Predator's Game, page 26
part #6 of Scott Wolfe Series
“And you,” I replied, grinning softly.
“We hang out,” Jo replied. “She’d have me anyway. But as far as she’s concerned, her brothers have gone out into the world and never even call to let her know they’re alive.”
A sad sinking feeling fell on me and pressed on my shoulders like sand bags. “I’ll transfer her tomorrow,” I said after a moment of reflection. “I’m most likely not be going back to TravTech, and I don’t want her someplace where she’s miserable…I love her too much.”
Jo squinted at me before shaking her head. “She’ll feel like you’re doing it to get rid of her.”
“Then I don’t know what to do!” I said, snapping at her. I immediately regretted it. “I’m sorry. I know you’re right.”
She stared at me for several beats before nodding her head toward the door. “Come on…let’s get you out of here.”
We walked to the visitor lot across the street and stowed the firewalls in the van. I opened the door but didn’t get in immediately. “What would you do?”
“I’d transfer her,” Jo replied, emotionless. “But then again, I’m a heartless Asperger’s machine with only traces of human emotion.”
I stared at her for a few seconds.
“So are you,” she added.
“What?”
“You might fool the rest of the world, but you can’t fool me,” she said, squinting. “Your smiles, your laughs, your friendly touches—they’re all calculated, manufactured actions set to exacting standards and executed with precision. You’re smarter than me and figured out how to create the ‘charismatic Scott’ persona, but it’s not genuine.”
I stared at her blankly.
“A sociopath,” she added with a grin.
I lifted one eyebrow again. “Really?”
“I might not be smart enough to manufacture a human expression beyond the most superficial, but I’m smart enough to see it being done.”
“A sociopath?”
“Don’t worry,” she replied, putting her hand on my shoulder. “Normal humans can’t see it… Hell, they don’t even see it in me. They just think I’m a bitch.”
I laughed.
She shook her head. “I’d give anything for that sort of emotional timing.”
“What about you and Storc—”
“It’s comfort,” she said, clipped. “Nothing else.”
“Isn’t that what love is? Mutual comfort and doing what’s necessary to make sure the other person feels the same way?”
She shook her head.
“Wow…I had no idea I’d gotten it wrong all this time.”
“You didn’t,” she replied, grinning. “You are doing the best you can with what you have.”
With that she turned and walked away from me. “And to be honest, you’re succeeding spectacularly,” she added over her shoulder, “especially for a psychopathic killer.”
That hurt—I felt it tug at my chest. Would it hurt that much if I were a psychopath? It would certainly explain a lot of things.
I got into the van and was about to close the door when movement across the street caught my attention. I looked up. A large panel truck, like a moving van, was speeding down the street toward the TravTech building. It seemed odd that it was going so fast, headed toward the curb.
When it bounced over the concrete sidewalk, I jumped from the van and ran toward Jo, who was a few yards away from me. “Jo!”
She turned and looked at me as the truck smashed through the concrete barriers in front of the tall building and bounced over the rubble.
“Get down!” I yelled just as the truck hit the main entrance of TravTech—my home.
The blast radiated so much heat and light, I thought I had suddenly been transported to the sun. I watched Jo’s hair wrap around her head, like a strong breeze at the beach had moved it, before she was propelled toward me by the shockwave. It hit me next, flinging me into the side of the van as it rocked up on two wheels before crashing back down, along with me, to the pavement.
For several long seconds, I didn’t know which way was up. I flailed, trying to get to my feet, but the world seemed to be off-balance, as if the ground had tipped sideways, interrupting gravity itself. Rubble and debris began smashing to the ground around me.
“Jo!” I yelled, but didn’t hear my own voice through the high-pitched tone in my ears.
I scrambled on my hands and feet toward the last place I’d seen her. Through the blur in my eyes, I saw her, laying on the ground several feet in front of me. A piece of rock hit me in the back as I rushed forward and grabbed her small arm before dragging her back toward the van.
More rubble smashed to the ground around and upon us while I dragged her unconscious form along the asphalt. I pulled her under the van with me, breathing heavily, the hot, dusty air caking my lungs. I coughed and choked as I shook her, trying to get some sign of life.
Her eyes opened in a flash, wide, dilated.
“It’ll be okay!” I tried to say, but no sound came back to my ears.
She sat up and pushed away from me, trying to crawl out from under the van, but I grabbed her and pulled her back as more debris fell in front of us. A heavy block of cement smashed to the ground within feet of us. She was screaming and crying, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying.
I stared at the volcano that had once been the center of my life. Almost everyone I knew from my old life was in that building—or rather, was where that building used to be. I watched as floor after floor of the Reston high-rise peeled away in flames and crashed to the ground, sending vast clouds of dust out and away from the base.
My cheeks burned and I suddenly wondered if I was on fire. But when I reached up to touch them, they were wet. I looked at my fingers and saw only moisture, not blood. My tears were burning my cheeks, and I wasn’t even aware that I was crying. Bonbon, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.
Jo shook me and I looked up into her face. My wits were returning—she was mouthing the words, “We have to save them.”
