The Operator

“I know how a radio works.” Peeved, Peri dropped the wireless receiver in a pocket and fitted the earpiece. Satisfied, Harmony closed out the app, and her phone and her face went dark.

It was nearing midnight, the night cloudless and gripped with a cold too bitter for snow. Traffic had slowed on the adjacent expressway. And whereas Peri would usually say midnight was too early for a B and E, the place was deserted, nothing but open flat land spotted with light manufacturing and service roads rimed with salt reflecting back the moonlight.

Peri eyed Harmony’s Kevlar vest, wishing now she’d taken one if for nothing more than another layer. Allen looked warm enough in his. “Do you seriously expect you can have eight agents out here and not alert Michael to your presence?” she grumbled as she blew on her fingers, and Harmony’s posture stiffened. “You don’t think Bill has the guard on his payroll? That your men have been spotted and word sent back? Good Lord, you don’t leave a multibillion-dollar piece of equipment in a manufacturing facility with a three-hour security window. This is a setup. They know we’re here. They moved the timetable up to put us off balance.”

“Thank you, Agent Reed,” Harmony said, then louder to the agents already on-site, “Can we get inside, maybe?” and one jogged away.

“Agent Reed” echoed in her ear, and Peri started. “This is Steiner. I’ll be monitoring the airwaves during this task. I trust you can keep the chatter to a minimum. I remind you that this is Agent Beam’s task. Understood?”

Peri took the piece out of her ear and dropped it into her pocket. “I’m not questioning your methods,” she said. “But thinking that Michael doesn’t know you’re on-site is ridiculous.”

“I expect that he does,” the woman said as she touched her earpiece. “Try to not let him kill you.” She thumbed a button on her radio. “Viper moving in.”

“Viper?” Peri muttered disparagingly. “I’ve never needed a code name.”

Allen’s slim hand landed warm and heavy on her shoulder. Leaning close, he pushed her to the fire door now propped open by an agent. “You’ve never worked with more than one other person before,” he said, looking eager behind his thick glasses and faint stubble.

This was not how she did things, but she followed Harmony into the hangarlike building, appreciating the warmth. She couldn’t help but feel as if she were shooting a lion who’d been tied down the evening before, all the while the lioness circling behind her.

Peri halted at the outskirts of the small group, hands in her armpits to warm her fingers as she scanned the heavy machines in rows and the cranes silent above them. A squatty mushroom-shaped container the size of a bus sat under a spotlight, and she figured it was the carbon condenser. There were too many people here. She liked her tasks simple. Fewer moving parts meant the less that could break.

“Allen?” she whispered, and he sidled up to her, squinting in the dim light.

“Just go with it. You might like this new army.”

Doubt it. Not happy, she pulled him aside as Harmony stood with another agent and looked over the latest info on their tablets. “Michael is sitting somewhere, laughing at us.”

“You want to ditch the posse and find him?” Allen asked, and she nodded, eyes flicking to Harmony. The woman would be pissed, but they were underestimating Michael. Badly. They were treating him as if he played by rules, and it was going to get them killed.

Peri straightened when Harmony came up to them, eyes bright. “Offices are through the double doors at the far side. Heat map indicates that’s where he’s at. Let’s go.” Peri didn’t move, and Harmony jerked to a stop after two steps. “You want to show me how good you are?”

Allen jiggled her elbow to say something, and Peri took a breath, biting back her first sarcastic response. Then she turned and walked away.

“Hey!” Harmony barked out, hardly above a whisper. “Where are you going?”

Peri spun, wanting an end to it. “With Allen to find that surprise guard. Do I need a chip to fire the dart gun or just the Glock?” she asked, wanting to be sure, and Harmony frowned.

“Just the Glock. Michael is that way,” Harmony said, pointing.

“You can go that way. My gut tells me to go this way.” Peri pointed in the opposite direction. “Or don’t you want to show me how good you are?” The man who had let them in flicked his eyes from one to the other, and Peri pushed into Harmony’s space. “I’m not turning on you. I’m hunting. Or don’t you trust me?”

Harmony’s eyes narrowed. “Check in every five minutes. Wear your radio.”

“Sure.” As Allen fidgeted, she fitted her earpiece and turned the volume to zero. Finished, Peri jogged across the flat expanse, jerking out the earpiece as soon as the dark took her. Allen was close beside her. Emotion tightened her gut and gave her a slight headache. It wasn’t because she’d stood up to Harmony and slipped her leash. No, it was because she was working.

“I’m surprised she let you out of her sight,” Allen said, looking over his shoulder when they reached a small fire door.

“She thinks she’s giving me enough rope to hang myself.” Peri eased the door open and slipped into a dull hallway lined with doors.

“Are you?”

Peri sighed. “Probably.” It was warmer, and her pulse was fast. Both ways looked equally unpromising, but she turned to the left and the heavier scuffs on the floor. “You think he’s in the lab?” Allen guessed, looking at his schematic on his phone as they loped along.