Live Bait

by David Archer

  They could hear Heinrich speaking off-mic to someone, but then he came back. He gave them an email address and said he would expect to receive the video within the hour.

  “Chill out, man,” Reese said. “I’m sending it right now. Check it out, then call me back.” He ended the call and laid the phone on the table.

  Beside him, Ron was entering the email address into an anonymous online account. Within seconds, the video was uploaded and on its way to Heinrich Wegner.

  Ten minutes passed quietly, and then the cell phone on the table rang. Reese picked it up and hit the speaker button to answer. “Talk to me,” he said.

  “Prichard murdered Harry Winslow?” Heinrich asked.

  “Well, not personally,” Reese said. “I take it you understand why the information is so reliable, now?”

  “Let us just say that I am prepared to trust you. How shall we proceed?”

  “Give us twenty-four hours, and Prichard and his people will secure the facility. Nobody knows yet that he’s going off the grid, so his connections with the government will get us inside. Once that happens, we’ll take the place over and you can meet us there. Do we have a deal on the price?”

  “I'll bring the money. If I get what I come for, it is yours. We will be there in twenty-four hours, and if there is any attempt to betray us, you will all be killed. Is that clear?”

  “Crystal clear,” Reese said. “Don’t worry, Heinrich, all he wants is to deliver the goods and disappear, start making some real money. Besides, you never know when you might need him again. Like I said, they make Blackwater look like amateurs.”

  “We can discuss that during the meeting. Twenty-four hours, and no tricks.” The line went dead instantly.

  FIFTEEN

  “Looks like we’re in business,” Reese said to Sam. “Twenty-four hours isn’t a lot of time.”

  “It’s more than enough,” Sam said. “Ron, get a flight ready for us. Indie and I are going down to the armory, and then we’re off to visit with Q. Call me if you need me.”

  “Sure thing, Sam,” Ron said. He, Jeff and Reese left Sam’s office and went down the hall toward Ron’s own.

  “Why am I going to the armory?” Indie asked. “I’ve still got the little machine pistol that you gave me before we left the other day.”

  “I know,” Sam said. “And that will be fine if we get into a firefight, but I want you to have something for a backup, something for up-close work.”

  She followed him through the maze of corridors until they arrived at the armory that took up what used to be the main repair garage, back when the building housed a car dealership. Gerald Porter, the company armorer, looked up and smiled when he saw Sam.

  “Back for more?” Porter asked.

  “I’m good, personally,” Sam said. “Indie has to go with me on another case, and she needs something small, something she can keep concealed on her person. What do you recommend?”

  “Her hands are kinda small,” Porter said. “I’ve got a nice little Kimber forty-five that ought to do well.” He went to a rack on the wall and picked up a handgun, then quickly loaded a magazine and handed it to Indie. “Take it back to the range and see what you think.”

  Indie followed Sam into the range and took up a position on one of the lanes. Sam hung a target and sent it down the lines, then handed her a pair of ear protectors. She put them on, grabbed the pistol and quickly squeezed off five shots.

  Sam hit the button to bring the target up close for inspection, then whistled. “Nice grouping,” he said. “You put all five in center mass, good shooting.”

  “Thanks,” Indie said. “It has a little bit of kick, but not as much as I was expecting. This is a nice little gun, Sam.”

  “Good,” Sam said. “It’s yours. I want you to keep it on you as long as we’re on this case. Let’s go back and get you some extra magazines.”

  They went back to Porter and he set them up with three extra magazines and a box of bullets. Sam told Indie to go to the break room and he would meet her there after he went to see Q. She pulled him down for a kiss, then scuttled back the way they had come.

  Sam went further into the building, to the R&D section that took up the old machine shop. He spotted Q talking with Denny and walked directly up to them.

  “Sam,” Q said. “What can we do for you?”

  “Something simple, I hope,” Sam said. “I’m looking for anything that might give us an advantage over these people when we meet them. Got any suggestions?”