I shook my head. “They’re gone!” I yelled. That time I heard a muted rumble in my head.
Then a horrifying thought occurred to me. “Kathrin and Storc!” I yelled, grabbing Jo’s hand and dragging her out from under the van.
I shoved her into the passenger seat before crawling over her and starting the van. As debris continued to rain down on top of us, pitting the windshield and producing muted thwacks on the roof, I sped away from the inferno behind us.
Jo was screaming and trying to crawl out of the seat. I grabbed her and shoved her back before glaring at her. “Storc is in danger!” I yelled.
She looked at me, uncomprehending.
“Storc!” I yelled again. “Storc, Storc, Storc!”
Her eyes flashed wide and she reached into her pocket for her phone. I nodded and refocused on the road, taking a turn too hard and tipping us up on two wheels. When the van crashed back down, I straightened my course after scraping the side of a vehicle that had stopped on the road. Many vehicles had stopped after the explosion. Some drivers had left their vehicles and were running away from the blast sight. Others were gawking at the destruction. I swerved onto the shoulder and sped toward Storc’s house.
A tap on my arm brought my attention back to Jo. She was yelling but I still couldn’t make out what she was saying. She held up her phone when it dawned on her that she was as deaf as I was.
“Unable to connect.”
I nodded and pulled my phone out. It used multiple carriers and could cycle through many towers to find a connection. I sent a text to Storc in the clear.
“Under attack. Get out now”
I handed my phone to Jo as soon as I sent it. A few second later she slapped my arm and held up my phone. “Scott!” she yelled.
I looked at the phone as I realized I’d heard her that time.
The message read: “Time! We need the data!”
I hit the dial button and took the phone from Jo’s hand before hitting speaker.
“What’s going on?!” Storc answered.
“I’m ten minutes from the house,” I said, overly loud. “Grab the data, burn the systems and tell Kathrin and Mark we have to move, now!”
“Scott, what’s happened?!”
I shook my head, not wanting to say it. I felt almost as if saying it aloud would make it real.
“They just took out TravTech,” I said.
It was like a hammer blow to my chest.
There was no reply for long seconds. “Jo?” Storc asked finally.
“She’s here with me,” I replied.
“What’s he saying?” Jo yelled, obviously still without her hearing.
“Is that her?” Storc asked, agony straining his voice. “Let me talk to her.”
“We’ll be there in less than ten minutes…pack everything up and burn the servers.”
I ended the call and stuffed the phone back into my pocket.
“What did he say?!” Jo yelled again.
Without looking at her, I gave her a thumbs up, not wanting to complicate the drive any more than it already had been. My cheeks were still burning as I wove around traffic at a dangerous speed.
The ten minutes to Storc's house were the longest I’d ever experienced. My torture at the hands of Harbinger hadn’t seemed so drawn out and painful. If I showed up late and something had happened to Kathrin or Storc, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. No. They’ll be fine until I get there. Go faster.
We skidded to a halt in Storc’s driveway and I reached into the back to grab my body armor. Jo was already out of the van and running for the front door. She was met at the door by a rifle-wielding Kathrin.
“It’s okay,” I yelled at Kathrin, who dropped her barrel and let Jo push past her.
“What happened?” Kathrin asked as I ran up the porch steps. The anxiety on her face only multiplied the agony that was slowly crawling up from my gut and grasping at my throat.
“They took down TravTech,” I said as I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her inside.
“Took it down?” Mark asked.
“Blew up the fucking building,” I snapped. “Ten floors of concrete and glass are now in the basement parking garage.”
Upon hearing that, Mark didn’t wait for further instructions, he began hauling equipment to the van with speedy resolve.
Kathrin grabbed me and spun me around. “Are you okay?” she asked rubbing her hands over my face, neck and chest. It took me a second to realize she was checking me for wounds.
“We have to get out of here,” I said as she pulled her hand back from my ear with a smear of blood on her fingertips.
I pounded down the stairs to find Storc with one arm around Jo and one pounding on his keyboard. “I need ten minutes,” he said to me, tears streaming down his cheeks.
“We don’t have it,” I said. “Take what you have and let’s go.”
He looked at the server racks and shook his head. “We’ll lose all the account tracking if I burn the racks before I dump the data.”
I clenched my fists and jaw as I looked at the racks and then at Jo. I could feel Kathrin behind me. Above me Mark’s feet were pounding down the stairs. Stork continued to work.
I looked back at Mark as he arrived downstairs. “Storc needs ten minutes,” I said. “We need to give it to him.”
Mark nodded before turning and going back up the stairs. I looked at Kathrin. “There’s no way vehicles can get in from the back. If there’s an assault team coming for us, it will be on foot from the back and vehicles in the front.”
She nodded, knowing exactly how to respond, having been thoroughly trained in these matters. I looked at Storc. “You have ten minutes,” I said, calm, cold. “At the end of that ten minutes, regardless of what we have or don’t have, I’m setting off the phosphorous charges on the servers and we go…good?”
He nodded as I began setting the remotes for the incendiary charges on the computer racks.
