At the other side of the closet-sized space was another door.
Queen nudged Seth.“What’s on the other side of that door?”
“It’s a biology lab. Should be empty. There’s no more staff here. Just Alexander and his…servants. But as far as we could tell, they tend to congregate near the mouth of the vehicle entrance for some reason. We’re taking you in a different way. We should be able to get to where Alexander is holding the Creator without being seen. Unless Alexander is present. He’s the only real obstacle.”
“I’m less worried about him than I am about you three,” Queen mumbled.
Seth smiled. “Across the bio lab to the hallway. Turn right and go all the way to the end. We’ll take the stairs down. At that point we’ll need to be quiet in case Alexander has protection about.”
Knight led the way, with his MP-5 submachine gun at the ready. He’d normally have an XM2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle strapped to his back, but for this mission, sniping wasn’t going to be a useful skill. Behind him, Jared and Enos followed, with Bishop coming behind them, also armed with an MP-5. The weapon felt tiny to him, but the large machine guns he typically wielded in the field weren’t the best choice for enclosed spaces or fast getaways. Finally, Seth followed Bishop, and Queen brought up the rear.
They moved across the lab with its shiny tables and brilliant white walls into a hallway exactly as Seth had described. At the far end of it, after passing several doors labeled for different kinds of labs—Cold, Sequencing, Data, and Restoration—and one door labeled Personnel, they came to the stairwell, and descended. Queen noted the sign on the back of the door as she closed it. Sub Level 1. They passed Sub Level 2, and stopped at a door for Sub Level 3. Jared waited at the door as she and Seth descended to the floor.
“What’s on Sub Level 2?” she asked Seth.
“Mostly office space. This level is primarily storage and the loading dock I mentioned,” Seth answered her in a quiet voice, not quite a whisper. “We’ll need to move silently from here. The hallway runs straight through to the other side of the facility, just like the hallway on Sub Level 1. On the right will be a solid wall. On the left there’ll be a storage room, the dock, and then the security room, where He will be. After the security room is a bathroom, more storage and a small lounge. Then a natural cavern and another stairwell at the end of the hall. Any questions?”
Queen shook her head. She peeked through the wire-reinforced window in the door. The hallway looked like Seth had described it. “Bishop, you’re on point. Knight, keep an eye on our six. Rook, you keep an eye on the Three Amigos, here.” Bishop stepped in front of Jared and grasped the doorknob with one hand, his MP-5 at the ready in the other. “Go.”
Bishop slipped the door open and moved out into the carpeted hallway. As promised, they passed an unmarked door on the left, and then came to two windowed doors that led to the loading dock. Bishop peered through one of the windows and motioned that they could continue. As Queen slipped past the door, following Seth, she glanced in and saw a large concrete platform that dropped away to a larger lower space where a bright yellow forklift sat in front of a ramp. On the end of the dock was a blue metal dumpster. Otherwise, the dock was free of vehicles, and there were no signs of any people or Alexander’s wraiths.
The next room was clearly marked Security. Bishop paused at the door, then opened it slowly, the barrel of the submachine gun leading. As prophesied, the room was empty. Five black office chairs sat on casters in front of five darkened monitors and computer stations. At the back of the room on the left was a door with a security pad, like the one they had seen upstairs.
“He will be in here,” Seth began to rush toward the door, but Bishop shoved the man roughly aside. Rook turned a fierce gaze on the other two duplicates, but neither made a move.
Queen stepped up to the door and the keypad. “What’s the code?”
“It should be disabled with the code we punched in upstairs,” Seth replied. He looked surly about having been held back from his master.
Queen opened the door and stepped in. When she gasped, Rook was right behind her into the room.
“Oh my God,” she managed. “This is… This is…”
“That’s some gnarly fuckin’ potatoes, is what that is,” Rook said.
They were looking at Richard Ridley — or what was left of him.
TWENTY-ONE
The vehicle paused at the entrance to the ramp that led from the massive underground parking garage to the loading dock down on Sub Level 3. He climbed out of the white van and checked that his Beretta M9 handgun was seated in its holster. Then he walked across the huge echoing space, leaving three more vans and the bulk of his men to wait.
He knew a small team of three covered the amphitheater exit above ground, but most of the men would go in with him through the loading dock. He was damn glad that the cloaks had mysteriously bugged out. That would make his job a lot easier. He loved it when things came together smoothly on an op — not like that mess in the Ukraine, where he’d lost an ear to that blonde bitch.
A few more strides across the deserted concrete floor and he came to the ladder at the base of the fountain. Two men stood to either side of the metal ladder, and he knew a third would be up top, hidden in the trees near the unused fountain.
The men snapped to attention at the sight of him.
“Who’s topside?” he asked.
“Sir, Trigger is up top, in a tree about ten meters from the entrance.” The man was short, with thick hairy forearms, covered in thin straight scars. Eagle respected the man and his knife fighting scars. There were a lot of them, but seeing as how the man was standing here, his opponents faired far worse. “Sounds good, Carpenter. You two stay frosty. When the shit hits the fan — and it will — things are likely to bubble up here. Anyone not wearing solid black BDUs like us? You dust them. That includes the clones.”
“Understood, sir.” Carpenter nodded.
Eagle smiled grimly.
Carpenter’s companion, a greasy, nasty man named Keller, who went by the callsign of Raven, simply stood and looked forward, as if Eagle wasn’t even there. Eagle wondered if Raven’s bearing was from his time in the Marines, or if he was just zoned out on drugs. It didn’t really matter too much. You took what you could get with a mercenary force. Most of the soldiers were veterans of multiple engagements, and they would all stay loyal through the mission; the money he had promised them would ensure that.
Eagle, tall, imposing and to his own mind, hideously deformed, turned and strode back across the garage to his waiting caravan of mercenary soldiers. Each was armed with smoke grenades, and AK-47s, like his. Except for a few of the men, who were less than savory, he liked most of them. Twenty-three in all, they made a nice round twenty-four with him. His own little private army, funded with money from the former Manifold Genetics.
He keyed his microphone as he walked. “Station Two, give me a sit-rep.”
“This is Mason at Station Two. They just went in. We gave them five and moved in after them to lock the gate down. No one coming in or out over here, Eagle.” The voice was young, but Eagle knew the man was a competent fighter, and the veteran of some bloody battles in Rwanda and Burundi. Eagle had brought the young man on the previous year.
“Excellent. We’re moving in. Expect things might come your way. Anything coming down that tunnel is to be considered hostile. Kill it. Eagle out.”