  “Yeah, Denny’s been filling me in. Sam, I can only think of one thing that might help,” he said. “We’ve got bulletproof clothing that can handle just about anything but a high-powered sniper rifle. It’s rated Level IV by the NIJ, which means it will stop thirty caliber, steel core, armor piercing rifle ammunition at reasonable range. I can outfit you and anyone else you want with some of that. Just remember that it has to come back when you’re finished with it, the stuff is unbelievably expensive.”

  “Okay, that sounds good,” Sam said. “I'll have everybody stop by here. Do you have anything that looks like military uniforms? We’re going to be impersonating army personnel.”

  “I thought of that when Denny told me what you’re planning. I’ve got it in both black and OD green military style patterns, so just give me the sizes we need. This is the same stuff our security officers wear, so we’ve got just about every size you can imagine.”

  It turned out that Q already had sizes for all of the team, so Sam only had to give him Indie’s size. Q promised to have bags packed for each of them within an hour, and Sam and Denny headed toward the break room.

  Windlass Security had been growing over the last few months, and Ron had finally decided that vending machines weren’t quite enough for when the crew was hungry. A few weeks earlier, he had made a deal with a local catering company to set up a kitchen off the break room, and it operated much like a small restaurant.

  Indie was sitting at a table with Summer and Jade while Steve, Walter and Darren were seated at another nearby. She waved when she saw Sam, and he and Denny sat down with her. The other guys pulled their table over to combine the two into one big one.

  “Good timing,” Indie said. “I just ordered us lunch. I hope you both like spaghetti, because it’s on special today.”

  “Spaghetti is fine,” Sam said, and Denny nodded his agreement.

  “So how did that go?” Indie asked. “Does Q have any goodies for us?”

  “Bulletproof clothing,” Sam said. “Designed to look like military clothing so that we won’t look out of place. Q is getting some ready for us now, for everybody.”

  “Really?” Darren asked. “I’ve been reading about it, but I’ve never worn any. I hope it doesn’t chafe.”

  Denny laughed. “Don’t worry, mate, I’ve worn some before. Doesn’t feel a whole lot different than denim, in my opinion.”

  A few moments later, the spaghetti arrived and everyone gave up talking while they ate. Shortly before they finished, Sam’s phone rang, and he walked away for a moment to take the call privately. It was Ron, telling him that the flight was arranged and that they would be leaving for Arizona in about two hours. When he returned to the table, Sam tapped on it for attention.

  “Look, guys, we are going to be heading out for Tucson in just a couple hours. I need everybody to keep their head in the game, because this is not like a normal case. This time, we are up against real terrorists, the organized kind. We’ve got to stay focused, and we’ve got to make sure we nail these bastards to the wall.”

  Denny nodded. “I agree. If Heinrich is ambitious enough to try to get his hands on the Soviet Sixpack, then he’s crazy enough to do anything. It was bad enough when terrorists had to use airplanes, but the world has gotten so high tech since then that just about anything can become a WMD. He’s got to be stopped, and it looks like it’s up to us to do it.”

  “Anyway,” Sam said, “we are all going to need to be in the best shape we can. The Joint
Chiefs and Justice have all agreed to let us handle this, so the real technicians will be ready to leave by the time we get there. The security personnel will be staying, but they’re going to be acting under Rob’s orders. I suggest we get whatever rest we can on the plane, because we may not get a lot of sleep later tonight.”

  “Commercial flight?” Denny asked.

  “No,” Sam said. “The boss got us another charter jet. It’ll take us to Tucson, and there will be vehicles waiting to transport us out to the site when we arrive there.”

  They finished their lunch and went to get their travel bags, then made a stop at R&D to pick up the bags Q was preparing for them. He had provided three complete uniform sets for each of them, just in case things took a little time. He reminded them that they had to turn it all in when they returned, and then Sam invited them all back to his office to wait until it was time to go.

