“No, Roddy, the Guild is in your debt. At great sacrifice, you have demonstrated your loyalty once again. Now, we must pray that Beacon succeeds.”
Raising his glass, Rodrick said, “To good fortune and a brighter tomorrow.”
“To the Guild,” Collins replied.
As Rodrick drained the glass, a beep signaled the end of the call. Closing his eyes, he held up the empty tumbler and said, “Goodbye my beloveds. May the grace of God be with you.”
CHAPTER 6: HOOK, LINE & SINKER
Command Center, NASF Headquarters
Minneapolis, Lakelands Province, New Atlantia
Damon rubbed his temples while he watched the slow-motion replay of the Hearns females exiting the church. Disaster! Complete, utter disaster! The Beacon rats did it again!
He focused on the android holding the open vehicle door. Two of Rodrick’s androids had gone into the church with Sarah and her daughters, and a nanovid from inside the church later showed two androids escorting the women from the pews…but only one came outside.
How did I not notice the missing android? Damon wondered. How did Schwartz and his team miss it too?
That oversight was costly. For in the thirty-four-second gap between when the Hearns women vacated their pew and when they appeared outside, Beacon had triggered their rescue. It was a damn clever plan, thought Damon.
He cued up a “before” nanovid of the church vestibule, the foyer-like chamber linking the nave with the doors leading outside. On one side of the vestibule was a recess which held life-sized statues of Mary and Joseph set upon block pedestals. On the right was a similar-sized statue of St. Matthew. Also on a block pedestal, the saint sat in a large chair and had an open book in his hands.
The craftsmanship of the faux statues was remarkable, which is why none of Damon’s officers had given them a second look during their multiple clandestine visits to the church in the days leading up to the Hearns’ vigil.
In some ways, Damon couldn’t blame them, though. The faux statues were good enough forgeries to also fool St. Matthew’s priests and nuns, who were collectively flabbergasted by the scene in the vestibule after the rescue was complete. Well, not all were flabbergasted. The parish priest, the man who headed up St. Matthew’s, was missing.
No doubt the AWOL priest is a Beacon operative or sympathizer, thought Damon. He probably provided Beacon access to make the switch with the real statues before Sarah even told Rodrick of her plan to stay in Chicago.
Damon cued up the “after” vid recorded by Schwartz once his team finally made it into the church. It showed the broken shells of the faux statues littering the floor. How simple. How clever.
He pictured the rescue in his mind. As soon as the Hearns party of five passed into the vestibule, one of Rodrick’s androids jammed the feed of the nano inside the church. At the same time, clone androids of each Hearns female broke out of their statue shells. Once free of their casings, the clones handed nuns’ robes to Sarah and the girls while the other of Rodrick’s androids stepped outside to meet the SUV.
As Sarah and her daughters donned nun attire, their clones began to file outside. Somewhere during that span, Damon’s plainclothes officers, posing as worshipers, were stunned by laser blasts fired by the family android who had remained behind…or possibly by the missing parish priest.
When the first explosion occurred, the Hearns women dashed out a side entrance. Garbed in their nuns’ robes, they blended into the scurry of people emptying onto the street to gawk at the burning vehicle while other passersby ran away in fear.
Damon switched now to the glider drone video showing the church and surrounding streets from above. Advancing the video in slow motion, he watched three nuns run away…led by a priest.
He imagined Schwartz or someone from his team might have noticed the nuns had it not been for the laser fire that erupted as the NASF squad closed in on the church. Fired from a building across the street, the lasers knocked out two more officers. Then came the second explosion just outside St. Matthew’s. The second of Rodrick’s androids, the one who had stayed behind in the church, was hit by the laser fire and exploded on the steps just outside the entrance.
The glider video captured the explosion and the view of the priest and three nuns boarding a waiting white truck around the corner from the church. But no one on Damon’s team, including Damon himself, had noticed the nuns flee the chaotic scene in real-time. Everyone had been focused on the church, the laser fire and two explosions.
By the time Schwartz’ team secured the area, it was too late. The white van had long disappeared beyond the glider’s field of vision, blending in with many other white trucks driving in and around suburban Chicago.
