Heading out of the city center, they found Colliergate and fewer crowds, the shops smaller and probably more attractive to locals.
“Here.” Jeff pointed ahead. “St. Saviourgate. The lodge is up there along a little branch-off. You ready?”
Bodie looked around, saw expressionless, open faces and knew they were all good, already in the zone. They turned up St. Saviourgate, entering the narrow one-way street with houses to both sides, their facades practically touching the curbside. The roofs were high, yielding a rather claustrophobic feel to the entire area, the lowering sun completely blocked out. Bodie saw only a strip of darkening gray above and shadows lengthening along every window.
Presently, they came to the even narrower side road. Luckily it wasn’t a dead end so the team wouldn’t look too suspicious traversing it. They split up, one team heading for the front whilst the other wandered around the back. Both teams would circumvent the place and meet up to compare notes.
Bodie walked the front with Jeff and Cassidy, feeling a little at sea without Heidi and then feeling ridiculous and restless because of that. Tuning that out, he concentrated on what was before him — the approaching Grand Lodge.
Unassuming, unified entirely to the architecture all around, the building was nevertheless three houses wide and railed off, set back from the street as if everything else might have been built around it and at a slightly later date. The wrought-iron fence and gates were mostly decorative, unfeasible when it came to keeping out any kind of serious infiltration. Bodie ignored them.
He knew exactly what to look for.
The alarm keypad to the side of the door; the glass face it showed and the manufacturer. The window locks, invisible to the average civilian, but clear to most average thieves. The CCTV cameras, again noting their makers and types. The glass was obscured, so he was unable to tell if a security office existed inside. The simple fact that the building was three houses wide and consisted of so many rooms told them it would require every ounce of skill to negotiate.
Cassidy looked gloomy. “Not much around here to distract or intimidate.”
Bodie nodded distractedly. “I’m sure we’ll find something.”
“At least Jemma’s gonna be happy. This will take a hell of a plan.”
Bodie observed even more. The sensors attached to the brick walls, the infrared beams that crossed the gate, the bars attached to the inside of random windows, the single man smoking a cigarette outside who may or may not be a random security guard.
And it was quite possible, of course, that all the houses overlooking the lodge had been purchased by the Illuminati.
Did I say possible? Bodie deliberated. Of course, I meant probable.
Passing the house they made their way slowly down a side street, passed Cross, Jemma and Gunn coming in the other direction, and viewed the rear. It didn’t take long. Bodie estimated the wall at twelve feet high, topped by crushed glass. When they crossed to the other side of the road he was able to view the very tops of the highest windows, the same uniform appearance as the front.
They met up at the junction of a busier street. Cross walked over to a bench and eased himself into it.
“Aching bones?” Cassidy asked.
“All the bruises,” he said. “So far.”
“Well, there’s gonna be a few more to add to that collection,” Jemma said. Bodie knew she’d already be formulating a plan.
“There’s a body of influence that says hit them where they’re strongest. They’ll never expect it. There’s another that states go for the weak spot because, by definition, it’s the easiest. Gunn, I need the specs for all that security, ASAP.”
“On it.” Gunn was already visiting various websites and bringing up manufacturers’ information along with hacks on how to render it obsolete.
“Cross, how are you at climbing three stories with a rope?”
“Do it in my sleep.”
“Bodie, our problem may be equipment.”
“Let’s hear it first, Jemma. Then we’ll worry about the gear.”
“All right then. This is what we’re gonna do.”
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
Jemma laid out the plan. Cross offered his experience and skill sets as a way of smoothing the rough edges and Gunn added the tech skills for neutralizing any security devices. Cassidy was always ready with the muscle, and Bodie would be project overseer, considering everything and missing nothing.
This was how they worked.
“Let’s not forget the archaeologist somehow got a clue inside here. It’s not a museum so not easy to introduce even a paper clip. Any clues?”
“I have an idea how he did it,” Bodie said. “But first let’s get inside. Gunn, you good?”
The tech had all the equipment he needed. “Laptop’s perfect, boss. The man in the shop set it up nice.”
“Processing power?”
“Could be faster. I’ll make do.”
Jeff was setting up a mini Wi-Fi hotspot. “All done.”
Cross opened out the packet of various tools, gloves and liquids that he and Bodie had bought from a nearby hardware store called Barnitts.
“I’m ready.”
“A few more moments,” Gunn said. “It may look easy on the movies but accessing somebody else’s system isn’t as straightforward as it looks. And they have decent security. Solid firewall. Extra monitors that I’m bypassing. All I have to do now is match my packet to the network rule set.” He paused, then sighed. “And I’m in. As flawless as a Disney princess.”
Cassidy tutted. “ ’Kinell, Gunn. You are a Disney princess rolled in syrupy sweetness. You gotta let it go, boy.”
“Is that supposed to be… like… smart?”
Bodie called them to order. They all knew this was a tough job, hastily cobbled together. The risks were high.
“Never lose focus,” he said. “If they find us they’ll kill us without hesitation. Are we together?”
The team came closer, as one.
“Family is a sense of belonging,” Bodie said. “Stay with the plan. Work as one. And we’ll meet again.”
A slight bow of the head and the whispered word “family” came from all of them. Bodie clapped Jeff on the back — the youth stood apart and looked a little awkward — and told him to be on hand to back up Gunn whenever the tech needed it.
“And keep lookout,” he said. “The more pairs of eyes we have the safer we’ll be.”
They moved out from the small alcove they’d discovered in a back alley close to the back of the Illuminati house. The first hurdle was the enormous wall, but nobody would have to climb it. A normal door set into it enabled deliveries and also operated via a keypad code.
Bodie knew how to build a radio device that could crack almost any alarm system using a combination of a microcontroller and a single-board computer. The device captured and replayed codes by eavesdropping on the radio frequency remote that most alarms are built with. The device programmer reads the alarm and individual keypad’s own microcontroller where the passcode is stored. The readout sends it back to Bodie.
Stopping now, he hopped onto the local frequency, received the passcode and punched it into the keypad. The door clicked. No worries. Jemma had warned them that this was now potentially the most hazardous part of the mission — no way of telling what lay beyond the wall.