“You’re from West Texas.”
“So I know what I’m talking about.”
So did Morgan. She grew up in Ohio, but her pilot training had been at Laughlin Air Force Base in Nevada. The terrain here looked familiar to her, except there were no tall mountain ranges surrounding the airport like they did in Vegas — just a few ridges in the distance.
The sound of a truck’s engine made her turn. A nondescript white two-axle truck was stopped by the police, and the driver flashed his identification. The policeman waved him through. Morgan walked toward the back of the plane to meet the truck at the cargo door.
Kessler got out of the passenger side, and three men emerged from the rear of the truck.
“Welcome to Australia, Agent Bell,” Kessler said. “Agent Cameron. Have a good flight?”
“Peachy,” Vince said.
“Have there been any new developments while we were in the air?” Morgan asked.
Kessler shook his head. “We’re all settled in and ready to get prepped for the weapon test.”
“I’ll need to see your IDs,” she said to the men with Kessler. All of them were carrying pistols. She peered in the back of the truck and spotted three automatic rifles.
They looked at the scientist as if to ask if she were for real. Kessler nodded that she was, and they showed her their IDs. All of them were NSA agents on the Pine Gap security team.
“All right,” she said to the loadmaster. “Let’s go.”
He lowered the ramp and released the clamps on the crate carrying the Killswitch. The four security men kept watch as Josephson and the loadmaster used a hand truck to move the crate off the plane. It took only a few minutes to lash it securely to the truck’s floor.
Once Kessler was satisfied that it was in place, two of the security men and Josephson climbed inside with it.
“Are you staying here or going with it?” Morgan asked Kessler.
“Josephson can take care of it. I’ll stay here to supervise unloading the most delicate equipment. You may ride back with me.”
“How long will you be?”
“No more than ten minutes.”
Morgan nodded as she watched a semi pull into the airport entrance, where the police allowed it to enter. It stopped next to the C-17. At the same time a forklift motored over to the plane.
“Are we cleared to go, Dr. Kessler?” one of the security men said.
“Yes,” Kessler said. “Close it up. Collins will meet you at the base to unload. Make sure you stay with the crate until it reaches the lab.”
“Yes, sir.”
The rear door of the smaller truck was shut, and the two other security team members climbed into the front seats. Morgan watched them drive off.
While she waited for Kessler’s men to load the semi rig with the rest of the equipment, she called back to the office to see if they’d made any progress tracking down the origin of the Internet videogame forum message.
Tyler parked the Jeep down the street from the unmarked warehouse where the CAPEK truck was located. He’d driven slowly past it and they had seen the robotic semi and chase van next to a dozen white trailers, four of which were backed up to the warehouse loading bays. Cars and trucks passed them periodically, so the Jeep’s presence wouldn’t be noticeable.
“Hyland thought this was an odd place to bring the truck,” Tyler said. “I agree.”
“What do you think it’s doing here?” Grant asked.
“Only one way to find out.”
“If you’re going inside,” Jess said, “we’re going with you.”
“That would be no,” Tyler said. “Something about this doesn’t feel right. Until we know it’s safe, you’re staying in the car.”
“Should we call the police?” Fay said.
“We don’t have any reason to just yet.”
Grant pointed at the warehouse. “We’ve got movement.”
Two men walked quickly from the warehouse. One of them, a powerfully built man in his forties, had steel- gray hair. They climbed inside the van.
“Neither of those guys looked like students to me,” Grant said.
“Looks more like our mysterious sponsor.”
“And the other one wasn’t Stevens. He must be in the warehouse.”
“We’re going to see if we can get a better view of the place from the other side,” Tyler said. “We’ll also try to snap a photo of our mystery man’s face. Jess, you take the wheel. Drive us down past the next warehouse. We’ll hop out and you continue on.”
“Where?”
“Drive around the block and come back here to keep an eye on the place. We’ll turn off our cell phone ringers but leave them on vibrate. If you see anything suspicious, text me, then call the police. We’ll call when we’re ready to be picked up.”
“I don’t like this.”
“Neither do I,” Tyler said as he backed the Jeep up the street until they were out of view of the warehouse. “But we need to get some answers, and I’m not ready to put Fay in harm’s way again.”
Getting shot at and having her house burned down was bad enough. If it was the same guys, they might want to finish the job. Tyler was already queasy about putting her in this much jeopardy.
“You don’t even have guns,” Jess said.
“This is just a recon mission. If we see any weapons, I’ll text you to call the cavalry.”
Jess reluctantly nodded. “All right. But be careful.”
“What do you think?” Tyler said to Grant. “Should we be careful?”
Before Grant could answer, Jess punched Tyler in the arm. “Okay, wiseass. Out of the car.”
As he passed her outside, he said with a smile, “That’s
“Tell me when it’s on your business card.”
Tyler and Grant got in the back and put their phones on vibrate. Jess drove to the empty warehouse next door as if she were delivering something in back. When they were on the opposite side, Tyler and Grant jumped out. Jess made a U-turn and headed back to the street.
Grant peeked around the corner at the warehouse and switched his cell phone to camera mode. “There’s a Dumpster thirty feet away. We’ll be able to see him if we hide behind it. I think that’s about as close as we can get.”
Tyler smiled. “We could always bust into the warehouse unannounced.”
“Going into a warehouse potentially full of gunmen with no intel and armed with whatever large rocks we can pick up from the dirt? Even a rookie lieutenant would think we’d be nuts going with that plan.”
“And so instead we take pictures.”
“Then we’ll text the photo to Hyland,” Grant said.
“Right. If he positively identifies the guy as Blaine’s cohort, we’ll ask the police to come on down and knock on the front door.”
“Sounds easy enough.”
A woman spoke from behind them. “No, it’s not.”
Tyler turned expecting to see that Jess had ignored his instructions. Instead, a blonde woman walked toward them flanked by two serious-looking men.
All three of them were aiming pistols at him and Grant, who raised their hands to show they were unarmed.
“What?” Grant said. “They have cameras that can see all the way over here?”
“If you mean the men inside that warehouse,” the woman said, “I’m not with them.”
