Page 14

“How’s it all looking?” Quinn asks me, placing his hands on my shoulders.

“Good, I think this is going to work.”

We’ve set up a mobile workstation just half a mile from the warehouse, in a clearing in the woods to the back of the property. After her visit to the lab yesterday, Mara turned in the rental car we were using and we made it look like she got on a plane to San Francisco. Quinn paid cash for a small RV, and we picked it up this morning before getting the house ready for new guests. We spent the rest of the day outfitting the RV as a mobile base, figuring that we should be as close as possible for the strongest signal, and be around in case they need backup.

Six, Lukas, Micah, Luis, and Jackson, all of whom are feeling more like friends than acquaintances of my employer, arrived safely earlier today. After some rest, they got set up with all the equipment we gave them. I just finished going through all the checks to make sure everything works properly. They’re driving from the house and should arrive at the lab gates in the next ten minutes or so.

My nerves would normally be overloaded right now, but having Quinn and Mara with me is strangely calming. I feel like the three of us can accomplish anything, and the people we’re guiding are smart and capable, and have the added incentive of saving someone they love.

How could it go wrong?

Mara calls down from the top of the RV, where she’s set up with her laptop and a pair of binoculars. “They’re pulling in.”

Quinn looks at me and waggles his eyebrows. “It’s Showtime.” He goes inside where we have about a dozen monitors set up to watch all the security cameras.

I listen as Luis pulls up to the security gate and passes their credentials to the guard. Luis, who is dressed as a guard himself, explains why they’re there.

“I’ve got Dr. Wallace and three staff members. You should be expecting them.”

The guard types something into his tablet, which I can see on one of my monitors, and pulls up the visitor schedule where I’ve made some additions. The guard will see a VIP board member on the schedule, and hopefully, everyone will trip over themselves to make themselves look good.

“Dr. Wallace,” the guard acknowledges, obviously realizing that he’s talking to a person of great importance. “We weren’t expecting you until tomorrow.”

Micah, one of the guys who happens to be a medical student, is the one to speak. “Too much sitting around that hotel room. I wanted to come get a feel for the lab before I had everyone scrambling to make a good impression to kiss my ass. A surprise inspection, if you will.”

Impressive, Micah. Every time I’ve spoken with him, he seems like a super nice guy, but he sounds like a real hard ass right now.

It works on the guard. “I hope you find everything up to your standards, Dr. Wallace.” He hands the packet of credentials back through the window and gestures them through as the gate arm rises. As they pass through the gate, he calls the front office to give them a heads up.

There’s a little bit of panic about what the guard is saying into his phone. “He’s alerting the building security that a VIP is arriving. Surprise visits like this aren’t likely to be unheard of, although the timing might still be unusual. Stay on your guard and I’ll keep listening in,” I tell them.

I route the guard’s call to Quinn, who poses as a security guard and speaks to the gate guy.

“I intercepted the warning call about your arrival so no higher-ups would be alerted. The guards won’t know that Dr. Wallace isn’t real, but some of the staff might,” I warn them.

As they park and walk through the parking lot, I talk to Lukas, who is going to be helping me monitor everyone. They’re going to be breaking up into teams, and each of us will be guiding them through the building to their various tasks.

“All good, Lukas?” I ask. He’s been nervous about the mission.

“I’m all set.” They’ve parked towards the back of the parking lot, and Lukas set up his own mobile workstation where the security gate can’t see him. I wish I could tell him he’s not alone, and that Mara and Quinn will also be monitoring Six and Luis as I guide Jackson and Micah through the building.

“It’s all going to be okay. We’ve got this,” I tell him instead.

Holding my breath a little, I watch as they pass through the metal detectors. This was one thing we didn’t get to practice yesterday, and I breathe out a sigh of relief when they make it through.

The four of them that are in the building split up into their teams. Luis and Six head toward Bennet’s cell, while Micah and Jackson head towards Adley’s office. We need them to place a device that Mara made so we can quickly upload all of their data to turn it over to the feds. There’s no way Bennet won’t be able to take down Adley with the information we’ve already gotten, but now that we know just how heinous their crimes are, we want to make sure we know everything about BioCere, Inc.

