Rocking Hard, Volume 2 Page 16

  The air streets above for cars were mostly empty at this time of night, and the pedestrian sidewalks across the garage's landing area for descending cars were clear as well. He walked for five minutes next to the sidewalk before hearing the quiet hum of a motor vehicle. The air streets were far away, but Cole wasn't surprised when a motorcycle with a tiny hologram of his band's symbol glowing on the handlebars pulled up to a stop next to him.

  Cole climbed on behind the driver, neither saying a word. The hologram went out quickly, and the bike took off. The ride was dark along pedestrian only streets that didn't have nighttime illumination. The bike never turned on its lights so someone looking out a window wouldn't see a vehicle where none was supposed to be.

  A fifteen-minute drive took the bike to the outskirts of the protected area around the research center. Cole got off the bike and took a few steps away. The driver gave a five-fingered wave before zooming off. He would drop by this spot every fifteen minutes, a large enough interval that shouldn't alert security, to give Cole a ride back.

  Cole took a deep breath, trying to prepare himself. He could do this. It wasn't going to be as difficult as sneaking aboard the cargo ship on Roma had been, and that time he and Dayton had both managed it. It also couldn't be nearly as hard as basic training had been. Cole was thoroughly prepared for the operation. The organization certainly hadn't left Cole empty handed, either.

  With all of that in mind, Cole stepped into the danger zone. He kept alert, scanning for underground detection antennas and keeping an eye out for guards and cameras. He reached the outer fence swiftly enough and paused to study it.

  It was electrified, certainly, with pressure sensors along the top. A human guard walked by, hand on his gun but his eyes only lazily scanning the area. Cole tried not to hold his breath as he hid in the shadow of a nearby building. He knew what happened when you held your breath too long and desperately needed more air: the air was forced to rush out and then in, loudly and with a lot of excess movement. Instead Cole tried to breathe shallowly as the guard tromped by.

  He waited, still watching in the shadows, and sure enough after exactly two minutes the same guard finished his loop and came walking by again.

  Cole thought for a moment as the guard came and went for a third time. The fence itself wasn't insurmountable. The issue was that Cole didn't know where to hide once he was over the fence. He had to be out of sight before the guard returned, but there was a good hundred feet of empty ground before the first building.

  Cole brought up a carefully memorized mental picture of what the grounds looked like from the spy satellite image he had studied. His target was the first building. It connected to almost every other building via a vast underground network. The robot could access everything in the connected buildings once it was inside. Only building three appeared to be totally unconnected, so that was where the second robot was set to go. Still, Cole couldn't come up with any sort of cover between the fence and the first building. He would have to make a run for it.

  The guard came around a fourth time, and Cole waited a few extra seconds until the guard was further away. He slowly crept to the fence and pulled out a small canister. He pressed down on the spray nozzle and directed the heavy, rubbery spray up and down the electrified fence. Cole stopped only once he was sure anywhere his feet and hands would touch was totally coated. By then he was running out of time.

  He quickly retreated back to his hiding place as the guard came around again. The spray needed a few moments to dry, so Cole waited the four minutes until the guard had passed twice more before he crept forward.

  Climbing the fence quietly wasn't easy, especially since he had to be doubly careful to only touch the treated metal and to avoid the pressure sensors at the top. He managed to hurry and was over the fence, running low and crouched across the grounds, in a few quick moments. The back of his neck prickled in fear, and he expected to hear a shout of alarm or a gun firing after him.

  The clock in his head counted down; two minutes quickly slipped away. The guard was probably in sight by now, but Cole knew the guard's focus was solely on the fence. He had a few extra seconds, but that was it.

  Panting for breath and trying not to wheeze, Cole practically stumbled into hiding around the corner of the closest building. His hands were shaking with adrenalin, but he focused on his surroundings. Just like the blueprints had said, this was a blind spot for the cameras. The surveillance company had tried to fix that issue with the roving guard, but Cole had bypassed him and was presumably safe for the moment.

  He brought his mental map back up and thought for a long moment. The nearest door was a janitor's closet that didn't connect to the inside of the building. Cole couldn't leave a robot there, but he could collect a pair of coveralls to blend in better.

  Cole carefully glanced around the corner, spotted the roving camera planted directly above the doorway in question, and ducked back. No one human had been in sight, though, so he carefully looked back to time the camera's movements. He took a deep breath and, before he could think about just how dangerous it was, he dashed forward until he was directly underneath the camera where he couldn't be spotted.

  The janitor's closet was unlocked. One of the mopping stations was lit up to indicate that it was in use elsewhere in the complex. The janitor would be back sometime that night to put away the cleaning robots, but Cole guessed he had at least a half hour before anyone came back to this little storage room.

  Cole found a crumpled pair of coveralls in a pile in the very back corner. He stepped into the garment and zipped up the front, glad for the disguise and the comfort of familiarity. Cole had spent years working as a janitor prior to his enlisting with the organization, and it still felt more natural to wear the shapeless coveralls instead of the fashion forward clothing he needed as a singer.

