Indigo Incite (The Indigo Trilogy) (23 page)

As
expected, they found three electric golf carts parked and waiting. They picked
the first one and climbed in. Safe out of the eyes and ears of the elevator,
Eddie turned to her and said, “That was nice back there. What you did with the
guard outside, I mean. I could sense that he suspected something unusual about
us, and you…you did something, didn’t you? I recognized it, because I’ve done
that trick myself. You tapped into his energy to convince him to let us
through?”

Grace
grinned. “You're not the only one around here with a few talents.”

“I can
see that.” Eddie smiled in return, and inwardly Grace jumped for joy. She had
been sitting idly by the last few days as she had hopelessly watched Eddie pine
after Sarah. Now that they were alone, she hoped that he might finally notice
her.

He
turned the key and pulled the map and directions out of his pocket. The tunnel
ran in two directions. After double-checking the map, he handed it to Grace and
headed the golf cart in the direction they hoped would lead them to the IIA
facility.

Underground,
it was virtually impossible to detect which direction they were traveling, so
they had to rely strictly upon the map and directions Ian had provided. Twice,
they came upon a fork in the tunnel, and each time they stopped to recheck the
map. The last thing they needed was to come up top only to discover that they
had entered Area 51 or some other top-secret location. They were prepared to
answer questions once they arrived to IIA headquarters. Any other destination,
and they would literally be at a loss for words to explain their presence.

When
they came to the second fork in the tunnel, Eddie turned the map upside down,
turned it around again, and then drummed his fingers impatiently on the
steering wheel.

“What’s
wrong?”

“Well,
look.” He tapped the map. “In the drawing, Ian shows that we should turn
right
here, but in the written directions, it clearly says that we should turn
left
.
I don’t know if we should believe the drawing or what he has in writing. I’m
kind of leaning toward what he has written, but I’m not sure. If we take a
wrong turn now, we could be screwed.”

“I think
the picture is probably more accurate,” Grace said. “I mean, if he’s driven through
here several times, I’m sure he knows what it looks like. I think we should go
with the map instead.”

He shook
his head. “I don’t know. I’m leaning more towards what he has written, and we
can’t waste time sitting here all day trying to figure it out. I’m going left,
and hopefully when we get to the next intersection, it will be clear if we went
the right way.”

“Yeah,
but the next intersection is twenty miles ahead,” Grace pointed out. “If we
turn the wrong way, we’ll have to backtrack twenty miles.”

“Well,
unless you have a better idea of how to figure it out, I’m going left.” He
proceeded along the tunnel before Grace could argue further.

They had
driven all of thirty seconds when a voice in Grace’s head told her that they
should turn around and take the tunnel that had led to the right. She had
learned long ago that the voice was always correct, and any time she had ever
ignored the voice, she had always come to regret it.

“Eddie,
I think we’re going the wrong way. I think we should turn around and take the
other tunnel.”

“Look,
we don’t know for sure, and we’ve already started this way. I say we just keep
going.”

They
continued on for another minute, and then a clear vision took over her mind.
She vividly saw them drive down the other tunnel, and the voice in her head
became louder as it shouted,
Turn around now
!

With as
much authority as she could muster, she shouted, “Eddie, stop!”

He
glanced at her, slowed the vehicle slightly, but continued on.

Grace
placed a hand on his arm, willing him to feel the vision that she saw.

The golf
cart came to a slow halt, and he turned to look at her. Her hand remained on
his arm.

“The
tunnel on the right
was
the correct way.” She spoke slowly, clearly, and
with confidence. “I saw it, Eddie. I saw us drive down the other tunnel. Trust
me.” She looked into his crystal brown eyes and willed him to believe her. She
willed him to feel the same knowledge she held in her mind. She willed him to
turn around.

He was
silent for a moment as he held her gaze. After a few moments, he said, “I
believe you. I believe you, Grace.” The tunnel was wide enough that he was
easily able to maneuver a U-turn, and in less than two minutes they were headed
up the opposite tunnel.

They
continued the drive for a minute without speaking, and then Eddie broke the
silence. “I’m sorry, Grace. I should have listened. We’re in this together. I’m
just anxious to get there and get out of there, but if I take us the wrong way,
we aren’t going to get there any faster. If I do anything dumb like that again,
just smack me or something, okay?”

She
laughed. “Um…okay.” His concession of stubbornness touched her, and if
anything, it made her attraction for him stronger.

The
remainder of the trip passed quickly and without incident, and soon they
arrived at what would hopefully prove to be IIA headquarters. They parked
beside the only other vehicle—an electric golf cart identical to the one they
were driving. Unlike Edwards Base, there wasn’t an elevator. Instead, they
found a long series of winding rock steps. The air below ground was cool and
had a musty, damp odor. As they climbed their way to the surface, they were
guided by dimly lit wall lamps that lined the stairway. The air around them
became noticeably warmer and smelled fresher. By the time they neared the top,
it seemed they must have climbed the equivalent of three flights of stairs. A
line of bright light greeted them from beneath the space under the door.

“All
right. You ready to do this again, Airman Smith?”

“Ready
as I’ll ever be, Sergeant Martinez. Game face on.” She took a deep breath and
touched her hat to ensure that it was still in place.

Their
infiltration into Edwards Air Force Base had been nerve-racking to the extreme.
Fear that men with machine guns would discover their masquerade had caused her
heart to pound and hands to tremble; however, that venture suddenly seemed like
a walk in the park in comparison to marching straight into the headquarters of
the enemy.