Through the earpieces, I supply Jackson and Micah with the directions to get to the administration offices where the server room is. They head off in an opposite direction from Six and Luis.

“Two guards and a white coat coming down the next corridor,” I warn them, and they slip into what turns out to be a supply closet.

“Shit,” I hear Micah curse under his breath. “Did you hear that?”

“Yeah, they can’t be on to us though, can they? They would have raised an alarm by now,” Jackson whispers back.

“The coast is clear,” I tell them. “What’s happening?”

“We heard them talking about Adley coming back, that someone came in that wasn’t supposed to be here. I don’t think they meant now, but what else would they be talking about?”

“Mara?” I say on our closed channel, making sure she heard all that so she can look into it.

“On it,” she assures me.

“I don’t see anything here to raise any suspicions. Keep moving for now, and I’ll let you know if I see anything.”

The two of them walk confidently by multiple labs with people inside them, and either no one notices them or they don’t think twice.

“Shit, , we have a problem. A big problem,” Mara says.

“What’s going on?”

“Fucking Adley is there. In his office.”

“What the? how?”

“I don’t know. There aren’t cameras in his office. He must have arrived at some point when we were getting ready. We missed him on the security feed somehow.”

Quinn chimes in through the channel. “It’s worse than that, they moved Bennet, too. We’re searching all the cameras for him, but there are a lot of rooms without live feeds.”

Fuck. Shit. I blow out a breath. I should have known it wouldn’t be this easy.

Mara is cool as ever, a genius even under extreme pressure. “, get Jackson and Micah pulled back to the others to regroup, and watch for any movement from Adley. Quinn and I will search the backlogs to find the footage of where they moved Bennet.”

“Guys, pull back. We have a problem. Adley is in his office. I repeat, Adley is there and you need to pull back. Turn around and head to the end of the corridor, then hang a left.”

“Ten-four,” Jackson exclaims as if this were just a game and not a life-threatening, terrifying moment. That guy takes nothing seriously. I feel like he would get along with Quinn. Or maybe they’d hate each other. They might have too much in common.

I watch as the two of them make their way back through the building, giving them instructions to where the others are. Quinn and Mara locate Bennet in one of the labs about halfway from where both teams are currently.

“, it doesn’t look good. Bennet’s in rough shape from what we could see.”

I swallow. Shit. “How rough?”

“Barely alive.”

Taking several deep breaths, I watch as the two groups converge and catch each other up. Maybe there’s still a way we can get out of this without being noticed.

They all enter the room where Bennet is being held, and I lose visual contact. I hear a gunshot, thankfully somewhat muffled by a silencer, and listen as they confront someone. Six says he’s alive, and I let out a breath. It sounds like they’re talking to a nurse, asking what they’ve done to Bennet.

The nurse is either too afraid to speak or isn’t willing to tell them much. I hear Micah say that Bennet has internal bleeding.

Mara’s voice comes over the channel again. “Quinn, we’re going to need to have some kind of medical transport on standby. I don’t think they’re going to get Bennet in that van safely.”

Luis leaves the room and heads into another room, pulling a gurney back. I listen in, wishing I could see them, as they work together to get Bennet up on the gurney.

I almost miss when Six leaves the room.

“Six, get out of there, go back to the others,” I hear Lukas tell her. But she keeps walking.

“Oh no,” says Mara. “That’s the room I was telling you about.”

During our pillow talk last night, Mara explained she had been planning to blow up the building after we got Bennet out and all the data transferred. I probably shouldn’t have been as shocked as I was. We were hoping to have the guys get the potentially comatose pregnant patient out of there as well, but since Adley is back and Bennet is in such rough shape, we moved to Plan B? which is getting our guys the fuck out and letting the feds take care of the rest.

“She doesn’t want to go in there, Lukas,” I tell him.

