Cottonwood Heights
“It’s going to make it a lot harder to do the hack.”
“We had to get moving,” Victor said, loading gear into the back of the brown VW Francis had stolen. It would blend in well as they headed southeast to their destination. “Staying in one place too long is dangerous.”
Helen didn’t want to go with them. She didn’t want to be anywhere near Victor, and the more time she spent with him and his team, the more worried she became that he was on to her. Did he know why she requested to join his team?
She was starting to think that the tip she received all those weeks ago was true: Victor had killed her sister.
“I should stay here to finish the hack,” Helen argued. “I’m no use to you on the road.”
“We are all staying together until this is through,” Victor replied, finality in his voice. “And if I have to ask you to pack your gear one more time, I’ll put a bullet in your head and find another hacker to finish this.”
Helen’s lip quivered. She knew Victor didn’t like to be messed with, but she didn’t know much else. He was dangerous, and she doubted it was an idle threat. Does he know what I told Jack and Beck?
Not that it would matter. Beck was still in the office, tied to a chair, and Jack had been shuffled off to another location under guard. Her little spur of the moment rebellion wouldn’t accomplish anything.
At least, they didn’t know, and as long as Beck kept his mouth shut it should be fine.
“Give me five minutes,” she said.
“You have two,” Victor replied, walking away.
It wouldn’t be easy to get all of her gear packed, and with them traveling it would be more difficult to maintain satellite connections, but she would manage.
That wasn’t what concerned her, anyway. She was more worried about the fact that they were traveling to the target area where they would launch the missiles. Even if they stayed out of the blast radius, it was a lot closer to ground zero than she would like.
But she didn’t have much choice.
“Looks like I’m going to Cottonwood.”
2
Lyle sat in the passenger seat with Kate’s laptop open, reading as much information as he could about the layout of Cottonwood and surrounding areas.
“What are you looking at?” she asked.
“The town layout,” Lyle said. “I’m trying to figure out where their target will be?”
“We don’t want to be anywhere near the target,” Kate agreed.
“What kind of building was it?” Lyle asked. “Where JanCorp put the people they brought from the Middle East.”
“I’m not sure,” Kate said. “But usually apartments.”
“There are three apartment complexes,” Lyle said. “And they are each a few miles from each other.”
“Does it show contractors who built them?”
“Yeah,” Lyle said.
“Are any Ashton constructing?”
Lyle scanned it. “One is.”
“Then that is the target,” she said.
Lyle kept looking at the surrounding area, finally pinpointing a building nearby that would be tall enough for his purposes. “This one,” he said. “I’ll give you the address.”
“How can you read like that?”
“Hmm?” Lyle asked.
Kate was driving. Jack was in the backseat, half asleep and staring out the window. He’d all but demanded they let him come. His wife objected, but she could tell he wasn’t going to listen. He felt like he’d helped cause this, so it was his duty to help fix it.
“Reading in a car makes me sick,” Kate explained.
“It used to make me throw up too,” Lyle said with a shrug. “But then I grew out of it.”
“Do you get seasick?”
“Worse than you can imagine,” Lyle said. “And airsick sometimes. How far out are we?”
“Another fifty miles.”
“We need to stop at a hardware store.”
“Why?”
“Supplies,” he said.
“What kind of supplies?”
He glanced over at her. “The kind I need to build an EMP.”
“A what?”
“Electromagnetic pulse,” Lyle explained.
“I know what it is,” she said. “How is it going to help us?”
“I’m going to use it to bring down the drones.”
“Seriously?”
“It isn’t that hard when you get down to it. Basically, I just need to push a lot of electricity through copper wires, more than they can handle and bridge it so most of it ends up in the atmosphere.”
“Ah.”
“The real problem is going to be the power supply.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” Lyle said. “I need to figure out how to hijack the local power grid without electrocuting myself.”
3
“I’m in the network,” Helen said. She was riding in the backseat of the car next to Beck, who was tied up with duct tape, and Francis. The lithe mercenary was quiet, barely speaking a word the entire trip. Beck was morose and exhausted, giving her pleading looks. She ignored him.
They were still eighty or ninety miles out from their destination. William was driving and Victor was riding shotgun. He hadn’t calmed down and seemed on the verge of exploding at any moment. Helen was doing her best not to piss him off.
“You’re on their network?” Victor asked.
“I’m in both networks now. Markwell and the Air Force. Once I take the drone from the Air Force, I can swap it to Markwell and lock them out.”
“Are any drones in the air nearby Cottonwood Heights?”
“Five,” she said. “Border patrol drones flying as a squad, all carrying predator missiles. Should I hijack one?”
“No,” he decided. “Take all five.”
