Humanity Unlimited 1: Liberty Station (22 page)

She might’ve been able to cover this up as some kind of gas explosion if Donald hadn’t installed a minefield. Really? That was insane.

They’d already put out the fire and found several bodies, including one in a cell. For a few minutes, she’d deluded herself into believing the body might be that of the traitor, but her man in the police department told her it was a woman.

No matter how this played out, she’d look like an idiot or worse. Why, no Mister Federal Agent, I have no idea how my head of security smuggled all those land mines onto my facility. He was torturing and murdering people, you say? Oh, dear.

With the way this was going, they’d find a bunch of unmarked graves in the woods.

She sighed. Of course they would. Where else would that homicidal idiot hide the people he killed for sport? Could things get any worse?

As if on cue, Nathan came in and closed the door. “Well, things are certainly exciting this morning. Are you ready to let me kill Harry now?”

“We don’t know it was your brother.”

“Do you think it was the Tooth Fairy? It was Harry. He and father conspired to do this to you. Are you going to bend over and take it?”

The urge to reach into her desk for the pistol she kept handy was strong. “Don’t you dare speak to me like that, boy. I can blame your death on Donald.”

“Please. If you want payback, I’m the person to make that happen. Say the word and I’ll go make them suffer.”

It wasn’t as though she had much choice now. With Donald gone, Nathan was her best chance of pulling off her planned revenge. God help her.

“If you fail me, I’ll put a price on your head so big that you’ll never get a moment’s peace. This has to go exactly according to plan. The timing is critical. Is that clear enough for you?”

“I’m not a moron,” he sneered. “Of course I’ll succeed. Other than the girl, I’ve never failed you.”

Kathleen brought a map up on her screen and explained what she wanted done.

* * * * *

Jess had just finished showering when she got another call. The number wasn’t familiar to her.

“Hello?”

“Jess, this is Harry. Everything came out fine. We’re in the air.”

A bit of tension that she hadn’t been consciously aware of drained away. “Thank God. Did you rescue the man?”

“We did. My father’s people have the drive. They’ll assess its contents while we’re in the air. How’d your thing go?” He was being circumspect because of the NSA. She really had to struggle to keep that in mind.

“It was a little more exciting than I’d imagined it would be, but we got it. I have more information about the book, too.” She explained the Voynich Manuscript to him.

“That’s pretty odd. The Europeans didn’t know about the Mayans until almost a hundred years later.”

She grabbed her tablet. “I’m sending you some images. Check out the plants in the original manuscript.”

After a minute he spoke. “I’ve seen something like this before. On the mission before we met. There were pages like this in the office.”

“Are you sure? These things look like a lot of other manuscripts of the time, except for the unknown language and unrecognizable plants.”

“I’m almost certain. I didn’t look closely enough to recognize the lettering, but the style of illustrations is spot on. I didn’t recognize the plants, but I’m not a botanist.”

“How many pages were there?” she asked.

“I had other things on my mind. A dozen? Maybe twice that.”

She grinned, even though he couldn’t see her. “We need to get them. Or at least pictures of them.”

“No way. That bastard’s security is going to be super tight.”

“He doesn’t have to know I’m connected with that.”

“So, you just waltz in and say ‘hi, I heard through the grapevine that you had these secret manuscript pages’ and he lets you in for a peek? I think not. Besides, when would you do this? The schedule is tight from here on.”

“We had a change in plans, too. We’re on a ship about to dock in Italy. I can do this and still beat you to France.”

She started pacing. “Harry, you don’t understand how important this might be. Even the NSA couldn’t crack the damned thing. We need those pages. It won’t take your mother long to figure out the connection. Do you want to take the chance she might get these pages before we do?”

He sighed. “Sandra has to sign off on your plan. Please be careful. If it’s too dangerous, walk away.”

“Don’t worry about a thing. I won’t take any unnecessary chances.”

