28. Ben
Something was wrong.
Savannah should have been chatting up the receptionist by now. Instead, we were listening to dead air.
“Hi, Jamie Samson,” Ryan said. I could hear the grin in his voice. “And you are?”
Pam, the receptionist, hesitated, then answered, “Hello. I’m Lisa Pesco. Can I help you?”
Not Pam?
“What the hell?” at least three of us muttered into the comms at once.
In my ear, chatter rose to a dull roar. Lang was checking the name, Pasco was updating us on his progress getting the building’s security system under his control via hardware Wheeler was wearing, and Kat was pushing Bloom for a report on the number of bodies in the building, based on the heat sensor readings.
“We haven’t met,” Savannah said. That explained why she’d frozen. “I’m Savannah Lindstrom. I wasn’t aware Pam was out today. Are you a temp?”
“No, ma’am,” the woman answered. “I’ve been in this position for six months. Pam still does administrative work for us, mostly from home. I’m sorry, but I’m not aware of anyone in the building expecting visitors today. Who are you here to see?”
“Boss, we have a problem,” Bloom told Kat, but the message was for all of us. “Nine people in the building, including the receptionist.”
“On work-from-home Friday, when there are only three scheduled to be there,” Kat said. “Wheeler, I need your assessment.”
“They have to abort,” I said, although no one asked me.
Wheeler tapped out a code on his shirt collar that was picked up by his comms unit. Three slow, two fast. Operation is a go.
Fuck me.
Meanwhile, back at reception, Savannah had explained to Lisa that she was co-owner of Lamp;M and was therefore the woman’s boss.
“Of course, I should have known the name,” Lisa tried to cover, but even just hearing her, I knew she was lying.
“I’m sorry, Lisa,” Savannah said, “but who hired you?”
“Mr. Masters,” Lisa said. “He hired the entire on-site team.”
Fuck me sideways.
The building was full of Devlin’s minions, though why and what they were doing remained a mystery. Which was, of course, why we were there to breach the servers.
“Can we call this now?” I asked.
“Hold your position, Hayes,” Kat said.
My fingers itched like I was jonesing for something, and I was. Devlin’s head on a pike.
“I’ve set up a scan on the day’s street cam footage,” Lang said. “Hayes, if we detect potential hostiles, be on standby for us to call the extraction plan.”
“Roger that.” I’d memorized five different rescue plans that Lang and Bloom had developed, and I was ready for any one of them.
“Taking control of the elevator,” Pasco was saying, which meant Savannah and Wheeler were in it, on their way to the second floor. “And our friend Lisa is trying to make calls out from the landline and her cell phone. We’re blocking her and recording the numbers.”
Hopefully, the pot of shit at the end of that rainbow would be Devlin.
A minute later, Wheeler checked in. “We’re in the server room. I’m patching into the closed system.”
After another minute, Pasco confirmed success. “We’re receiving data. I’m showing four minutes, thirty-eight seconds to copy the relevant information.”
We were ninety-eight seconds ahead of our estimated mission time. Since we were trying for speed and not precision calibration between different ops elements, that was good news.
“Boss, permission to seize a couple of machines to create a false trail,” Wheeler said.
Smart. Potential hostiles in the building, which probably included Lisa, were likely to report Savannah’s visit to Devlin. He would want to know what she was doing there. Stealing hardware would make it look like those couple of pieces of equipment, and the data they contained, was all that she’d taken. It was a smokescreen to hide the fact that we were leaving with a download of all the secret data contained in that room.
Kat gave her permission, and then I heard the sound of Wheeler grunting, probably pulling out equipment and wires.
“What are you doing?” Savannah asked.
“We’ll explain later,” Wheeler told her. Good idea to keep her calm. Maybe he really was almost as good as he thought he was. “Can you put these servers in my backpack? If we make it look like we tried to physically remove servers, they’ll only be worried about whatever is on those two we’re taking with us. They won’t realize we actually walked away with all their data.”
“I have an update on our unexpected employees,” Lang said in our ears. “Matching street cam images to facial recognition, I have the list of names. No criminal records, no permits to carry firearms, no former military or security specialists.”
Just run-of-the-mill lackeys. That was more good news because in case I had to breach the building for a rescue, I preferred not to have guys like me shooting at us.
“Hayes,” Bloom said, “trouble coming your way. The receptionist tried the elevator, then the fire door to the staircase, which Pasco has blocked. She’s probably trying to get to the person she attempted to call. Now she’s heading for the back door of the building.”
“I’m holding position out of sight,” I said. “And wondering what the hell she thinks she can do from out here.”
I found out seconds later when she burst through the back door and shouted up at the third-story windows. When that didn’t work, she hunted around on the ground, picked up a couple of sticks, and made a sad attempt to throw them. I couldn’t fault her logic, but her understanding of physics left a lot to be desired. Who was up there that she was so desperate to contact?
“Log team, did you run the heat signatures against Devlin’s known biometrics? Any chance he’s on the third floor?”
