is going to die young.”
“Merry…”
Jayne listened for voices around the vent. She could hear several about 20 feet to the left. “Time for count, Campers,” one of the guards instructed. “Everyone back to their bunks.”
Jayne waited until the sea of busy noises parted. She shimmied the knife from her boot to her hand and worked the grate. “We should probably see if Ramirez got to intake the girl in the holding cell yet,” another guard’s voice continued.
“Popniczevsky said he needs a blanket,” said another.
Jayne arranged the grate back into place before the guard’s footsteps got too close. She could see she had dropped a screw on the floor. She muttered to herself, “Fuck.”
Merry whispered, “What’s going on?”
“They’re doing count.”
“So you have about 30 minutes to find the dude and get out.”
Jayne felt her heartbeat speed up as the guard unlocked the door and haphazardly grabbed a towel from the rack. His foot almost stepped on the screw she had already dropped from the vent cover. Jayne held her breath. The guard didn’t seem to notice it and closed the door behind him. Jayne breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Then the door opened again, and the guard returned. His colleague chided him from the hallway, “I said a blanket. Not a towel.”
“Look, I’ve had a long day.”
My fucking luck. Jayne thought.
The guard returned the towel, and turned to a different rack of shelves for a rough, thick blanket.
Oh no…
He stepped back and turned toward the door.
No. No, no, no…
The guard stepped right on the screw. He lifted his boot and looked down on it.
“What is it?” his friend in the hallway asked.
The guard picked it up and examined it. “A screw.” He looked up at the vent.
Jayne’s heart had never pumped blood as fast as it was now. She held her breath and prayed she was hidden far enough in shadow that the guard would not notice the strange woman in the air duct.
The guard threw the screw into the trash can. “Budget cuts. What do you expect?”
He left and shut the door.
Jayne gasped for air. She felt like she had finally reached the surface after almost drowning.
After a minute of careful prying, she removed the grate. She shuffled around and made her way out, feet first. As she slid out, she pulled the grate back into place and landed softly in a laundry cart.
“Jayne,” Merry hissed in her ear, “don’t answer. Just listen. I’m disabling the cam on Burrett’s cell. You’re about 100 feet away. You need to head to the left. The cam is off… now.”
Jayne maneuvered through the shadows to the left, hiding behind any column or in any recesses along the corridor. She estimated it would take several minutes for the count to make its way to solitary. Jayne hid behind a pillar about five feet from Burrett’s cell. She could see him through the door’s window sitting on his bunk.
“Psssst…” she hissed.
No response. Burrett was rocking and mumbling to himself. Jayne sighed, “I’m going in.”
Jayne approached Burrett’s window. “Pssst…”
Still no response. Jayne opened the door with her keycard and felt for the syringe of crushed Talon-R in her pocket. She closed the door carefully behind her and crouched under the window. “Hey… Burrett…”
Burrett looked like a rocking, frightened animal. Jayne lunged at him and plunged the syringe into Burrett’s thigh. Burrett murmured unintelligibly, stood up to fight, but immediately collapsed.
+++
Civilian side of the Secure Sector, New Germany Sector, Tarem Ring
Vlad leaned against the silo, lighting up his third joint.
Fred watched him and shook his head.
“What?” Vlad protested. “We have to act natural.”
Merry was whispering into her comm and typing furiously on her laptop. “How’s it going back there?” she asked.
Fred frowned. “Hard to tell. No major cussing.”
Vlad exhaled a cloud of smoke slowly. “Then everything is fine.”
Fred sighed and sat down.
Just then one of the security officers ambled in their direction. Between fight and flight, they all chose the third option and froze. The guard ambled up to the corridor toward them.
Fred felt his heart beating out of his chest as he approached. Fred waved meekly. Vlad held his joint behind his back until he had passed. The guard nodded at them, “Morning!” and then continued walking.
As soon as he was out of ear shot down the tunnel they had come from, Fred exhaled in relief. “What was that all about?”
Vlad shrugged. “We’re a few feet away from a prison that doesn’t officially exist. My guess is this officer is on patrol.”
Fred craned his neck to see the officer walking past Merry who had hidden her laptop and was pretending to take selfies against the rough textures of the corridor wall. In her goth outfit she likely looked like an arts student.
Fred kept his eye on the guard, now far in the distance. “Is that going to be a problem for us?” Fred queried.
Vlad resumed smoking. “Not yet. We just have to keep acting natural and stay vigilant.”
