Off the Grid (A Gerrit O'Rourke Novel) (34 page)

Gerrit slammed the trunk closed, then tipped his head at Jack—standing next to the driver’s door, hands on the roof—before he and Alena crossed the pavement and climbed into a side door of the helicopter. A moment later, the engines fired and blades began to turn. The sound seemed muted and quiet, nothing like the Black Hawks they used overseas.

His earpiece crackled and Jack’s voice came through. “Son, just remember. This cannot be a military operation. No in-country in the ol’ U.S. of A. That would start a firestorm up on the Hill. That bird will not use its firepower unless absolutely necessary. Torch and burn anything left behind. We can’t leave any evidence.”

“Roger that, sir. Over and out.”

The pilot lifted off and the craft immediately shot forward with a burst of speed. They seemed to effortlessly slide through the night toward their destination, the rotors quieter than a silenced gun firing at a target.

Collette sat in the chair, resting. Her eyes felt heavy and she felt herself starting to nod off. She raised her arm to check the time. 4:30 a.m. Her back felt stiff and her eyes wanted to close for a spell. She shook her head and rose, fearing if she sat here for another second she might fall asleep.

Looking over at the console, she saw the technician with his head resting on folded arms. “What are you doing?” she yelled, causing the man to jump and fall out of his chair. “This is not the time to fall asleep, you moron. They could hit at any time.”

A squelch came across Collette’s portable radio, then a man’s voice cut in. “Boss, you’d better come to the front lobby. We’ve got visitors.”

She angrily pressed her transmission button. “I don’t have time to screen people. You take care of this.”

“You may want to check it out. We have a medevac helicopter setting down in the parking lot. They think we have a medical emergency of some kind.”

“Have all units converge there. I want that crew taken down at gunpoint. Search the chopper—now!” If this flight crew worked for the enemy, they’d never leave this place alive.

G
errit and Alena slid down the ropes and landed on the roof. The aircraft dipped and slipped away into the night. As it quietly disappeared, Gerrit heard another helicopter’s blades noisily beating the night air at the front of the complex.

“They took the bait, Mr. G. I ordered up one medevac chopper. They are attacking that flight crew right now at gunpoint. Looks like you got your window of opportunity. Better use it quick.”

Gerrit smiled. “I read you loud and clear. Remember, these transmissions might be monitored.”

“No way, Mr. G. Joe and I put an encryption on these babies that only God can break.”

“Fine. Right now, you’re our eyes and ears. Give me a read on any bogies in the area. We’re at the target location and need about five minutes.”

He turned toward Alena and pointed to a housing vent a few yards away. “There is our way in. I’ll have that removed in a jiffy. Just cover me.”

She nodded, taking up a position that gave her a full view of the rooftop.

Gerrit pulled out his tools and had the ventilation cover off several minutes later. “Let’s go.” He lowered himself down the vent. “Just follow my lead. This heads right to the lab.”

Alena moved to the edge, watching his descent. “Come on, slowpoke. We haven’t all night.”

He started to retort, then saw her smile. “Just try to keep up, or I’m leaving you behind.” Reaching the ninety-degree angle in the vent, he moved farther into the shaft to give her room. She joined him seconds later.

“Come on,” she said. “I’m getting old here.”

He turned without saying a word and moved down the aluminum vent until he reached another ninety-degree turn downward. There was a filtered cover across the face of the downward shaft. Using a penlight, he quickly removed the vent cover and set it aside. “This fast enough for you?”

She moved past and lowered herself down the shaft. “Here, let me show you how it is done.” In one swift move, she pushed through a second vent cover and dropped to the floor below, rolling to one side. She whispered up, “Don’t hurt yourself, old man.”

“Nice move. You made enough noise to set off every sensor in this building.”

“We will be long gone before they ever reach us. Now do your thing, jarhead.”

“You been hanging around Redneck too much. Wait for me. I’ll be right back.” He moved farther down the shaft and reached into his backpack for a few surprises he planned on leaving behind. A moment later, he returned and dropped down the shaft to join Alena. “Well, time to get to work.”

The lab consisted of a large rectangular room, housing ceiling-high computer servers taking up most of the room. Individual workstations with monitors and keyboards connected directly to the servers.

He moved over to a series of computer consoles. “You will be glad I took that detour. Now, let’s get down to business.” He keyed his mike. “Okay, Willie, can you read me?”

“Loud and clear, Mr. G. Now, here’s what you’re looking for.” Willie began to guide him through the log-in codes hacked earlier back at the motel. “Just follow my instructions and I’ll have you out of there faster than—”

“Cut the jokes, Willy. Just give me what I need to get us out of here.” Gerrit glanced at his watch. Two minutes and counting. He tried to move as fast as the programs allowed.

Collette nervously watched her security team sprawl out the flight crew at gunpoint. So far, no face she recognized. One flight nurse screamed when they yanked her out of the aircraft.

Where are Gerrit and the others?

“Hey, Boss.” Geek Man from the security office.

“Don’t bother me right now. We have a situation at the front of the building.”

The man’s voice sounded nervous. “I think you got bigger problems. I just saw sensors triggered in other parts of the building—including the lab.”

“Could the medevac chopper have set those off?”

“No, these are centralized—the lab and the roof above the lab.”

She whirled around and started running. “Check the cameras. Tell me what you find out. I’m coming back to your location right now.” She dashed through the building and threw open the door leading to the security office.

Geek Man was hunched over the console.

