The doors opened and Deric stepped back into the basement hallway, the box bouncing against his thigh as he carried it to the workstation. “It really beats the dogshit out of me why they don’t have knowledgeable people on site while we try to fix this fuckfest.”
The guard pushed the steel security door open and Deric lugged the heavy box to the workbench. He set it down hard and flipped the top open. “As requested.”
Jim looked at the box then gave Deric a wide eyed stare. “Seriously? You brought the P204? We need the 480 for this system. It’s all based on a 128 algorithm.”
Deric stared at him blankly. “Are you fucking serious?” He groaned and turned his back to the workbench, leaning against it hard. “Do you realize that Rambo here nearly shot me when I picked up this one?” He shook his head and slapped at the bench in mock frustration. “I’m not getting shot over a piece of fucking gear.”
The guard stiffened and glanced to his partner, who said nothing. Deric sighed and bent forward, stretching his back. “Is there no way to make the 204 work?”
Jim shook his head. “I’ve almost got all of the leads straightened out. Whoever wired this screwed the pooch.” He tugged at a series of wires and clipped them off of a connector. “But I have to have the 480 in order to properly test these connections.”
Deric huffed then pulled the heavy box from the workbench. He turned to the guard and whistled. “Come on boy. Get the door, get the door. Good dog.”
The guard finally reacted and sneered at him before turning and heading to the steel security door.
“Don’t tease these guys. They have a job to do, too. I really don’t want to explain to your old lady that you got shot for being a smart ass.”
Deric paused at the door and gave him a dirty look. “I’d much rather get shot for being a smart ass than shot for trying to bring you your shit. Fucking weighs a ton.”
Jim watched him disappear through the doorway and seriously wondered if his partner might catch a bullet for running his mouth.
Langley, VA
BRIDGER CONTINUED TAKING snapshots with the digital camera, closing the documents after checking each image. He groaned to himself as his neck began to cramp. “You know, I’ve been buried to my neck in ice cold mud before and it wasn’t as uncomfortable as sitting at this goddam desk and punching at a computer.”
“Quit yer bitching,” Gregg replied in his earpiece, doing his best imitation of Jay. “My best count is you’re over halfway done.”
“How are Winkem and Blinkem doing with the guards?”
“You don’t want to know.” Gregg’s voice held little hope. “These guys aren’t cutting them any slack. Every time they go to the truck or to the head to take a leak, those guys are on their ass.”
Bobby groaned and closed the document on the screen. He held the camera in order to capture the next document and clicked the button. “This may not go as planned.”
“Does it ever?”
He shook his head in silent agreement. “Worst case scenario, I scale the outside of the building.”
“Sorry buddy. They have motion detectors and ground sensors. They’ll know that somebody is on the grounds unauthorized before you could make it to the parking lot.”
“Great.” He closed the document and focused the camera on the next one. “Please tell me that this thing is automatically sending you the pictures.”
“Sorry broski. They can detect cellular devices inside the building. That is a standard issue digital camera.” Gregg’s voice suddenly sounded more optimistic. “On the brighter side, it does have a ruggedized 500 gig SD card that you can slip out and hide just about anywhere. You know, in the event that you’re captured.”
“Ruggedized? So it can be swallowed?”
Gregg cringed. “Only as a last resort.” He shuddered involuntarily then added, “If you do swallow it, I’m not touching it once it comes out.”
“You can throw them up you know. Dumbass.”
“I heard that.” Gregg’s voice dropped to a whisper. “I have activity. Somebody is coming up the stairwell. They’ll be on your floor in about twenty seconds.”
“Why are you whispering?” Bobby clicked the photo then closed the image, eyeing the scores of open documents still left.
“I don’t know. It seemed like the thing to do.” Gregg groaned over the coms. “Yeah, you’re about to have company. Probably a roving Cerberus guard doing his rounds, if I were to guess.”
“You don’t think they’re on to me?” Bobby glanced over his shoulder, trying to see out of the office.
“I doubt it. It’s one person and they’re moving at a regular pace. If they were on to you, I would think they’d send an entire team…and they’d be in a much bigger hurry.”
Bobby heard a door slam outside of the office then turned off the monitor of the computer. He dropped to the ground and slid under the desk, pulling the office chair as tightly to his body as he could. “Standing by.”
Gregg watched the readout on his screen and observed as the motion detectors on that floor lit up from the guard’s movement. He watched as the man zig zagged across the floor, checking office doors. “Tell me you locked the door behind you.”
Bobby’s reply was an affirmative double click of his coms. Gregg let loose a sigh and watched as the man approached the office on his screen.
Bobby could hear the door knob rattle as the man checked it as secure then strained to listen as the man rattled the next door knob. He was about to push the chair off of him when Gregg’s voice came back