Fred felt his hands shake and grow clammy. He opened a game on his comm to distract himself. Vlad eyed him sympathetically and offered him a puff of his spliff. Fred accepted.
Vlad wandered off, back to Merry. “How’s it go
ing?”
Merry shook her head, laptop out again, and continued whispering to Jayne. Vlad attempted to draw her focus and gestured at her computer. He mouthed, “Sit rep.”
“She’s at his cell. That’s about all I know right now.”
Vlad wandered back to where Fred was keeping an eye on the facility door. Fred stared at him anxiously. “Well? What did she say?”
Vlad shrugged and took back his joint. “She’s at his cell.”
“What are you guys doing here?” a deep commanding voice interrupted them.
Another guard approached them from the joining corridor. He was armed, with his right hand ready to draw and shoot if there were any sudden moves. Vlad stood straighter and nonchalantly dropped his joint. “What do you mean, officer? I thought this was a public area.” He snuffed out the embers with the toe of his shoe.
The officer snorted and called some codes into his radio. He received a ten four back, glancing back at them still a little warily. Vlad felt his heart knock against his chest. “It is, but you should move along,” he told them. Vlad and Fred grunted and started to make their way back into the main walkway they’d arrived through: away from the corridor and the facility entrance. “Fine,” Vlad said begrudgingly, for effect.
The officer headed back down the corridor.
“That was a little too close.” Vlad picked his still-good joint up off the ground.
“Yeah…”
“No, I mean, I know that look.”
“What look?”
Vlad looked around for the officer. “The I’m-going-to-make-as-many-passes-as-Ican-till-I-bust-you-with-something look. We don’t have much time.”
Fred pointed to Vlad’s joint. “That’s not going to help.”
“Speak for yourself.” He pulled out his handheld and texted Merry.
Please hurry. Officer Friendly will be back.
Her response came quickly. It’s on Jayne now. I have to keep radio silence for another couple minutes.
Vlad held in the smoke as long as he could and coughed. Fred continued to focus intently on his comm game. The officer was slowly walking closer. “C’mon, Ms. Austin…”
+++
Secure Sector, New Germany Sector, Tarem Ring
Burrett blinked as he propped himself up on his elbows. Jayne crouched in front of him. “Burrett? James Burrett?”
Burrett nodded meekly. “You… you don’t look like a guard.”
Jayne whispered, “Okay, you can see. My name is Jayne. I’m here to get you out of here.”
“I’m dreaming, or Dr. Rasmussen is in my head…”
“You’re not dreaming, Mr. Burrett. You’re in a cell in a New Germany facility.”
Burrett rubbed his eyes. “To be fair, I could be in a cell anywhere in the ‘verse as the kids say…”
“But you’re not. You’re in a Camp Cupcake for disappeared spies.”
“They disappeared me…?”
“I’m afraid so, Mr. Burrett.”
“Disappeared…”
Jayne nodded.
Burrett started to rock slightly and took a handful of hair at each side of his head. “They disappeared me…”
Jayne snapped her fingers in front of him to get his attention back. “Hey. Hey. Look here. Okay, yes, they disappeared you, but I’m here to help make it right.”
“So you’re with the guards?”
“Not. I’m a spy…”
“Government?”
“No. Uh… more in the private sector.”
Burrett started to curl into a fetal position but redirected his feet onto the floor. “What do you want with me?”
Jayne listened for the guards. She couldn’t hear footsteps. “Look, we don’t have much time. I’m here to get you out of here…”
Burrett’s face grew more animated. “Get me out of here?”
“Shhhh! I need to explain a couple things.”
“Like how you got in here.”
Jayne continued to listen for footsteps. “Yeah, that.” She pointed at the vent. “I took the spy route.”
“Why would you get me out now? I have a parole hearing any time now.”
“Parole…?” Jayne censored herself quickly. “I need your help before the hearing.”
“With what? Why should I go with you? I’m getting out the right way. All rights restored.”
“You don’t know that. Parole hearings can go either way. Our records indicate you earned your way in here.”
“Is that why they sent you to get me out?”
“I’m not sure. Which ‘they’ do you mean?”
“The government.”
Jayne felt herself literally unable to speak for what felt like at least a minute. “The Gov—yeah, the government. New Germany doesn’t want to admit they have you here. You’re a big deal, you know.’
Burrett nodded and smiled with a great degree of self-satisfaction. “Yes… Yes, they don’t want to admit that they’re holding me without a trial. But why… would they send a spy…” he looked up, “through the vents?”