The truth behind the stupefying events began to fall into place for Damon as soon as Schwartz informed him of the broken statues in the church vestibule. Shortly after, Schwartz radioed the discovery of only android remains inside the burned-out SUV. Then, Damon and Cassidy had gone back through the drone feeds and the rest became clear.
Damon stared once again at the frozen video image of the white truck speeding away and his anger swelled. You played me in Chicago, Beacon, but it’s not over yet. You still have to get them over the border and Chicago’s a long way from Carapach.
He was sure the underground network thought they’d played him in Minneapolis too, but thanks to a gutty, quick decision by Fenner, NASF was still in the game. The ambulance he had tailed with a nano had driven to an incinerator complex close to the border with Carapach. The drivers, two unidentified androids, had wheeled a body bag into the incinerator facility and then left in the ambulance.
At that moment, Fenner had been caught in a dilemma. Should he have the nano stay at the incinerator, or follow the ambulance again? With Damon consumed by events in Chicago, Fenner opted to follow the ambulance and dispatched another nano to observe the incinerator. While that decision had meant the incinerator went unobserved for twenty minutes while the second nano was in flight, it turned out to be the right call.
For the ambulance made a long, circuitous drive around Minneapolis before coming to a stop in a forest northwest of the city. There, the nano captured footage of the androids ditching the medic uniforms and peeling the faux-ambulance wrap off of the blue van underneath. And for the last three hours, the androids and the van had stayed put, as if waiting for someone.
That had given Damon all the time he needed to discreetly maneuver other assets into place — one team near the incinerator, another near the blue van and the final team at the border checkpoint some five miles away. With additional eyes still on the gene center, Damon had all his bases covered. The next move would be up to Beacon and, this time, Damon had them cornered.
“There goes Dr. Wells,” Cassidy said.
Damon looked at his holoband. It was 6:08 p.m. “Fenner, track him all the way to the border.”
“Yes, sir. Nano is locked on target.”
If Damon could have followed Wells all the way home, he would have, but, by mutual treaty, neither New Atlantia nor Carapach was permitted to send security teams or surveillance drones into each other’s territory. While that restriction did not prevent Damon from deploying NASF’s satellite to track Wells, the satellite’s surveillance camera was currently trained on the forest where the blue van was hidden.
“What’s Dr. Fujita’s ETA at the border?” Damon asked Cassidy.
“Twelve minutes.”
Damon gazed at the holotable screen showing Fujita’s Starlight cruiser driving toward Carapach, the evening sun edging toward the horizon in front of her. Turning to Cassidy, he said, “Find out where Schwartz stands with Rodrick Hearns. I’m tired of waiting for an update.”
“Yes, sir. Right away.”
Hearns had some explaining to do. He had left the clinic without Damon’s knowledge and permission. Yes, he had left Damon a holosnap indicating he had tried to get the clinic personnel to let him see Billy again, only to find out the boy’s body had alrea
dy been taken for cremation. But then the evvie jammed the nano following him back to Chicago, and he ignored Damon’s subsequent calls. There was also the matter of Rodrick’s androids. The evvie had sworn they were loyal to him, yet they appeared to have aided in Sarah’s escape.
With so many questions that needed answers, Damon had NASF officers intercept Hearns’ RiverForge and take him into custody. The officers drove him to Chicago where he was now being interrogated by Schwartz.
“Sir, Schwartz just replied to my transmission,” Cassidy said. “He says Hearns has been uncooperative. Refuses to answer any questions until his Guild attorney arrives.”
Damon shook his head. Evvies. They’re all alike. They all think they’re above the law. “All right. Tell Schwartz to park Hearns’ butt in the nastiest cell they have down there. When his attorney arrives, park him in a conference room. No one gets in to see Hearns until we finish up in Minneapolis. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
Four more hours passed by. Finally, at 10:27 p.m., as the yawning Damon was pouring a cup of coffee at the back of the command center, Cassidy’s voice sounded in his earbud. “Major, the blue van’s lights just came on. It’s on the move.”