* * * * *

Harry called Cradock on an encrypted line. He really needed to get one to Jess. The security man sounded just as displeased at Jess’ plan as Harry was. “Dammit. Someone almost shot her at the airport. Does the woman have a death wish?”

“Shot? What happened? Tell me everything.”

He listened to how the warlord had almost killed everyone on Jess’ helicopter, and how she’d managed to escape. And now she wanted to go play James Bond. It made his teeth ache.

Maybe he needed to focus on the things he could control. “When does the fuel leave for Mexico?”

“In about six hours, once we dock and transship it to a cargo plane. Look, it will take a while before we have the data to plan for stealing the reactor. Get some sleep. Call me once you wake up. We should be able to make final plans by then.”

“Get Jess an encrypted phone and try to get some sleep,” Harry said. “Text me the number.”

Harry hung up, but getting to sleep was hard. He kept imagining all the things that could go wrong with Jess’ mission. And he couldn’t do a thing about it.

Well, that wasn’t quite true. He dialed his father’s number. Maybe the old bastard could talk some sense into the crazy engineer before she got herself killed.

* * * * *

Jess dressed while Sandra stared at her as though she were crazy. “You want to do what?”

“Break back into the house you rescued the little girl from earlier this week.”

“That’s what I thought you said. And Harry signed off on this?”

“Reluctantly. This is important. He’ll get the assault on the reactor plant set up while we make this happen.”

The mercenary shook her head. “We observed the target for more than a week last time. We knew how the guards behaved and what the routine was. This time, we’d be going in blind after we stirred them up like a hornet’s nest. It’s crazy.”

Jess didn’t disagree. Yet, what choice did they have? If they passed up the opportunity, they might be up in space for months before they could try again. The forces of darkness could find out about the manuscript pages and take them.

“Don’t you do this kind of thing under urgent circumstances?”

“Urgent is a child in danger of harm,” Sandra said. “Getting your hands on some papers isn’t in the same league.”

The mercenary sighed. “You’re talking about a daytime incursion. That means the help will be awake and alert. The police, too. We need to get into the office and get the papers, or at least take a close look at them. Going in shooting isn’t the right answer.”

“Who’s the man in question?” Jess asked. “What do we know about him?”

“Alessio Romano. He’s a bigshot in local politics. A judge. Word is that he’s also connected to the mob.”

“Is his art on the shady side?”

The mercenary shrugged. “I have no idea. That wasn’t part of the mission parameters.”

The phone Sandra was holding rang. She held it out to Jess. “This is your new encrypted phone. Only use it going forward.”

Jess took it and answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Jess,” Clayton said. “I just got off the phone with Harry. He tells me you’re on your way to see a man in Italy about some illicit art.”

“That’s true, though I’m kind of hoping he doesn’t find out we were ever there.”

“I’m somewhat familiar with the gentleman in question. He and I have had some dealings in the past. I may be able to make an introduction between the two of you, if you’re willing to employ a little subterfuge.”

She knew Sandra wouldn’t like that, but she was willing to take a few chances. “What do you have in mind?”

“I have a security firm in Rome. Romano has hired them to upgrade his systems. I can get the man in charge to provide you a cover while you examine the building. You’d need to interface with someone knowledgeable about security, but with the right equipment, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Jess smiled. “That sounds relatively straightforward. Thank you.”

“Your target is a man used to dealing with the seamier side of society,” he warned. “He’s already been stung and he’s looking to make someone pay. If he thinks you’re playing him, he’ll turn on you. Trust me when I say that would be a terrible outcome.”

Jess didn’t want that. She really didn’t want it. “A security consultant can get into every room in the house. If I can transmit the images out to someone else, they can tell me what I need to know through an earbud.”

“All very true, but if he gets wise, you’ll be in very dire straits.”

“How long would it take to get everything we need into place?”

“I can have a man in the area by the time you get there. He’ll have everything you need. The company needs to confirm that Romano will see you, but I expect he’s quite eager to close the holes in his security as soon as possible. Is your guard going to buy off on this plan?”

