“Kay!” Nick shouted. He threw himself over her, mantling as much of her as he could. The force of the explosion had to be huge to make the floor shake. The Grange was built as solidly as technology would allow.
The floor stopped shaking, nothing falling from the above. Was another explosion coming?
He jumped up, pulling Kay with him. He grabbed her hand and ran while thumbing in the first number on his ASI cell. Each ASI operative had the bosses on speed dial. No matter what John “Midnight” Huntington or Douglas “Senior” Kowalski were doing, they’d answer, day or night. The Senior was away, so Nick called Midnight.
Midnight answered on the first ring. It wasn’t a number you called to say hey, howzzit hangin’?
“Nick. Talk to me.”
“The Grange is under fire. I don’t know who or what is out there. I’m taking Kay to the safe room then I’m going up.”
“Get back to you in a minute,” Midnight said, and the line went dead.
Nick pulled Kay back for a second at an unmarked stretch of wall. “Here, honey.”
“Here?” Her eyes were wide as she looked at the unbroken wall. She wasn’t panicking and she wasn’t out of breath. Good girl. He felt a surge of pride in his smart princess.
Nick put his hand on a section of the wall and a door slid open. As it did, a light went on inside. He knew what was there. A large, comfortable space with a separate electricity system, separate air system and food and water supplies. There was also a separate weapons locker.
Figuring this thing out was her business. Protecting her while she did it was his.
He urged her into the room but stopped at the door. “This is a safe room, honey. Nothing can get to you here. To get out, punch 2001 on the keypad by the door, but don’t go out unless I’m on the other side of that door. I need to get topside.”
“Can I help you in any way?”
Nick repressed a shudder at the idea of Kay in the line of fire. “No, no way. You need to stay safe here. We need you, I’m just the muscle.”
“Okay.” She was watching his eyes, taking her cue from him. “I don’t want to get in your way. I’ll stay here, don’t worry about me.”
God yeah, this was a woman in a million. Her world was upended, best friend dead, a man had died in her arms, and she didn’t want him to worry about her. He kissed her, waited for the vault-like door to close, and turned to run for the main weapons locker.
His ASI phone buzzed. “Yeah?”
It was Felicity, only on speaker, not on vid. “Nick, you’ve got an overhead drone. Not a quadcopter like the one that came after Kay. We don’t have a perfect visual, I’m piggybacking on a communications satellite, but it’s got missiles. It just shot one at you—”
With anyone but Felicity, Nick would have said, no shit Sherlock, but Felicity didn’t deserve it. She was working hard for him, she worked hard for everyone.
He was passing the entrance elevator. Smoke was drifting down from the top.
“It wiped out John’s shack and your vehicle. I don’t know how, but someone followed your vehicle up to the Grange. The guy’s good, Nick.”
“Yeah.” He didn’t want to think too closely about someone good at being bad targeting Kay. “Can you tell how many more missiles the drone has?”
“Negative,” Felicity said sadly. Metal’s bass tones rumbled in the background. “We can’t see the belly. However, my guy—who is usually right—guesses the drone only has one other missile to shoot, given the size. But this is outside my wheelhouse, Nick, and Metal doesn’t like the thought of you paying the price if he’s wrong.”
“I trust Metal. Do you think the drone has FLIR?” Meaning, would it have infrared and could its cameras see him if he hid in the trees.
Metal’s voice came on. “It’s a drone model I’ve never seen before, a little smaller than a Watchkeeper. Act as if it has FLIR, that way you’re safe. Anti IR blankets in the armory.”
“Altitude?”
The keyboard clickety-clacked. “He’s in a circular flight path, counterclockwise, at about a thousand meters.”
Nick did the calculations in his head. Hard, but doable. “Speed?”
Another moment of clacking. “About 80 mph.”
He hit the armory and came out with comms, an IR cloaking blanket, Kevlar-plated body armor and a MacMillan TAC-50. Jacko was in charge of gear, always, and Nick had no doubt at all that the rifle would be in perfect working order.
It was a damn pity that he’d left the DD in the SUV. Nick would have kicked his own ass if he could have reached it. He’d been so keen to get Kay into the Grange that he hadn’t unloaded the vehicle.
Fuck.
Nick grabbed a few grenades and ran to an auxiliary exit.
“I’m headed to the north exit since the main exit is destroyed. When the drone is facing away from me, give me a heads-up.” The photographic equipment would be in the nose.
“Roger that,” Metal said.
Nick rode up to the ground but held back on opening the elevator doors until Metal gave the okay. “Hundred meters north-northwest,” Metal said. “I estimate you have about four minutes.” Nick punched the buttons. The doors opened silently and he stepped out. A lot of work had gone into surrounding the unassuming entrance to the Grange with unassuming security.