“They—the government, that is—wanted to, uh, make it look like a jail break. Save face, you know.”
Burrett nodded again. “They got the wrong guy.”
“Be that as it may, we have an urgent situation. Mr. Burrett—Agent Burrett—do you remember a man named Robert Chamberlain?”
“Yeah... Old partner. Old friend… Did he send you? If so… You can both rot in hell!”
Merry hissed, “No more radio silence. You’ve got less than 10 minutes. Get out of there!”
Burrett jumped, looking around the room for the source of the other voice. “Who was that?”
Jayne sighed and closed her eyes briefly, making a mental note of any approaches that may be more effective. “That was one of my people.”
“Is she with Chamberlain?”
“No, sir. Neither of us are with Chamberlain. We need your help to stop Chamberlain.”
“What did he do? He’s crazy, you know.”
Jayne stifled a small laugh. “Oh, I know. And he’s been up to a lot of terrible things.”
Burrett eyed her suspiciously. “What kind of terrible things?”
“You name it. Blackmail, for starters…”
Burrett’s eyes grew large. “Blackmail…?”
Jayne nodded, “Just like he did to you decades ago. Only this time he’s threatening civilization as we know it…”
“How? What’s that crazy bastard doing?”
“It’s hard to explain, Agent Burrett, but he blackmailed a high-ranking government official…”
Burrett roared with laughter, involuntarily clapping his hands as he did so. “Yeah, that’s him.”
Jayne heard faint footsteps veering to the left corridor. “We need to hurry if we’re going to get you out of here.”
“Not so fast. I need to hear more. Chamberlain blackmailed a government goon.”
“Yeah. It only gets worse from there. This is your chance to bring him in, make Chamberlain pay for what he did to you. Switch places with him.”
This flipped a switch in Burrett’s brain. He stood up and visually inspected Jayne, more so to confirm that she was a real person and not a confinement-induced hallucination. His face took on the genteel-yet-deranged look she recognized from his face sheet. “I’m getting out of here the right way, full rights restored. What do I get out of leaving with you through the vents like a common criminal?”
The footsteps were starting to head back up the corridor. “You get to right a terrible wrong.”
“And then what?”
“And then we’ll see.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Theron Techcropolis Gateway Building, L45, Theron Techcropolis, Armaros
24 Hours Earlier
Jayne mindlessly scrolled the Zen rock garden app on her tablet. “That’s assuming he agrees. If he agrees, he’ll probably want us to break him out. We’ll need him out anyway if he’s going to help us…”
; “Sounds like a jail break to me. But then how are we going to get him from the prison to our office?”
Jayne moved the virtual rake in a figure eight pattern. She sighed. “That part I don’t know. Ideas?”
Fred shifted in his seat. “We know we can’t take him past any cameras. All prison CCT systems are equipped with facial recognition software now. We’d be in some deep shit.”
Jayne sat back in her chair. “What about out of an airlock? If I’m breaking him out, then we’ll both need a lift. Or some full-featured space suits.”
Merry shook her head and frowned, not looking up from comparing data on her tablet to her laptop. “We don’t have the money for that little caper.”
That little piece of reality stung Jayne’s ears. “Champagne espionage on a beer budget…”
Merry laughed. “That totally belongs on our business cards.”
Jayne chuckled and moved more rocks with her virtual rake. The repetition was soothing the jittery feeling in her stomach. “We could print it on old gum wrappers. Anyway, maybe we could distort his face…”
Merry looked up from her work. “Like with a branding iron. Ooo, or improvisational plastic surgery! We could make half of his face look like he got too close to a nuclear reactor!”
“Way to keep it dark, Winterbourne,” Jayne smirked. “No, I meant change his appearance somehow. Remove his facial hair or something.”
Vlad folded his arms behind his head. “I wouldn’t go the facial hair route. They’ve been looking at his face for over two decades. They have to have a picture of him without the face wool somewhere on file. Ms. Winterbourne may be seriously mentally disturbed, but she has a point. We have to go a little more drastic to throw the authorities off our scent.”
Merry scowled. “Thanks.”
Vlad turned profile to hide his smile.
Fred propped his feet on the chair next to him and started playing a game on his comm. “Maybe we should look into prosthetics.”
“But Fred, we like you the way you are!” Merry chuckled without missing a beat.
Fred sat up on his elbows. “I’m serious. Like a mask or a stick-on nose for this Burrett guy so the guards don’t recognize him.”
Expelled (Interplanetary Spy for Hire Book 1) Page 38