The team held their position for another ten minutes, until well after the patrol had gone. Then Marco motioned for the others to gather. Roen exhaled, feeling the adrenaline dump pass through his body. Even after a hundred battles, this experience wasn’t something he could get used to.
“What’s our location?” Marco asked.
Elias checked the map and the GPS. “We’re eight klicks out of the facility.”
Roen whistled. For the Genjix to have a patrol eight kilometers away from their base made their job exponentially more difficult. That meant any ground force that wanted to attack would have to gather over an hour away by foot before moving in. They would be detected long before they got within sight of the facility.
“This just gets better and better,” Marco grimaced. “Come on, let’s get back to base.”
An hour later, the deflated group wandered into Roen and Marco’s motel room. The team now occupied three adjacent rooms on the top level, with Elias and Helen in one, and Sheck and Chase in the other.
Sheck, the team’s tech, had set up the operations center in his room, while Helen had turned theirs into the supply quarter. That left Roen and Marco’s room for all of their meetings and meals, which was something Roen had an issue with. The team was all career soldiers and rarely stayed in one place for long. Because of that, they all tended to be slobs. Roen, on the other hand, had long outgrown his slob days. He had spent the past few years living planted in a home, so he valued his space and privacy, which was now at a rare premium.
He wrinkled his nose when he came in and saw Helen and Sheck lounging with their feet up on the table – the same one that they ate on, by the way – while playing cards. Roen grimaced and gave them the stink eye. He had told them time and time again to act like adults. He caught himself just now. When had he turned forty going on sixty?
My, how the tables have turned, Tao would probably say.
“Guy’s gotta get through puberty eventually,” Roen would probably have answered. “The wrong side of forty sounds like the right time to do that.”
Age means nothing. Sean was in his sixties when he kicked your ass.
“And Jacob was something like seventeen. At least that shows that age has nothing to do with who kicks my ass.”
“All right,” Marco said, gathering everyone around. “Sheck, get the Keeper on right away. We need to have a little chat regarding this bloody impregnable fortress the Genjix have over in the hills. Helen, how’s our situation in the hospital?”
Sheck nodded and left the room. The damn catalyst facility was so well-fortified, Roen wasn’t sure if the US military could have busted through. It seemed, however, that the Keeper was keen on planning an all-out attack on this facility no matter what, as it was the only one of its kind not stationed in a firmly Genjix zone of control.
“I bribed a janitor for his keys and identification,” Helen said, pulling a silver key and ID badge out of her pocket and placing it on the table. “Bought some scrubs at the local thrift shop and spent the entire day wandering the medical center. The entire building has awful security, but there’s a three-man guard at Prie’s door at all times.”
“Any news on our boy?” Roen asked.
“All second-hand gossip from the nurses, but it seems Prie’s something of a celebrity there. He regained consciousness today. Those IXTF cruds tried to interrogate him while he was still groggy. Thank goodness Pri was there to keep his head straight. Then they put him into an induced coma.” Helen looked angry. “Sir, we have to get him out of there!”
Marco nodded. “Not until our mission is complete or they try to move him. I’m not feeling comfortable relying on the word of a federal agent I picked up at a bar. Think we can get one of the scout team’s bugs in the room?”
“It’ll be tough, and those things have a battery life window of maybe four days. Turning it on remotely and hearing anything useful will be a crap shoot.” Helen hesitated. “There’s one more thing. I was found out. One of the nurses caught me lurking and asked for my ID.”
“What did you do?” Chase asked.
She shrugged. “What did you expect me to do? I bolted for the nearest door. Pretty sure I’m compromised at this point.”
“We’ll have someone else take your place.” He looked at Elias.
Elias, who had a thick Brazilian accent, held his hands up. “Don’t look at me. I’ll stick out like a sore thumb the second I open my mouth. Besides, I’m a jarhead, not some thespian. You go then, sir.”
Marco made a face. “And I wouldn’t stand out? Tell me, how many Brits do you think pass through here every year?”
“Yeah,” Elias said. “I can’t understand half the words coming out of your mouth sometimes. It’s like a whole different language.”
“Yes, it’s called English. From Eng-land.”
“I’ll go,” Roen said, throwing up his hands. He took the keys from Helen. “Will those scrubs fit me?”
She eyed him and then pointed to her drastically smaller frame. “Do you think they would?”
“I’ll just get some myself,” he grumbled.
Sheck walked into the room. “Keeper says she’ll give you ten minutes, starting forty seconds ago.”
Roen and Marco dashed out of the room. Grabbing a conference on the same day with her was like trying to arrange for the pope to attend a Bar Mitzvah. If they didn’t take advantage of this meeting now, they might not be able to reach her again for days. They sprinted to Sheck’s room and jumped on the secure channel.
“It’s one in the morning,” was the first thing out of her mouth.
“Apologies, Keeper,” Marco said respectfully. “My surveillance team has made a full appraisal of the target facility.”
“That’s great. Now put it in a report and send it to me so I can read it at a more godly hour. Your next objective is to propose an incursion plan as soon as possible. I want this facility out of play.”
“Well, you see, Keeper,” Marco continued, “my team and I have concerns -”
“Resolve them. Unconcern them and -”
“It’s a death trap, Meredith,” Roen cut in. “Everyone you send in won’t make it past the third defensive barrier. And in case you’re wondering, there are five. We can’t go in from the air, since it’s US airspace, and we can’t go in from the ground. The Genjix have at minimum an eight-kilometer defensive patrol perimeter, and you can be damn sure that thing is bottlenecked all to hell inside. It can’t be done with the resources we have available. Period.”
The Keeper looked at Marco. “Well?”
He nodded. “I’m afraid so, madam. The Genjix must be well aware of our operating limitations in this country and have planned for them thoroughly.”
There was a period of silence before the Keeper fixed an eye on Roen and acknowledged him for the first time. Then she grimaced. “Find a way.”
“I don’t think you understand -” Roen began.
“No, you don’t understand,” she said. “This is our only viable way of stopping Quasiform. We know that Quasiform requires a number of their facilities to kick-start the catalyst at the same time in order to initiate the chain reaction. Of all the locations we’re aware of, this facility is the only one within striking distance. I don’t care if it’s a bad tactical option. It’s our only option, so when I say find a way, I damn well mean find a way. Is that clear?”
Roen and Marco exchanged glances and nodded. “Yes, Keeper,” they said in unison.
“Very well, then. I look forward to your report in the morning. So if you will excuse me, gentlemen, good night.”
“Wait, Keeper,” Roen said. “Have you spoken to my wife? I haven’t been able to get ahold of her since our meeting, and my phone tripped the security cut. We’ve had outages like this in the past, but never this long.”