33
The eleven hours flew by for me — mostly because I slept for a good portion of them. We’d managed to borrow two military-issue sedans. Josh was happy driving, so I sat in the back with Tori and we talked about her concerns, and the things she didn’t understand. I told her the full story about my family and Wilson Trent, and we fell silent; soon after, we fell asleep.
I slept like the dead.
I’ve just woken up and Tori is lying on me, still snoring. I smile at her and look up, catching Josh’s eye in the rearview mirror.
“It’s alive!” he says. “Feel better?”
“Much — thanks,” I reply. “Sorry I left you to do all the driving.”
“You’ve been leaving me to do the driving for fourteen years, why should today be any different?”
He smiles, and I give him the finger before smiling back.
“Where are we up to?” I ask.
“We’re maybe fifteen minutes away from the ComForce site. I’ve just spoken to Bob — they’re about a mile behind us.”
“Okay. Has Wallis heard anything back from the FBI?”
“He said we’ve got a counter-terrorism squad en route to rendezvous with us here. That will help dramatically. He did say he had to take point once we’re there though. It’ll be the FBI’s show — we’re just concerned citizens.”
“Whatever. As long as they get the job done, I don’t care who thinks they’re in charge.”
I look out the window as we reach the outskirts of Atlanta. A cold morning sun lights up the gray skyline. The flow of traffic slows as we reach the city itself, which I guess is expected. Being the state capital, there’s almost half a million people living here, so mid-morning will be busy.
ComForce Securities have offices in many large cities across the country. They specialize in working security for companies worth lots of money, who have large or expensive things they wish to keep safe and are happy to pay to outsource the job.
They have a good reputation in the industry, and handle many large contracts — like the Cerberus gig they have with NASA. The servers for the satellite are in one of ComForce’s main offices, which are located on John Portman Boulevard, not far from the Georgia Dome. Josh seems to think this is a good security measure — less chance of people looking for the servers if they’re not even in a NASA building. The employees who work there are likely NASA, but ComForce own the building itself, and it’ll be protected by their own security personnel.
I see the Georgia Dome on the left, looming across the sky as we head east along Mitchell Street. Next to me, Tori stirs and sits up straight, rubbing her eyes.
“Are we there yet?” she asks, groggily.
“Yeah, just a few minutes out,” I say. “When we get there, I want you and Josh to wait in the car, okay?”
Before she can say anything, Josh shouts from the front.
“I don’t think so!” he says.
“Not up for debate, Josh. You’re staying here for two reasons. One, you’re going to protect Tori at all costs. Two, I want you on your laptop doing whatever you can to stop other people hacking into the building. I’m sure there’s something you can do along those lines?”
He goes to argue, but quickly stops himself, realizing there’s little point. He lets out a heavy sigh and nods.
“Yeah, I can do a few things that might delay anyone trying to hack the servers. I can remotely block the Wi-Fi signal for a start, which will make life difficult.”
“Good, then you can do that from here. I’ll leave you one of my Berettas. Anyone you don’t know that comes within twenty feet of the car, put a bullet in them.”
He sighs again. “Got it.”
I turn to Tori, who looks upset. “Listen, I know you don’t want me going in there, but I have to finish this. I need you to understand that.”
“What if… I don’t want anything to happen to you,” she says, her voice cracking as her emotions take over. Thankfully, Josh shouts over from the front.
“Tori, listen sweetheart, I’ve seen this guy break into a house full of armed mafia goons, and he’s taken them all out, on his own. We’re talking thirty-plus guys, easy. Just a couple of days ago, he took out twenty NSA agents sent to kill us. Like it or not, he’s a dangerous bastard when he wants to be. And when his little Inner Satan gets pissed enough, he will literally raise hell. How do you think he got his name?”
He smiles and she looks at me with bemusement. “So, you really are this big, scary badass?” she asks. “Not just a soldier with a comic book fetish?”
The car swerves as Josh laughs so hard he loses control temporarily. I throw him a look, which he sees in the mirror, and he holds his hands up in silent apology.
“Tori, it’s things like this that make me love you more,” I say. “But yes, I am that scary and badass. And if El-Zurak shows his face here tonight, I’m gonna make sure he knows exactly who I am before he dies.”
We pull up across the street from the offices and Josh kills the engine.
“Then what are you waiting for?” she says with some initial reluctance. “Go be a badass.”
She leans over and kisses me, which I return before getting out of the car. I stand on the sidewalk and stretch my entire body. Then, I walk around the car, open the trunk, and take out one of my Berettas, which I tuck into the back of my waistband. I take the other by the barrel and discreetly pass it to Josh through his open window.
“Be good to it…” I say.
“I know, I know,” he replies as he takes it. “…and it’ll be good to me.”
I smile and walk back around the car to stand on the sidewalk, looking across at the building. It’s massive, taking up most of the block, and towering a good twenty stories high over the city. A fluorescent glow bathes the lobby, where a front desk takes up half the floor space. There are three guards behind it and a gateway metal detector to the left of it.
I look up and down the street, trying to figure out how many people are going to storm this building, where they’re going to come from, and when… I have to assume that since El-Zurak managed to fake being in Afghanistan, he knew about this place before we did. But it can’t be easy planning an assault in the middle of a large American city without attracting too much attention too soon — even if the CIA is helping you.
It’s got to be imminent and, based on the timeframe we’ve been working to in relation to what we know they’ve been doing, it’ll be any time in the next twelve hours, I expect. It looks like we’ve got here first, which gives us chance to do this right, and warn people beforehand. Once the FBI arrive, if the Armageddon Initiative do attack the building, not even the CIA would risk a public confrontation where they could be seen fighting against the people trying to stop the terrorists. The more public this thing gets, the better it is for us. We can prove we’ve done nothing wrong — if you don’t count the multiple NSA agents I’ve killed… Any publicity will only serve to highlight the wrongdoings of the people involved who are fighting on the wrong side, and that works for me.
I look left and see the other sedan approaching. It pulls up behind us, and everyone climbs out. Josh and Tori join us on the sidewalk, and we stand huddled in silence for a moment.
“Wallis, what’s the latest?” I ask as they approach.
“The Special Agent-In-Charge of my Counter-Terrorism Task Force has all the information and theories we have,” he explains. “A team is on its way — they’re about ten minutes out. He said to sit tight, wait for them, and then we’ll approach the building. They’ll set up the perimeter, and you guys can come in with me. I’ll speak with whoever’s in charge in there and get them to tighten their security presence on site, and we’ll see what happens.”