“You think this is my first day on the job, Hayes?” Lang snarled. “Yes, we ran them. No, he’s not there.”
“Roger that,” I muttered. But I couldn’t shake the feeling he was nearby.
Lisa was now digging through bushes, looking for something else to throw. I glanced at the buildings to either side. Given the number of issues we’d already had with this operation, I didn’t like the odds of someone in one of those offices spotting her and coming to help, cell phone in hand.
“Boss, we could have a spectacle on our hands in a minute,” I said.
“Permission to restrain her, Hayes.”
I pushed off my hood, pulled out a useless earpiece with a twisted white cord from my pocket, and stuck it in one ear, and attached a dummy police walkie to my shoulder. I stepped out of the shadows and slipped along the edge of the property, then turned and moved toward her as if I’d come from the front of the building.
“Ma’am, I need you to step away from the building.”
“What?” She stopped foraging in the bushes. Her eyes widened. “Oh, officer, I’m glad you’re here. Two strangers just came into our office building. One of them claimed to be co-owner of the company, but I’ve never heard of her, and then I tried to call my boss… That’s not a cop’s uniform.”
“Private security for Ms. Savannah Lindstrom, ma’am. I’m going to need you to step away from the building, turn around very slowly, and put your hands on your head.”
“I’m not—I’m the good guy, here!”
She was either a very good liar or she really believed that.
Lang broke through the chatter in my ear. “Get her contained, Hayes. Foot traffic’s picking up in the area.”
I dropped the good cop act. I pulled out a zip tie, stepped toward her, and bound her wrists. She was stunned silent, giving me a chance to do my spiel. “There’ve been threats against Ms. Lindstrom.” I herded Lisa back into the building.
“Untie me or I’ll scream!”
“Ma’am, you’re behaving suspiciously. I’ve put in a call to local authorities. We’ll wait for them to arrive, and you can explain it all to them.”
“Oh.”
As expected, the mention of the imminent arrival of the cops calmed her.
“Well, I…” She tugged at the binding and quickly gave up. “Fine, but when they figure out I’m telling the truth, I’m going to press charges.”
“Pasco, you have what you need?” Wheeler’s voice rose above the rest of the chatter.
“We’re good,” Pasco confirmed.
“Hayes, we’re heading your way,” Wheeler said. He quickly explained the situation with Lisa, which she’d missed because Pasco had her on only his channel.
By the time they exited the elevator, she’d been briefed up and ready to play her part.
“Smith!” Savannah’s eyes darted around the lobby, belying her nervousness, but her voice was strong and sharp. “What have you done to the receptionist?”
“I found this woman poking around behind the building, ma’am. I contained the situation, and I’ve notified the authorities.”
“Call off the authorities,” Savannah said. She stepped behind the reception desk and located a pair of scissors. “Lisa, I’m so sorry about this.” She cut the zip tie. “Smith was only doing his job. I’ve had threats, and… What were you doing behind the building?”
“Looking for something,” Lisa lied. “I got a call from one of the landscapers. He lost his wallet, and I told him I’d check the grounds.”
“Oh.” Savannah smiled at Lisa, then at me. “You see? A simple explanation. Obviously, there’ve been misunderstandings all around. Why don’t you lock up and take off the rest of the afternoon? The other staff in the building can get along without you for a few hours.”
“Thank you, but I’m fine.” Lisa rubbed her wrists. The zip tie marks were already fading. “I don’t mind staying.”
“Such a dedicated employee.” Savannah started toward the front door. Wheeler and I followed her. “We appreciate you! Have a good weekend!”
As we stepped outside, a black Town Car pulled up at the curb. Wheeler opened the door for Savannah. She climbed into the back, I went in after her, and Wheeler took gunner’s seat beside Lang.
“What the hell was going on in that building?” Savannah asked no one in particular. “All of my employees are gone, strangers are working there, and an expensive security system has been installed.”
“Eight cameras monitoring the second floor,” Wheeler confirmed.
“And I never saw paperwork for any of it,” Savannah continued. “Everything, off the books.”
“But on the servers,” Lang said. “And now we have a duplicate of the servers.”
I hoped he was right. Savannah needed to understand what had happened. The stress was too much for her. Her face was a pale gray color, and her eyes were watering.
“Sav, are you okay?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Lang, can we pull over?” I asked.
“Not yet,” he said. “I don’t want to give anyone the chance to catch up to us.”
I reached into my pocket for something to catch the vomit that I was sure was coming, because Rangers are always prepared. But apparently, so are spec operations airmen because Wheeler was already handing Savannah a plastic bag from his backpack. I held her hair as she puked up her guts. Wheeler looked at me, his eyebrows raised. I tossed back a glare that cautioned him to drop it. But the question written so clearly on his face was the same one I couldn’t get out of my mind. Wheeler could fuck right off, but I needed an answer.
I didn’t care what the pee stick said. When we returned to HQ, Savannah was getting a blood test.