Ducking down, Gage peered through the pipe to see light at the other end, at least 100 meters away. He edged forward and grasped the rebar grate, giving it a tug.
The heavy grate fell over with a clang. Gage eyed the steel ends, seeing where they’d been cleanly cut. He knelt there, recalling a mission 15 years before when one of his squad members on Hunter’s team used a portable metal cutter to access an illicit narcotics factory in the Horn of Africa. Gage studied the cut ends closely. There was oxidation, but not a great deal. He viewed several gouges on the rebar that might have been there since the pipe was laid. The oxidation was much heavier and crusty on the gouges, meaning the fresh oxidation on the cuts had occurred much more recently.
Shit.
This was a potential access point to the estate. Someone had gone out of their way to painstakingly cut through 12 points of rebar—no small task. Gage eyed the distance to the perimeter fence. He’d bet a week’s pay that the motion detection system wouldn’t pick someone up if they came in through the pipe. He lifted his phone to call Thomas.
* * *
Following ninety minutes of testing with Thomas, a muddy and cold Gage was convinced that the pipe had been utilized to breach the estate without setting off alarms. After first phoning the caretaker, Gage had started off by testing the system’s basic functionality, and progressed from there. He’d hoped— and prayed—that the system would trip if a grown man emerged from the pipe.
But, first things first…
Following his initial discovery of the cut grate, Gage asked Thomas to watch the perimeter alert on the monitor. Gage had then walked toward the fence while listening to the caretaker on the phone. When Gage was approximately 30 meters from the fence, Thomas spoke.
“There it goes. It’s displaying movement in…hang on…the system calls it ‘northern sector, zone four.’”
“Yep,” Gage replied. “That’s right where I am.” He lowered the phone and viewed his own security app, seeing the same alert. Gage cleared the alert from the security app and performed the same test two more times for assurance. He set the alarm off each time, in the exact same location.
“Everything okay?” Thomas asked.
“Yes, Thomas,” Gage said. “Just making sure we have a secure estate. I’m coming back to the manor.” He hung up the phone and rode Perle back to the stable in a mild trot as the flurries increased again. It appeared another band of snow was moving in.
After stabling the horse, Gage made a mental note to feed her later. She needed to cool down first. He visited Thomas’ workshop, finding the caretaker working on a compressor. With Thomas’ direction, Gage found a pair of industrial strength kneepads hanging from the pegboard on the right side wall. After explaining to Thomas what he planned to do, Gage departed again.
This time he left in the estate’s work vehicle, a rare Mercedes G500 pickup truck. He exited the estate, following several roads around the estate to the general area of the pipe. Once there, he pulled off the road and onto the edge of an easement under a large set of power lines. It took Gage a few minutes before he located the outer opening of the pipe. It emptied into a sizeable creek that ran near the estate’s north fence. Once he’d dropped down onto the bank of the creek, Gage found the exterior grate cut, just like the one at the south end. As the flurries blew sideways with a wind that seemed to be getting colder, Gage called Thomas.
“I’m going in. This’ll take at least ten minutes,” Gage said. First, he placed his phone in a Ziploc bag and sealed it, tucking it into his jacket pocket. He strapped on the kneepads and cinched his gloves on tight. Muttering a few curses over what lay ahead, into the pipe he went, feeling every bit like a rat inside a maze.
The crawl didn’t take quite as long as Gage thought it would. Nonetheless, by the time he reached the other end of the pipe, he was soaked and muddy—and extremely cold. After removing his gloves, he phoned Thomas.
“Anything?”
“Nothing at all. You inside the perimeter?”
“Sure am.” Gage waved his arms and jumped around, attempting to trigger the alarm. “Anything?”
“No.”
“Keep watching.” Gage walked all around, making his movements as exaggerated as possible. “Still nothing?”
“The monitor is clear.”
“Well, now we know one of the estate’s weak points. I’m going to have to search and see if there are more. Do me a favor and watch as I walk toward the fence.”
“You’re going over?”
“I’m damn sure not crawling through that pipe again.”
“I don’t blame you.”
Gage followed the pipe back toward the fence. When he was around the same spot as before, Thomas spoke. “There’s the alert.”
“Yep. Call you back in a minute.” Gage hung up and, upon reaching the high fence, he slung his jacket over the razor wire at the top, then he carefully scaled the fence and dropped down over the other side. Unfortunately, he ripped his jacket in the process.
Thomas phoned Gage.
“The monitor threw off several alerts when you went over the fence. I didn’t realize there was a secondary alert.”
“Me neither; now we know.”
“Gage, I’ve been up to that pipe at least a dozen times to
