She turned it on, pressed the number for NB016, and put the phone to her ear, angling it so that Ash could listen in.
One ring, then, “Commander Vintner. Good to hear from you. Please hold.”
The woman who answered immediately clicked off. The dead air lasted only seconds before there was another click.
“Vintner?” Another woman’s voice, older, sterner.
“No,” Chloe said. “This is Reni Barton.”
“Who? Where’s Vintner?”
“I’m with Dream Sky security, ma’am. Commander Vintner’s in the base assessing the damage. I volunteered to call in for him. He said to ask for Director Johnson. Is that you?”
“Yes, it’s me. What the hell’s going on there?”
“We’ve been clearing the base, ma’am.”
“And? For the love of God, tell me you succeeded.”
“Yes, ma’am. Dream Sky is back under Project Eden control.”
When the director spoke again, much of the tension that had been in her voice was gone. “And why couldn’t Vintner tell me this?”
“The intruders damaged the base’s communications system so he got some people working on fixing it, then he said he had to talk to the medical director to make sure the, um, protectees weren’t disturbed. But he knew you’d be anxious for news and that’s why he sent me topside.”
“Do we know who these people were?”
“They appear to be scavengers. Most were killed in the fighting, but there are a few who were only injured. I believe the commander is planning on questioning them as soon as they come to. Hold on, ma’am.” Chloe pulled the phone away, noisily covering it with her hand. In a loud voice she said, “Okay…uh-huh…yes, I’ll be right there.” She put the phone back to her ear. “I apologize, ma’am. They need me back inside.”
“I want Vintner to call me as soon as he can.”
“I’ll let him know, Director.”
Chloe disconnected the call and turned off the phone.
“Good job,” Ash said.
Celeste slumped in her chair.
Thank God!
The call from Barton had provided the first good news since all this crap had begun. If Dream Sky was safe, then the Project was safe.
Without even realizing it, she closed her eyes and began to drift off to sleep. She was able to catch herself before she went too deep, however, and pushed out of her chair, blinking. Apparently those pills weren’t working as well as she’d thought.
She didn’t want to sleep yet. Not until she talked to Vintner. Only then would she allow herself to lie down.
She grabbed the bottle of pills off the desk, poured one out, hesitated, and then dumped out a second.
The clouds grew darker with every block they passed, making it look like snow was going to come a few hours early.
“That’s got to be it,” Wicks said, pointing at a high rise several blocks away.
The building rose twenty-two stories into the sky, and sported floor-to-ceiling windows framed in metal painted to look like it had a green patina finish. It was an exact fit of the description Kusum had gotten out of Mahajan, which gave Ash hope that the other information the kidnapped director had provided was good, too.
“Bobby, get everything from now on,” Ash said.
Bobby nodded. “Already rolling.” He had been given the task of recording the mission and had one GoPro camera mounted to the bicycle helmet he was wearing, with another attached to the front of his jacket.
They zigzagged down several streets until they reached a row of three-story brownstones one block away from the high rise.
“Fourteen twenty-one,” Chloe said, looking at a brownstone just ahead. “That’s it.”
The structure was the middle building in a series of seven.
Every Project Eden base had at least one secret entrance for use in emergencies. The one that ended inside the basement of 1421 was another little tidbit Mahajan had divulged. With this information, Caleb — back at Ward Mountain — was using their access to the Project Eden computer system to find a way of disabling the brownstone’s monitoring system so those in NB016 would be unaware of the Resistance team’s presence.
Before approaching the building, Ash got Caleb on the line. “What’s the word on the alarm system?”
“Pain in the ass,” Caleb said. “Well, I guess that’s more of a phrase.”
“Did you get it down?”
“Not exactly. I need more time. Give me thirty minutes.”
“We’re here.”
“At the brownstone?”
“Yeah.”
“Crap.”
“Caleb, we need this disabled now. We can’t just wait around here.”
“Okay, so, yes, I can disable it…”
“Great.”
“But I can’t disable it for very long.”
“What do you consider very long?”
“The most I’ve gotten so far is ninety seconds. You’d have to get into the house, open the passageway door, get everyone into it, and close the door before time’s up.”
“If that’s what we’ve got, then we’ll have to make that work.”
“Hold on. The thing is, I can’t promise you ninety seconds. The most I’ll guarantee is a minute, but even that makes me nervous.”
“Then we’ll do it in a minute.”
“Can’t you just give me a little more time?”
“Now, Caleb.”
“Fine,” Caleb said. “I need a couple minutes to set things up. I can have that, right?”
“Stop talking to me and get working.”
Ash gathered the group. “We need to do this fast. I’ll take point. Omar, you bring up the rear.”
“Yes, sir,” Omar said.
Ash scanned the street until he spotted what he wanted.
“Nova, give me a hand.” Ash jogged to the metal trashcan on the opposite sidewalk. He dumped the contents, and then he and Nova each grabbed an end and carried it back.
Caleb called two minutes later. “I guess we can give it a shot. You guys ready?”
“As we’ll ever be.”
“Okay. How do you want to do this? Ready-set-go? One-two-three?”
“I don’t care.”
“All right. Then I guess we’ll, um, go on three. Okay?”
“Fine.”
“One-two-three. Alarm off.”
With a nod from Ash, Nova and Sealy sent the garbage can crashing through the window next to the door. Ash followed right behind it, silently counting off seconds as he knocked bits of glass out of the way.
His feet hit the hardwood floor inside at the five-second mark.
He was in an unfurnished living room. To his right was an entryway and then the dining room. Somewhere on this floor would be the access to the basement. Near the kitchen, probably. And the kitchen would most likely be connected to the dining room.
As the others entered the house, he sprinted to the right. The kitchen was where he expected it to be but there was no door to the basement.
Ten seconds.
“Spread out! We need to find the way down!”
Footsteps pounded through the first floor as everyone searched, but seconds continued to pile on with no shouts of discovery.
Twenty.
Time was running out.
“I think I found it!” Bobby shouted from near the front of the house.
Ash ran through the central hallway and found Bobby kneeling inside the walk-in closet near the front door.
Thirty.
“I don’t see a door,” Ash said.
“I think this back wall moves,” Bobby said. “I can feel a draft at the seam but I can’t find the latch.”
“Let me check,” Ash said as he pushed past Bobby.
He ran his hand over the wall, feeling for a hidden button or lever.