“What can I do?” Jo asked Storc, wiping angry tears from her face.
Storc looked around quickly before pointing at a stack of pocket drives. “Hook one to each of the data servers while I run the ghost copy on the main database.”
She set about her task quickly, though with shaking fingers, attaching the portable drives to each of the servers. When I finished setting the remotes, I ran back upstairs and joined Mark in the living room.
He was kneeling in front of the picture window, staring down the street. “Where are we going?”
“I don’t know yet,” I replied as I pulled my body armor on before touching my spare magazines, doing a silent count. “I’ve got transport lined up, but it was supposed to take me to Colorado.”
“Bailey?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“I think you should still do that,” he said, quiet, calm. “If you can get a name, we might be able to cut the head off the snake.”
I thought about that for a second. “I’m not hauling Storc and Jo with me to Colorado…Combine knows it’s us bringing their plans down.”
He cocked his head to the side without looking from the window. “Where’s the money going?” he asked after a beat. “The stuff they’re moving out of Europe, I mean.”
“The Caymans.”
“Then maybe Storc and Jo should go there,” he said. “It makes sense that if they’re moving the money to the Caymans, they’re planning on making the physical transfers from there as well.”
I shook my head. “Storc and Jo aren’t operators…for that to work, we’d need someone to run the Op.”
Mark shook his head and pressed his lips together tightly. “Fine. I’ll take them.”
I smiled at the concession. “I’ll join you after I talk to Bailey whether I get any new info from him or not.”
He nodded. “I have an asset down there…on Cayman Brac.”
“The small island?” I asked. “That’s not where the banks are.”
“Don’t worry. She’s been doing this for a while. She knows the banks.”
“Right. Sorry. It’s good you have the asset.”
“Anything?!” Kathrin called from the back of the house.
“No!” I replied. “We’re still clear.”
“How much longer?” she asked.
“About four minutes,” I replied.
I heard Jo coming up the basement stairs. When she rounded the corner, she had an armful of pocket drives. “Just a few more minutes on the database copy,” she said as she ran for the front door.
I followed behind her and picked up two bags of clothing that someone had packed and placed next to the door. We ran to the van, where she went to put the drives into the glove box. When she opened it, a Beretta fell out. She picked it up and stared at it for a second before putting it back with the drives.
I tossed the bags into the back after watching her with the gun. “Come on,” I said nodding toward the house.
“Should I have one of those?” she asked as we jogged back to the front door.
“Not yet,” I said. “I’ll put one in your hands myself if it comes to that.”
She looked at me sideways as we reached the door.
“Thank you…for saving me.”
That statement felt like a slap in the face. I hadn’t saved her. She had coincidently been outside with me. No one in the building had that bizarre twist of fate to save them. By thanking me for saving her, she had just reminded me of the hundreds of lives that had been lost because of me. I had murdered those people by being connected to TravTech, including one of my oldest friends—someone I loved like a sister. As much as a psychopathic killer could love a sister anyway.
“I’m done,” Storc said, rounding the corner as we entered. He paused and looked down the stairs. “Is the whole house going up in flames?”
I shook my head. “Close your vault door. The damage will be confined to the basement.”
He nodded as he turned and ran back down. After a second or two, I heard the safe-room door thud closed. He ran back up, carrying the main data backups. “Done…let’s go.”
“I’m setting the charges off,” I said as everyone started moving toward the door. When the room was clear, I hit the button. I listened to ensure they had gone off. When I didn’t hear anything, I had a moment of panic. “Do you have a camera down there still?” I asked Storc through the front door.
He ran back to me, carrying an iPad. His fingers moved and dashed across the surface as he approached. When he got to me, he turned the screen around for me to see the flaming inferno just below.
“Good, let’s go.”
Mark drove. Kathrin and I stayed vigilant until we reached the highway. Once up to speed, we sat in the back with Storc and Jo. Something began to nag at me—it couldn’t have been a coincidence that the suicide bomber had hit TravTech while I was there.
Like I had been stung by a bee, I began peeling off my body armor and shirt.
“What’s wrong?” Kathrin asked.
I searched the vest first and then my jacket. There, on the back of my sleeve, was a transparent, adhesive-backed tracer tag.
“Son of a bitch!” I yelled, pounding the side of the van with my fist.
“What’s going on?” Mark called over his shoulder.
I moved forward and held up the tracer tag between my fingers.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
“It was the internal security guy who escorted me out of the building.”
“Shit,” Mark said quietly, shaking his head.
He reached out to grab it but I pulled it away from him. “Hold on. I have an idea.”
“What?”
“Find a metro station.”
He turned in his seat and glared at me. “Why?”
“I’m gonna stick this tracer on a train and let them run around underground looking for us for a while.”
He smiled and nodded before taking the next exit. I went back and sat next to Kathrin, draping my arm around her.
After a moment, she leaned against me and put her head on my shoulder. “It’s not your fault,” she said in a whisper.
I took a deep breath before letting it out. “Yes, sweet girl…it is.”
And Bonbon is dead. Because I brought Combine straight to TravTech.