There was a clear area with a forty-meter radius around the shack that looked like beaten earth. Actually, it was filled with motion sensors. Laser beam emitters were mounted on what looked like overly tall light poles.
For another forty meters back, all around the shack, the area was clear, but had camouflage netting that was indistinguishable from canopy from the sky. Nick had a clear view if he could make himself invisible.
No problem.
He ran to the outer edge of the perimeter and held up military-grade binoculars, scanning the sky. There! A small metal frame, maybe ten meters long. It was dull metal, non-reflective, but he saw it nonetheless. You had to look hard, but there it was. It was probably only semi-visible to radar but that was the thing about stealth. You couldn’t make something invisible to the naked eye unless it was dark. But right now, a bright sun shone as it sank to the west. And the drone was slowly circling east. Cool. Its cameras could compensate for sunlight shining directly into the lens but the resolution would be compromised.
Nick came to a stop under the camouflage netting and looked for a hide to set up. His internal clock told him he had a little under three minutes. Okay. If he couldn’t find or make himself a hide in three minutes, he deserved to have a bomb dropped on him.
He walked quickly south, checking the perimeter where the forest started, and almost immediately found a perfect hide among the massive roots of an ancient oak, a real rarity this high up.
He spread a thin foam mattress over the root, stretching it out on the ground, put the TAC-50 and ammo carefully on the right and sat down cross-legged, the thin foil blanket over his head and shoulders.
“Wow,” Felicity said over the open line. “Just lost sight of you, Nick. Except for a small heat signature which might be your nose. But would probably be read as an animal. Well done.”
“Take out that bastard,” Metal growled.
“Roger that.” Nick settled in, making sure nothing bit into his backside.
He carefully perused the immediate area. The shack was blown to bits, a blackened crater, with rubble emanating from it like a starburst around a black hole.
His SUV was lying on its side like a wounded animal. But ASI vehicles were armored. Maybe if the vehicle could be pushed onto its wheels, it could still function. It had the opposite of a soft underbelly. The chassis was hardened, the tires run-flat. If whoever had remotely pulled the trigger thought he’d taken out whoever was in the shack and had destroyed transportation for anyone who survived the bombing, they were in for a surprise.
He lifted the rifle to his shoulder, then frowned. What was that noise? Like…the rustling of leaves, only there was no wind. And it was regular. What the fuck—
Metal’s voice came over his comms unit. “Nick! Get out of there! Fuck, it’s a sniper drone, too! Gogogo!”
“Negative, Metal,” Nick said calmly, shouldering the rifle.
“Fuck, man! That drone’s big enough to carry a chain gun–one of those bullets catches you, you’ll bleed out in seconds.”
“Kay’s in the Grange. Would you leave Felicity there with the possibility of another missile strike? And with a strafing gun on over-watch?”
Silence. “Okay, man, I hear you. Knock it out of the sky.”
“Roger that.” Nick put his eye to the scope. Someone rich and powerful was after Kay. Someone with the potential to do immense harm to a lot of people. That was Nick’s usual target but this guy’s real mistake was going after Kay. He’d have to get through Nick, and he’d have to get through the entire ASI team first.
Nick knew that if he was killed, Kay would be protected by ASI, and they would pull out all the stops. She was Felicity’s friend and she was Al Goodkind’s granddaughter. They wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
But it so happened that Nick wanted to live and take care of Kay himself. They were both going to live through this and then he’d go after the fuckers with everything he had. He’d—
There it was!
Circling back slowly like an oversized eagle. When Nick put his eye to the scope, the drone jumped, looking as if it were right above Nick’s head. The optics were very clear. While the shooting lobe in his head set up the shot, the analytical part of his brain was drawing in info.
It was a pity that the scope didn’t have a camera, because he’d love to be able to study the underbelly once they got back to HQ. But it didn’t. He only had time to see that there had been two missiles attached, only one remaining. The drone was circling back.
Suddenly, a whap whap whap! sound came from the bushes again. The drone was clearing the terrain with bullets before letting fly another missile.
Whoever was operating the drone wasn’t seeing signs of life, but the motherfucker wasn’t taking chances. This guy wanted Kay dead.
Not on my watch, motherfucker.
Nick slowed his breathing, finger tight but not too tight on the trigger. Breathing slowed, he slowed his heartbeat, watching the silver bird circle around to him. The bullets chewed up the undergrowth but didn’t interfere with his view of the drone itself.
Closer, closer.
His heart was beating steady and slow.
The drone filled his scope. He tuned out the sound of the bullets chopping down trees, digging up the earth, striking the SUV, coming closer. The bullets so close now he could see shards of wood fly up.
He slowed his heartbeat more. Thump. Pause. Thump.
