Invasion (The Alien Wars #1) (24 page)

He had just decided that the pass would be safer in his jeans pocket when the truck started to slow.
Logan
frowned and listened carefully. Was it another checkpoint?

The truck went down a small hill. Then, a minute or so later, it came to a stop. What was happening?

Logan
kept listening as the driver climbed out. He then rapped on the side of the vehicle four times before walking away.
Logan
grinned as he realized where they were. He waited a moment before pulling the top of the crate off and standing up. The others were doing the same, and before long, they were standing about in the back of the vehicle.

“So far, so good,” Peter said.

Logan
nodded. “Yes, though I don’t like the idea of waiting in here for an hour and a half.” He walked to the back door and slowly opened it.

Peering out, he saw that they were in the parking garage, just as he had suspected. He could make out the entrance, indicating they were near the back of the garage, which suited him.
The fewer cars that drove past them, the better.

Muscles joined him at the door. “Everything look good?”

Logan
nodded. “What’s the time?”

“
Four twenty
.
So another hour and forty minutes.”
Muscles glanced around the dimly lit garage. “It seems pretty desolate here, but we’ll stick to the plan and stay in here. All we need for something to go wrong is just for one person to see us.”

Logan
nodded and closed the doors. He switched on his flashlight and turned to the others. “Let’s get comfortable. We have an hour and a half until the meeting.”

Time seemed to pass awfully
slow
, so it was with a sigh of relief that Xavier, who was currently keeping guard by the truck door, heard footsteps. He glanced at his watch. They were right on
time
.

He carefully pried open the door just a tad and glanced out. Looking to the left he didn’t see anyone, so he turned to the right. He frowned, blinked, and blinked again.

Strolling between the cars as she made her way toward the truck was a beautiful brown-haired woman. He had seen many a good looking woman in his time—he had even been married to one—but to see one dressed up at a time and in place such as this was unexpected.

“What can you see?”
Logan
asked, walking over.

Xavier shut the door and turned to him. “You’ll never believe what I just saw.” Briefly, he told him.

Logan
frowned. “I wonder what …” He paused. As the footsteps got louder, they passed right by the truck. Holding his hands up, he motioned for everyone to be quiet.

The footsteps paused. A moment later, the door opened.

Xavier stared at the woman for what seemed to be an eternity that lasted but a few seconds. She was dressed in a strapless black dress and wearing diamond earrings, along with a pearl necklace. Red lipstick made hers the most coveted kiss within miles. She smiled at them sweetly. A pair of stilettos complemented her elegant, long legs.

Jet pushed between Logan and Xavier and helped the woman up.
“Hi, Sabrina.”

As they hugged,
Logan
looked at Muscles. “Is she your spy?”

Muscles nodded, smiling. “I imagine you were expecting a man.”

“We all were,” Peter muttered, also smiling.

Sabrina glanced at Muscles. “There’s a storage room not far from here where we’ll be able to talk in quiet.”

“Lead the way,” Muscles replied.

Jet leaped down before he turned and gave a helping hand to Sabrina. “I was worried when I didn’t hear from you the other night.”

Sabrina smiled as she clutched Jet’s hand. “I had something that I needed to attend to. I wanted to meet you, but I couldn’t. I’m sure you understand.”

As the two of them walked off, the others followed, with
Logan
and Muscles bringing up the rear.

Logan
turned to his newfound friend. “Does Sabrina always dress this way?”

“There’re a couple of things that Sanchez is known for, and those are women and parties, so yes, she’s never one to put on pants and a t-shirt.”

“She must be pretty close to Sanchez then,”
Logan
muttered.

Muscles paused and gazed at
Logan
. “What are you inferring?”

Logan
started. “I’m not inferring anything. I’m just saying—”

“You think she might be the traitor,” Muscles said accusingly.

Logan
changed the subject. “Let’s get to that room where we can discuss this without worrying about anyone who might overhear us.”

The two of them fell silent as they headed to a small storage room that was relatively close to an elevator.

Once everyone was inside, Sabrina spoke. “I have to get going soon, so speak fast.”

“Do you know where Lucy Thorn is?” Muscles asked.

Sabrina nodded. “Sanchez is holding a party tonight. I’m a guest, and so is Lucy.”

“So she’ll be in the penthouse suite, right?”
Logan
said.

Sabrina nodded. “The party will start at seven and go till ten.”

Peter frowned. “Does Sanchez go to bed early?”

Sabrina shook her head. “No. Usually the parties start later and go until early morning, but not this time.”

“Where will Lucy be after the party ends?”
Logan
asked.

“She’ll be in one of the rooms just above the party room,” Sabrina said.

Logan
thought. “
So on
the eighty-second floor.”

