The Girl in the Box 03 - Soulless (17 page)

“Sure,” Reed said, and looked at me. “You?”

“Yeah, I’ll go with you,” I said.

Scott frowned, looking back over his shoulder at us. “That’s okay. I’ll just check out this creepy old farmhouse all by my lonesome.”

“That’s the spirit.” I gave him a barehand slap on the back, causing him to jump and then look at me with a stern face. “We’ll meet you outside.”

Reed and I walked to the barn, an old, decaying structure that looked to be in just about as good a repair as the farmhouse. The silo looked as though it had collapsed years ago, now nothing more than a bed of concrete blocks laid out across an overgrown field, green grass sprouting around the white of the blocks like tombstones in a graveyard.

“You think this is it?” I looked at Reed to see how he was holding up. He looked calm enough.

“Probably not,” he said as he opened the barn door wide, letting loose a foul, disgusting smell that caused me to cover my nose and gag.

“What is that?” I asked

“I think something died in here.” He tucked his shirt over his nose and walked forward, looking around until he stopped in front of one of the animal stalls. “Yep. Something died here.”

“Ugh.” I retreated from the barn, moving back to a comfortable distance where the smell started to fade. I could still see him looking around within, but after about a minute he came back to me, popping his head out of his shirt and taking a deep breath. “Why did you think this wasn’t the place even before you opened the door?” I asked.

He pointed to the ground in front of the barn. “No sign of vehicle tracks or footprints, here or in the main driveway. I don’t think anyone’s been here for a long time. Now, it could have been Omega doing a really excellent job of covering things up, but now that I’ve looked around, I’m inclined to believe it’s just an old farmhouse.” He wrinkled his nose. “Complete with remains of an old farm animal.”

I stared off into the distance, where the sun was up off the horizon, casting its light on the green, rolling fields that surrounded us to the trees that covered the horizon. “We’ve got a few more to check. I kinda hope the next one is it, though; I’m sick of these dead ends.” I turned and started walking back to the farmhouse, where I saw Scott emerging from a side door, brushing his shoulders off with enough emphasis that I suspected spider webs might have entangled him.

“I don’t know,” Reed said, taking one last look at the barn. “It might be the next one, it might be the one after that, but I kinda hope it’s none of them. I know Omega, and I shudder to think about what kind of secrets they’re hiding out here.” He made a face. “I suspect it’ll make us long for an abandoned farmhouse with old rancid animals.”

“Maybe,” I said. “But whatever they’re hiding, I need to find out.” I took a deep breath, trying to enjoy for just a moment the feel of the sun’s rays beating down on my arms and my hands. I felt like I was soaking them up, taking in the heat. “There’s a lot riding on this, a lot we’ve sacrificed to be at this point, to take the assignment this far.” I tried to hold my chin up. “Whatever’s waiting for us, we’ll find a way past it.”

“You sure about that?” He raised an eyebrow at me. “You’re talking about the organization that threw both Wolfe and Henderschott at you. I doubt they’re gonna just let you waltz into one of their most closely guarded secrets.”

“I doubt there’ll be much waltzing, at least not until afterward,” I said. “But whatever they’re going to throw at us, whatever’s waiting, we’ll get through it.” I smiled. “After all, how bad could it be?”

Reed rolled his eyes at me. “Jinx.”

Chapter 17

Someone Else

It was bad. Worse than I expected. Guards walked the perimeter of their so-called Site Epsilon, black-clad figures that wore tactical vests and hid behind tall chain-link fences with barbed wire stretched across the top. They probably weren’t visible to the naked human eye, but a meta would see them if they paid close attention, their black standing out against the green of the woods like tar smudged onto a painting of a summer field.

There was a fairly obvious cluster of them hanging behind the trees just off the driveway, behind the gate. I watched them for a little while, saw them with their underslung submachine guns, and worse, knew they were probably itching for a fight after being stationed out here for so long.

The main gate looked abandoned. I had parked my stolen car a good distance down the road, out of sight. This one had a decent radio but no air conditioning, and I had resolved that the next car I stole would be a new model Mercedes, if possible. The good news was, I had enough money that I didn’t have to rob any convenience stores on the way out here. Progress at last.