  The janitor had also left an old ball cap with the coveralls, and Cole wasted no time pulling that over his head as well. Then he strolled back out of the janitor's closet and waited for a moment hidden underneath the camera before taking a bracing breath and strolling into the view of the lens.

  Again, Cole waited for alarms to sound or booted feet to come running after him. His disguise was apparently effective because the camera continued on its preprogrammed spin instead stopping and zooming in on Cole.

  The next door was the entrance to the building Cole was looking for. There was a key-card sensor that unlocked the door when it sensed the proper card approaching, but Cole didn't have the card. Instead he had a miniature screwdriver. As a janitor it wasn't strange that he needed to fix a malfunctioning card reader, so Cole didn't hesitate when he jammed the screwdriver deep into the side of the reader, using the tool to try to locate a single blue wire inside.

  He had practiced this very maneuver for hours during his training, so it wasn't long before that colored wire was pulled forward. Cole was about to yank it free when he noticed that it was considerably larger than the blue wire should have been. He bit his lip and tried not to groan. The wire this size was supposed to be green and would set off the alarms! Cole carefully pushed the blue wire back into the reader and dug around again, finally locating the green wire that was the proper size he was looking for. With a decisive yank, Cole disconnected the wire from the machine. A moment later, the click of the door unlocking sounded.

  Cole carefully pushed all the exposed wires back into the reader before turning and opening the door. He stepped into building one and permitted himself a small smile. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out the first robot. He turned it on, listening to the machinery spin to life with a quiet whirr, before gently placing the robot on the floor. After a long moment, the robot went from a gray color to a white that carefully matched the floor tiles. It rolled off in search of the nearest computer console to break into. Cole couldn't help letting out a breath of relief as the robot vanished down the long hallway into one of the doorways just ahead.

  Step one, deploying the first robot, was compl
ete. His handlers back home would start getting important data very soon. Next he just had to find his way over to building three and then escape unseen.

  Cole knew there was another door on the exact opposite side of building he was currently in, one that would let him out into a courtyard. Building three also had access to that courtyard, so Cole hoped to use it as his point of entry. The hallway he was in seemed to be straight, so Cole followed it, meandering along and occasionally checking various sensors to hold up the illusion that he really was a janitor.

  Finally, he reached a door that led back outside. There weren't any windows, so Cole couldn't see if anyone was in the courtyard, although so late at night there shouldn't have been. Cole pushed open the door, trusting that his disguise would work, and stepped outside.

  The courtyard was gently lit with recessed lighting and it was not empty. A maintenance man with a heavy toolbox was changing the bulbs in all the lights.

  "There you are!" the man hissed. "Do you know how long I've been waiting?"

  Cole tried to hide his fear and surprise from the man, knowing that his disguise was holding for the moment, but that could very easily change.

  "Sorry," Cole grunted in a voice deeper and more guttural than usual.

  "Yeah, well sorry isn't going to cut it right now!" the other man snapped. "I've already finished half this courtyard on my own! Go into the supply closet and get more bulbs and get to work!"

  Cole glanced over at the door the man was pointing to and had to hide a grin. The supply closet was apparently inside building three.

  "Can't find my pass card," Cole grunted, thinking fast for a way to get the door open without causing suspicion. "Think it's in my other coveralls."

  "Of for—" the man snarled. With a quick snap of his wrist, he sent his own pass card flying through the air. Cole scrambled to catch it and didn't waste any time in opening the door to building three.

  The supply closet was just inside of the door and there were boxes of bulbs stacked there. Cole used the distraction of gathering the boxes to let the second robot go before walking back out of the building and heading to the other side of the courtyard. He was close to the door to building one, where he needed to escape, but the other man was still glaring.

  Cole bent down and started opening bulb boxes, carefully transferring the florescent tubes to the cut grass below the nearest light fixture. It saved him from having to cart around the boxes. For five whole minutes Cole agonized over how to sneak away as he switched old and flickering bulbs for the new ones.

  He shouldn't have worried. After five minutes, the other man grunted and scowled.

  "Bathroom break," he grumbled, ambling off through the courtyard towards a tree in the far corner.

  Cole carefully finished screwing in the last bulb he was working on, watching carefully with one eye as the other man finally reached the other end of the grassy space and started fiddling with his coveralls. Very quietly, Cole crept towards the door into building one. The lock made a soft beep, sensing the pass card Cole still held in his pocket and unlocking. Cole pulled the door open and made his escape, finally taking a deep breath only once the door was firmly closed behind him and the maintenance man out of sight.

  The long hallway stretched before Cole, totally unchanged, and Cole wasted no time heading back. He needed to be in his hotel room, asleep in his bed, before anyone came looking in the morning.

  He didn't have much time.

  The door on the other end pushed open easily, and Cole kept his head down as he walked purposefully down the sidewalk back towards the janitor's closet. He rounded the corner, just out of sight of the guard doing his rounds, and paused.

  He took off the coveralls while still under cover, balling up the suit, hat, and passkey, and stuffed it all into the unlocked janitor's closet. Then he poked his head around the corner and waited.