Streambank near the western border wall
Lakelands Province, New Atlantia
From the cover of underbrush, Takoda saw a vehicle come to a stop on the far side of the stream. Covered in a dampening cloak, he lowered night-vision goggles over his eyes and watched Ellie and Akecheta exit the van.
It had been a long day of cat and mouse with NASF, and while Takoda’s and Yon’s parts in Beacon’s grand rescue scheme had been small thus far, the final stage of Billy’s rescue now rested squarely on their shoulders. Takoda felt every ounce of that burden as he turned to Yon and whispered, “Any sign of gliders?”
Next to him, scanning the sky with her night-vision goggles, Yon whispered back, “No, but that doesn’t mean there are none up there. Could be in stealth mode.”
They were both well aware that NASF had not been fooled by the faux-euthanization earlier in the day. After going through the rest of the day at the clinic, following their normal routines as closely as possible, they had both noticed the first sign of trouble on their drives home. At the border crossing, they encountered a more thorough security inspection than usual.
Then, when they arrived at their homes, both had encrypted messages from Hoot waiting on their holonodes. In Hoot’s good news, bad news message, she led off by telling them Sarah’s part of the rescue had been successful. Switching to the bad news, she informed them Ellie had detected a nano drone following the ambulance from the clinic. Worse, whoever was managing the drone had not fallen for the body bag drop off at the incinerator. Try as they had to disinterest the nano, they had been unsuccessful. Hoot’s parting words had been, “Therefore, you should expect NASF to intervene. Priority one is the boy. Priority two is protecting the location of the tunnel. Priority three is your own safety.”
With those words replaying in his mind, Takoda retrained his night-vision goggles on Ellie and Akecheta as they loaded the bag carrying the still-sedated Billy Hearns into a canoe anchored on the streambank. Under the moonlit sky, they began to paddle quietly across the babbling water. All of a sudden, Yon grabbed his arm. “Shit! I’ve got a glider. It’s headed this way.”
Takoda looked up. Against the orange and black landscape depicted on his goggles’ display, he spotted the white glow of the glider’s heat signature streaking in their direction.
“Damn.” Takoda shifted his attention back to the stream. Amid the black water, he picked up the orange shape of the canoe. They were too far away. They would not make it across before the glider converged on the stream. He pressed his earbud radio. “Ellie, Ake, cloak yourselves and Billy. Quickly.”
“We’re already cloaked,” Akecheta replied.
“Then giddyup, gliders incoming.” Takoda turned to Yon. “Do what you can to confuse the drones.”
Beacon didn’t have drones that could compete with NASF gliders, but, thankfully, Hoot had supplied Takoda and Yon with two types of countermeasure drones — two decoys and a signal jammer. The drones had been waiting for them when they arrived at the Carapach side of the tunnel. As Takoda watched Yon launch the signal jammer, he prayed it would buy them the necessary time to get Billy to the tunnel.
Through his goggles, Takoda followed the basketball-sized drone as it shot up into the air and streaked toward the gliders. Beside him, Yon worked the holoconsole controlling the drone and said, “Okay, the jammer’s active.”
Takoda snuck from the underbrush and crept to the streambank. As he waded into the water, he heard a sharp whisper from Yon. “It’s working!”
He didn’t bother looking up to confirm, his eyes riveted on the silhouette of the canoe drawing closer. If the jammer did its job, the glider, deprived of the GPS signals used to control its orientation and guidance, would lose its bearings and crash. Sure enough, moments later, Takoda heard the sound of snapping branches rise above the croaks and chirps emanating from the surrounding woods.
“Glider down,” Yon said, a triumphant tone in her voice. Shortly thereafter, however, her voice expressed despair. “Crap, here comes another one!”
Takoda looked up and scanned the sky but he could neither see nor hear the incoming drone. Casting his gaze back to the stream, he urged his androids to paddle faster. “Come on, Ake, put your back into it! You, too, Ellie. Hustle.”
A fireball lit up the sky in the distance, causing Yon to blurt, “Jammer’s gone. The glider got it.”