I took another look at the gate, trying to figure out what their game was. I assumed that they were aiming for the abandoned look, but the gate was too well kept up, without rust. The gatehouse had dark tinted windows, but the paint was peeling. Based on the size, I had to guess there were at least three human guards inside at any given time, plus others lurking nearby. Every last one of them that I could see looked to be geared like a sweep team, not rent-a-cops with batons and pepper spray. Omega was taking their security here very seriously, unlike the safehouse in Eau Claire. They’d even made sure this property was a half-mile off the nearest road.

I slunk through the grass, keeping close to the ground. I hate getting dirty, but this was one case where I had no choice. I had other suspicions about what kind of security I’d find behind the fences; motion and heat sensors, cameras, and a bunch of trigger-happy sweepers who probably had a very aggressive kill order, one that probably transcended attempts to surrender.

I stared at the seemingly impenetrable fortress and it stared back at me. I hoped not literally. If they were watching me already, this was going to be even tougher than I thought.

I was a half-dozen yards off the driveway when I heard the sound of a vehicle. I crouched lower and saw an SUV approaching. I huddled even closer to the ground and tried to hide my face as they passed. They were headed straight for the gatehouse, and I watched as movement started in earnest on the other side of the fence. The squad of guards I’d seen earlier were moving through the underbrush, coming toward the gatehouse. I waited for the SUV to turn around, to throw gravel and spin out, hauling ass out of there, but they didn’t. The guards crept closer in position, weapons raised, and I wondered how long it would be before they opened fire.

Chapter 18

Sienna Nealon

We rolled down the driveway of the next potential base for Omega, this one an old factory. We’d turned off the road almost a half-mile back, and were surrounded by tall trees and heavy underbrush. I was trying to keep an eye out for whatever might cross our path next, but I kept getting distracted by movement in the forest. After the third time, I chalked it up to sunlight coming through the trees in the distance, but I couldn’t quite go along with that explanation, not wholeheartedly anyway. We came up on a gatehouse, with a fence that was at least ten feet high and ran as far as I could see in either direction.

“It would appear they’re serious about keeping us out,” Reed said from the backseat. “Of course, we could almost jump over the fence...”

“I don’t know that I could jump that,” Scott said, staring straight ahead.

“Well, some of us could jump it,” Reed said, prompting Scott to turn and shake his head, amused. “I’m kidding. I could help you clear it.”

Scott raised an eyebrow. “And my landing on the other side?”

“As gentle as being tossed over a fence by a tornado.”

I watched out the windshield. The gatehouse was in bad shape, looked to have gone years without painting, but the windows were tinted and I couldn’t see anything inside. “Something’s different about this place.”

“It looks pretty abandoned to me,” Scott said.

“No, she’s right.” Reed was leaning between the seats, looking forward. “There are fresh tire tracks leading up the drive, the fence looks like it’s in pretty damned good repair, and some parts of that gatehouse look like they’ve been artificially aged.” He pointed at the windows. “Look at those. If the rest of the place is cracked and peeling, why do those windows look new? They’re tinted so dark you can’t see in them.” He squinted. “I think I see some really small security cameras, too. Why wouldn’t they remove those if the place is abandoned?”

We had come to a stop about a hundred feet from the gate, just looking. “Well,” Scott said, a little tense, “if we want, we can go check it out nice and slow, or we can start our trespassing with a little breaking and entering.”

I caught movement off the path behind the gate, but I couldn’t tell what, just a black blur. “I think we’re gonna need to start with a bang.”

Scott looked across at me, then back to the windshield. “Okay. You might wanna brace yourself.”

I heard Reed buckle his seatbelt in the back as Scott gunned the engine with his foot still on the brake, the sound of gravel hitting the back of the SUV drowning out any possibility of further conversation. He let loose the brakes and we surged forward, racing toward the gate. I saw it get larger, saw a head peek out of the gatehouse and then dodge back in as we collided with the chain link fencing. I heard the smash of metal on the hood, and the top of the gate whipsawed down and hit the roof of our car with a clash so loud I ducked in fear that it would buckle.

