Predator's Game, page 21
part #6 of Scott Wolfe Series
“Yes ma’am,” I replied. “C—A—R—V—E—R.”
She got up, carrying the folder with her as she left the room—just as I had hoped she would. As soon as she was gone, I reached down and twisted the heel of my shoe. The tiny USB unifying receiver contained within was only slightly larger than a Chicklet. I quickly reached around her desk and slipped it into a free USB port on the back of her computer before returning to my chair and twisting my heel closed again. She walked in as I sat up.
“Here we go,” she said as she went around the desk and sat. “Paul Carver.”
She opened the folder and began browsing the contents.
“Okay, we’ve got the uplink,” Mark said into my ear. “Give me a minute to run your worm.”
“It looks like you spent a lot of time in Iraq,” Camile Ronglie said after a moment of browsing the fake application I had submitted through their website—two resumes in fact, one for Paul Carver and one for Paul Harper.
“Yes ma’am,” I replied. “Three tours.”
“See a lot of action?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No ma’am…it was quiet most days,” I replied. “I’d say I only saw action five or six days a week.”
She looked up with a raised eyebrow, but I smiled, revealing it had been meant as a little military gallows humor.
“Ah,” she said smiling in return as she flipped the page on my application. “Security clearance?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied. “NAC when I was transferred to security for the Division G2.”
“Just a NAC?” she asked.
“I was just security,” I replied. “The G2 needed a driver who knew his way around the IEDs.”
“So you didn’t have access to classified material then,” she said.
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that,” I said leaning forward and lowering my voice. “The G2 was a bit of a sloppy drunk…I had to regularly secure stuff he was working on after he had passed out.”
She shook her head. “With OPSEC like that, it’s no wonder…”
I stared at her for a second, waiting for her to finish her statement. When it was clear she wasn’t going to, I leaned back. “It wasn’t any trouble for me,” I replied. “I take orders real good, don’t mind cleaning up messes that others make, and I can get you a great letter of recommendation from the G2 over at the twent—”
“Were you ever reprimanded or charged with anything while you were in the service?” she asked, cutting me off.
“No ma’am,” I replied and handed her the envelope containing a copy of a 201 Personnel file…a rather impressive one at that. It wasn’t mine, but it sure made me look good. “That’s all the stuff they would let me copy. I’d have brought my NAC results, but they said they don’t release those due to—”
“Fine, fine,” she said, cutting me off again as she thumbed through my fake personnel file. “Do you have any problem with taking a polygraph today?”
That was fast, I thought. Too fast.
“No problem at all.”
She flipped another page in my file and got up to leave. “I’ll be back in a minute…have go set up your exam.”
“I’ll be here,” I said grinning as she walked out.
I peeked around the corner to make sure she was gone and smiled at the guy still standing in the hall. “Polygraphs today,” I whispered, more for Mark’s benefit than the other guy.
The other guy cast a worried frown in my direction as I ducked back into the office. “That 201 file was too good,” I whispered as I sat. “This interview isn’t taking long enough.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Mark replied. “Flunk the polygraph and come back to get the uplink when you’re done.”
“I can’t leave the uplink without leaving the watch,” I said. “It’s transmitting through the watch.”
“Hey, you didn’t want to hear me talking anyway,” he replied with amusement, though I could hear the sudden edge of tension in his tone. “Leave them both and come back to get them when you’re done with the polygraph.”
Two hours, I thought, recalling my last polygraph. Over a period of five months, I had taken a total of twelve polygraphs, and not one of them had lasted less than two hours. Shit, shit, shit!
I heard Ms. Ronglie’s voice in the hallway, forcing me to make a decision without suitable time for debate.
“I’ll chat with you later,” I said as I pulled the watch off and quickly tossed it under the corner of her desk just before she walked in.
“If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you up,” she said and turned to leave again. I quickly took off my suit jacket and hung it on the back of the chair I had been in, giving me a valid excuse to return later.
I jogged to catch up. “Any idea how long this will take?” I asked as I fell into step behind her.
She looked at her watch and then forward again. “It shouldn’t take long,” she replied. “And if everything works out okay, I’ll finish processing you after lunch.”
Shit. I had planned on using the incoming lunch crowd as cover to get out of here after the interview.
“And if it doesn’t work out?” I asked.
She turned and looked at me as she continued to walk. “Why?—are you planning on lying?”
I chuckled. “No ma’am. I just ain’t never had one of these things before,” I lied. “I just don’t know what’s involved.”
“Nothing to worry about,” she replied, flip. “Be honest and clear. It’ll be over quickly.”
Bullshit.
“You betcha.”
After arriving at the exam room, a tired and ruffled looking older gentleman looked up and smiled weakly, greeting us.
“This is Paul Harper,” Ronglie said, handing him my application and folder.
“Carver,” I corrected.
“Sorry…right. Paul Carver.”
“Have a seat,” the man said. “I’ll be right with you.”
Ms. Ronglie patted my shoulder. “Can you find your way back up to the office after the exam?” she asked.
I nodded.
“Good,” she replied as she turned to leave. “I’ll see you in a bit, then.”
