Deadly Weakness (Gray Spear Society) (5 page)

Ground was broken two years ago, and development had proceeded without incident until six months ago. At that point a different development firm, Global Real Estate Partners, purchased the entire project despite its half-finished condition, along with the land underneath.

Only three facts were known about Global Real Estate Partners. The company was privately held. No outsider knew who the "partners" actually were. Finally, the partnership seemed to have infinite amounts of cash on hand.

The new owners immediately fired every architect, consultant, and engineer associated with the project. An in-house team took their place.

Many design changes followed quickly. Certain structural components would be made of exotic materials. Some walls and columns became ten times thicker. New elevator shafts were inserted in odd places and had no apparent openings. An entire floor disappeared from the plans. A helipad was added to the roof. Many more workers were hired to keep the schedule from slipping. The overall budget exploded, and outside critics predicted the project would end in financial ruin for all. Global Real Estate Partners responded by spending more money.

Then, all the critics were fired.

"How are we supposed to get up there?" Norbert said. "I wish we could've talked to Nancy. This thing is her baby. I hate sneaking around behind my own teammates."

Marina sat beside him in the van. "It's necessary," she stated glumly.

"I'll take your word for it. Just one question. Is it as bad as it seems?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "It's really bad. Let's try the big service elevator. The last time I did an inspection, it was working, I think. Drive around to the back."

Norbert drove the car through the huge parking lot. Heavy construction equipment forced him to maneuver the van through an obstacle course. He also avoided patches of dirt where landscaping would eventually be installed.

There was a ramp behind the hotel that led to a basement level. Marina directed him through an underground section full of impressively large pipes. Some big pieces of machinery were humming loudly. After taking several turns, he found the maintenance elevator and stopped. The elevator had a steel door ten feet tall and fifteen feet wide.

Marina got out and pressed a button beside the door. Electric winches lifted it up. The elevator was enormous.

"Come on, girls," she said. "Get out of the van. Help us move stuff. You're part of the team."

Bethany and Leanna opened a side door and stepped out. They looked around the cold, dimly lit space with obvious anxiety. They hated unfamiliar places. Leanna stayed behind Bethany.

Everybody started unloading the large van. It was packed to capacity with suitcases, boxes, and crates. The twins worked closely together, as usual, and they did their part. Still, it took a while to move all the supplies into the elevator.

Everybody got inside, and Marina closed the door.

"I'll be pissed if this doesn't work," she said.

"At least the exercise warmed us up," Norbert said.

The elevator had buttons for twenty floors. She pressed the two, three, five, and seven simultaneously and held them down.

"Three... two... one..." she counted softly.

She released the buttons. The elevator began to rise.

"Yes," she said cheerfully.

The ride was smoother and quieter than Norbert had expected. "What kind of security will be installed in this elevator?" he said.

"All kinds of hidden sensors," Marina said. "You'll get a full body scan every time you ride."

"We helped Kamal design the system," Bethany said. "It's really cool. It uses gamma-ray radiographic imaging with multiple sources. It can see the bullets inside a gun."

"Will it give us cancer?"

"I don't think so, ma'am."

Norbert raised his eyebrows. He had hoped for a more confident response.

They passed the twentieth floor and continued upwards. They were now entering the secret section containing the new headquarters.

The elevator finally stopped. Marina opened the door and everybody got out.

They walked into a small chamber with concrete walls. There were spaces for a large window and a door, but they were still open.

"This will be the main entry," Marina said. "You won't be able to get through here until Jack presses a button to open the inner door. The walls are thick enough to stop a bomb blast."

They proceeded through the open doorway. The vast space beyond spanned almost the entire top of the hotel. There were no interior walls yet, and their footsteps echoed distantly. All the surfaces were covered with some kind of gray metallic tile. Widely spaced work lights on stands created uneven lighting.

Norbert noticed a large square hole in the floor. He walked over and looked down. It appeared the hole went straight to the ground far below. He stepped back nervously from the deadly drop.

"What's this?" he said.

"An escape shaft," Marina said. "There are two others, and they go into bomb shelters under the building. We'll also install automatic rappel lines on the exterior. We need a lot of different ways to escape in an emergency. We don't want to get trapped up here." She looked around and smiled. "This is going to be great when we finally move in, even better than the old headquarters off Wacker. How much of that place did you see?"

"Just a few rooms. Then I had to run for my life."

She shrugged. "That's what you get for breaking into Ethel's home."

He grimaced. "She scares the crap out of me."

"God's wrath has flowed through her veins for three decades. She probably has more brimstone than blood in her body. The Brotherhood of the Luciferian Child picked a fight with the wrong bitch."

Norbert couldn't agree more. Except for himself, the entire Brotherhood had been slaughtered.

He walked over to one of the walls. The windows were one foot square and six inches thick. He looked out and saw O'Hare a mile away. Airplanes were taking off and landing continuously, but he couldn't hear a thing.

"Let's get busy," Marina said. "We have a lot of unpacking to do, and I want it done quickly. Aaron needs my help up north. A shit load of prep work has to be done before the convention starts. We'll barely have time to do it all."

* * *

Xavier stared at the note in his hands. It was inscribed in Ethel's distinctively elegant handwriting. Every line was straight and firm, and every loop was just so. The words were written on real parchment. Black ink had penetrated the natural fibers and appeared especially dark. It was a note that declared its status as an important document.