  After a minute, the guard passed by on his rounds, but Cole waited the requisite two minutes for him to come by again to double check that the timing hadn't changed. Cole took off at a quick jog, crouched low to the ground even when the guard was still in sight, the guard's back all Cole could see.

  At the fence, Cole took half a second to remind himself of where the rubber spray was set before clambering over. He reached his hiding place well within the two minute time period, glanced around to make sure he hadn't been spotted, and walked comfortably down the pedestrian walkway.

  The motorcycle rolled into view only three minutes after Cole began waiting. He was driven back to the hotel without incident, the driver still refusing to speak. Cole patted him gently on the back in thanks as he climbed off the bike.

  It was the work of moments for Cole to climb over the divide into the employee parking lot, carefully avoiding the lighted landing pad that led cars down from the air highway to park. He stayed away from the main entrance and the guard as he headed back to the service elevator and up to his room.

  He spent a few moments in the bathroom, washing his hair and cleaning off sweat and other traces of his being out and about. Cole slid into his cold bed while listening to Sol gently snoring next to him. As he fell asleep, he couldn't help but smile.

  Mission accomplished. Now it was on to part two.

  *~*~*

  D kept his eyes focused on Z, who was standing over a computer. Both were waiting anxiously for the computer to beep and to start transmitting data. In the background, Dayton was speaking into his cell phone, leaving a message for Cole that Cole most likely wouldn't see until the next morning.

  "I've been watching your performances on all the entertainment news stations, and it really is wonderful to know you're doing all right." Dayton was speaking in a voice that was calm and soothing, the total opposite of the white knuckled stranglehold his fingers had around the device and the near frantic glances he kept giving the computer. "I miss you, but I know you're having fun singing and doing something meaningful with your life. It's just that I want to wake up with you next to me in bed tomorrow. In a few more short months you'll be there again. I have front row seats for your concert here at home, and I know I'll be spending the entire concert staring at your beautiful face. Come home safely to me soon. I love you," Dayton finished wistfully. He couldn't use the video recording option in the safe room—truthfully it would be a few hours before the data encryption surrounding the safe room decided to give the recording permission to be sent at all—but just having any contact with Cole was calming Dayton down considerably.

  It was also Dayton's way of keeping Cole up to date with what Dayton and the rest of the team back home were doing to keep an eye on Cole. They couldn't leave a detailed message outlining the various news feeds they'd hacked into, since someone could easily steal Cole's phone, but Dayton giving that information in the guise of a lonely lover kept it secret while still giving as much information as possible.

  None of the pretense could belittle the deep emotions Dayton very truthfully had for Cole; every sentiment in that message was a true one, and Dayton was unbelievably worried and stressed. That was even more evidence for D as to just why couples weren't separated on missions: it hurt their concentration too much. Dayton had been one of the most useful assets to their team prior to Cole's leaving the planet, but now Dayton spent too much time fretting to give more than cursory aid to D. Both Dayton and Cole were admittedly on their first mission, and even highly trained rookies made mistakes like that, but D was going to recommend giving Cole and Dayton vector assignments together from now on.

  Finally, the computer beeped once. D rushed to Z's side as Z began typing commands into the touch screen's keyboard. The computer beeped a second time before Z sank back, his shoulders drooping in relief.

  "The first robot has been activated and released. It is currently in the process of searching for a likely target. I caught the encryption information and have forwarded it along to our expert to monitor."

  They waited a number of very long minutes, staring at the computer and straining to he
ar it beep again. Dayton had his phone closed and off, but it creaked ominously in his worried grip.

  The computer beeped again, and Z's hands flew to the keyboard immediately after the sound made their overly anxious bodies jump in surprise. A few seconds later Z pushed away from the computer with a sigh, finished with everything that he could do, and walked over to sit on the couch in front of the holoscreen. Z found the remote and turned the screen on to a Kamura local news station they were tapping into and settled in to wait.

  The second robot had been successfully deployed, but they had no way of knowing if Cole could also escape capture just as easily and return safely to the hotel. They would only know he was safe if Cole appeared in the scheduled pre-show interview in two days or if a news alert was put out before then stating that he was caught. Even D, who was used to radio silence while a mission was ongoing, was annoyed that security protocols kept Cole from calling. Waiting for news was getting to be infuriating.

  Dayton wasn't going to sleep for the next two days, D could tell. It was lucky that Kamura's galaxy time zone was ahead of theirs, so it wouldn't be too long before their morning news stations were up and running. Morning on Lacustrine was still hours away. Still, D did feel a little bad for making Dayton suffer without any news for so long.

  D turned out to be right. Dayton barely left his chair during the entire span of time they spent waiting. He stopped by the bathroom periodically, once coming out looking like he had washed himself roughly at a sink. When L came in at dusk to relieve D, she pressed a sandwich and a drink into Dayton's unresponsive hands.

  When D left the safe room, his last glimpse of Dayton was of him absentmindedly chewing on a corner of bread, his gaze fixed on the news program.

  Upon his return eight hours later with breakfast for Dayton in his hands, it didn't look like Dayton had bothered sleeping at all. Admittedly, D hadn't slept all that well either. Dayton ate with a tired reluctance before settling back into his chair in front of the holoscreen.