I adjusted myself uncomfortably in the chair.
“You nervous?” the man asked.
“Yeah,” I replied.
“No need,” he said as he finished marking items on my application and jotting some notes. “Just be honest—”
Before he could finish, the phone in my pocket rang.
“Sorry,” I said as I fished it out. “My girlfriend…she’s having a bad day.”
A micro-sneer flashed briefly on his face but he nodded as I opened the phone to answer.
“Hello?”
“It’s done,” Kathrin said. “But when we tried to access—”
My heart jumped in panic. That worm was only meant to sniff out the private network Baynebridge had switched to…not access the data stream. If Mark tried using the port to harvest data without a stealth protocol in place, then we’d already been discovered.
“Oh sweetie,” I said, concern in my voice. “You didn’t try doing that by yourself did you?”
“Mark said—”
“Turn it off, now,” I said with an edge. “I’ll be home in a few minutes and see if I can fix it before we’re waist deep in hot water.”
I snapped my phone closed.
“I’m sorry,” I said as I rose. “We’ll have to do this another time. My hot water heater burst and it’s flooding my house.”
“But you’re—”
I was down the hall before he finished his sentence. I jogged around the corner and came face-to-face with a group of men at the elevator. I recognized one of them immediately—it was Glenn, the Baynebridge bodyguard for Homeland Security Assistant Director, Ned Richards. The last time we had met, I had given him a humiliating lesson in strength, nearly breaking his hand.
Turning through the staircase door before reaching the elevators, I ran down to the next level and burst through the door. As I turned the corner, my earpiece started crackling.
“Ex— —ow,” I heard Mark say.
There were too many people around for me to ask him to repeat his transmission, so I continued moving toward Ronglie’s office.
“—et ou—ovement!” he cracked in my ear.
The door to Ronglie’s office was closed. I tapped lightly on the door and listened for a response. When none came, I tapped again, more insistently—again, no reply.
Holding the knob firmly so the door wouldn’t get away from me, I slammed my hip against it. The frame on the other side splintered at the bolt as I pushed my way in.
“They are searching floor by floor,” Mark said.
“Roger,” I whispered as I reached down and yanked the USB transmitter from the back of Ronglie’s computer and fished blindly under the desk for my watch. I could hear voices moving my way from down the hall. When my fingers closed on the watch, I got up and rushed to the door, grabbing my suit jacket from the back of the chair.
“—a room to room until we nail down the intrusion,” said a man’s voice outside the door.
I put the USB module in my mouth and swallowed hard.
A second later they walked past the office and their voices faded. As soon as I was certain they were around the corner, I opened the door and left the office, closing it behind me. The splintered wood at the bolt crunched as I pulled it tight.
“Moving out now,” I said quietly.
“There’s a team of armed security getting on the elevators in lobby, right now,” Mark said. “Go to the north stairwell to exit.”
I changed direction and went back down the way I had just come. When I reached the stairwell, the group of men I had passed earlier, including Glenn, came around the corner in front of me.
“—for DHS in the next week,” one of the men said.
Glenn looked up and saw me before passing a brief expression of warning to the man who had been talking, bringing the conversation to an abrupt end. I nodded politely as I passed them, heading for the stairwell door.
“Do you work here?” Glenn asked my back.
I stopped at the door and turned before disguising my voice with the best southern accent I could muster. “Not yet, I don’t,” I said with a crooked grin. “But as soon as I pass that polygraph test I hope I will.”
“You look familiar,” he said, taking a step toward me.
“Yep. I passed you upstairs at the elevators,” I replied. “I had to come back up and get my jacket... Good eye for details. Kudos.”
He nodded hesitantly.
“Gotta run,” I said. “Hope to bump into you more often after I get the job.”
“Hey!” he said as I went through the door.
“Just go,” Mark said into my ear.
Glenn was too close…he’d have known I’d ignored him if I kept going. I stopped at the landing as he came through the door.
“Are you sure we haven’t met before?” he asked, squinting.
“Except for the passin’ you by the elevators, I don’t ever remember seeing you before,” I said, still sporting my fake folksy charm. “And I’m pretty good with faces. I think I’d remember that square jaw.”
I winked as I turned for the stairs.
“You shouldn’t have been allowed to move around the building unescorted,” he said, putting his hand on my shoulder. “I’ll walk you down.”
I could feel a bead of sweat tickle down the middle of my neck.
“Sure thing,” I replied as I started moving down. “It’d suck to not get the job for breakin’ SOP before I’m hired.”
He dismissively grunted his acknowledgment, but I could feel his eyes on the back of my head. I needed to get out before he figured out where we’d met. When we reached the lobby level, he opened the door for me.
“You’ll be fine from here on your own,” he said, still looking quizzically at me.
“Thanks,” I said as he reached his hand out to shake.
Though I was careful not to show it, the panic that ran through me at that instant was enough to cause my chest to contract…our last meeting had ended with me nearly breaking his hand. I reached out and gave him a weak, possibly too weak, shake.
He squinted at me before gripping my hand tightly. “We have met before,” he said. “I don’t know when or where, but we’ve met.”
