Called Read online

  Detective Lato knew exactly who they were. He nodded in acknowledgment at Molly, and shook Joel’s outstretched hand. “Greetings. Baz Lato. Good to have you here.”

  He beckoned with his head. “Let me show you what we know, and then you can decide how you’d like to proceed.”

  Molly frowned to herself. Odd we should automatically be offered the lead on this. No resistance. Everything pre-arranged. Over the police?

  Makes you wonder who the client is.

  Yes. Wanna do some digging?

  Sure.

  The detective led them into a portable workspace where they had holos and data feeds set up to give them eyes into certain areas in the building.

  Detective Lato started the briefing, his eyes watching the screens, and he gestured at details on the screens now and then.

  “Building is a research facility. Chemicals on-site are mostly in small quantities, a few kilograms in the storage areas. Nothing flammable or dangerous. Sample sizes tend to be small. Nothing like in the production plants, so you’re probably ok unless you blow the sample storage to living hell.”

  He indicated at the screen with a camera feed on it. “We have eyes on the outside entrance and the rear. None inside the building. All have been disabled.”

  He turned and waved at another screen. “We’ve been able to get a drone near the windows to map locations. Eighty-four hostages, all on the fourth floor as far as we can tell. Mostly guarded by one guy inside the room, and another two in the corridors.”

  He indicated a holo sketch they’d drawn up, showing a three-dimensional representation of the building and the location of hostages.

  “Tangos are shown in red. As you can see, most of them have congregated in the control room. Looks like they’re monitoring communications and cameras.”

  Molly turned her head toward Lato, her eyes still on the diagram. “Any demands been made?”

  Lato shook his head. “None yet.”

  Molly frowned. “How long have they been in the building?” she asked.

  “Nearly five hours.”

  She looked at Joel. “Would have expected some requests by now. They must be up to something else.”

  Joel grunted. He looked around the work center. “Have you established communication with them?”

  Lato nodded, and indicated to a workstation with a relatively skinny forty-something-year-old Ogg. “Our hostage negotiator, Rex, has been in touch. Nothing useful yet, though.”

  Joel wandered over to introduce himself, and started talking with the Ogg.

  Molly turned to include Sean in the conversation. “I’m thinking we’re probably going to have to breach. If they’re mostly down here in the control room, they could well be after something else. Why else leave the hostages all the way out here with only three guards?”

  Sean followed her finger through the holo.

  Molly poked the area where the hostages were. “I think we need to find a way to get up to the fourth floor and breach there. Extract the hostages, then take out the tangos after the fact as necessary.

  Sean agreed, “Sounds fine. I just have a niggly feeling about this one though.”

  Molly wrinkled her nose. “Me too. So far it makes no sense.”

  She turned to Lato again. “Do we have any reason to suspect that anything is rigged with explosives, like windows on that floor, or the hostages themselves?”

  Lato shook his head. “Doubt it. We can check with the guys who got to the scene first. They’re out there somewhere.” He called one of his team over and asked him to have Higgins come and join them.

  Joel returned, shaking his head. “Rex is following procedure. We haven’t got any indication of a deadline, or any negotiables yet. Thankfully there’s no indication that anyone is injured. It’s like,” he paused briefly, “they’re just waiting.”

  Molly stopped for a moment, then turned to Lato. “We need to get those hostages out of there. Looks like breaching the fourth-floor window is our best bet. What are our options for that?”

  Lato took a deep breath. “It’s too high for a ladder or a chute.” He looked at the building and shook his head, thinking. “I suppose we could get a car up there, but for so many it would take a while.”

  Molly agreed. “Yeah it needs to be a fast and complete extraction. As soon as the tangos suspect anything they’ll come in guns blazing. Or worse.”

  She frowned, remembering their extraction of Garet what seemed like a lifetime ago. “Have you got anything bigger than a car. Like maybe a ship?”

