“Nothing is impossible, Roen Tan,” the Keeper scoffed. She used his full name. For some reason, both the Keeper and Tao, and sometimes Jill, now that he thought about it, felt that using his full name would get their point across to him more effectively, as if somehow the facts of the situation changed when attaching a surname.
Roen rubbed his temples as he leaned back in the chair and put his feet up on the table. “Keeper, I’ve been to this place four times in the past two days, examining it from every angle. Security is as tight in the middle of the night as it is in broad daylight. I’m telling you; it can’t be done. This attack is suicide.”
“I never had you pegged for a quitter, Mr Tan. You might be many things, but I had always considered you brave, if impulsive and stupid.”
Adding mister, or calling him stupid, for that matter, wasn’t going to change the facts, either. “Well, if my impulsive and stupid ass thinks attacking this facility is too risky, then think about how bad it must actually be.”
The Keeper shook her head. “There are no other viable alternative objectives, Roen. This is it.”
“And I’m telling you this isn’t a viable objective, either. We’ll have to find another catalyst facility to attack.”
“You think we haven’t tried?”
That threw Roen for a loop, given he hadn’t been up to date with Prophus operations the past three years. It wasn’t like there was a Prophus newsletter that got published every month. “We’ve tried already? Which ones?”
“The first four catalyst facilities we discovered, we attacked. All unmitigated disasters.”
“And this one will be, too,” Roen emphasized, slamming his fist on the table. “Look, we might not have seen eye to eye on a lot of things. You know, with our history and all.”
“Are you referring to getting my nephew killed? Please. Go on.”
Roen sighed. “Meredith, let’s not do this again.”
“Address me as Keeper. I believe I have earned the title.”
“Why? Jill calls you Meredith all the time.”
“That’s different; I like Jill. Bottom line, this is the only catalyst facility that we’ve found that isn’t in a region under Genjix control. We believe there should be another five or so in this hemisphere, but this is the first we’ve found, so it’s our only viable target. We will not get another chance. We’re going to hit it with everything we have. You say it’s impossible, fine. Make the impossible possible then. Are we clear?”
Roen rubbed his face with his hands. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good, then if there’s nothing else.” The screen went dark.
His burner phone began to vibrate violently on the table, squirming its way off. On the old-school digital display were the numbers 911. The text was from Marco, who was supposed to be on a date with Kallis right now at the local steak house. What could the emergency be? Was he discovered? Roen sprinted out of his motel room, jumped into the station wagon and sent his response, giving his ETA and asking for a sit-rep.
The reply from Marco was, “Need extraction ASAP!!!!!!!!!”
“Guess Mr Charming Pants isn’t so charming after all,” said Roen, thinking the use of a 911 text on a bad date was a serious abuse of protocol on the Brit’s part. He felt smug for a whole five minutes until he pulled up to the restaurant. Parked in the center of the parking lot was a Penetra van.
Roen cursed and reached for the pistol in the glove compartment. If Marco had been found out, he was willing to bet security on Prie would triple overnight. This could compromise their entire operation. That was assuming Roen could even bust Marco out right now.
Roen stuck his pistol on the inside of his jacket and tried to act casual as he walked into the steak house. Either he was walking into the middle of a fight, or they had already captured Marco. In either case, the element of surprise would be key. He crept forward hunched over, his right hand inside his jacket as he opened the door and peered around the corner.
He was met by a bald, rotund older man with barbecue sauce on his shirt. The guy was looking at Roen as if he had gone a little mental. Behind him, his wife and three kids leaned over and joined in on the staring. Roen abruptly stood up and got out of the way. The mother put her arms around her kids and ushered them out. On the way out, Roen heard the dad mutter something about meth and scrambled eggs.
Roen craned his head to the right and saw what looked like a typical restaurant on a Thursday night. The tables were about half occupied, and Vivaldi was piping through the music system. Roen chuckled. Tao hated that guy with a passion. Well, more like Tao hated the entire Baroque period.
He clicked his pistol’s safety back on as he wandered across the dining area. To his left, at a large ten-person round table, he noticed a group of people who looked distinctively military. Then he noticed the backpacks resembling Ghostbusters proton packs on the floor next to their chairs: portable Penetra scanners. No wonder Marco was spooked. All one of these guys had to do was turn a pack on, and he was a goner.
Roen scanned each table. Finally, he noticed Marco sitting in the far right corner, leaning intimately close to Kallis. He didn’t look like he was in trouble. In fact, he looked like he was having a pretty damn good time. Roen assumed a friendly face and walked toward them.
“Ralphy,” Marco said, acting surprised and a little overly friendly. “What a surprise to see you here. What can I do for you, man?”
Kallis, wearing a more casual shirt and pants, brightened in surprise. She looked genuinely pleased to see him. “Hey, can’t I get your business partner to myself for one night?”
Roen coughed. “Um, sorry to interrupt your date, uh, Cornelius, but we have a little situation that requires your attention.”
“Oh?” Marco said, making a show of concern. He looked over at Kallis. “Excuse me, my dear.”
He stood up and walked with Roen off to the side. “Act concerned, like something is urgent,” Marco said.
“I am concerned,” Roen snapped. “You nine-one-one’d me.”
“Behind your right shoulder. Those are Kallis’s people.”
“I’m not blind, Marco.”
“Well, seems those louts thought it’d be funny to crash her date, so they all decided to have dinner here tonight. They drove up in the Penetra van and walked in here with their bloody packs.”
Roen stole a glance at Kallis, who was shooting her underlings a dirty look. “What about your date?”
“Nothing we can do about that now,” said Marco. “Need you to be my alibi.”
“Why didn’t you just tell her instead of calling me here?” Roen asked.
Marco grinned. “This makes it much more realistic. Otherwise, it would look like I just buggered out on a date.”
Together the two walked back to the table. Marco made sure to look very angry as he berated Roen about his incompetence in his mishandling of export documentation. Roen bit his lip as Marco laid into him. One day, this guy was going to get what was coming to him. He grimaced and bore it, though, looking properly chastised.
“I’m sorry, my dear,” Marco said to Kallis. “I will have to make it up to you. A small crisis beckons.” He shot Roen another look.
Kallis looked puzzled. “Can it wait a little bit? Our steaks are coming any second now. I can’t eat both by myself. Or Rutherford, would you care to join me?”
“Well,” Marco said. “I guess I could take it to-go.”
“Well, since you’re already dressed up, no reason to waste the evening,” Roen said. “Thanks for the invite.” He looked over at Marco. “It’s a burden I’ll have to live with. Eating your steak that is. I hope you got it medium rare. You’d better get going, boss.”
Marco looked like he was about to object, but then he nodded. “Very well. Allow me to make it up to you, my dear,” he said to Kallis. He paused in front of Roen with a forlorn look, and then departed. Roen turned to Kallis and sat down. He had been planning on having a ham sandwich for dinner, as that was all they had back at the shed. This was much better.