Between one heartbeat and another, Nick pulled the trigger. And watched the drone blow up.
The bullet had 220 footounds of force. The drone was made of lightweight metal to increase its flying time. No way it could withstand such an impact.
Nick crouched behind the tree trunk for ten seconds, waiting for all the hot shards of metal to drop to the ground, then took off for the secondary exit at a run.
“Excellent shot,” Metal said in his ear. “The FBI didn’t destroy your aim.”
Nick ignored him as he ran. “Felicity,” he said urgently. “Any other drones?”
“No.” She paused. “But I can’t guarantee that this guy doesn’t have satellite access. Can you find the entrance that’s under the camouflage netting?”
Nick swerved. Yes, there was another exit that had been placed under the cover of the netting. “Entering now. I want to exit as fast as possible with Kay. Find us a path out that’s not open to eyes in the sky.”
Clickety-clack. “Metal’s taking care of that right now,” Felicity said. “He and Jacko will be contacting you. I’ll stay on over-watch.”
A minute later, Metal was on comms. “Nick, make it to the very end of the second server farm. Matt will be waiting for you.”
The third exit also had a ramp, and Nick hit it running, figuring he could run down the four flights faster than the elevator could take him. He exited into another section, but he had the floor plan in his head. A minute later he was placing his hand on the wall outside the safe room.
“Nick!”
Kay was sitting at a desk, still working at the computer, but at the sound of the door opening, she looked up. And her face changed. It was as if him walking into the room brought her Christmas and Easter and her birthday, all at once. In the midst of death and danger, her world falling to bits around her, he brought her joy.
Kay sprang out of the chair and ran to him and he caught her, held her. He buried his face in her hair, feeling her warmth all along his body.
He imagined what it would have been like, burying her. All that warmth and beauty and intelligence—lost forever. He held her even more tightly, resting his cheek on the top of her head for a moment.
Whoever was after her was smart and with resources. They had to get going. But he needed this—just for a moment.
Kay pulled away and looked up at him.
“You made it back! Thank God. What happened up top?”
“Drone,” Nick said. “Big enough to carry a missile. And it had a machine gun.”
Her face had gone pale, eyes huge. “Is—is it still up there?”
“Nope.” Nick shook his head. “I shot it out of the sky. Felicity and Metal are keeping an eye on the sky but there’s no guarantee that another drone might not be coming. So, we gotta go. Now.”
Kay searched his eyes for a second, then nodded. “Will we ever come back here?”
“Maybe.” If he had anything to say about Kay’s life after they nailed the fuckers who’d attacked her, she’d never leave his side again. “Definitely. We need to go now, fast. Can you run?”
She smiled. “I can run. I can’t outrun a Navy SEAL, but I can run for a while. I won’t hold you back.”
He smiled back at her as a wave of…something washed over him. Something hot that made his knees weak. This was some woman. This was his woman. She wasn’t complaining, she was doing her very best.
Well, he’d do his very best by her.
“We’re going to run down a long tunnel and through two huge server farms. The tunnel’s going to be fairly dark and the server farm will be cold. But we’ll exit pretty far away from here. When we exit, a guy will meet us. That guy I told you about.”
“Matt Walker? The one who broke the jaw of the pedophile warlord?”
“That’s the one. He’s been taking some time off, but ASI contacted him and he’ll be waiting for us. So—ready?” He held out his hand.
She put her hand in his, that beautiful face set and fierce. “After we get clear, I am going after whoever is behind this. I have an idea, but I wasn’t able to finish the files. If what I suspect is true, he is going down if I have to take him out with my bare hands.”
Whoa.
She must have seen the alarm on his face. She squeezed his hand. “Let’s go, Nick.”
She was right. They had to go. He took off at a jog. They had several miles to cover, but he didn’t want to exhaust her right away. To his surprise, though, she kept up.
The living complex was huge. They ran down its entire length to a small door at the end wall. Nick keyed in the code and entered the dark corridor at a run when the door slid open.
It was designed to be traversed by automated cars and was dimly lit. The cars for this stretch weren’t yet installed. At least it wasn’t dirty and cobwebby. Automated sweepers cleaned it every week.
They reached the end of the corridor and entered into the server farm, which was kept at a constant forty degrees. Their heads were wreathed in the white condensation from their breath. It was like running through snow in winter. Nick ran them down the big central aisle of the server farm, heading straight for the opposite wall. He glanced to his right. Kay was breathing hard but keeping up. He wasn’t running flat out, but that was okay. They were making good time.
At the other end of the huge server farm, Nick entered another code and the door slid open. Kay was about to sprint forward but he held her back.
“This next part will be easier,” he said. Behind the door was an electric cart sitting at the end of a corridor so long the other end was lost to view. He opened the palm of his hand. “Madame, your carriage awaits. Hop on.”