“What do we have on the camera?” she yelled, causing him to jump. “Time to focus, you moron. They could hit at—”

The lights blinked on and off. Suddenly, all the screens filled with snowlike flakes as if someone had cut the line and all visuals went dead. Everything went black for a moment until emergency red lights flickered on. The man scrambled back into his chair, frantically hitting the keyboard, trying to reload the system.

“What happened?” She leaned over him as he worked.

“I don’t know. It is as if they jammed—”

The building shook for a moment, a deep blast sounding somewhere off-site. Collette snatched up her portable radio. No response.

“I think they killed your radio system.”

Collette rushed to the door. “I’m heading to the lab. If you can raise any security, get them moving in that direction.” She drew her sidearm, pointing at the disheveled technician. “Keep working on that. As soon as you have something—call me if you can.”

Geek Man, eyes wide with fear, nodded before turning back to the console.

She dashed into the hallway and ran for the building’s central point—the lab. The main power source appeared to be wiped out, and emergency generators juiced up only selected sites in the structure. She heard a secondary explosion that came from deep within the building.

A firefight could be heard outside the building as security apparently came under attack. She keyed her mike, calling for anyone to report in. Only an irritating squelch. Still no way to communicate.

Collette felt like screaming out in frustration. Instead, she ran toward the interior lab, knowing the attackers would attempt to reach that destination. Another explosion shook the building. Were they trying to destroy the whole building?

She reached the last passageway leading to the primary lab. Impatiently, she tapped in the code for entry, only to find that power to the keypad had been cut off. No power to the lab. Without electricity, the lab security automatically froze up.

No way in. No way out.

Unless… She looked at the ceiling.

Gripping her weapon, Collette raced toward the only roof access. An interior door led to a stairwell to the roof, and that door was almost a hundred yards away. If she could reach the roof, she might be able to catch them before they entered the lab.

She would be in position to kill them all.

Gerrit glanced over at Alena before the lights flickered out. “They just got a taste of one of my surprises. Jack and Redneck are about to set off the others.”

“That knock out their generator?” Alena flicked on a flashlight. “How are you—?”

A second generator fired up not far away. Lights in the lab flickered back on. “There. Just enough juice to power up these computers. And to get us out that lab door.”

He pointed to the vent in the roof where they made their entry. “Collette can only reach us through there. In a minute, I will have the information we need downloaded into a file. Cover me as I try to upload Willy’s package into their system.”

She nodded and raised her assault rifle toward the ceiling, tightly wrapping the sling around her left arm for sight control and planting it on her right shoulder.

Gerrit typed in a series of commands provided earlier by Willy. The first person to poke his head through that vent above would get an unwelcome surprise.

He opened up a website that Willy provided. Gerrit typed in a code and connected the program files to the site. He clicked a button to activate it, and copies of the computer files and attached data in the lab began to upload to Willy’s website. While this function clicked away, he removed the USB drive, inserted it into another active computer, and drove the driver’s content into the lab’s servers with one click.

A gunshot exploded above them. Glancing up, he saw Alena crouching behind a file cabinet, firing three-round bursts toward the ceiling. Someone had followed their path through the venting system. Several shots ricocheted off the wall in front of him.

“Gerrit, make it quick. It’s Collette,” Alena yelled back between bursts of gunfire. “She has us pinned down.”

“Give me a second and I can give you backup.”

“Quick. We’re sitting geese here.”

“Sitting
ducks
,” he muttered to himself, working on the console. Willy’s program began to feed into the lab’s memory banks like cars on the German autobahns, digital highway where information flowed into and out of the lab at full speed. The content flooding into the lab’s storage servers was a gift Willy wanted to leave behind. Sixty seconds was all the time he needed. Right now, that seemed like an eternity.

Alena fired another volley into the ceiling.

Ten seconds left.

He glanced at the screen and saw the final seconds tick off. Suddenly the screen switched back to the primary program. He quickly withdrew the portable drive and shoved it in his pocket.

His earpiece activated and Thompson’s voice transmitted. “We are moving into place for backup. Get out of there. Now!”

Gerrit clicked his acknowledgment and yelled over to Alena. “Okay, pull back. Time for Phase II.” He grabbed a bag Thompson had given him as they moved deeper into the lab, away from the vent in the roof where Collette lay hidden. He reached in the bag and withdrew a satchel and a package of malleable detonation cord. He packed the explosive cord around the door.

“Alena, time to say good-bye to this place.”

She scrambled closer as he blew open the lab door. He waited until she dashed past him, then turned and heaved the satchel into the lab. He slammed the door shut and pointed to where the hallway made a ninety-degree turn to the right. “Wait around the corner and give me a second to catch up.”

Once they rounded the corner, he pulled out two radio transmitters. “Fire in the hole,” he yelled before triggering both. The ensuing blast ripped through the building, almost knocking them off their feet. As the dust settled, he peered around the corner. The explosion had caved in the entire entryway, leaving a pile of rubble. He was sure the secondary explosion inside the lab had destroyed most of the computers and servers.

“Time to get out of here.”

Alena and he ran down a long dark hallway. Gerrit yelled into his mike, “Willy, give me a fix on any security in the area.”

Willy’s excited voice came over the air. “I’ve got you in sight. Cameras are out, but our heat sensors show a lot of activity. Keep moving in the direction you’re headed. Off to your right, about twenty or thirty yards, a group of security personnel are huddled together. Looks like they’re confused.”

“And what about the locals—cops and firefighters?”

“On the scene. Firefighters are still back in some kind of staging area, but Albuquerque’s SWAT is moving in. They should be hitting the place any minute.”

“Thanks, Willy. We’re moving out and should be at the rendezvous site in about one minute.”