Doug chuckled. “You and me both.”
Hawk watched as the guard stood upright and walked around to the other side of the truck. “Did you fellas check underneath here first?”
“Yeah,” came the reply. “I didn’t see anything.”
“Okay, well, Brutus is about to have a coronary over there. I just wanted to make sure you did your due diligence.”
“Nothing in there, sir.”
“I hope you’re right,” Doug said. “I’m going to check once more.”
A few seconds later, Hawk noticed a mirror attached to a black stick eased beneath the edge of the vehicle. He couldn’t see the face of the man operating the device, though he was sure it was Doug based on the man’s shoes. And the fact that Hawk couldn’t see his face was a good thing, meaning the mirror wasn’t positioned at the correct angle.
“I haven’t had to use this damn thing very much,” Doug said. “The mirror keeps slipping down.”
“I just say the hell with it and let the truck pass,” another guard suggested.
“Nope, gotta do this right,” Doug said. He pulled the stick back before reinserting it. This time, the mirror detached completely and fell off the rod before shattering on top of a large rock.
“Not again,” Doug moaned. He fell to his knees and grabbed the broken mirror without glancing upward.
“I’m done with this,” he said. “Let’s just let Brutus run around extra today to get some of that energy out. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“All right, move along,” one of the other guards said.
The truck clicked into gear and rolled forward slowly into the mountain. Hawk was surprised at their good fortune, but it was cold and they likely had never had anyone attempt to infiltrate their fortress of a facility.
“Am I the last one?” the driver asked.
“Everything else went out last week,” another man said. “According to my supervisor, production is almost complete, and they'll have everything they need by this afternoon.”
“Great,” the driver said. “I’m tired of making this drive every week. Got any idea where they’re moving to?”
“They don’t tell me stuff like that. I just keep my head down and do what I’m told.”
The driver hopped out of the truck and slammed the door before walking off with the other man. Hawk eased himself onto the ground along with Black.
“What is this place?” Black asked in a whisper.
“Let’s find out,” Hawk said.
He noticed most of the employees wore bright-orange vests and hard hats. On a nearby wall, a row of hooks held both items.
“Follow me,” Hawk said.
Hawk and Black rolled out from underneath the truck and scrambled to their feet before hustling over to the wall to get into the facility’s proper attire. Once outfitted, Hawk scanned the area before suggesting their next move.
The cavernous operation consisted of a half dozen steel vats that towered two stories high. Workers scurried up and down the steps and appeared to be checking valve readouts of some sort. Surrounding the open space were offices and labs.
“The U.N. was a trial run,” Hawk said. “They’re still producing a virus here.”
“Or an antidote,” Black offered.
“Either way, if this is what’s been going on, we’ve missed it—and it’s been right under our noses.”
“And they’re about to leave this place,” Black said. “Probably with everything they need.”
“We’re just looking for Walsh, remember?”
Black huffed a laugh through his nose. “That was before we laid eyes on all this. We need to end this now.”
“We need to complete the mission, which is apprehending Walsh.”
“Don’t tell me you would shed a tear if he went up in smoke along with the rest of this plant.”
Hawk shrugged. “Probably not. But Alex is right. I can’t let my personal vendetta get in the way. When we get out of here, if we don’t have Walsh, we’ve failed.”
“I guess that depends on how you look at things,” Black said. “Delaying Obsidian’s production schedule and incinerating this place before they’re through isn’t exactly a failure in my book. We’re supposed to be keeping America safe, aren’t we?”
Hawk glared at Black. “Stick to the plan, okay?”
“The plan needs to change, and I think you know that.”
“I’m not gonna fight you on this,” Hawk said.
“Good because you’d lose anyway.”
Before Hawk could respond, Black darted up a set of nearby stairs and made his way to the second floor. Hawk raced after his partner, catching him on the landing.
“What are you doing?” Hawk asked.
“I’m about to get this party started,” Black said.
“What about Walsh?”
“Have you seen him?”
“I’ve hardly had a chance to look.”
Black scanned the area below, keeping his weapon holstered. “With or without Walsh, this place needs to go up in smoke. You’ve got five minutes, and then it’s Operation Armageddon.”
“Come on, man. Give me more time than that. Besides, you can’t sabotage this place that quickly.”
“Bet me,” Black said before he paused to gaze across the production floor. “Okay, you’ve got ten minutes and then I’m going to light this place up.”
“Ten minutes and not a second earlier,” Hawk said.
Black nodded and followed Hawk down the steps. He watched as his partner dashed off toward a large tank of fuel, where one worker stood with a dispenser in his hand as he pumped gas into a truck.
“We’re all dead,” Hawk mumbled to himself.
He changed his focus toward the rooms encircling the main production area. The most challenging part was discerning which rooms were offices and which were labs. They all seemed roughly the same size, but he quickly noted that the offices were smaller and tighter spaces, while the labs extended deep into the exterior.
Hawk hustled down the steps and began a more in-depth reconnaissance mission, noting which rooms were reserved for management and which ones were designated for Obsidian scientists. While he was casually breezing past several of the rooms, he stopped and froze.
Dr. Becker was inside one of the labs.
Hawk spun around and hustled back to the floor where Black was working to sabotage the vats.
“This just got really tricky,” Hawk said.
“What is it?” Black said, continuing to leak fuel at the bottom of