Before Takoda could tell Yon to launch one of the decoy drones, he heard the whirr of rotors ripple across the water. As he waded deeper into the stream, he saw the heat signature of the decoy moving downstream away from the direction of the canoe. With the frigid water now up to his beltline, Takoda reached out and snagged the bow of the incoming canoe. Looking past the still-paddling Akecheta, he spied Ellie cradling the cloak-sheath-covered child.
Behind him, he heard Yon say, “The glider is turning for the decoy.”
Tapping off his earbud radio, Takoda called to Ellie. “El, as soon as the canoe hits ground, get the kid up and out. Run like hell for the tunnel. You got it?”
“Copy that,” Ellie said.
Just as Takoda grabbed hold of the canoe, Ake stopped paddling and slid out to help him drag it ashore. Ellie leaped over Takoda’s head, Billy Hearns in her arms. Over the sound of her prodigious splash in the water, Takoda heard the deep-throated groan of the glider drone and saw the reflection of its searchlight illuminating the stream’s surface. Through gritted teeth, he said, “Yon, do something. Fast.”
There was a flash of light and a hissing sound, and the glider’s searchlight went dark. Looking over his shoulder, Takoda saw Akecheta, laser rifle in hands, fire another blaze. The drone uttered a high-pitched mechanical whine. Seconds later, Ake’s third shot blew it apart, its debris spraying into the stream and woods.
By the time Takoda looked back around, Ellie and Billy were gone. He turned to Akecheta and said, “Torch the canoe and send it downstream. Might fetch us a little more time.”
Removing his cloak, Akecheta said, “Got a better idea. You get moving. I’ll cover the rear.” The hulking Makoa snapped off a salute and pushed the canoe back into the stream. As he began to paddle it back across the water, he called out, “It’s been a pleasure serving you, Tak.”
Yon came up beside Takoda. Out of breath, she said, “What’s Ake doing?”
“I don’t know, but we don’t have time to wait around and find out.”
Takoda ripped off his cloak and prodded Yon to do the same. With their heat signatures exposed, he tucked the cloaks under his arm and grabbed hold of Yon’s hand. As he began running, Hoot’s words echoed in his mind, “Priority three is your own safety.”
Yon tugged at his hand and said, “Wait. Where are you going? The tunnel’s the other way!”
“I know. Come on, let
’s give Ellie some breathing room. Hopefully, any more gliders will follow our heat sigs.”
Command Center – NASF Province Headquarters
Minneapolis, Lakelands Province, New Atlantia
Damon’s eyes zigged and zagged around the holographic display. At the far left of a 3D map, two blinking red lights marked the last reported positions of his downed gliders. To the far right, the curving outline of the border wall stood above the forest pines. In the center, the white beacons of a tandem of newly dispatched gliders streaked above the landscape. Soon, they would diverge. One would head for the two orange heat signatures moving deeper into the woods, while the other would arc toward the blue dot that marked the van racing away from the stream.
Speaking to the officer controlling the drones, Damon said, “Keep the gliders at a safe distance. I don’t want them to splash any more of our birds.” He turned to another operator in the control center. “Alert the border team. Remind them I want the agitators captured, not killed.”
Damon refocused his attention on the display, his eyes following the van’s progress. Up ahead of the blue dot, he saw a glut of green dots blocking the road, icons identifying his NASF Viper-class androids lying in wait. Nice try, rodent. You’re about to run out of road.
Shifting his gaze to the serpentine course of the orange dots in the forest, Damon smiled. Come on, lead me to your ferret hole. He turned to Cassidy. “Patch me through to Commander Sands.”
“Yes, Major.”
Seconds later, Damon heard a deep voice in his earbud radio. “Sands, here.”
“Tommy, it’s Damon. Do you have eyes on the perps in the forest?”
“Affirmative.”
“Good. Get ready to deploy your troops. Crowd them, don’t storm them. I want them to lead us to their tunnel.”
“Sir?” Cassidy said. “The van’s picking up speed.”
Damon nodded. “Must have detected our blockade.” Through his radio, Damon spoke to the commander manning the barrier. “Look sharp, Grimwald. As soon as you have visual—”
The GODD Chip (The Unity of Four Book 1) Page 8