  Rob Feinstein and ten of his security soldiers arrived a few minutes later, and Sam arranged to have some extra chairs brought into the room. With Reese, they were up to twenty people, and the conference table could hold no more than ten. Sam and Indie sat on the couch while everybody else pulled the chairs into the center of the floor so they could all talk.

  “The plan is pretty simple,” Sam said. “When we arrive at the Baldwin Ranch, the real technicians will leave. Their security people will stick around, but they’ll be working with you, Rob. We’ll keep the place looking as normal as possible through the night, but Heinrich and his people should be arriving tomorrow morning sometime. When they do, we’re going to put on a real show for them. I want them so excited about those bombs that they don’t realize they’re being surrounded until it’s too late. I want to take as many of them as we can alive. That includes Heinrich, unless he makes it absolutely impossible to do so.”

  “So, I'll be locked up with everybody else in the beginning, right?” Rob asked.

  “That’s correct,” Sam said. “Denny, Darren and I will be the welcoming party. Once all of their people are inside and the entrances sealed, we’ll signal you that it’s time to move. At that point, you will break out the weapons and move as surreptitiously as possible into position. We want them surrounded as quickly as we can, and hopefully without letting them know it’s coming.”

  “And toward that end,” Ron said, coming into the office, “I have a surprise for you. Darcy?” A young woman stepped into the room behind Ron. “Sam, this is Darcy Wallace. While we were working on putting this plan together yesterday, I had put in a request for details of the underground facility at the Baldwin Ranch. Darcy was flown out this morning to brief us about it. She just got in a few minutes ago, but I figured you’d want to see what she’s got right away.”

  Darcy was about five foot seven and had an athletic build. Her brown hair framed a face that was rather cute, but the sparkling green eyes were her most notable feature. The girls in the room smiled at her, but the men not only smiled, they actually got to their feet.

  “Oh, goodness,” she said, “sit down. I’m just here to tell you about the layout of the facility.” She looked at the big screen over the conference table. “Is there a computer connected to that?” she asked.

  Sam glanced at the screen, then leaned closer to the door. “Jenna!” he shouted. “Get in here!”

  Jenna, his secretary, came through the door in a hurry. “Yes, sir?”

  “Can you show Ms. Wallace how to use the video display? She’s brought us some information on the facility we’re going to be infiltrating.”

  Jenna looked at Darcy and grinned. “No problem,” she said. “What kind of media?”

  “I have a hard drive with me,” she said. “It has the blueprints of the facility on it, and the program that will allow us to view them from every possible angle.”

  “Oh, that’s easy,” Jenna said. She led the girl to a cabinet on the wall, where Sam was surprised to see a laptop computer suddenly appear. “There you go. Just connect it to the USB port and you should be good to go.”

  It took Darcy a moment to get the program she wanted, and then the big screen came to life. Everyone crowded around the conference table as close as they could as she gave them a virtual tour of the facility, from the entrance on the surface of the ground through the old mining tunnels and then through a concealed doorway.

  “Behind that rock façade is the elevator,” she said. “It’s an open freight elevator, about fifteen feet square. It runs on cogs that climb racks attached to the shaft walls, and can handle up to fifty tons. It’s the only way into and out of the facility, and is controlled by an operator in a secure booth on the main subterranean level. There are two operators on duty at all times, because the system uses biometric security. Either of the operators can run it, but only with a combination of facial recognition, a retina scan, a palm print and a thermal scan. If all of those factors are not within acceptable parameters, that elevator is not going anywhere.”

  On the screen, the 3D video animation showed them what it would look like as they rode down the elevator, and then zoomed out to show a three-dimensional wireframe blueprint of the overall facility. There were six levels, each of which had been bored into solid rock. Between the levels was twenty feet of solid stone, making it virtually impossible to get from one level to another without the elevator itself. Each level was comprised of tunnels that were roughly fifty feet wide and twelve feet high. Various structures stood in the tunnels, and Darcy explained that these were the offices and laboratories of the facility staff.