He shouts as we lose sight of her, and it seems like she’s taken out her earpiece. It’s still online, but she isn’t responding at all.

The monitor shows me that trouble is on its way and we are fucked. “We’ve got trouble,” I warn them. “Adley is on the move with four armed guards. He’s headed toward your current location.”

There’s a flurry of activity as the guys shout for Six, and then shit hits the fan. An alarm blares, red flashing lights making visibility difficult. We can see and hear the alarm from where we are.

“That’s not good,” Quinn mutters. Understatement of the year.

We’re fucked.

I watch on the monitors as Luis runs into the hallway just as the door closes behind Adley. “Luis, you’ve got four guards out there ? I’m working on getting the door open, but you’ve got to try not to get killed.”

He ignores me, or maybe he hears me and doesn’t care. A gunfight ensues in the hallway. Luis puts down two of the guards like some kind of action hero, but two more flank him.

The two remaining guards fall, Jackson shooting them from behind. I have to look away when Luis puts a bullet in each of their heads, making sure they’re not going to get back up.

“They came for Six,” I hear him say. I didn’t enjoy watching it, but I kind of get it. Luis is an intense guy, and I think he’d hurt anyone that impeded him getting to his girl, innocent or not.

I’m working on getting access to open the doors, but the alarm triggered the power to cut out for functions like lights and doors as a safety measure, and it’s taking me too long to get things back online. We’re lucky the video feed is considered an important part of their security measures, otherwise we could have lost visuals too.

“Give Lukas a heads up, monitor five,” says Quinn.

Shit.

“Lukas, monitor five.”

He warns the guys that about a half dozen more guards are on their way. And there’s at least that many waiting outside, putting up barricades.

I let Lukas keep them updated on the approaching guards, listening in as I work on getting the power back up.

“You've got two coming on either side of the corridor. They definitely don't know we've got eyes on them. It looks like they're planning to ambush you from both sides.”

Luis pulls the semi-automatic rifle off his back. “I'll take the right. You two take the left. Lukas, give us a count. , any word on that door lock?”

“Working on it, man. The alarm triggered the manual locks,” I tell him.

“He'll have to come out, eventually,” says Jackson.

I watch the monitors with rapt attention as the guys put their backs to either side of the hall, facing opposite ways and waiting for the guards to come for them.

Lukas gives them a warning. “Approaching the doors. Two on each side and two more coming from the South entrance.”

The doors open and two canisters of smoke roll into the corridor. Without hesitation, Micah runs up and kicks it back through the doors. Luis is a little slower on the uptake, but follows suit. The guys cough a little, but seem to have escaped the worst of the smoke.

Luis opens fire on one side before Jackson shoots on the other. The smoke makes it hard to see what’s happening on the ground.

“They’re down, but you’ve still got two coming.”

Luis takes a knee and I hear a cough. The door to the lab slides open as he reloads his weapon.

“Shit, behind you!” But it’s too late.

Adley emerges from the doorway with Six at gunpoint. I watch Micah slowly back into the other lab, but the other two are caught, raising their hands in the air.

I can’t tell what’s being said, only a muffled instruction to drop their weapons. They comply, and after a beat, Luis removes more weapons and slides them away from himself.

A woman in scrubs limps out of the lab that Micah just hid in, apparently thinking it’s safe to make her escape. Adley points his gun at her, shooting her in the back of the head as she tries to limp down the hallway. Was that the nurse that they said triggered the alarm?

“Shit, his own employee,” I say, horrified.

“That was the doctor that let me in and showed me around earlier,” Mara says. “It’s worse than that, though. Check monitor 3.”

Flipping through the screens, I stop on camera 3 and gape in horror as I watch Adley’s guards opening fire on anyone that exits the building. Their own employees and coworkers.

“He gave them shoot to kill orders until he says otherwise. Anyone that walks through that door, and it’s the only exit.”

To make things worse, two more guards arrive, pushing Luis and Jackson through the door as Adley pulls Six back inside.

I have no visuals on our team and there are at least three guards with guns in there.

Fuck.