My eyes flicked up at the camera overhead briefly before I pushed him back through the door into the stairwell. He tried to pull his hand away, presumably to reach for his weapon, but I clamped down tightly.
“I’m sorry you think so,” I said and then brought my elbow up sharply, striking him under the chin. Without releasing my grip, I pulled him back for another strike. He turned his shoulder, letting the brunt of the punch land on his neck instead of his face—but by twisting away, he had opened his side and given me the leverage I needed to take him down.
He opened his mouth to call out as I jerked his arm sharply behind his back and kicked the back of his knee, sending him to the ground.
“Security—!” My punch was a split second too late, landing just after he had called out.
As his head dropped to the floor, unconscious, I ran to the door and peeked out. No one seemed to have heard, or cared, about the brief yell of pain from Glenn. I pulled my suit jacket off and tossed it onto Glenn before stepping into the lobby.
“Do you need an extraction?” Mark asked into my ear.
I pulled my flip phone out and put it to my ear. “Not yet. I might be okay.”
“It didn’t sound like you were dancing with that guy,” Mark replied, clipped.
“Hold what you’ve got,” I said crossing the lobby at a leisurely pace. “Wait until I’m in the car and then follow me out in the van.”
“Roger.”
After passing the security checkpoint, an alarm sounded from the intercom system. A gate began slowly closing over the front entrance.
“Shit,” I muttered as I stepped up my pace to the door.
A guard stepped in front of me as I reached it.
“Gotta go, man,” I said.
“Hold—” he began, but a sharp finger stab to the throat stopped him from finishing his command. I ducked under the closing gate and pushed through the doors.
“I’m out,” I said. “Start the van and pull it up to the entrance after I hit the parking lot.”
“Oscar Mike to the front of the building,” Mark replied.
Behind me, raised voices were calling for lock-down over the chime of the alarm. The door closed, putting most of the noise behind me, but then I heard a similar tone coming from the speakers on the security lamp posts. I continued to walk at what would appear to be a normal pace, though slightly quicker than my usual stride. I saw Mark and Kathrin turn on the main drive as I stepped onto the blacktop. They pulled behind me and stopped as I passed.
“Thirty seconds,” I said as I altered course and headed for the Mustang.
“You’re clear so far,” Mark said.
“Almost there,” I said slipping the keys from my pocket. I unlocked the car with the key fob, making the lights flash.
“They’re raising the gate,” Mark said with elevated stress in his voice. “Move it.”
I sprinted the last few feet and climbed in. The engine was on before the door was closed and I stepped on the gas.
“I’m headed out,” I said. “What’s the north entrance look like?”
“So far you’re—” Mark began but then hissed, “Shit. Three sedans moving to the gate.”
“Can I clear them?”
“If you move now,” he said, tense.
My foot was pressed down before he had even finished his words. The tires squealed around the row of cars as I sped toward the lot exit, hoping to reach it before the sedans could block me in.
“I’m rolling,” Mark said.
“No,” I snapped as I shifted up, catching more rubber on the asphalt. “Use the west exit and wait until all the attention is on me.”
“What the fuck are you going to do?” Mark asked incredulously. “Even if you get to the road, you’ll have a dozen cars on you and probably the local cops too.”
“I’m still working on that,” I replied as I approached the main entrance to the parking lot…the sedans were speeding to intercept me. “But you’ve got all our equipment and our drives. If they catch you, not only are we done, but we’ll lose all our INTEL.”
“Roger that,” Mark said bitterly, obviously forgetting that I had the data streaming on my iPad as well—I needed him to get Kathrin clear from danger.
“Scott, go for the grass and see if you can force a pileup at the entrance.” Kathrin’s voice blasted over the radio in my ear, clearly having held her tongue as long as she could.
“Roger, Gretel,” I said with amusement in my voice. “Sorry I removed the remote steering—”
A sedan rounded the building and nearly t-boned me as I aimed for the exit. A quick brake and a swerve let him pass in front of me, sending him skidding hard into a turn before I accelerated again. As I reached the narrowing exit, the sedans slid to a stop across the opening. I downshifted two gears, dragging the wheels before I aimed the nose at the patch of green between the stone and the runoff pond.
It was going to be tight.
“Don’t do it,” Mark said.
“Shut up and meet me at the safe house,” I replied, just as my front tires hit the curb. It was jarring…I was actually a bit surprised it hadn’t set off the airbags.
“You’re not going to make it,” he said.
“Not with all that negativity buzzing in my ear,” I yelled as I fishtailed on the grass to the side of the parked sedans. Baynebridge men began firing at me.
“Jesus!” Mark exclaimed.
“How close do they have to be before I can deploy the poppers?” I asked.
“This is the wrong scenario for that,” Mark warned.
“Damn it, DJ, how close?!” I yelled.
“Ten meters or closer,” he said. “But I’m telling you—watch out on your right!”
Smash.
One of the sedans crossed the grass and clipped the rear of my car, sending me into a spin.
“You son of a bitch!” I yelled. “My car!”
I straightened up but not in time to avoid the runoff pond. Thankfully, it was empty and covered in grass, not standing water.
