Off the Grid (A Gerrit O'Rourke Novel) (43 page)

This could not come at a worse time. In a few hours, Stuart and the others expected Project Megiddo to be in full swing. Every target on Richard’s list was going to be hit, a full blast from Megiddo’s invasive launch. Data and decryption programs would be flooding their computers from around the world.

Imagine such awesome power. The President of the United States, for example, would be at Richard’s beck and call. Absolute power in every country, in every situation—all at his fingertips. Richard and his people were so close to victory, adrenaline rushed through his body.

Now this! Gerrit and his pathetic group of losers.

Search-and-destroy teams had been deployed along the coastline just as dusk set. Any vessel approaching their safety perimeter would be boarded and dealt with extreme prejudice.

Shoot to kill! That was his order. No more traps. No more prisoners. He needed them dead.

Now.

“G
errit, you gotta read this. Beck just sent it in.” Willy’s voice raised an octave. “We’ve got major problems.”

Leaving Alena at the wheel, Gerrit scrambled over to where Willy sat in the forward cabin. “What now?”

“Here.” Willy pointed at his computer screen. “Beck knew that darkness would set in before we got set up. The satellites wouldn’t do us any good in the dark, at least the close-in images we needed.”

“Okay. Tell me what I’m looking at.”

Willy clicked on the image. “This is a video feed Beck’s people got just a few minutes ago. They sent a drone to sweep the area with a thermal-imaging scan.”

Gerrit leaned closer and Willy clicked the feed. Kane’s darkened compound suddenly had small specks of heat spreading outward like tiny ants. “More security?”

Willy nodded. “Tons of ’em. It’s like they suddenly crawled out of the ground and started spreading all over the property. Look at this!” He pointed along the shoreline.

Heat signatures showed a number of four-man teams sweeping the water’s edge, east and west. At least two teams approached the site where he’d selected to hit land. “They know we’re coming.”

“You think?” Willy scoffed. “They’re coming right for us. And we haven’t even gotten close yet.”

“So, how did they get tipped off? They have some kind of trace on us? Some kind of surveillance you missed?”

Willy shrugged, looking defeated. “Beats the living daylights out of me.”

“Not what I wanted to hear, Willy. Right now, our eyes and ears just went blind and deaf.” He took a deep breath. No use hammering Willy over what already happened. “I’ve got another idea. I hope you guys are ready to use a little muscle. You’re going to need it.”

It was a waste of a good boat, but he had no other choice. Gerrit ordered them to gather their equipment and store it in the Zodiac they had tethered alongside. Once they passed Kane’s complex, Gerrit killed the engine and let the craft drift in the current. After the other two climbed in the rubber boat, he untied the rope and leaped into it, letting the cabin cruiser drift away in the darkness.

Alena and Gerrit grabbed the paddles and guided the craft to shore. They struggled to fight their way toward the shoreline against a strong undercurrent. It took almost thirty minutes. Once on land, they faced their next biggest obstacle—sheer cliffs rising straight up for more than a hundred feet.

“Listen up,” Gerrit whispered. “I’m going to make my way up the cliff first. Once I reach the summit, I’ll anchor the rope and lower it down to you. Alena, make sure Willy has his carabineer properly connected and show him how to break his fall using the rope.”

“My fall?” Willy hissed. “I’m not planning on falling, man.”

Gerrit moved closer. “I just want you to know how to use the rope—in case you slip—to stop your descent. I’m going to send down a second rope around your chest, to give you added support as you climb.”
I’m going to be pulling you up that cliff, Willy, So just shut up.

Alena leaned close and whispered. “You be careful, Gerrit. You have to free climb that rock with no ropes and a full backpack.” She glanced upward. “You are the one I’m worried about.”

Her breath, close to him, felt warm on his skin in the cool night air. He drew back, almost as a reflex. “Just be ready to move when I get Willy topside. We’ll be sitting in an exposed area, no cover all the way to the first building that I can see.”

She nodded and moved away, helping Willy slip into his climbing harness.

Gerrit slung the coiled rope and his H&K assault rifle over his shoulder and began his ascent. Although steep, basalt rock formations offered good handholds and jutting edges provided a solid foundation for toe holes as he climbed. But the climb was slow, as he made sure the rock beneath him would hold before he ventured farther. The crashing water beneath him started to diminish as he gained height. Midway, his arms started to shake from the weight of his backpack and ropes, and he rested for a few minutes before continuing. He hugged the rock and looked up. It seemed like he would be climbing forever.

He started upward again, trying to ignore the muscles in his arms and neck tightening with strain and exhaustion. He had to push on. Everything depended on him reaching the top. Resting again, he gazed out over the water. A full moon climbed into the dark sky, a finger of silver light cutting a path across the water toward his direction. The sight might be enjoyable if his body didn’t hurt so much.

He pushed on until he finally reached the top. Grasping the edge of the cliff, he raised himself until Kane’s complex loomed in sight. Only a few yards away, several boulders lay together, offering limited cover. Beyond the rocks he saw the main structure to his right, and to his left, a heliport that could accommodate several choppers at a time.

No one seemed to be walking the grounds.

He pulled himself up and rolled onto his back after slipping out of the backpack. Catching his breath, he quickly wrapped the end of one rope securely around the largest boulder and dropped the line below.

He knew the kind of weight Willy would bring up the face of the cliff. Stuffed inside a backpack to leave his hands free to climb, Willy carried a 9mm Beretta that he sweet-talked Alena into giving him, his laptop, and a small digital reader. He peered over and saw Alena grasp the other end of the rope. He waited until she had Willy positioned, then he dropped the second rope, tying one end around his waist. Even from this distance, Willy looked scared.

