“Oh, they locked you in alright,” O’Hara said as she walked up to Sang and handed her a water bottle. “But that override we built actually worked.”
Van let out a sigh of relief. He couldn’t believe how close to dying they had come.
“Neil, we found something big,” Sang said. “A Draco ship. I’m positive it’s got information that will be crucial in getting this operation legitimized.”
Neil shrugged. “Sorry, but this operation is officially over. Just got the kill order in.”
“Kill order, meaning…” Van said, suddenly remembering all of the shady things Neil had threatened him with.
“Meaning that we’re ending the operation and releasing all involved parties,” O’Hara said. “Don’t worry, no one’s gonna shoot you. At least, I won’t; Neil might take some convincing.”
“No!” Sang said. “We were so close! We can’t give up now!”
“I don’t know what to tell ya,” Neil said. “Job’s over. They’re packing everything up right now. Operations team has been relieved, and O’Hara and I have been kindly ordered to head back to headquarters in Virginia tomorrow.”
“I thought you said we’d—” Sang began before O’Hara cut her off.
“Look, we gave this our best, but at the end of the day, any more energy put into this is career suicide. I’m not willing to risk anymore, not when that senator has made it very clear that my ass would be sitting in front of the senate to give deposition over this kind of thing.”
“Come on!” Sang begged. “We can’t do this alone!”
Neil sighed deeply. “Our hands are tied. Don’t think we didn’t fight for this, Sang. We gave it our best shot. You’ve got two choices now; you can come back to Virginia with us, or you can… quit in disgrace, I guess.”
“Where’s Kenwar?” Van asked. “Has he been released yet?”
“Afraid so,” O’Hara said. “Frederick ordered his release two hours ago.”
“Damn it!” Van swore. “He could have made a difference in this.”
“Guys, it’s over; I don’t know what you’re fussing about,” Neil said. He pointed toward the lights. “Those go off in 20 minutes. Power is being cut to the entire building. These pods are gonna be useless.”
“You bastards!” Sang growled. “You really would trade the future of humanity over so that your career is nice and safe? You would really endanger all of mankind because you want to keep a job?”
Neil shrugged. “Look, Sang, I’m going to level with you. I’m tapped out. I have no idea what I’m doing here. Frederick was the logistics guy; I was in charge of handling the assets and writing reports. Even if I wanted to stick around, I wouldn’t know what to do next.”
“Grab those damn pods, load them into the back of a van, and let’s go to my place,” Sang said. “It’ll take a few hours, but we can get there.”
“Not the worst idea,” O’Hara said. She glanced at Neil. “Look, man, you and I both know this thing is real.”
“O’Hara,” Neil groaned. “You can’t be listening to Sang. She’s crazy! If we go AWOL, they’ll find us and lock us up—especially after we steal government property.”
“Think about it,” Van said. “We have a chance to do some real good here. We can save the world.”
“Yeah, but the world isn’t very enjoyable when you’re in a prison cell,” Neil said as he shook his head.
O’Hara sighed. “Sang, if you’re still in, I’m in.”
“You can’t be serious,” Neil said. “You’re going to risk everything? And for what? Aliens?”
“Neil, the things we’ve seen, we are never going to forget,” O’Hara said. “I figured these two would be relieved to know the job was over, especially with how close they came to death, but screw it. I’m not gonna be the one to let humanity die horribly because of aliens. I mean, if I can put saving the world on my resume, I’m not going to have to worry about finding work after this is all over.”
“Well, I’m not going,” Neil said, shaking his head.
“Come on,” Sang said. “We need you!”
Van had a flash of inspiration hit him in that moment. He knew exactly how to convince Neil to join them. “Feh, no we don’t,” Van said before Neil could open his mouth to speak. “We don’t need him one bit.”
“Excuse me?” Sang asked.
“Let’s stop wasting our time,” Van replied. “If we’ve got O’Hara on our team, we don’t need Neil. He obviously doesn’t want to help and, frankly, what’s his use at this point anyway?”
“The hell you don’t need me,” Neil said. “Who’s gonna hijack the moving truck when it shows up? O’Hara?”
“Why are you pressing a point when you don’t want to be a part of this?” Van asked.
Neil growled. “Fine, I’m in. If the three of you are really dead-set on getting arrested, then count me in, too. I’m the only one here who can pick a lock anyway.”
“Great,” Sang said. “We need to get moving right away. We were on the cusp of something important.”
“Wait…” Van said. “What about Dolly and Bidane? Draco’s going to hold them hostage for certain.”
“We’ll worry about that when we’re ready for the game. Neil, what’s the plan?” Sang asked. Neil grinned and began to explain how they would steal the moving truck that was inbound.
Chapter Thirteen
Sang, Neil, O’Hara, and Van were all hiding behind a dumpster, watching the technicians move the pods into the back of the cargo van.
“Alright, last chance to back out of this,” Neil said. “The moment we grab that thing, we’re committed felons who are going to be in a world of pain.”
“Stop whining,” O’Hara said. “We’ll be fine.”
“All we need is another day,” Sang said. “One more day and we’ll be good to go.”
“Why the pods?” Neil asked. “Why can’t we just get haptic gear from the store?”
“All of our login information is in those pods,” Van said. “The characters were keyed specifically into those pods, meaning that unless we access them, we can’t get back into our characters without going through a long process that I doubt Draco will be interested in helping us with.”
“Fine, fine,” Neil said. “I just wanted to be extra sure before I commit to this.”
“There’s the last one,” O’Hara said as the technicians carefully loaded the third pod into the van. There were four technicians, and they were all heading to separate vehicles now. Only one would be driving the van, from the looks of it.
“Alright, let’s do this!” Neil said as he pointed to the back of the van. “Move!”
The four quickly rushed from behind the dumpster and made their way to the van right before it was able to take off. The rest of the cars were heading out in separate directions, making it clear that they wouldn’t all be part of the unloading team.
Van and Sang crept to the passenger side of the van and waited. Their instructions were to make sure there were no other people hiding in the vehicle. O’Hara was behind the van, looking out for any signs of the CIA or guards, but no one was around. It was as if, the moment that the program had ended, everyone had been evacuated from the building.
“Hey!” Neil said as he trotted up to the car; he had put on a ski mask—something that he had been carrying with him earlier. This fact was a little unnerving to Van, but he chose to ignore the implications.
“Whoa!” the driver said, holding his hands up when he realized Neil had a gun. “Take it easy!’
“Really sorry about this,” Neil said. “But I cannot seem to catch a cab at this time of night. You don’t mind if I borrow your ride, do you?”
“Please don’t kill me!” the driver shouted.
Van could hear some movement in the back of the vehicle. “Incoming,” he hissed to O’Hara. He heard the opening of a door, and then some shouting and the sounds of a struggle. The side of the van slid open and O’Hara waved at them.