Chapter 3
THREE
Somewhere in the Patagonian mountains, Argentina
“So my whole squad is on this mission in Bosnia—”
“Last time he told this story, they were in Poland.”
“I’m talking now.” Then, “So we were in Bosnia. Deep winter, snow up to your knees, but the night is clear. It’s zero-two-hundred hours, and we’re at this abandoned railyard that’s probably been there a hundred years. Everything is still and silent.”
“It was a goat.”
“So we’re moving through the rail yard, advancing real slow, when this heat signature shows up. It’s moving low to the ground, going between rail cars. I—”
“It was a badger. But the American kind, that looks like it’s on crack. Not the British kind that wants to invite you to tea.”
“I’m telling a story. So my team stacks up behind me, and we’re still advancing.
The thing is pacing us. Keeping step. I’m figuring it’s some kind of ground drone, or a remote surveillance unit.
Then it comes out from under the rail car, hopping over the tracks.
It’s a raccoon, but this thing had a scar down one eye, and it looked at me like it’s done a dime in Folsom and it’s seen some things it can’t forget. ”
Someone snickered.
“We’re all crouched, waiting for it to pass, and it comes over.
Pats my boot. I try to shoo it away, and it grabs my pant leg.
The thing won’t let go. It lifts up and starts digging in my pocket, pulls out this protein bar I had in there.
The guys behind me are trying not to laugh.
The raccoon backs up and sits, unwraps the protein bar, and starts eating it.
We had to wait three minutes until he was done and scurried off before we could proceed.
Try explaining that mission delay on a report. ”
Adam lay on the cold ground, listening to the team’s chatter on their open comms channel, trying to ignore the rock digging into his ribs.
Binoculars to his eyes, staring at the data center in the valley below.
“Unscheduled delay due to environmental variables.” He checked his watch and saw it was 02:34. “Time to move.”
“Finally.” Kai huffed.
Adam got up, shrugging on his small pack with the binoculars now inside, and checked his weapon. “Overwatch, we’re proceeding down the hill.”
“Copy that.” Marina’s voice was loud and clear in his ears, even though she was a hundred miles, or three thousand miles, away—no one knew exactly where she was. Adam usually pictured a trailer in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico. But she could just as easily be in a hotel room, or on a boat.
The team proceeded out from behind the cover of trees and bushes, working their way down the hill. Sticking to a predetermined path that allowed them pockets of time in blind spots between the sweep of the security cameras on the perimeter.
Getting through the fence would be another issue entirely, given the whole thing had been electrified.
Any break in the pulse would signal the security system and alert the two guards inside.
Considering there were five of them going up against only those two guards, Adam wasn’t concerned they would meet overpowering resistance inside.
Ice was the first to reach the fence, and the one who had been telling the story. He also went by Ivan. Or his middle name, Calvin. Or some version of those three. They all had so many names that only their team could keep things straight, and that was the way they liked it.
Ice clipped a meter to the chain link. “Still hot.”
“Almost there,” Dan responded over comms.
Adam glanced left, feeling the night breeze on the shaved sides of his hair.
The top was long these days, so he’d pulled it back in a small ponytail behind the crown of his head, just to keep it out of his eyes.
He spotted Dan down the fence line, where he stopped at a control box and in a few seconds had the panel door open. “Three…two…”
Kai started toward the fence.
“Whoops. Kidding. Here we go… One.”
Kai whirled around and started to stomp toward Dan instead. Adam grabbed a strap of Kai’s backpack and stopped him. “Nope.”
“The reading is fluctuating.” Ice started clipping wires in the fence with a pair of pincers, pausing for a couple of seconds intermittently. He cut an opening and checked his meter. “Kai.”
“Go first,” Adam ordered.
Kai went over to Ice, waiting like Ice was his jump master and this was a HALO op. Something they’d actually all lobbied for on this job, because they’d all thought that landing on the roof and going in hot would be far more fun than sneaking in like they were breaking and entering.
In his ear Adam heard, “Security noted the fluctuations in the fence signal.”
“Go,” Ice said.
Ash was next. He waited for the signal, then ducked through the opening in the fence after Kai. Dan raced over from the panel, waving Adam ahead of him.
“Go,” Ice said.
Adam ducked through the opening. Grass became gravel that would alert anyone with ears to them moving across the expanse between the buildings and the fence line. “Double time.”