  Lato looked confused. “Well, we have the normal carriers that will transport teams between locations, but they’re not used in this kind of close-range stuff. Keeping one of those stable at this kind of altitude, so close to a building, is—”

  “Near impossible?” interjected Joel.

  Lato nodded.

  Molly wasn’t done. “Yeah, the issue is maintaining stability at low altitude. But what if Oz could make some adaptations, and Brock could build a bridge or something to get close enough without the blasters setting the building on fire. Maybe some additional stabilizers?”

  Joel bobbed his head, his arms folded across his chest. “Possible.”

  Lato shrugged. “If you guys want to tackle that, I can get one over here.”

  Molly nodded, still frowning a little. “Yes, do that please.”

  Sound ok, Oz?

  Yes.

  Ok, any way to hack into that security system? Could do with hearing what’s been going on in there for the last five hours.

  Working on it. Their encryption isn’t making a whole lot of sense to me, though. It seems random. Not as in predictably random like a number generator…

  He paused.

  But people-random.

  How do you mean?

  Like a person encrypted it using information that doesn’t follow any kind of key, at least not one that I can infer.

  Ok. Keep at it, and let me know.

  Molly moved over to the team to explain what was going on.

  “So what’s the game plan, boss?” Brock asked.

  Molly thought for a moment, just making sure she had covered all the bases she knew about. She gave them a rundown of what they had discovered thus far.

  Then she turned to Joel and Sean. “Joel and Sean need to suit up for the op. The three of us are going to breach.”

  Then she pivoted to Crash and Brock. “Crash, I hope you brought your A-game with you. Detective Lato is sourcing us a ship usually used for medium and long-range. It’s going to be like trying to keep a GR7 jump-jet steady at twenty feet, but if anyone can do it…” her voice trailed off and she gave him a wink.

  Then she looked directly at Brock. “Brock, you and Oz will need to build something that can help smooth the extraction process. We need a bridge we can flop out to move the hostages from the hole we’re going to blow in the side of the building. The bridge will need to fit the access port of the ship and then allow safe passage for eighty-something people, fast. Crash will probably appreciate some work on the stabilizers, too.”

  She introduced Lato, Molly-style. “If you need gear, Detective Lato here will get you what you need, within the time constraints.” Lato nodded to the group, and raised a hand as if to say ‘Greetings.’

  Molly continued. “Pieter, get hooked up to their systems and find everything you can about the building and materials held on-site. I wanna know why they are here, and what they’re planning. If they’re gathered in the control room, I’m wondering if there is something there that they want. Intel? Or maybe an underground vault. Or access to a nearby building. Buried treasure, talismans, hidden rooms, secret passageways…other stuff? Anything that might seem halfway plausible. Think big. Think out of the box.”

  She looked at Paige. “Paige, sit with Rex,” she said, pointing in the direction of the negotiator Joel had been talking with. “He’s been interacting with the unsubs. Learn what you can. See if you can identify any of them, what they want, how
they know each other. Ask open-ended questions, and keep them talking. Promise them nothing. If they make demands, I want you to remember one simple phrase: ‘How am I supposed to do that?’ Don’t use it in a derogatory way. Keep a polite, even tone, but keep turning it back on them. You’re not part of the rest of this mission. You’re the person controlling the hostage negotiation. Got it?”

  Paige nodded and stood a little straighter, absorbing Molly’s words.

  Molly turned to Detective Lato again. “How long until we can have that ship here?” she asked.

  Lato looked up for a moment, thinking. “An hour, probably,” he told her.

  She turned back to the group. “Ok, people. One hour and fifteen minutes to show time.”

  Brock’s mouth dropped open.

  “Let’s make this happen,” she concluded.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Police encampment, Tiecoon Research Facility, Outskirts of Spire

  “Fifteen minutes to hook this bridge up?” Brock harrumphed as he tightened another bolt on the ship that had just been delivered.

  The air was warm and uncomfortable. He sat back for a moment on his haunches, observing a dust cloud heading their way. “Hope we can be in and out before that hits.” He nodded into the distance.