Jess looked at Sandra. “I can make that happen.”

* * * * *

Clayton hung up. Jess’ plan worried him. Project Liberty absolutely needed her to be hale and whole. Should he really enable her like this? Perhaps Harry had been right to ask him to stop her. Were these pages really as important as she thought?

He sighed. Probably. He’d make the calls. He finished just before his assistant buzzed.

“Pardon the interruption, but you have a call from the security man in Guatemala on the encrypted line. It sounded quite urgent.”

“Put him through.”

The light for the other line lit up and he pressed it. “Rogers.”

The first sound he heard was a long burst of automatic gunfire from very close to the receiver. “Mister Rogers, we’re under heavy attack! They swarmed in from nowhere and they’re pushing us back. We can’t hold onto the site with the underground chamber.”

“Get to safety,” Clayton said. “I’ll call the federal police and get you support.”

“I’d hurry if I were you.” Another burst of gunfire sounded and then an explosion. The line went dead.

He hoped the caller hadn’t gone dead, too. He looked up a number and called his man in the Guatemalan government.

Clayton hadn’t expected something this bold. It had to be Nathan. He couldn’t imagine how the little shit expected to steal a buried spaceship before reinforcements arrived, but the boy obviously believed he could do it. If he got away with the theft, it changed the game.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Harry woke halfway through the flight to Paris to the news that Nathan was trying to steal the spaceship. The plan was audacious. A true international incident. His brother might have to fight it out with the Guatemalan military or police.

Well, there wasn’t anything he could do about it. At least his father hadn’t told Jess. He’d been concerned that the events would throw her off her con. That was about the first thing he completely agreed with his father on.

They’d begun delving into the data drive and Harry now had detailed plans for the facility in Paris. He spent the next few hours going over them with his team on the plane. Cradock linked in via secure comm.

The place was just as tough as Harry had expected. The sewers were indeed a trap for the unwary. The general plan they finally agreed on felt too much like the raid on his mother’s headquarters for his comfort. A lot of it came down to taking bold risks.

The major difference in this case being that they’d have a lot more hardware. Including planes to get them on site very quickly. Those came courtesy of his father. He had a group of cutting edge military transports in France for an airshow.

The stealth on them was so good that they were making a few extra test runs for the French military over the next few days. The potential buyers wanted to see the planes break contact, which was perfect for Harry’s strike team.

If the planes carrying his people could slip away from the test area, they could deliver Harry onto his mother’s facility with devastating surprise before going back to play with the French Air Force.

One bit of good news was that they’d packed the reactor. The test wasn’t going to be in Paris after all. His mother’s plan was to ship it out to the US before the supposed demonstration. Apparently, the security team probing the sewers had spooked them.

At least that meant they didn’t need to have Jess underfoot. They could grab the reactor while she was taking care of business in Italy. Then she could fly to Mexico on her own. They’d meet there and she could oversee the loading of the reactor into the lifter.

Finally, something was going their way.

* * * * *

Jess slept until the ship docked. The time zone change had her body confused, but she’d been in that situation before. Sleep cured most of the trouble, given enough time.

Cradock hurried them past a woman who stamped their passports. Jess suspected that their entry wouldn’t appear anywhere official. Which, considering the things they planned to do, was probably for the best.

The team took the vans that Cradock found for them and set off before dawn. They met the man who’d coordinate with her on security matters for breakfast about an hour away from Romano’s villa.

Paolo Sorrentino was an unprepossessing guy with classic Italian features. He laid some gear on the table as he sipped his cappuccino. “They tell me these are state of the art spying devices. Even a close search shouldn’t turn them up. Unless of course, someone looks inside your ear.” His English was excellent, with just a hint of his native Italian.

Jess picked up the device. It looked like a little torpedo with some silicone around the back. “It doesn’t have anything to grab onto. How do I get it out when we’re done?”