We continued to drive, the gate lodged on our car. I saw men in black uniforms on either side of us, diving for cover. I watched as two of them were hit by the edges of the gate and flew through the air as Scott continued to push the car forward, his teeth gritted and his hands clenching the wheel as he tried to steer.

We came around a bend and I had to catch my breath. At least a dozen guards were in the road in front of us, but that wasn’t what got me. It was one of them, with a long tube slung over his shoulder, down on one knee, the tube being fiddled with by one of the other guards as the man stuffed something onto the tip – a roughly potato-sized object. I watched him start to pull his hand away, his task completed. I yelled and my hand flew to my seatbelt, unfastening it. I could hear Reed in the backseat, already moving, doing the same.

“RPG!” I shouted and reached over to Scott, slapping the release on his seatbelt. “BAIL OUT!” I waited a half-second to see him grab the door handle and start to open it before I did the same. I saw Reed going out the back on the same side I was, and I hit the ground at a roll. There was an explosion as the car was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade as it sped forward, the chain-link gate still on the hood.

The explosion was loud and it felt like my hearing cut out when it happened. I felt the sting of rocks and sticks stabbing through my blouse as I rolled across the dirt sideways, a fern catching me in the face and blinding me. When I came to a stop I spit out leaves and pushed to my feet. The first time I had decided to roll up my sleeves and not wear gloves, I had to bail out of a vehicle into the woods at high speed. Ouch.

“You okay?” I heard Reed’s voice and nodded, still trying to get my bearings. We were slightly down from the road and I could hear distant shouting.

“Yeah,” I said, ignoring the ringing in my ears, “but we need to get to Scott.”

“And cross the open road where the men with guns have a clear line of sight on us?” Reed looked at me in disbelief.

“We’ll be careful,” I said, moving toward the embankment that led to the road. I bent over and climbed, poking my head up and looking the direction the car had gone. I hoped that it had wiped out the roadblock of guys they’d left for us, but when I looked I realized we weren’t that lucky. I saw guys swarming all over the SUV. It was still mostly intact, though it was burning, a small fire on the hood keeping the guards from going into the front seat, which looked to be filled with smoke.

The gate hung off the front about four feet on either side, but it had bent badly upon impact and mangled it further. One of the guards was barking orders at another, but my hearing had suffered from the explosion and my ears were ringing enough that I couldn’t tell what he was saying. I watched three of them point in our direction, and I heard the whistle of gunshots over my head.

I reached down and drew my pistol, firing two quick shots, more to discourage them than anything; I wasn’t likely to hit them at this range. Something big moved to my left and I realized with a shock it was Scott, running across the road. He jumped, sliding down the embankment next to me and I was following him a second later, running away from the road, Reed just behind me.

By unspoken agreement, we cut a ninety degree path away from the road for a couple hundred yards before halting. None of us were breathing heavy, and I stopped to listen. Behind us, I could hear the shouts of guards; with our superior speed, we had left them behind. Also, I could have sworn there were some coming from our right, toward the perimeter fencing. “We need to head this way,” I said, pointing away from the fence.

“You don’t think maybe we should get out of here for now?” Reed’s head was swiveling around and suddenly his eyes widened. “Never mind, I hear it now. Guard squad coming from that direction.”

“Yeah,” I said. “If we’re gonna escape we’ll need to run parallel to the fence for a while. But I don’t want to try and get out of here until we know a little more about this place.”

“This place has some stiff security,” Reed said, pointing back the way we came. “That’s not just a sweep team; they don’t get armed with rocket launchers. This is a serious installation, and they clearly mean to keep whatever’s here protected. We may want to retreat and come back with more forces because with just the three of us, this could get really ugly.”

I heard the logic behind his words, knew he had a good point, but I heard Ariadne’s words echo in my head, about Omega and fighting blind, and as I thought about it, something occurred to me. “If M-Squad is stuck down in Kansas, our only backup will be human agents. Not good enough to assault this place without a lot of casualties.”