  Crash and Joel looked up, then kept working. Crash was the one to point out reality to Brock. “To be fair,” he said plainly, “you did have this all ready to go well before the ship even arrived.” He finished tightening another bolt and stood up. “Just a few more bolts that need tightening, and we’re ready to rock.”

  Brock reached for another nut and hurriedly started threading it on the protruding bolt. “Yeah, but that means the bridge and the stabilizers.”

  Crash moved on to the next junction. “Stop your whining, man. Stabilizers are nearly done. Just need you to check they’re configured correctly.”

  Brock, sweating under the pressure and the physical work of bolting the bridge onto the ship, was secretly relieved by Crash’s statement.

  Joel, who had been working on the other end of the bridge, stood up and handed him the wrench back. “Ok, all of those pieces are connected. Seems secure enough to me.”

  Brock took the wrench. “Thank you,” he said gratefully. “Appreciate it.” He smiled.

  “All one team, man,” Joel told him, then headed off to finish getting his bulletproof gear on. He noticed Sean was already there, selecting his choice of weapons from the police candy store that had appeared a few moments before.

  Crash pressed a test button on the mounting he’d been working on. “Ok, stabilizers are online and adaptive programming seems to be integrated.”

  Brock whistled through his teeth. “Small mercies!” he sang, relieved. He finished tightening the remaining bolt and stood up, stretching his back, then collected the tools from the bridge.

  Molly appeared next to him. “Nearly set?” she asked.

  Brock wiped sweat from his forehead. “Yup. Just about. There wasn’t time to make this bridge contractible, so Crash is going to have to fly with it dangling.”

  Molly tried not to smile. “There’s a joke in there, but there isn’t time.”

  Brock grinned. “Yeah, make it laterz.”

  Molly nodded. “So it’s not going to break under its own weight, being unsupported and all?”

  Brock shook his head, and shifted the tools into one hand. “No, I ran some cantilever calcs based on the Young’s modulus of the steel. It should be fine, as long as the ship doesn’t make any sudden movements. We want to lift from here, sashay across, and flop it down on the ledge wherever you’ve breached, then bring the hostages over.”

  Molly suddenly looked concerned.

  Brock noticed her reaction. “What is it?”

  Molly slapped her palm to her forehead. “You’re going to need the entrance blown before you approach.”

  She marched off before Brock could say anything. He watched her leave, trying to figure out what they’d missed.

  Molly found Joel and Sean dicking around at the weapons store, tacking up.

  Joel looked at her. “What’s wrong?”

  Molly shook her head. “Bad news, guys. We’re going to have to alter things slightly.”

  Sean’s face dropped, waiting for the bottom line.

  Molly continued. “The bridge needs to go straight into the opening, which means we can’t be on the ship to blow the opening in the side of the wall. And the ship can’t maneuver fast.”

  Sean was pointing his weapon at the sky. He let it drop a little. “I assume you have a suggestion?”

  Molly nodded, as two Pods dropped in four feet away from them. “It’s going to be on you guys to get close, place some charges, get out of the way, blow the wall, and get yourselves in there. Then Crash will move the ship into position.”

  “Oh,” Sean guffawed. “Is that all? I thought you were going to ask us to do something difficult!”

  Joel looked at him. “Yeah, I mean, that’s just a pre-breakfast exercise in the Space Marines.”

  Sean glanced at him, smirking. “Let’s make sure we get some charges to lay. Joel, you need some help to set them? Pin out, and Mr. Charge isn’t your friend anymore, remember, ol’ boy?”

  Joel locked a magazine into his weapon with force. “Just make sure you get your heavy cyborg ass out of the way quick enough,” he told him. “Don’t want to be cleaning you out of the Pod when we get back.”

  Molly started coughing, as if she were struggling to breathe.

  “You ok?” Sean asked.