Sabrina nodded. “Correct. But if you plan to snatch her out of her room, you’d better think again. Those two floors, eighty-second and eighty-third, are heavily guarded.”

“Why?” Peter asked.

“Because the eighty-third floor has the penthouse suite on it, so that is where Sanchez lives, correct?”
Logan
guessed.

Sabrina smiled at him. “I see you’ve studied the layout of this building.”

Logan
nodded. “I have, but I’ve also been there.”

Xavier glanced at his watch. “What if we were to grab Lucy before it started? Where would she be then?”

“I’m not sure,” Sabrina replied.
“Probably in her room.”

“How do we get up to Lucy’s room?” Xavier asked.

“You could use the elevator like I do, but it would be better to use the service elevator or stairs. They should keep you out of harm’s way.” Sabrina looked at her watch. “I had better get going.”

“Take care,” Muscles said.

“I will.” Sabrina opened the door and disappeared from sight.

Baldy turned to Muscles. “Should I make sure no one sees her?”

As Muscles nodded, Baldy left the room. The others sat in silence as they thought about what Sabrina had said.

“I wonder where they keep all the ammunition in a place like this,”
Logan
said.

“What are you thinking?” Xavier asked.

“Well, if we somehow got rid of their stockpile of
weapons, that would slow down anyone who came after us,
”
Logan
said.

“Wouldn’t the stockpile of weapons be too heavily guarded?” Peter questioned.

“What do you suggest then?”
Logan
asked, looking at him.

Peter paced back and forth as he thought. A slight smile came onto his face. “I think I’ve got it. What if we split up—
”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,”
Logan
interrupted.

“Just hear me out, okay?” Peter muttered. “What if right before we rescue Lucy, we cut the power? That would stop any man from going from the lobby to the party room, and it’s a hell of a way to climb, so we’d have plenty of time to get her before reinforcements arrived.”

“How would we escape?” Jet said.

“Well, we could use the stairs,” Peter replied. “Hmm, though the men would be coming up them. I guess it’s not such a good idea after all.”

Muscles frowned. “Wait, hold on a minute. If he’s having a party at seven on the eighty-first floor, why don’t we pay him a visit at
eight thirty
? By that time, several of the guards should be pretty drunk, and it shouldn’t be too much trouble to gain access. Then we’ll have someone cut the power, so even if someone up there tells the men down in the lobby what’s going on, by the time they’ve climbed up several hundred stairs, we should have the situation under control.”

“By under control, do you mean Sanchez will be dead?” Xavier asked.

Before Muscles could answer, the door opened and Baldy appeared. “She’s safe.”

“Good.” Muscles looked around at everyone. “Best case scenario is to cause chaos around eight thirty, just before the power gets cut. Sanchez will call men up from the lobby
who
, on finding that the elevators don’t work, will start the long climb up. At nine, with only a small force in the lobby, the hundred or so men can attack The View.”

“And with the men halfway up the tower, they’ll have no idea what’s going on,” Xavier said.

“Exactly,” Muscles said. “Now the only thing that could upset our plan is someone finding us down here, so let’s find a good hiding place where we can wait until eight or so. We’ll need time to assess the number of guards in the party room, so if we leave here around eight, that should give us plenty of time.”

“I’ve just had a thought,” Peter piped up. “Once the power gets turned off, what’s to stop the guards from turning it back on?”

“Ah, yes, that’s the tricky part.” Muscles glanced around the room at everyone. “I’ll need two volunteers to stay down here. It’s essential that the generator is turned off at
eight forty
, just after we attack.”

“Why don’t we use some explosives and just blow it up?” Xavier asked.

“We could, but that’ll still require someone to stay down here,” Muscles said.

“Not if we set a timer,” Xavier said.

“No, it’s too risky. Someone might come along and disable it.” Muscles looked around, his gaze resting on Peter.
“How about you?”

Peter nodded. “Give me a decent rifle and some ammo, and I’ll hold my position against anyone who comes my way.”

Muscles turned to Xavier.
“How about you?”

Xavier shared a glance with
Logan
before nodding. “Okay, but leave us some explosives. If we can’t hold Sanchez’s men off, we’ll have to blow the generator and make a run for it.”

“Understood.”
Muscles turned to Logan and Baldy. “You’ll be joining Jet and me in the party room.
Any questions?”

“Hadn’t we better check out the generator first?” Baldy asked. “There could be a guard.”

Muscles nodded. “Good thinking. I’ll check it out.”

“I’ll go with you,” Baldy said, standing up.

“No, stay here.
I’ll be fine,” Muscles replied, opening the door.

“But—” Baldy said.

“That’s an order.” Muscles glanced at Jet. “Make sure everyone stays here.”