Even though the style was familiar, the words were shocking. He had read them again and again for fifteen minutes. He had never expected to see words like these in his lifetime.

He opened up a desk drawer. It contained a framed photograph of a beautiful woman with raven black hair. She had naturally pink lips and a perfect smile. She wore a blue evening gown, a favorite of his.

"I love you," Xavier whispered.

Rhiannon had died two years ago, but his heart still ached terribly. Not a day went by without him longing to touch her again. He would pay any price to hear her voice one more time. She had been more than his lover. She had been his best teammate and closest confidant. Her wisdom had lit the way during some very dark times. He still couldn't believe she was really gone.

He blew a kiss to her and gently closed the desk drawer.

He stood up. He had to make a phone call, but he couldn't do it here.

Xavier was the commander of the Houston cell of the Gray Spear Society. His office was full of trophies collected by himself and his predecessors over many years of service. There was a skeleton of a human hand preserved in clear plastic. The finger bones ended in two inch claws. A sledgehammer in the corner had a head that weighed fifty pounds, and it was still speckled with the dried blood of its former owner. An atomic bomb sat in an airtight glass case. The high explosives had been removed, but the uranium was still inside.

Xavier turned around and pressed the nose of a shrunken head mounted on the wall. A narrow panel slid out of the way, and he forced his body through the slot. It seemed every year it got harder to get through his private back door.

He stepped onto an underground train platform. Six inches of water covered badly rusted tracks. A single incandescent bulb provided the only light.

In the 1960's, the City of Houston had decided to build a subway system. All the other big cities had them, and therefore, Texas needed one too. With a great deal of fanfare and a fresh issue of government bonds, construction began.

There was an immediate problem though. Houston was a very flat, very wet city. It was really just a swamp with buildings on it. The engineers quickly realized there was no way to keep the water out of the subway, at least no cost effective way. After just one station was built, the entire project was cancelled and forgotten. Nobody ever mentioned the embarrassing mistake again.

The lone station was put up for sale, but there was only one bidder. The sale went through regardless. Thus, Global Real Estate Partners added another unique property to its secret collection.

Xavier walked across a wooden bridge that carried him over the water. He could hear giant pumps running in a Sisyphean effort to keep headquarters from flooding. They never stopped. He entered a tunnel so dark he had to wait a moment for his eyes to adjust. Working by feel as well as sight, he climbed two flights of stairs.

He came to a steel door secured by twelve bolts. Each bolt was four inches thick and made of the finest steel. One by one, he pulled the bolts back with cranks. Even though the machinery was decades old, it was well lubricated and silent.

When the door was unlocked, he looked through a peephole to make sure nobody was in the area. He grabbed a hardhat and a clip-on badge that were waiting for him.

He pulled the door open, slipped out, and closed it again. The door had a thin wooden veneer that blended perfectly into the outer wall of a storage shed.

He was standing in a large train yard. The entire yard was under visual and radio surveillance from the security booth in his underground headquarters. If he used his phone now, it would get picked up by his security chief.

Xavier started jogging in a zigzag pattern. He knew precisely where all the surveillance cameras were and how to avoid them. He had done this many times before. The trains provided ample cover.

It was about seventy degrees outside and the humidity wasn't oppressive. There were relatively few mosquitoes at the moment. Winter was the nicest season in Houston. He actually enjoyed being outdoors.

He eventually reached a road that ran along the edge of the train yard. A neighborhood of cheap little houses was on the other side. He judged he was far enough away from headquarters to make his call safely.

He was reaching into his pocket when a battered blue pickup truck stopped beside him. He looked over in surprise.

"What are you doing out here, sir?" the driver said.

Xavier recognized the technology expert on his team. His name was Dew. He had a full head of curly blonde hair and a jaw that was a little too big for his pinched face. Dew was an absolutely brilliant hacker. Xavier felt he contributed as much as any of the
legionnaires
even though they outranked him.

"Just walking around in the fresh air," Xavier said. "Sometimes I get tired of breathing swamp gas. And it's such a nice day."

Dew furrowed his brow. "You seem upset."

"I'm not."

"I've worked with you for eight years. I'm your best friend. I know your moods."

"OK." Xavier smiled. "You got me, but I'm more perturbed than upset. I just received some very surprising news."

"What?"

"I'll tell the whole team when I go back down. I really came up here to think about what I'm going to say to you all."

"Does that mean you want to be alone, sir?" Dew asked.

"Give me a half-hour."

"Yes, sir."

Dew drove off. Xavier breathed a sigh of relief.

He took a slim black phone out of his pocket. It wasn't his regular Gray Spear Society phone with all its remarkable capabilities. This one was ordinary instead, but it had two essential features. It was small enough to hide easily, and the Society didn't know anything about it.

He called a number that he had memorized.

A man answered, "Hanley here."

Xavier always had to be sure. "What is my color?"

"Gray," Hanley said.

"What is my weapon?"

"A spear."

"Who am I?" Xavier asked.

"The commander of Houston. Hello, Xavier. What's going on? I wasn't expecting a call from you. We're getting ready to move the Unit to Atlanta. The attack will take place in five days as planned."

"Postpone the operation."

"Why?" Hanley said.

"There's a new development. Ethel called a convention. I just got the note."