Eddie
twisted the door handle and peered out. They were immediately assaulted by a
blast of warm air. They stepped outside onto fine, brown gravel and looked around
with caution to assess their position. There was no one around, but they knew
that the video camera mounted atop the building adjacent to them had announced
their arrival. Ian had explained that the grounds were monitored by security
cameras that were attended twenty-four hours a day by security guards in a
building near the front gate.

Grace
glanced back at the door, from which they had arrived. The tunnel entrance
looked like a small shack that had been built into the side of a hill. The rear
of the property was backed by a small mountain. The other three sides of the perimeter
were guarded by a tall barbed wire fence. Ian had described the premises with
precise detail and had also drawn a map. The entire property sat on twenty acres
and housed a total of nine plain, brown modular buildings.

The lack
of guards present didn’t negate the fact that their every move was closely
monitored. Any sign of hesitation or fear and security would be upon them. As
long as they walked tall and with confidence, no one should suspect anything
unusual about their presence. They had reviewed the map one final time before
they had climbed the stairs; the layout of IIA headquarters was memorized.
Their targeted destination was two buildings down and three buildings to the
right.

Grace
was thankful that the buildings had only a few small windows near the ceiling;
their parade across the graveled lot would hopefully go unnoticed by the
occupants within. They had successfully reached the second building without
spying anyone, but when they rounded the corner, they were greeted by a middle-aged
man with salt and pepper gray hair, a mustache, and a beer belly. He sat on the
second step of the small, wooden porch with a cigarette in one hand and a cup
of coffee in the other.

“Good afternoon,”
he said with a smile. “What brings the military up to our neck of the woods
today?”

It was
Eddie who spoke. “Colonel Davis sent us to check out a few things and grab some
files from his office. He’s detained for the day, entertaining some important
bigwigs at the air show.”

“So he
sent you to do his dirty work, huh?” The man chuckled. Grace wondered if he was
joking or if ‘dirty work’ actually referred to the illegitimate business of the
IIA and its associates.

Graced
laughed in return. “Yeah, lucky us. Everyone else gets a day of fun and we’re
stuck working.”

“Well,
good luck to you. I was in the military myself in my younger days. I was an
Army Ranger. I know all about taking orders from higher command. They’ll walk
all over you when they want to.”

“That’s
for sure,” Eddie agreed.

“Well
then, do you know where you’re headed?”

“Yep. I
think we’re that third building, right on the end down there.”

“That’s
right. No one’s been there in a couple of weeks. Should be locked up. Do you
have a key?”

“Oh
yeah, we’re all set,” Eddie reassured him. He of course didn’t require a key to
open a lock, and the last thing they wanted was for the man to locate a guard
to let them in and have their every move watched.

“Okay
then. I wish you a speedy journey.”

“Thank
you,” Grace replied with a sweet smile.

“Well,
at least we know that our appearance here doesn’t seem unusual,” Eddie
whispered after they were out of earshot. “This might be easier than I
expected.”

They
found the inside of the rectangular building to be plain and simple. It housed
four desks, a large table, a few file cabinets, a copy machine, a water cooler,
and a small restroom. Like Ian had described, the maps to the Mexican compound were
located on the large table near the back wall. They were massive, about two
feet by three feet, and Grace immediately applied herself to the copy machine
to shrink them down to size so that the copies would fit inside of a file
folder.

While
she copied, Eddie began to search for the access card that would be needed to
log into the computer system. Ian had explained that the card would either be
found within the Colonel’s desk or in his file cabinet.

Over the
whine of the copy machine, Grace listened to the heavy thuds of Eddie’s
footsteps and squeaks of the floorboards, of the thin, modular floor. She
turned, with a start, when he slammed his palm on the side of a file cabinet.
The resounding vibration caused a picture frame to topple, which in turn landed
on a mug full of pens.

“What’s
wrong?”

“It’s
not here! It’s…We came all this way, and it’s not here.”

“What do
you mean? It has to be here.” Grace left the copy machine and crossed the room
to Eddie.

“Ian
said that the access card is always kept in the Colonel’s desk, and he said
that a second, spare card is kept in the last file, at the back of the second
drawer, of the file cabinet. They’re both gone.”

“Do you
think the Colonel could be in Mexico?”

“He
could be. But if so, it doesn’t explain where the second card is.  And it
doesn’t help us a whole lot right now when we need it. It’s not like we can
just come back again. We need the key now.”

“Let me
think for a minute.” Grace sat in the Colonel’s black swivel leather chair. She
turned so that she faced his desk and placed both hands on the glass top. With
eyes closed, she focused on the feeling of the room. She sensed the commanding
officer who had last sat in the chair; she felt his lingering presence and
tried to imagine where he had placed the card. Then she saw it.

“It’s in
the third drawer down.”

“The
third drawer?”

“Yeah,
let me see.” She pulled the drawer open and reached into the empty space behind
the last file. Between the metal slats she touched what felt like a credit
card. She gripped it between her fingertips and retrieved what looked like a
hotel room key.

“It got
pushed back in the second drawer and fell down,” she explained.

“You’re
amazing.” His relief was obvious, and she was rewarded with a smile and hug.

All too
eagerly, Grace accepted the hug. She tried to ignore the fact that his aura
revealed only colors of friendship. He obviously didn’t feel the same adoration
for her that she felt for him, but she was confident that she would eventually
be able to win him over.

He
released her from the embrace and glanced to the copy machine. “Are the maps
done?”

“They
should be. I just shrank down the last one. It should be sitting on the copier.
Let me put the originals back, and we should be good to go.”