According to the information Devin, one of Caleb’s people, had been able to dig out of the Project Eden database, Dream Sky had a second entrance. What they didn’t know was its exact location. The best Devin had been able to do was narrow it down to the portion of hillside Chloe’s people were on now.
Hers was the largest group, many lugging shovels in addition to their rifles. She did not, however, trust anyone but herself to carry the explosives. The only unarmed man among them was the cuffed Project Eden security guard, being escorted by Diaz, in case they needed him.
“I’ve got a sensor,” someone said over the comm.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“To your left. A hundred and fifty feet.”
Turning, Chloe saw a man near the end of the line wave his arm. “Got you,” she said. “Everyone stop. Anybody else pick up anything?”
There was a pause as the team looked around, then, “Cameras,” a woman said. “Three of them.”
“Position?”
“I’m also to your left, about sixty feet. One camera’s straight in front of me, approximately thirty yards. The other two are about the same distance away but fifteen feet to either side.”
Chloe looked to the man immediately to her right. “Bobby?”
Bobby Lion was already in the process of removing his backpack. “Five minutes.”
“Too long.”
“I need to build the loops,” he argued as he opened his pack and began removing the electronic gear he was carrying.
“As fast as you can, then.”
He nodded and set to work.
“Okay, everyone,” she said into her comm. “It appears the target’s somewhere to the left of my position. Those of you to my right, slowly swing inward until you pick up more surveillance. Let’s see if we can figure out the boundaries. And for God’s sake do not get noticed.”
As soon as the group was moving again, Chloe stepped over to Bobby. “Well?”
Without looking up from the small monitor sitting on his backpack, he said, “It hasn’t even been a minute yet.”
“It’s been more.”
He huffed but said nothing as he fiddled with one of the boxes next to the monitor. For a moment, the screen displayed only static, and then a green-tinged, night-vision shot of a small, deserted clearing in the woods popped on.
Chloe smiled. “Knew you could do it.”
“That’s only one, and I still need to make the loops so back off.”
Over the next several seconds, more camera angles rotated through the monitor.
“Chloe?” a voice said over the radio. She recognized it as belonging to Robert, one of the Isabella Island survivors.
“Go for Chloe,” she said.
“We’ve got the area circled.”
“All right. Everyone hold your position. Do not move until I give the word.”
She knelt down next to Bobby.
“You breathing over my shoulder is not going to make this go any faster,” he said.
“I’m just watching the master at work.”
Several seconds passed before he said, “Okay, I’ve picked up nine cameras. How many have the others seen?”
Chloe asked the team. Nine was the number they had found, too.
“Give me thirty seconds to record the loops, and another thirty to make sure they’re playing properly, then we can go.”
He set to work, creating false feeds for the cameras so that whoever might be watching them would see his loops and never know anything was amiss.
“Okay,” he said. “It’s done.”
Chloe rose to her feet. “Everyone, move in.”
The square metal emblem in Wicks’s hand was approximately the same size as his palm. Gold covered the square backplate, while rising from it was a dome of silver inlaid with the white crest of Project Eden and the letters VOD across the top.
This isn’t going to work, Wicks thought.
Somehow the watchers monitoring the camera would know the ID had been stolen. And the moment they realized that, security forces would storm out of the base and overwhelm Captain Ash’s team. By this time tomorrow, Wicks would have been executed as a traitor.
“Curtis?” Ash whispered behind him.
Wicks took a deep breath. Get your act together, he told himself. You can do this. You have to do this. For Matt, if for no one else. You owe him more than you could ever repay.
Channeling the memory of his late friend, he scowled at the camera. “What’s the holdup?” he said in a commanding voice. “You know what this is. Open the door!”
Two seconds passed before a voice said over the speaker, “My apologies for the delay. We, um, just need to verify. Please hold for a—”
“Verify?” Wicks shoved the ID closer to the camera. “Are you blind and stupid? This is a Voice of the Directorate identification. I am here at the Project leadership’s behest to conduct an emergency inspection. If you inform anyone, you will be in violation of protocols. Then again, if you’re okay with being banished from the future we’re building, go right ahead.” He paused. “So what’s it going to be?”
Morris looked at Lochmere. “What do we do?”
“I’m, uh, not sure,” his partner replied.
VODs — Voice of the Directorate IDs — were supposed to be go-anywhere, make-everyone-drop-what-they’re-doing-and-pay-attention passes. They were beyond rare — so rare, in fact, that the only time Morris and Lochmere had seen one was in a training manual.
“Open the damn door!” the man on the camera barked.
“You’re senior here,” Lochmere said. “It’s your decision.”
Morris grimaced. “Gee, thanks.” He looked back at the monitor.
“Push them again,” Ash whispered.
Wicks took a deep breath and said, “I would be more than happy to call the directorate, but if I do, banishment won’t be the worst thing you need to worry about. You have five seconds.”
He started to count, and only made it to three before the door to the concrete hut swung open.
6
Sanjay felt Kusum free his pistol from the waist of his pants. He started to move his hand back so he could take the weapon from her, but she whispered, “No. When I tap you, fall to the floor.”
He tensed and grunted a barely audible no.
“Don’t argue,” she whispered back.
He wanted to turn and stop her, but knew that would only get them captured.
The older guard suddenly touched his microphone again. “Yes, I’m here…you found van Assen?…Say that again.” As he listened, he turned back to Sanjay and Kusum, his gaze hardening. “Thank you.”
As he reached to turn his mic off, Sanjay felt the tap of the gun against his shoulder. Knowing he had no choice, he dove to the floor.
The pistol boomed over his back.
Sanjay rolled to the side and pushed to his feet just in time to see the younger guard slump against the wall, blood coating his shirt. The older one, however, was whipping his rifle off his shoulder.
Sanjay dove for the man’s legs, hoping to knock him to the ground. The moment he made contact, he heard another boom and the guard fell to the floor. Sanjay jerked the rifle from the man’s grasp before the guard could use it, but he needn’t have hurried. Kusum’s shot had caught the man mid-chest. He would never use a gun again.
Sanjay whipped around and looked for the young woman. Following the sound of whimpering, he found her tucked beneath her desk.
“Please! Please!” she said when she saw him. “Don’t hurt me. I haven’t done anything!”