Great, I can see the headlines now: Ex-Cop Killed by Falling Ex-Gangster.

Alena tied the second rope around Willy’s chest and under his arms. Gerrit pulled the rope until it was taut, signaling down to Willy to begin his climb. Hand over hand, Willy moved up the face of the rock, using his arms to climb and his feet to brace against the cliff. Gerrit braced himself, set his feet firmly, and began to pull on the second rope to give Willy additional support.

Again, he felt the fire in his arms and strain to his lower back as Willy’s dead weight pulled against him. He continually pulled the rope upward. In this position, he couldn’t see behind him. Couldn’t see if any security patrols came his way.

After what seemed like hours but could only be a few more minutes, Willy reached the top of the cliff. Gerrit pulled even harder, helping the younger man clamber over the edge. Gasping, Willy lay on his back, trying to catch his breath. “Man, I feel like Laurence Fishburne in
The Matrix
.”

“Shh,” Gerrit warned, glancing around. He untied the rope and started to lower it down to Alena when he saw she was already halfway up. He watched her agilely ascend with what seemed like effortless grace.

A few minutes later, her head emerged and he started toward her to help lift her over the edge. She swung a leg over the top and rolled onto solid ground before he could reach her. He quickly pulled the rope up, stashing both ropes at the base of one of the boulders.

They were ready for the next phase.

Willy lowered his backpack and pulled out the handheld readers before slipping the pack back on. As Willy flicked on the reader, Gerrit whispered, “Okay, when we move out, only use hand signals. We need to make it inside that building without being spotted.”

They nodded, and Willy turned the face of the reader toward him.

Gerrit eyed the screen. “Okay, where’s the enemy?”

Willy motioned to what looked like a ring of red dots in a semi-circle on the screen, only two positioned near the cliff where they stood. The red dots lay between them and the building.

Alena edged closer to Willy. “They’re not going to see our thermal signatures?”

Willy smiled. “Trust me, thanks to Beck and Thompson, we have our own drone overhead to give us cover. Watch what happens when we move out. Oh, don’t bother using your night-vision equipment. Just turn it off now.”

“Turn it off?” Gerrit shut his system down.

“Yeah, Beck just sent me a message that Thompson made the impossible a reality. And I’d do it real quick. The drone’s almost here.”

Gerrit shrugged and pointed to where the closest security guards stood. “As soon as Alena and I put those two guys out of commission, we’ll move toward the building about two hundred yards away. Willy, stay right behind us. If you spot anyone coming on your reader, tap Alena on the shoulder. When it’s clear to move, tap again and point in the direction you want us to move. Okay?”

Gerrit heard the engine of a plane overhead. It sounded like the drone was at tree level.

Willy reached up and grabbed his shoulder. “Wait, Mr. G. One, two…bam.”

A man screamed about one hundred yards away. “Man, I can’t see anything. What was that—?”

“Shut up, stupid. Our targets are somewhere out there,” another voice hissed through the night air. The voice came from the same location where the first man’s voice rang out.

“But I can’t get a reading. Where is everyone?”

“Will you shut up? You’re going to get us killed.” The man finally quieted down.

Gerrit felt Willy tap him on the shoulder, motioning toward his night vision glasses. “I can turn them on?”

Willy nodded. “Those two are blind as bats. Their night vision gear is fried.”

He slowly rose, flicked on his night vision and signaled the others to follow.

Richard screamed across the room at a man frantically switching from one camera site to another. “Tell me what’s going on out there, you idiot. I pay you big money to take care of problems like this. And you can’t tell me what’s happening?”

The man, huge enough to scare a pro-bowl offensive line, cowered over the console. He was afraid to face Richard. His big paws danced across the keys, trying to access their wireless surveillance monitors.

Flashes of brilliant light had blinded the cameras, and from what he heard over the air, ground-support units were walking around in a daze. The blinding flashes came across intermittently, followed by long periods of blindness as the lens of thermal-imaging readers and night-vision scopes filled with images of snow.

“Someone’s got a drone working directly overhead. Each flyover, our guys get hit with electronic pulses that make their Night Optical Devices go blind. Some of their equipment has been permanently put out of commission.”

“I can see that, you moron. What I need from you is how to take this drone out.”

The huge man shrugged helplessly. “We don’t have any surface-to-air capabilities. We never imagined that—”

“Correction.
You
never imagined. And yet, I pay you to anticipate these contingencies. Well, now we must react.” Richard paced back and forth, thinking. He thrust a finger at the hapless giant. “Pull everyone back. Ring the perimeter with security units. Gerrit and his people are trying to get inside the compound.”

The man turned back to his console.

“I’m not finished with you.” Richard peered down at the man seated before him. The man was twice his size, but at this point he seemed to shrink next to his boss. “Start checking for incoming aircraft. I imagine they’ll chopper in reinforcements to back up Gerrit. I want to make sure when they land, our welcoming surprise is ready for them. My demolition team set up claymores ready to go off on my command.”

Richard leaned over and pointed to a small case on the console. He opened it and carefully pointed to a series of switches inside. “Any aircraft sets down on the pad, I want you to trigger these switches. Just make sure that no one walks away from those aircraft when they land. Think you can handle that?”

The Hulk nodded, starting to disseminate Richard’s orders to all security units on the ground. Perspiration ran down his armpits as he watched Richard storm across the room and take an elevator belowground. Relieved, he breathed in easier, his giant forearms laying across the console for support.