They all zipped off. They were back almost immediately. “No way in,” Jeff said. “In addition to everything else, the shields are up.”
“We bounced off the walls and doors,” Rhee added.
“So, what are our options?” Chuckie asked. “We don’t have enough firepower to blast our way in.”
Nostalgic memory waved. “Christopher and I know a way in that doesn’t require blowing things up.”
Christopher shook his head. “You and your mother both had security measures put up on the old drainage pipe. Gladys knows about that; she’s the one who ensured it was handled.”
Considered this. “We should try it anyway.”
“Why?” Chuckie asked.
“Because we can determine how far under Ronaldo’s control Gladys really is,” White replied.
“Mister White, it’s like you read my mind. Exactly. If the pipe’s open, or we can get in with relative ease, then Gladys took off the security somehow and is fighting back. If not, then we know she’s fully under Al Dejahl’s mind control.”
Jeff looked thoughtful. “It might not prove anything, either way, but the whole excuse used to get our people herded here and captured was Security training. So maybe the guards normally stationed in that area won’t be there. Either by accident or design.”
“But I thought we were assuming the Center is empty,” Dad pointed out. “Should we spend the time?”
“Yes, because, if nothing else, we’ll be able to get into the tunnel system close to where Al Dejahl and the others did,” Jeff replied.
“So the question is, should we try the drainage pipe to verify the Center is empty?” White asked. “And, if so, should all of us attempt the entry?”
“How sure are you that no one’s inside the Science Center?” Chuckie asked.
“Our captive is sure,” Jeff said. “If she’s not an android and not fooling me, then there’s no one in there that she knows of.”
“That she knows of . . .” Closed my eyes. “Wait, wait. Don’t say anything. Let me think. How likely is it that Al Dejahl has hooked back up with the same gang he used to run with, or at least their new counterparts?”
“Why are you talking if you’re thinking?” Christopher asked.
“Three plus years together and you have to ask that? Chuckie’s right, you’ve spent too long on non-active duty.”
“I’m going to say something since you asked and answer your question,” Chuckie replied. “My guess would be extremely likely.”
“Okay, we know that Jeff couldn’t feel anyone at the Science Center earlier today, so it’s a safe bet that they have emotional blockers somewhere in the facility, maybe all over it. Probably at Home Base, too.”
“That’s a safe assumption,” Jeff said. “Where are you going with this?”
“Why can you feel Mahin?”
Opened my eyes to see Chuckie nodding. Jeff shrugged. “They didn’t give her a blocker or overlay, or hers are broken. Or something like that.”
“Or Al Dejahl expected you to read Mahin and think no one’s there. Sort of like in The Princess Bride.” This earned me a chuckle from Dad, blank looks from everyone other than Tito, and an exasperated sigh from Chuckie. Wanted to call Buchanan back, but figured he’d have sided with the Exasperated Sigh Team.
“So she was told what they wanted Jeff to read and us to know,” Chuckie finished quickly, presumably so I wouldn’t describe the scene from The Princess Bride I was referring to for the others’ enjoyment.
“Which is par for their course. Ronaldo wasn’t the brains of Operation Confusion, but he isn’t an idiot and LaRue was obviously a good teacher.”
“So, what does that mean?” Christopher asked.
“It means they want us on a wild goose chase. Looking in the tunnels, racing back to the Embassy. They don’t actually want us here.”
“Meaning we want to get into the Science Center,” Gower said. “So that would mean all of us go to the drainage pipe.”
“No. It means we need to do exactly what Al Dejahl wants.”
CHAPTER 28
GOT THE BY-NOW-PREREQUISITE WTF looks from most of my team. “You mind explaining that?” Jeff asked.
“Really? I mean all of us need to very obviously go away. So they see us going away and know that their clever plan has fooled us yet again. So that we can sneak back in. Loaded for bear. To catch them unawares. And all that.”
“We don’t know if we can get in,” Christopher said, patience clearly forced. “What’s our plan if we can’t use the drainage pipe? Blasting in? Coming up through the tunnel system?”
“They’ll expect that,” Dad said. “At least based on what Charles and Kitty are saying, which makes sense to me. They’ve told Mahin that they’re in the tunnels and that she’s to stall and stop us here and not give up their location at any cost, I’m sure. So while we may fool them into thinking we’ve left, they’ll have guards on any tunnel access points, just in case we decide to try to access the Science Center that way.”
“We use a gate.” Now I got the WTF looks from everyone, other than Buchanan and Adriana, but presumably only because they were too far away to hear me. “Look, the agents were bounced back by whatever when they tried to use a standard gate that was in a base. However, I don’t think there’s a way to flip a switch and turn off all floater gate activity.”
“No, there’s really not. It could be done from the Dome, but nowhere else,” Jeff confirmed. “The trouble we had getting here was more of a security issue—making sure that no one could track the floater’s signature.”
“Great. And I know there’s a way to use the gates when the shields are activated, because we do it all the time.”
Jeff nodded. “Yes and no, but I’m willing to discuss intricacies later.”
“Then let’s obviously leave, taking Mahin with us, and use a floater gate to get inside.”
“What if someone can read our emotions?” Tito asked. “Or if they have the imageers watching us?”
“The beauty of the emotional blockers and overlays is if they’re active, they can’t feel us any more than I can feel them,” Jeff confirmed.
“No way to tell on the imageers,” Christopher said. “But if we stand around long enough, I’m sure someone will come up with the idea.”
“I agree we need to move, but I want Mahin searched for bugs,” Chuckie said.
Knew without asking that this task was going to fall to me. Always the way. But we couldn’t trust the princesses with it, mostly because they could miss something that just didn’t seem suspicious to them. We shouldn’t have one of the men do the search, because it was going to have to be a strip search. Probably a cavity search.
“Tito and I will do it.” He was a doctor, he was used to searching cavities.
“Bugs or trackers could be internal, and that means a strip and cavity search,” Chuckie said.
Tito heaved a sigh. “What’s wrong with all of you? I have an OVS with me. It looks for anything suspicious, both organic and inorganic. She doesn’t have to be stripped, or have her cavities searched. While I’m verifying if she’s an android or not I’ll verify if she’s carrying something we don’t want as well.”
“The emotional blockers and overlays are cloaked with a substance our equipment doesn’t pick up,” I reminded him.
“If Jeff can read her, those aren’t on her person,” Tito reminded right back.
“Works for me, I just wanted to point it out.”
“Good. I’m going to go either put our minds at ease or have Malcolm and Adriana deactivate an android with extreme prejudice.” Tito trotted over to our other little group and started wanding.
“Uh, one question.” Rahmi sounded hesitant, which usually indicated she was about to counter something I or, more likely, Tito might have said. “Why are we taking this Mahin with us?”