AUTHORIZATION
Playing a hunch, he touched the box with his thumb and then quickly removed it. A message appeared at the bottom.
INSUFFICIENT DATA POINTS
Just like he thought. A thumb scanner.
Harden dragged the unconscious guard over to the station and plopped him in a chair. He pressed the man’s thumb against the screen.
The rectangle disappeared, and then mercifully the flashing lights and screeching alarm ceased.
As soon as the alarm began to blare, Reni raced to the elevators and jammed her thumb against the recall button.
Her new theory was that the men masquerading as security personnel had arrived via the auxiliary tunnel, too. After they had subdued Reni’s colleagues, they had gone back for the rest of their people.
What she hoped this meant was that they hadn’t risked going all the way up to the security control center on the transition level and she could meet up with the two men on duty there. It was even likely that the team on night patrol was still in town, unaware of what was going on. If she could hook up with them, too, that would make seven of them. More than enough to deal with these scumbags.
The moment the elevator doors opened, she jumped through and pressed the button for level one.
When the car began moving, she leaned against the back wall, exhausted.
It’s going to be okay. Once I’m with the others, we’ll be able to handle this. Everything will be back to normal before the sun comes up.
She was just starting to relax when the alarm cut out.
Ash’s team was still in the process of clearing the first set of rooms when the flashing lights blinked out and the blaring siren fell silent.
Most of level ten turned out to be storage rooms or active equipment areas where things such as generators, air recyclers, water pumps, and the like were bolted to the floor. His team found a total of seven people, five of whom had been asleep in a single room, while the remaining two had been servicing one of the machines. A quick interrogation revealed all seven were members of the maintenance staff.
Sealy found a room near the west elevators that would work as a holding cell. After Ash had escorted in the last prisoner and zip tied the man’s wrists and ankles, the door was secured from the outside and the team moved on to level eight.
Chloe’s team was too big to fit in one elevator car. She went up to level nine with the first group, while a second waited for the next ride.
With every step she’d taken since entering Dream Sky, her sense of dread had built until it wrapped around her like a thick blanket.
When they stepped onto nine, she sent two-man scout teams off in both directions along the curving hallway.
Outer loop, she corrected herself. That’s what it’s called.
While the level-nine corridor felt familiar, she knew this was not the level she feared most. That, she now recalled, was level five, though she wasn’t sure why.
The elevator doors opened again and the rest of her team piled out.
After the scout teams returned and reported all was quiet, she split everyone into five groups. “My group and this one,” she said, indicating the trio standing next to her, “will go left.” She pointed again. “You two will go right and split at the first corridor.” She looked at the last group. “We need you to set up a detention room. You should be able to find a suitable location down the first hall on the right, second door in.”
Just as she finished speaking, the alarm went off.
At first, she thought that was why she was getting so many surprised looks, but then she thought about what she’d just said and realized how specific her instructions had been.
“No time to waste,” she said, and then headed left.
12
“Director Johnson?” Dalton, the newly appointed operations manager, said.
Celeste rubbed her tired eyes. “What is it?”
“We just received an alarm signal from Dream Sky.”
Celeste shot forward in her chair. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, ma’am. It’s a general alarm, initiated on level ten.”
“Are they under attack?”
“I have no other information. I was just about to contact them but thought you would want to be on the line, too.”
“Yes, yes! Do it.”
Celeste donned her headset as Dalton conferenced her in and made the call. The line rang six times before someone finally answered.
“Yes?” a male voice said.
“This is Operations Director Dalton from NB016. I have Director Johnson on the line with me. We received notification that an alarm went off there. Can you confirm this?”
“Uh, yes…a malfunction. It’s already turned off.”
“Hold on, please.” Dalton muted the call, brought up a new window on her computer, and consulted it. She looked back at the director. “He’s right. The alarm has been deactivated.”
Celeste unmuted her own mic and said, “Who am I speaking to?”
“This is, um, Lochmere.”
“Where’s Supervisor McHenry?” she asked. She didn’t know the names of the security heads at all the bases, but she definitely knew the man who had the job at Dream Sky.
Another pause. “I don’t know, ma’am. I’m the one on duty at the moment.”
Her brow furrowed. “Don’t give me that crap. I want to talk to McHenry right now. Get him.”
“Well, um, okay. Sure. Hold on.”
Harden hit the hold button.
Son of a bitch. Given the attitude of the woman on the line, he figured she must’ve been pretty high up. He quickly consulted the base directory and saw that McHenry was Dream Sky’s head of security.
He thought for a moment and then clicked the line back on. “Director Johnson?”
“I don’t hear McHenry,” she said.
“He’s on level ten, supervising the investigation into what happened. It appears to be an electronic issue and is also affecting our internal comm system. I can’t loop him in at the moment, but I’ve sent someone down to retrieve him. I apologize for the inconvenience.”
The woman was silent for a moment. “The second he gets there, have him contact me directly.”
“Yes, ma’am. I will.”
The line went dead.
Celeste stared across the room.
While it made sense that McHenry would be personally investigating what had gone wrong with the alarm, she was extremely skeptical that an electronics failure would cause both a false alarm and a communications glitch. Systems at Project Eden bases were purposely built to work independently.
And then there was the fact that Dream Sky’s alarm had been triggered on this night of all nights.
“Ms. Dalton,” she said.
The operations director turned.
“I want you to dispatch the Montreal strike team to Dream Sky.”
Dalton consulted her computer. “I’m sorry. They’ve already been moved to Toronto to deal with the problems there.”
“Then who’s closest? Boston?”
Dalton hesitated. “We haven’t been able to establish communications with the Boston team for almost six hours.”
Celeste felt blood rushing to her head. “Why wasn’t I told this?”
Another pause. “It was in the report I gave you an hour ago.”
The report had consisted of several pages on all the areas where there had been trouble. Celeste had tried to read it but stopped when the words had begun to swim.