they headed for Braxton's event. Behind her, sprawled across the truck's backseat, Tyrone clacked at the keyboard of the new laptop.
'Yes!' Tyrone startled her.
'What?' She was irritated at having her thoughts interrupted. 'I'm in!' 'In where?'
'Braxton's network'
Into the WiFi?'
Tyrone shook his head. 'All the way in.'
'You're kidding!'
'Nope.'
'How?'
'Cool new update of some crackware called airpwn,' Tyrone said. 'Uses raw frame injection. One of my network cards listens on one channel, and the other card injects custom frames with perfect replies. If you tickle the size of the replies just right, it works so perfectly that the connection functions so well nobody on the other end can detect the intrusion unless they're watching a packet sniffer real-time.'
'I don't understand a thing you're saying.'
'That's okay,' Tyrone said. 'The important thing is that they can't block me without blocking legitimate traffic. So I get in through the wireless and look for a machine that's connected to both the wireless and the hardwired network. Happens all the time. Anyway, I have some custom modifications to the Ethereal packet sniffer along with a MAC spoofer and a custom password cracker I wrote a while back that let me grab all the data I needed to get into the primary system.'
'You told Kilgore you were rusty at this.'
'I lied. He knew that. Like I said, its a new technology and really hard for even a talented user to close off all the holes. This one also didn't even bother to change the default password on the router.'
'And what does that get us?'
'Eyes and ears.'
'Say what?'
'Look at the screen here.'
'Oh my God!'
Despite his age, his Parkinson's, and his having had little rest and nothing to eat or drink in more than twenty-four hours, Frank Harper startled Dan Gabriel with a whoop of joy when the next to last stack of barrels came thundering down. A fortune in cabernet sauvignon pooled ankle deep in the cave and made a visible current as it drained under the door.
'That should get somebody's attention,' said Harper who had moved to the back of the cave as Gabriel worked toward the door.
'Not too many somebodies, I hope,' Gabriel said.
CHAPTER 93
I thumbed off the Hk4' s safety.
'Not now, Benny.' The wine box over my head stopped moving. 'We got a line backing up out there.' The case of wine came back down and sealed me off again.
'Awright,' the voice said.
Then the previous voice: 'Unload at the usual place. Wait for somebody to come check the inventory before you leave.'
'My pleasure,' Rex said.
The cargo door rumbled again and the truck began to move. Only then did I reset the safety. I heard the safety on Kilgore's pistol click about the same time.
Moments later, the truck slowed, reversed, stopped. A minute later, cool air flooded in over me.
'Wake up, asshole,' Rex said.
Beyond him, the yellow and black stripes of a loading dock showed beyond the mostly closed cargo door. An electric forklift whirred in the distance. I got out and helped excavate Kilgore, who climbed out quickly and paused to suck in the fresh air.
'Okay, let's stage the scenery as best we can,' Kilgore said as he started moving wine cases toward the back of the van. 'Stack the plywood flat in the corner so it's not noticeable. The more innocent things look, the more time we'll have before they tumble onto us.'
Rex and I followed his lead, and minutes later Kilgore keyed the microphone. 'We're in.'
Then we rolled up the cargo door, grabbed a case of wine apiece, and followed Kilgore through the chaos on the loading dock. Caterers, vendors, and platoons of people in white uniforms with toques cursed in a dozen languages, demanding forklifts, assistance, and insisting to be escorted upstairs immediately or the canapes, ice sculptures, gelato, and everything else would be ruined. Ruined!
Braxton's security, dressed in blue blazers, khaki pants, white shirts, and rep ties, sidled through the unruly mob, trying to establish order. The looks on their faces said they'd prefer to shoot most of these people if only it wouldn't deprive the General and his guests of pate or pastry.
'I like this very much,' Kilgore said as we pushed our way through the melee and across the loading dock. To our right, an arbor heavy with summer foliage blossomed and extended the length of the lot now jammed with trucks.
'The formal entrance is on the other side of this,' Kilgore said.'Braxton wouldn't want his very snotty guests insulted by the sight of common people working.'
We followed him into the coolness of the main service entrance.
'Right up there.' Kilgore pointed at shadows in the far right corner. We stood stock-still for a moment, blending into the dimly lit area. One of the security officers looked over at us, then turned to a tall, thin young man who was haranguing him about how his was the most important course and the General would be displeased if the delivery was not made immediately
Kilgore led us around an oblique corner to a shadow-filled corridor and set his wine case down.
'This should be it.'
Rex and I stacked our wine on top of his. A long, dimly lit cave stretched before us, lined on both sides with phalanxes of identical oak-plank doors bound with black iron straps.
'From here, I count maybe twenty doors.'
'Damn…,' Kilgore mumbled. 'Let's get going.' He turned and slid the heavy bolt of the nearest door. The tunnel resonated with the screech of metal in desperate need of lubrication.
'Jeez!' Rex said. 'Better hope the noise back there continues.'
'We have a choice,' I said as I took the first door on the other side of the tunnel. It screeched slightly less than Kilgore's.
'I'll work ahead,' Rex said as be walked half a dozen doors down the tunnel. I cringed as he slid back the next bolt and filled the corridor with a deafening metallic thunder.
'Listen!'
Gabriel stopped by the door and stood up. The last pieces of broken barrel staves and a hoop hung loosely at his side. Above the sounds of priceless cabernet dripping into the expensive red flood came the rusty complaints of the cave doors and muffled voices of men.
Harper sat still and concentrated. 'Yes, this may be good.' He struggled to his feet as Gabriel scaled the last remaining tower of barrels, the one adjacent to the door. When he looked back at Harper, something on the cave wall caught his attention.
'Doctor?'
'What's over by you? Looks like a crack in the wall.'
Harper shuffled over to it. 'A crack in the wall.'
'These are supposed to be solid stone.'
