“Where’s Denny?” Zeke asked.
Larry’s smile faded and he dropped his eyes. “Denicio? Couldn’t make it. Got a woman and he’s whipped.”
Zeke shrugged, playing it off. He was hurt, but didn’t want to show it. “He never could say no to a skirt,” he said, sighing.
“Said he’d try to get away, but you know him…”
“Forget it. This one needs to be rock-solid, no weak spots. Let’s go inside.”
They got the Escalade into the barn. Daniel noticed it rode heavy. Probably armored. It was getting crowded in there. They had a whole motor pool.
Inside, they made some coffee and heated up a pie from a box. Daniel slipped another one in the oven when Zeke wasn’t looking. At this rate they were going to have to make a grocery run soon.
Seated around the dining room table, they briefed the two recent arrivals. It took the rest of the morning, what with the questions and disbelieving looks. Daniel had to do his healing thing again. He let Skull stab him with a fork this time, just to make sure they knew it wasn’t a trick. He wasn’t ready to get shot just yet. Once they’d settled that, they started brainstorming the operation.
Daniel began, “We have to assume Elise is locked up on the island. They know she wants to run, and she’s a test subject too, so it makes sense. That means one, probably two shooters to keep an eye on her and the others at all times. Two or three shifts, but they can’t keep more than two guys in prison-guard mode all the time.”
“They could have a jail cell,” Spooky said.
“Yeah, that would make it easier for them, but that’s good for us too. Fewer shooters means fewer problems,” Zeke said.
“Do you think the researchers stay there or go home at night?” Daniel asked.
Zeke replied, “If it was me, I’d keep to a normal schedule. Ten miles by boat or helo – probably boat, much lower profile – makes for an easy commute. Thirty minutes each way or so. Probably have facilities to stay overnight, though, if they need to or want to. So we figure Miss Wallis, one or two guards, maybe a scientist.”
“Recon?” This from Skull.
Vinny replied, “Yeah. I’ll find some more recent overhead imagery. That right there is three months old. I need to buy a drone if you want really good stuff from up close.”
“No drones for now.”
Vinny looked disappointed. He obviously liked the toys.
“No need to get that fancy, and it might draw attention. We just need a fishing boat.”
“Pleasure fishing in February? In the Chesapeake?” Daniel asked.
“Crap,” replied Zeke, rubbing his bearded chin. “How do we get close?”
“A boat is fine,” Daniel said, “but we’ll have to just do a few slow passes on the way to and from Tangier Island.” He pointed to the map.
Tangier Island was a fishing and tourist destination, with quaint bed and breakfast places, crab shacks and fancier seafood restaurants, and its own marinas and an airport. Anyone leaving from the mainland near Onancock would naturally pass by Watts Island on the way to it.
Spooky spoke then, softly. “And surveillance on their houses. See what their routine is. See where their boat is. Find the helo. Also exfiltration plan. Snatch will be the easy part. Getting away clean is harder.” He pursed his lips, brooding. Took a sip of his special tea.
“Element of surprise, boys, element of surprise,” Larry rumbled. “They won’t know what hit them. But Spooky’s right. We’re going to blow the lid off this thing. We can’t expect to get everyone, so someone will go to their boss or bosses, and then there will be some heavy-duty blowback. If word of this gets out – and it will – we’re going to need a bolt-hole deeper than this cabin. No offense Zeke, but this place is a matter of public record, right?”
“Sort of. It’s in my wife’s maiden name.”
“Well, that will take them an extra hour to find out,” Vinny said sourly.
“What’s wrong, you getting cold feet?” Skull asked accusingly. Vinny glared at him and folded his arms.
“My nephew’s manners may be in question, but not his courage,” said Spooky quietly, and Skull sniffed, mollified. He looked away, as if he didn’t care. He probably just didn’t want to cross the little man.
“We have a bolt-hole. Never you worry.” Zeke showed off that I’ve-got-a-secret grin. “All right, team, because that’s what we are now, a team, let’s start acting like one,” he stated with emphasis, “Let’s get planning. DJ, put some more coffee on and start making more stew out of that venison, will you? I know you can cook.”
Daniel nodded, going into the kitchen and rattling, getting things together. Zeke obviously wanted to talk to the others without him around, reassure them a bit, he guessed. Right now they needed space. So he puttered around, unloading and repacking his van, poking through the barn, checking out Vinny’s gear. He didn’t touch anything – it was mostly out of his league, though he recognized a frequency-hopping tactical radio base station of the latest type, and what looked like an encryption module, designation KY- or KV - something.
And a flashing red light.
He looked at the light, which was attached to another box of unknown purpose, and the computers. There was a little noise, bip, bip, bip, each time it flashed. He thought it had to do with the satellite uplink, though, so he figured Vinny might want to know.
He went toward the cabin to tell him.
It looked like he already knew, since he bolted past Daniel as he was coming to the cabin door. Vinny had a smart phone in one hand and made a beeline for the barn, slipping once on the thin snow cover, cursing under his breath.
All the rest of them came after, not moving quite so fast, except Spooky, who somehow managed to get around everyone and follow Vinny into the barn first. By the time they all trooped into the structure, Vinh was furiously banging away at keys and cursing like a sailor on speed.
“What is it, dammit?” asked Zeke.
“Alarm and repeater transmitter for my smart phone, local mode. It means one of several things happened…” He started hammering furiously on the controls, switching views, windows, displays.
“Transponder…it’s my ATC back door – air traffic control. Something flying at low level…” He brought up a map of the local area with an overlay of moving dots with tails and numbers beside them. He pointed at one flashing. “Rotor-wing…someone turn off the overhead light in here. Uncle, unplug the transmitter please? It isn’t sending but might as well be sure.”
Larry flipped the wall switch and they were plunged into cold darkness, lit only by the glow of the computers.
Vinny held up a pointing finger, straight up. “Hear that?” Everyone fell silent. There was a faint eggbeater buzzing somewhere, which grew louder.
“Helo. Sikorski. Probably a Black Hawk,” said Skull.
Daniel agreed.
The sound swelled, then burst overhead. Spooky moved off to a side door, weapon ready, but the helicopter continued on, flying fast, fading.
“They’re looking for us,” said Skull. “For him,” he said, looking at Daniel accusingly.
“Maybe,” said Vinny. “Probably. Military transponder. Huh.” He grunted in irritation. He pulled up another display, flashing.
Zeke leaned over Vinny’s shoulder. “What’s that?”
“It’s a threshold alarm on all the things related to this INS Inc. situation. It means my bots have detected a certain level of cyber activity looking at what I have been doing. Nothing from NSA yet, thank God, but there is one hot node that I know is Langley’s.”
“Somebody finally reported the feces impacting the rotating oscillating device, and the Agency is waking up. The helo probably has ELINT gear on board. Our timeline just got shorter.” Electronic Intelligence equipment would try to find transmitters, cell phones, anything that radiated.