As soon as they were both settled, Nick switched the engine on by a button. No need to steer, it was programmed to shuttle back and forth down the three-mile corridor. It wasn’t fast but they wouldn’t have to run the distance.
The temperature was dry and very cold. Perfect for computer equipment, bad for people. Not many people used the shuttle.
Kay shivered and leaned into him. He reached into the back. “Here, honey.” Two super-warm blankets. He placed one across their knees and the other across their backs then put his arm around her shoulders.
“Thanks.” Kay looked around, in back of them and in front. From whatever the angle, the view was the same. A long, featureless corridor, dimly lit. “What is this?”
They had time. They were still in danger, but there was nothing they could do until the shuttle reached the end of the corridor.
“This is Felicity’s genius idea. She wanted ASI to get into the cloud business and wanted to assure clients that it was super secure. So, we have two server farms, but one is air gapped. The client info streams into the first server farm, is thoroughly checked for viruses and is super sensitive to attempted hacks. Every half hour, after the check, the shuttle automatically carries powerful flash drives to a second server farm, which isn’t connected to the internet, as it’s air gapped. We’ve never had a hack, and I think we never will.”
Kay gave a half laugh and shook her head. “Felicity’s amazing. I hope you guys treat her right.”
Nick smiled. “Like royalty. And if we didn’t, Metal would whup our asses. The bosses really appreciate her. This business alone brings in over ten million per annum and that number is rising. It’ll be more like fourteen million next year. Not to mention what she does at HQ.”
“I wonder what’ll happen when she gives birth. Twins. Boys.” Kay shook her head. “That’s a lot to take on.”
“She’ll manage. And the bosses have been talking about setting up a daycare center.”
Kay blinked. “A daycare center? At ASI? The place made up of tough guys?”
“Well, there are areas where the tough guys aren’t so very tough. You should see John with his two daughters. Toughest dude in the world has a spine made of pudding when it comes to his girls. Thank God Suzanne is tough. And I just heard the Senior’s wife, Allegra, might be pregnant. And Joe and Isabel are talking kids. It would make sense to have a company daycare center, then everyone’s mind would be put at ease. It would be off premises but nearby. On the same block.”
“Who’d be responsible for bulletproofing the walls?” Kay asked.
“Metal and Jacko.” He glanced over at her. “Oh. You were kidding.”
“I was, but whoa. And I’m sure they’d ask for the employees to all have combat training. I am absolutely certain that ASI’s daycare center would be the safest daycare center in the country. In the world. In the history of the world. There was a little movement starting up to have a daycare center at CDC, but, you know. Deadly viruses.”
This was going to be tricky. Nick looked down at Kay’s hand in his. Long, delicate but strong fingers, fingers that dealt with potential death daily and did it superbly well, in her mission to save human lives.
“You know,” Nick said, toying with her fingers, “you’re never going back to the CDC. It’s lost to you.”
It was true. Even if they nailed every single bastard involved in the bio-weapon scheme, whistleblowers never had an easy life. She’d be looked at with suspicion for the rest of her days. Nobody would trust her. She’d slowly be shut out of doing sensitive, interesting research. She’d end her days there shunted to some basement office doing scut work. If she even kept her job at all.
She looked down at their joined hands. There was a long silence then she sighed. “I know,” she said quietly. “I think I knew right from the start.”
And yet she planned on blowing that whistle anyway. Even knowing that it would wreck her life.
It didn’t seem possible but his respect for her went up another notch.
“You know,” Nick said again, bringing her fingers to his mouth, kissing the soft skin. “ASI is looking to beef up its ability to deal with bio-weaponry. We’ve had a few offers for missions in the Congo and Pakistan, but we had to refuse because we don’t have the equipment, and we don’t have the expertise to buy the right equipment. We’ve got some ancient MOPP suits, but nobody trusts them. I think ASI would jump to have you as a consultant.”
She smiled faintly. “You think?”
His heart leaped in his chest. “I do. In fact—”
The shuttle came to an abrupt halt and they both jerked forward. Kay would have fallen off the seat if he hadn’t shot out an arm.
Goddamn. Keep your head in the game. He’d been so excited at the thought that maybe she’d stay in Portland, maybe she could work even just part time for ASI, maybe they could live together…
And he’d completely lost sight of the fact that to do all that, she had to be alive. No good mooning over Kay staying in Portland if she was doing that six feet underground.
The shuttle stopped. They’d reached the end of this server farm, too.
So, he pulled his head out of his ass, helped her down from the shuttle and pointed at the door ahead of them. She pushed the panic handle on the door.
And screamed at the top of her lungs.
Nick nearly had a heart attack as he lunged forward.