  “Each level is made up of roughly ninety acres of floor space. That means that the entire facility, taken altogether, adds up to almost a square mile underground. The material storage vaults, the part you’re going to be most interested in, are on the lowest level, level six. There are a hundred and fifty-two vaults down there, and it takes a special code to open each and every one of them.”

  She pointed out a particular room on the display. “The one containing the Soviet Sixpack is vault number thirty-seven, which is the very last vault in tunnel three. It’s a third of a mile walk from the elevator to that vault. You will be given the code, Mr. Prichard, by the security chief when you arrive. Under no circumstances should anyone attempt to open any of the other vaults. Is that understood?”

  “Absolutely,” Sam said. “I take it they contain even more dangerous items?”

  “Actually, there are two vaults that contain biological weapons that are considered the most deadly ever made. Because they are so dangerous, any attempt to open the vaults without the proper codes will result in the detonation of a rather large incendiary explosive device. The heat will destroy the biological agents, but the explosion would probably kill everyone on that level. Those particular vaults are so secure that no one within the facility actually knows the code. On the rare occasions when they have to be opened, a special operative is given the code and sent in to open it. The code only works one time, and then a new code is generated. There is a computer at the Pentagon that can then generate the matching new code when it’s needed.”

  “Then, we couldn’t get into them if we wanted to. To be honest, that makes me feel better. Now, if there’s no way to get from one level to another, how are my people supposed to take the PAF folks by surprise?”

  “There’s a secure room on the main level, level 1, right here.” She pointed to a particular cubicle on the screen. “It’s actually right next to the control booth for the elevator, and is the perfect place to have your people waiting. There are some movable panels in the walls where weapons can be hidden, and a second door that opens directly into the control booth. If your enemies decide to put someone in the booth with the elevator operator, that should give your people a way to neutralize that person. At that point, your people can rappel down to level six and get into position. Because the elevator is so far from the vault, they should be able to get pretty close without being detected.”

  Sam nodded, but Rob held up a hand.

  “I have a question,
” he said. “Those tunnels are cut out of solid rock, right? What’s it going to be like when bullets start flying down there?”

  Darcy gave him a sour face. “It’s going to be like getting stuck inside a popcorn machine,” she said. “You’re dealing with bedrock, so bullets are going to be ricocheting everywhere.”

  “Yeah,” Rob said. “That’s pretty much what I figured.”

  Darcy answered a few more questions and then the meeting broke up. They still had about an hour before their flight, so Denny suggested they all go down to the break room and have soft drinks. The suggestion was welcomed by everyone, and Denny made sure to catch up to Darcy before she could get out of the room.

  “Can I buy you a Coke?” he asked.

  She grinned at him. “Unless you got something stronger available. You’re Mr. Cortlandt, right?”

  Denny’s eyes went wide. “I am,” he said. “You’ve heard of me?”

  “Oh, yes,” Darcy said with a chuckle. “I’m actually the liaison officer for DHS and its dealings with Windlass. What that means is that I get to sit and read all of your after action reports. Yours always make me smile, because you put so much extra into them.”

  “I do? How so?”

  Darcy shrugged, but kept smiling. “Well, for instance,” she said, “everybody else writes in the report that the person they were watching got into a car. You, on the other hand, will tell me that it was a 1973 Dodge Challenger, that it was silver with red pin striping, and that it had custom wheels and tires on it. Where everybody else says the bad guy pulled a gun, you will tell me that it was a Chinese copy of a Russian knockoff of a Colt model 1911. Believe it or not, your after action reports read more like a spy novel than anything else.”

  Denny grinned at her. “And you’re a girl who enjoys a good spy novel?”

  She blushed a bit and batted her eyes coquettishly. “Maybe,” she said.

  SIXTEEN

  It was finally time to go, and Sam whistled to get the attention of everyone in the break room. “Okay, people,” he said, “it’s time to head for the airport. Roger has the bus out back, all ready to go. Grab your gear out of my office and let’s mount up.”