  Molly waved her hand in front of her face, still coughing and covering her mouth with the other hand. “Sorry. Yeah. Just choking in the fog of testosterone.” She walked away, leaving Joel and Sean speechless.

  Molly headed back to the temporary office space and stepped inside. Paige glanced at her from across the room. Molly gave her a thumbs-up and tilted her head. Paige nodded and returned the thumbs-up.

  Molly sat down next to Pieter. “How we doing?”

  Pieter shook his head, puzzled. “Still nothing, at least not as far as the official city schematics show. I’m trying to find original plans, just in case they were recently updated to remove something that needed to remain hidden. Other than that, I think we need to assume that their motivations lie elsewhere.

  Molly nodded. “Ok. Lemme know if you find anything. We’re breaching in a few minutes. Whatever happens, make sure you bring all your data with you when we leave.”

  Pieter nodded. “You got it, boss.”

  She headed back outside. Crash and Brock were on the ship making last minute adjustments. She gave them a thumbs-up and they returned it. Heading over to the weapons unit, she grabbed a bulletproof vest and strapped it on.

  Sean stepped over to her. “Want some help tightening that?” he asked.

  Molly eyed him cautiously, but she did need some help. “Please. Just a bit tighter around the chest.”

  He adjusted some of the straps for her, then tapped her on the back. “You’re good to go.”

  She mumbled her thanks and busied herself packing weapons into the holsters she was already wearing. Double-barreled hand guns onto each thigh. A smaller one on the right ankle. One under the left breast… She rearranged herself a little, vaguely aware of the boys watching her.

  Then she did something she’d never done before. She grabbed a wooden baton the length of a sword and stuck it down the back of her vest, under the belt that was keeping the holsters against the front of her body.

  You never know, she thought to herself.

  She noticed that the boys had found the charges. She took a handful and carefully placed them in her trousers’ leg pocket. “Might come in handy,” she muttered, and then turned to look at the building.

  “Ok people, comms up,” she ordered, and Oz put them all onto the same channel through their holos.

  She did a quick roll call to make sure everyone was live and ready, then handed off to Joel. “Joel, your op. Good luck.�
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  Joel took over command and started running down the instructions. The team responded with their respective roles, as perfectly coordinated as if they had done this a hundred times before.

  Inside the work center, Pieter stopped researching and moved his work station closer to Paige in case she needed help fact-checking.

  ---

  The first thing the police and passers-by saw were the two big marine guys. They jumped into the Pods that had materialized outside the temporary ops center. Weaponed up to the hilt, they moved agilely, bantering between them. Then, without warning, the Pods lifted and disappeared, reappearing next to the building.

  Meanwhile, the girl they had been talking to boarded the bigger ship, which was already fired up, and they lifted into the air.

  The Pods were out of sight for a few moments, then they reappeared about two hundred yards from the building. A moment later there was a bang, and an explosion took out part of the building. Panic set in as police scrambled to see what was happening. Shots were fired from within the building, and it sounded as if all hell was breaking loose.

  Within a second the Pods were back at the building, then gone again. Then there was more gunfire and screaming.

  Meanwhile, the ship with the strange adaptation had sidled over the road and was approaching the building carefully as it tried to maintain a constant height. Eventually it arrived at the hole in the wall and attached its bridge, then the girl jumped into the building to usher the hostages over the bridge into the ship.

  Maya couldn’t be sure from her position just outside the police ribbon, but it looked like the girl was in fact Molly Bates, whom she had been researching ever since the Dewitt incident. “Looks like she doesn’t learn” She smiled to herself.

  After a few minutes, the last of the hostages boarded under heavy gunfire and the ship pulled gently away. She couldn’t tell if the team was still in the building or not.

  Maya watched in awe as the ship managed to move back across the road, and gently touch down. In moments the paramedics were boarding the ship and tending to the hostages.

  A few more minutes passed, and the Pods reappeared at the fourth-floor hole in the wall. It looked like there were still three people in there. The shooting stopped, and she couldn’t see the three figures anymore.