A few minutes later, they came out at the bottom of the mountain. Less than fifty meters away stood the tower. Like a tall steel sentinel, it silently kept watch.
Midori removed the pack from her bag and handed around three small devices that looked like robust cellphones.
“Turn it on and put it in your pocket,” said Grace.
Jackson looked at the device in the dark until he found the on-off switch. “What is this?” he asked Grace.
“It’s a jammer. It’ll scramble any surveillance equipment, from a motion sensor all the way up to a camera.”
“I’ve never seen one of these before,” said Jackson as he slipped the device into his pocket. “What’s the range on them?”
“About twenty meters. Any camera we pass will momentarily lose its signal. When we’re out of range, the camera will function normally again. Anyone watching will think it’s a minor technical glitch.”
“I think my boss should invest in some of these. Where did you get them?”
“They’re property of the U.S. Army,” explained Grace. “We liberated some from a warehouse in Germany a few months back.”
Midori handed Jackson a 9mm Glock pistol with three fully loaded magazines. He quickly loaded a magazine and then pulled back on the slide, chambering a round.
Jackson said, “Okay, what’s our next move?”
“After Midori blinds the tower, we’re going to cut our way inside and then make for the nearest cover,” explained Grace as she pointed at a row of small wooden buildings. “We need to find some uniforms to wear, or we’re really going to stand out.”
Jackson placed a hand on Grace’s shoulder. “Before we go anywhere, I want to discuss what happens when we get inside.”
“While you free your friends, Midori and I are going to destroy the anthrax and then get the hell out of there.”
“Think about it. We’d be better off freeing Ryan and the rest of my team before going after the anthrax. If you run into trouble, you’re going to need all the help you can get. Trust me; I don’t want the anthrax getting out of there either.”
Grace looked over at Midori, who quickly nodded.
“Okay then, your people first,” said Grace. A second later, she leaned over and whispered in Midori’s ear.
From her pack, Midori pulled out a device that looked like a futuristic pistol with a laser sight on top and aimed it at the tower.
Jackson grinned. He had read about electromagnetic pulse guns but had never seen one in action. Originally designed to stall a car’s engine, it was now about to be used to turn off all of the lights and cameras on the nearby tower.
“Get ready,” announced Grace, as she dug out an aerosol can from Midori’s pack.
Midori pulled the pulse gun’s trigger. The tower instantly shut down. Darkness descended.
“Now,” said Grace, taking off at a sprint.
Within seconds, she was at the fence. While Jackson and Midori covered her, Grace sprayed the can of liquid nitrogen in a wide arc, instantaneously freezing the metal. When she was done, Grace kicked the fence. The frozen portion snapped and fell to the ground. Right away, Grace dashed through the opening, quickly followed by Jackson and Midori. Ahead was the row of wooden buildings. With Grace in the lead, they ran as fast as they could for the buildings. Behind them, the tower came back to life, its searchlight scanning the wood line where they had been less than a minute ago.
“Hold on a second,” called out Jackson, gasping for air.
Grace didn’t stop running until they were safely behind one of the buildings. “Jackson, you really need to get in better shape,” admonished Grace.
“You sound like Ryan,” he replied as he took in several deep breaths to fill his aching lungs.
Midori moved past Jackson and tried to open the door on the building. It was locked. Like a cat, she crept between the buildings until she found a door that opened. After a quick look inside, she closed the door and moved onto the next one. After a few frustrating minutes looking, they found what they were looking for.
“I need to lose some weight,” said Jackson as he slipped out of his clothes and tried a set of workman’s coveralls. They were a snug fit, but they would have to do. The two women had the opposite problem: all of the coveralls were too large for them. They were going to look like an odd crew when they finally made their way inside the mountain base.
Grace did up her coveralls, edged over to the door and peeked outside. Almost immediately, she pulled her head back in. “Patrol,” mouthed Grace.
Jackson could hear some men moving around outside. They were talking to one another in German.
Inside the darkened building, no one moved. No one made a sound.
For a couple of agonizingly long minutes, the guards stood around between the buildings, smoking cigarettes. Jackson thought he heard them say that they had best get back to work, when another man joined them and lit up a cigarette. Jackson silently cursed their luck.
For now, they were going nowhere.
With a Motorola in one hand and a clipboard in the other, McMasters moved between the small convoy of vehicles, ensuring that nothing was going to be left behind. A dozen guards and technicians carefully loaded the sealed boxes of anthrax and all of the lab equipment into the back of the eighteen-wheeler. The aerosol containers with the weaponized anthrax were secured inside a hardened suitcase and then placed in the back of the armored truck. Twenty of McMasters’ handpicked men were busy preparing the rest of the convoy to depart.
The Motorola beeped. Bringing it up to his ear, McMasters said, “Yeah, what’s up?”
“We have Mister Houston’s nephew,” responded one of the control room technicians. “He’s being escorted to Mister Houston as we speak.”
“Excellent news,” replied McMasters. “Is it all quiet on the perimeter?”
“Sir, a couple of minutes ago, tower nine went down for a minute, but came right back up.”
The hair on the back of McMasters’ neck went up. “What do you mean, it went down?”
“For about sixty seconds the tower was offline.”
McMasters ground his teeth and clenched the radio tight in his hand. “Send a team out to the tower immediately to ensure that it hasn’t been tampered with. Someone’s inside the perimeter.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m damn well sure!” snarled McMasters. “Also, sound the alarm and dispatch as many men as you can to search the grounds. I want whoever got in here found and found fast.”
A second later, a klaxon alarm rang out. Guards not on duty hurried to their workstations. All across the base, lights came to life, chasing away the night.
Handing off his clipboard to one of his men, McMasters began to run. He had no doubt whatsoever as to who was here. When he murdered Maria Vega, he had pissed off the one man in the world he shouldn’t have. It was now a race to find Jackson before he found him.
“I think we’ve been discovered,” said Jackson to Grace as the alarm blared from a nearby speaker on top of one of the buildings.
“Sounds that way, doesn’t it?” replied Grace. “No point hiding in here anymore. We might as well try to blend in with everyone else and hide in plain sight.”
“Agreed,” said Jackson as he stood up and reached for the door. However, before he could open it, Midori drew a knife from her belt, reached over, pulled the door open, and bolted outside.
Before any of the guards could pull their rifles from their shoulders, Midori was among them. With lightning-fast reflexes, she slashed and cut at the stunned men with her razor-sharp blade. It seconds it was over; all three men lay on the ground, dead.