“Malcolm’s job is to ask those questions, Ames. But good cover story.”
“That’s what I told Walter, too, and Jennifer and Jeremy,” Amy said.
“Good, so if anyone’s looking for us, they’ll assume we’re together and working.” Our own people were the least of our worries, of course.
“How are we getting in if we can’t find the actual door?” Claudia asked. Speaking of those other worries.
Explained how the special gate worked, and where it was. Many doubts were raised about us actually getting where we wanted to go. “If Gladys could follow a dream and have it work, I can follow a blueprint and have it work.”
“And what if you’re wrong?” Buchanan asked calmly.
“Supposedly I can’t end up in a wall or inside another person, so I can test it if you want.”
“No. You’re not going over there without me, and we have no idea what we will or won’t trip going in, so it’s either you and me, only, or it’s all of us, but we’re not going to play around. Once we go, we go.”
“Fine. In the same vein, we can study this all night long, or we can get moving. Mom wanted me to make sure that no one’s going merely for the thrill, or because they think they’ll be considered less worthy or anything. If even a part of you thinks this is a bad idea, you’ll do us more good staying here.”
There were a few moments of silence. Naomi’s hand went up, then Abigail’s, and Amy’s.
“I brought extra bombs for everyone,” Serene said, sounding disappointed. “I mean, I’m sure it won’t be a problem if they don’t divide up evenly now that three of you aren’t going.”
“Wait, what?” Amy asked. “I thought we were raising our hands to show we were in! That’s why I put my hand up.”
“Me too,” Abigail said.
“Three,” Naomi said. “I already said I was going, no ifs, ands, or buts. Thought I was being the tough girl leading the way and showing my solidarity with our leader.”
We girls all burst into laughter, Buchanan looked like he thought he was now chaperoning a Senior Girl Scout Troop, and Serene happily handed out her Bomb Party Favors.
“I also have twenty-petabyte flash drives for each of us, so that should we find the data, we can download the data,” Amy said, as she handed her Geek Party Favors out.
“Can we download that data without one of the hackers?” There had been a good reason to want them along, after all.
Lorraine and Claudia nodded. “Sure,” Lorraine said. “How hard could it be?”
“We work with computers all the time,” Claudia added.
“We can always call Stryker,” Amy said. “It’s not like they ever seem to sleep.”
Buchanan shook his head. “Well, we’re a finely oiled machine already, Missus Chief. I’m betting we get caught within three minutes of arriving.”
“Oh, Malcolm, you disappoint me. I expect to be caught within one minute and then talk my way out of it. Like always.”
CHAPTER 80
THE FOUR MOTHERS said good night to our children, who were all pretty much ready to go to sleep and were just waiting for their kisses.
“Where are you going, Mommy?” Jamie asked drowsily.
“Girls’ night out.”
“Can I go?” she asked with a yawn.
“Not this time, it’s for big girls only. But one day you’ll be big enough to go with Mommy, and that will be fun.” Wondered if Mom had ever had conversations like this with me, and figured she probably had. Lots of them. Kissed Jamie one last time, hugged Dad, and went to the isolation bedroom.
The entire team agreed that the placement for the hidden gate was both ingenious and really awkward. However, we presumed that touch would continue to work its magic and pull everyone else along, since it had for me and Gladys.
Most of the team were wearing black backpacks. I wasn’t. Instead, I hooked my purse over my neck. Why change what had been working all this time?
Buchanan insisted on being the person holding my hand, and Adriana insisted on bringing up the rear. Let everyone else link up however they wanted because, really, I hoped it wouldn’t matter.
We all did one last equipment check, then I looked at the blueprints—which we’d brought to the isolation room and put onto the bed—one last time. Got the image of Gaultier Research in my mind, then the specific room. “Link up.”
“Ready,” Adriana said.
“Then hold tight and do not let go for anything.” With that, I put my hand onto the gate.
As before, the trip was immediate and pleasant. The room wasn’t completely dark—there were a couple of red lights on opposite sides. Happily, all of us were here.
“It’s hot in here,” Abigail said in a low voice. “Is that what we were expecting?”
“This looks like a control room of some kind,” Adriana replied in kind. “For power grids or similar. It might control power to the whole facility, or at least the underground portion.”
The room did indeed resemble this—there were grids with muted dots of light, lots of levers and switches, and things that seemed very Power Company.
Looked around for the sparkly square and saw it right next to me. “Okay, everyone, see this?” I whispered as I pointed to it. “That’s what you need to touch to get back.”
They all looked at me blankly. Claudia waved her hand where I was pointing, and her hand went through the square. “There’s nothing there, Kitty.”
Why I couldn’t spot the square when Gladys and I had been in Guantanamo seemed obvious now. “Crap. It’s there. But I guess I’m the only one who can see it, and since Claudia actually touched it and nothing happened, that must mean I’m the only one who can activate it.”
“Fantastic,” Lorraine said. “So, we stick together.”
“We have limited time,” Buchanan said. “We could have less than five minutes. I realize hyperspeed makes many things easier, but we’re not just looking to see what’s here, we’re searching to see what’s going on. Computer downloads will not go as fast as you want, either.”
“Malcolm’s right, and the plan’s always been to split up.” Resisted the urge to curse. “Okay, we all know what room this is, we just make sure we’re back here and, um together.”
“We could all go back and come in separately,” Serene suggested.
Before I could say that was a great idea Buchanan put his hand up. “Quiet.” He was listening intently and I did the same. Sure enough, there were voices in the distance, coming nearer.
Amy was walking around the room, examining it. “There are two doors, that’s what the lights are over.”
Buchanan gave her a look that said he was already regretting this wasn’t a solo mission.
The voices were getting closer, though I couldn’t make out what they were saying, and they sounded like they were near the door opposite from the one Amy was at. She opened hers slowly and carefully.
As she did, the opposite door started to open. A-Cs grabbed humans and—instead of grabbing me and us all jumping back to the Embassy—ran through Amy’s door. I could go back to the Embassy or follow my team. I followed, figuring that, for once, I honestly knew how Jeff, Christopher, Chuckie, and the rest of the guys felt when I did stuff like this.
Buchanan got the door shut behind me what sounded like just in time. He motioned for us to keep moving, and we did.
This room wasn’t all that interesting because it appeared to be mostly huge pipes and similar. A-Cs have better vision, including night vision, than humans, so only the humans had penlight flashlights. But, other than being higher than normal, probably double the height of a floor on a regular building, this room didn’t look like much.
Checked my phone—the blueprint confirmed we were in an L-shaped room. Realized that the blueprints weren’t going to help us all that much. Worried for a second that we had only one way out, back the way we’d come in, but there was another door at the other end of the L.