Kai and Ash set off, jogging toward the door they’d identified as their entry point, over to the east side and almost at the corner of the wide two-story building. Dan would go with Adam, while Ice remained outside to cover their exit—if necessary.
“Security dispatched an officer to investigate,” Marina said in his ear.
“Copy that.” Adam set off with Dan jogging beside him to the door on the west side.
Ice said, “The team is inside the fence.”
“Inside the fence, copy,” Marina responded. “I’m deploying the virus now.”
Adam had his tiny bundle of plastic explosives out before he reached the door. He slapped it next to the handle and pressed the button.
Dan tucked against the wall on the other side of the door.
The charge snapped, puffing out smoke and the smell of burned rubber. Adam pulled the door open, and Dan retrieved what was left of the charge so they left no trace.
Adam ducked into the hall. “Position one, inside.”
The security system, alerted to his entry, flicked on the lights.
Marina said, “I have control of their system. I’m looping the video feeds now.”
Dan patted the back of Adam’s right shoulder, and they proceeded down the hall at a steady pace.
Halfway down, the security guard dispatched to check the fence turned the corner and spotted them. Before he could grab his radio, Adam squeezed the trigger on his shotgun. The beanbag round hit the security guard high on his chest. The impact knocked him back, and his head slammed the wall.
“Guard one neutralized.” Adam proceeded forward, stepping over the unconscious man.
Over the comms he heard, “Entering the west server room.”
“They beat us.” Adam checked the hall first, then turned the corner. He picked up his pace, expecting Dan to laugh, but then wondered why he expected that. The guy didn’t laugh at anything—or, at least, he hadn’t in a long time.
Adam found the server room, checked the handle, and kicked it open for the sake of expediency.
Inside were long rows of racks, all humming and flickering lights.
He slid out the device that looked like a cell phone from his thigh pocket, along with the cable he plugged into the port Marina had specified in her “Detailed Instructions for Dummies” lecture.
The device flashed, then went black, and tiny green text scrolled down the screen, too small for him to read.
Adam tried not to tap his foot. “Download in progress.”
“Us, too.” Ash sounded irritated. “But we got in the server room first.”
“Guess we’ll see who makes it back to the fence first.” Dan almost sounded amused.
“Hurry up.” That was Kai.
Ash replied, “I can’t make it go faster.”
Adam smiled to himself, watching the green text quit scrolling. A bar of green swept left to right across the bottom of the screen, then Download complete showed up. He disconnected the cable and pocketed it, motioning with hand signals for Dan to go ahead of him.
The big man—wider, not taller, than Adam—headed to the door, checked the hall, and then signaled to Adam it was clear.
“Phoenix, this is Overwatch. Come back.” Marina sounded concerned.
Enough that Dan froze before going out the door.
Adam relaxed his stance. “Go ahead, Overwatch.”
“You know how the client said that, while testing their security system for weak spots, we shouldn’t take the two downloads from the two intentionally un-networked server rooms and combine them, and that we definitely shouldn’t look at the files?”
“Are you gonna say ‘whoops’ next?”
“I don’t use that word,” Marina said, “because I don’t make mistakes.”
“So what happened?”
“The two programs saw each other and connected on their own accord. As if they’re programmed to do so.”
“Can you stop it?”
“Negative,” she said. “The problem is, this program doesn’t belong to the company that hired us. This is a Starwise Holdings program.”
“And we were hired by Earthnet Unlimited.” Adam frowned. “They’re not connected, or subsidiaries?” That would be the most reasonable explanation, right? “Maybe it only looks like they’re different companies, but they aren’t.”
Dan turned back to him. “Why don’t we go find someone who works here and ask?”
Adam said, “Overwatch, have you been updating our contact at Earthnet on our progress?”
“Not yet. I’m waiting until you guys clear the fence on your way out.”
“If you can’t separate them again—”
“I can’t.”
“Then put the entire program on a separate drive that won’t connect to anything else. Keep an eye on it.” Adam motioned to Dan to proceed. “We’ll do some more looking around.”
“Man.” Kai dragged the word out. “I wanted to be the first one back to the fence.”
“Be my guest,” Dan said in response.
Over comms Kai said, “While you go sneaking around the building? Ash and I need to hang back, in case you need help.”
Dan snorted, making his way down the hall. “We won’t.”
Adam smiled to himself. “Everything good, Overwatch?”
“I’m dealing with it. This thing is…robust. And it’s growing as it knits the two programs together.”
“Is it AI?”