“Affirmative.”
“Type up the data. I’ll have Ms. Telach—” He turned and saw the Art Room supervisor waving at him. “I will have Marie set up something on this end so we can see what you’re typing.”
“I need time to compose it.”
“Take your time,” said Rubens. He pressed the button on the headset control to kill the connection, then turned to Telach. “What?”
“We’ve lost Charlie Dean.”
“What?” Rubens turned and looked at the screen where the op’s position was supposed to be marked.
“They went into a tunnel and didn’t come out.”
“That’s impossible,” said Rubens.
“I know,” said Telach. “That’s why I’m worried.”
41
While the guard pulled another inspection in the other trailer, Lia used her small digital camera to send pictures of the interior of her trailer back to the Art Room. There were no papers, no reports, not even any doodles in the lab that she could find.
The guards repeated their earlier routine, grabbing a cigarette and then going together into the building as they swept through the rooms there. Lia climbed up and out, slid the top vent back in place, then ran to the other trailer. The lock and alarm were easily defeated; she put her dongle on a computer in the first room and immediately the Art Room infiltrated and began copying the contents of the drive. This time, the security precautions were rudimentary and the computer was networked with the others in the trailer; as each computer booted, it gave itself over to the Art Room’s probe without a whimper.
Lia moved into the back of the trailer. Unlike the other one, this facility looked as if it was used for administrative tasks or even as a classroom. There were no papers or anything else lying about.
“All right,” said Rockman. “We’ve got it. You can get out.”
“What’s up?” asked Lia as she walked back to retrieve the dongle.
“What do you mean?”
“Something’s wrong. I can tell from your voice. Where’s Charlie?”
“Heading back to the city somewhere.”
“Somewhere?”
“Lia, concentrate on your job, please. We want you to make the scene ready for a seizure operation. We need some flies planted. I have a list of locations.”
“Screw off, Marie. What happened to Charlie?”
“We’re having trouble tracking him.”
Lia cursed. She couldn’t get the dongle to disengage and had to push at the computer, leaning back awkwardly.
“Hide,” said Rockman. “The guards are coming.”
“Where should I go?”
“He didn’t go into the back room on his last sweep,” said Telach. “It’s a rest room.”
Lia pulled up her Mac 11 but retreated as Telach had suggested. The rest room was bare — a tiny sink and some sort of chemical toilet. It also stank. She folded against the corner behind where the door would open. She could feel the guard’s footsteps shaking the trailer floor as he approached.
Belatedly, she realized that she hadn’t had a chance to shut off all the computers.
The door to the rest room opened. Lia slid down the Mac 11, the silencer just over the doorknob.
The guard said something, then let the door go.
Lia started to exhale. Then something made her throw herself down. As she hit the floor, the doorway exploded with a spray of automatic rifle fire.
42
Dean continued through the corridor, following the driver as he walked down the narrow steps. They had stopped in the middle of a tunnel under the river, gotten out of the car, and then climbed into what had looked like a manhole for a sewer. Well-lit, the hole opened into a large, tiled expanse that made Dean think of a subway station, except there were no tracks. Hercules had prompted him to keep walking; the tunnel seemed to head ever- downward as they snaked first to the left, then to the right.
The stairway ended in a concrete-walled room with steel doors at both sides.
“Now what?” asked Dean.
“You tell me,” said Hercules.
“I haven’t a clue where we are,” said Dean. “Am I supposed to know?”
“Where is the antidote?”
“I’m not going to just tell you,” said Dean.
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to,” said Hercules. “Where is it?”
Dean shrugged. “I tell you now, you’re going to kill me.”
“If you don’t tell me now, Hans will shoot you,” said Hercules.
Hans, who’d been standing a step away, moved forward. He had a Glock in his hand.
43
Bullets spit barely over Lia’s head as she lay on the floor of the rest room. The lead chewed up the thin metal and broke large hunks of ceramic off the toilet nearby. The Steyr AUG had forty bullets in its magazine, and the guard used a little more than half before taking a breath. Then he fired another half-dozen rounds, spraying these in a wider angle. It was only when he paused that Lia raised her weapon and fired.
The guard got off two more shots Unsure whether she’d gotten him or he’d simply run out of bullets, Lia fired another burst of her own, then jumped up to pull the door back. It started to bend and fall out of her hand; she threw her momentum into the opening, firing the Mac 11 as she did.
Bullets flew by her head as she crashed into the room. Lia lifted her gun and this time, finally, hit her opponent square in the head.
“Where’s the other one?” she asked Rockman.
“Coming on a dead run. You won’t make the door.”
Lia reached to her belt and took out two tiny balls of C4 intended to blow locks off doors. She started to rig them against the wall, thinking she could blow a hole in the side of the trailer to escape from.
“Lia — the trailers are rigged to self-destruct,” warned Telach. “There’s a routine on the computer we compromised.”
“Peachy. Where are the charges?”
“We’re not sure — don’t do anything crazy to set them off.”
“I’m going to blow a hole in the side and get out.”
“No. Too risky until we understand what they’ve got. We’re analyzing it now.”
The other guard had reached the front and was shouting to his companion.
“Call him,” said Lia.
“What?”
“Use the speaker I left in the building.”
Rockman said nothing as Lia ran to the front of the trailer. The guard yelled again.
