Insider X (28 page)

50

Gatehouse #3, Facility 67096

THERE WAS A roll gate in front of them.  On either side was razor wire, all bundled in coils, which stretched along the chain-link fence that ran around the outer perimeter of Facility 67096.  Past the gatehouse, guards and gate, and down a long paved drive festooned with more razor wire, was the second pair of gates.  Those gates went through that massive wall.  That wall was what they were breaching today.

With any luck.

Luck.  Marks didn’t put much weight in luck.  Cracking a hard nut like this would depend on surprise and a good breach.  But for Mei, ‘luck’ was definitely part of her targeting process and strategy; just another way she stacked the deck.  Like any elite fashionista, she believed a successful direct action raid hinged on dressing for success.

About that redirect.  Getting the mind thinking of something else.  About that…

Don’t worry, I’m wearing red
, she’d whispered to him three minutes before they’d reached the gatehouse. 
Just a little… you haven’t seen these, yet… they’re mostly just lace… not much to them.

By-the-numbers operator she was not.  Marks would need to have a talk with her when this was all over.  Establish some ground rules on pep speeches.  Not the type of motivation he needed right now.  His head was good.  He’d gotten his koan on, and then she went and did that.

You just don’t do that to a Marine.  It was excessive—like telling a kid that Christmas was in ten minutes and just go to sleep.

Are you trying to get me killed
, Marks had whispered back.

But they’re really cute
, Mei had said. 
And I just don’t feel that cute right now.  This… this isn’t me.

The ‘this’ she was referring to, was her Type 07 uniform.  The three of them were decked out in cammies (green, brown and black on a grey background).  Standard issue for PLA ground forces.  Not a bad look, if you were a goose stepping fan.  They even had the black leather jack boots to match.  Mei had no idea what she had just done.  She looked good enough to eat in those high jack boots.  And now she had to go and give him X-ray vision?

Women.

Mei said a few more words to the guard.  If that guy only knew the deal, Mei would be singled out right now for a pat down and strip check.  Luckily for them, Mei’s papers were handed back to her with not even a question.  She put their vehicle into gear, moving that big ‘ol stick (yep, there was no end to this lady’s talents), and they rumbled through the checkpoint.

So far the plan was going without a hitch.  Cargo wasn’t examined.  Good thing.

Mei had called it right.  Intelligence seemed solid.  Per that brief, they knew inspection of deliveries did happen.  Security protocol—which vehicles were selected for scrutiny, and which weren’t—seemed random.  Some days ten deliveries might be flagged for inspection.  Other days everything was breezed on through.  Mei knew a secret, though.  It was easy to predict which days screenings might occur.

Mei’s team had been observing Facility 67096 for over a year.  And over that period of time they’d noticed a few things.  Screenings looked random, but they weren’t.  They’d noticed a pattern a ways back.  Mei’s team was pretty sharp—couldn’t get much by them.

The pattern was a head count thing.  Extra soldiers were needed to perform those screenings.  Duty roster.  Numbers ebbed and flowed.  Spiked on the days when there were screenings.  Someone had to be notified.  Given a heads up to add the personnel.  And that would be the person doing the duty roster.  Spreadsheet.  Big dummy kept it in the system, and that system was online.

After that, Mei’s team had no problem predicting when screenings might occur for all three entry locations into the facility.  They had this place “fixed”.  Today there was a lean crew manning this particular entry point.  Mei, Lip and Marks were waved right on through.  They drove their vehicle with military markings through the second gate into Facility 67096.

That easy.

They were inside.

51

COURSE, CELEBRATIONS WERE going to have to wait.  Wasn’t like getting in was the hard part.  They had security in this place ass backwards.

Wall, razor wire, and armed guards wasn’t to keep folks out.  It was intended to keep them in.  ‘Them’ being a bunch of kids.  4,222 of them apparently.  All conscripted, all comprising that fancy dancy “Online Blue Army”.  Showed what the PLA thought of their own troops.

They had them bottled and plugged into the grid to do their duty.  Duty being all that bullshit that Johnny Two-cakes had shared with them.  All that online crap—baiting and stirring up trouble.  ‘Chucky’, in this case, was being a bad boy.  And Marks, Lip and Mei were here to make sure that Chucky’s reign of slasher sequels ended at five.

No more clowning around, folks.  No more freedom of speech.  Because technically this wasn’t America, and you can’t just say what you want here.  That said, Mei, Lip and he were here to pull the plug, and while they were at it… they’d pick up the girl in pink.  Yeah, mission creep.  Count on that shit happening.

In the beginning it was always: can you pick up some lettuce while you’re at the store?  Then, before you know it, you’re doing a full grocery run… for a doomsday prepper.  It wasn’t just lettuce anymore; they were tasked with buying (make that “frying”) the whole fucking store.

Well, that was plan objective number one.  As for plan objective number two that was knee-deep in the crazy department.  Marks was reserving judgment on whether that part of their plan would work.  Logistically, no fuckin’ way.  But Mei was wearing red.  So you never knew; Marks was keeping an open mind.

Mei drove around the large roundabout.  They had a system here set up for deliveries.  A soldier was directing vehicles into open bays.  They weren’t the only ones that had come to offload cargo.  The delivery dock area was covered and went along the backside of a long building.  There was enough room for ten trucks to offload.  Currently, half the bays were full.

There was a good amount of activity on the raised platform.  Marks saw uniformed personnel using motorized dollies and forklifts to take crates inside.  The place they were in was essentially a large courtyard with a big turn around area for trucks.  While they were inside the wall, they weren’t technically “inside”.  The buildings that ringed the courtyard, effectively created a second barrier.

Mei went into her directed cargo bay.  She backed up their mid-size truck into the slot.  Lady had some skills.  She had their truck’s bumper air-kiss the dock.  She put it in park and killed the ignition.  A
putt putt hiss
and the shocks settled.

“I think this truck is older than me,” Lip said.

“Well considering you act like a five-year-old at times, that’s a good guess.  Of course this truck is older than you,” Mei said.

“Easy you two,” Marks said.  He checked his weapon in his holster.  He’d prefer to go heavy into this, but being all weaponed up would just draw attention to himself.  So a sidearm was all he got.  “You sure about that English thing?” Marks said.

“I’m sure,” Mei said.  “Okay, children.  Play time.”  She picked up a clipboard and emptied from the cab.  Lip and Marks emptied from the other side.

Lip was unrecognizable.  Marks realized he looked the same.  The silicone masks on their faces, and black dye in their hair did the trick.  They looked Chinese.  Marks hoped Mei was right about the English thing.  She claimed even the soldiers in here only spoke English.

They went to unload their cargo.  Their truck was loaded with barrels and crates.  Mei’s clipboard had it all “papered”.  According to their bill of lading they were delivering flour, rice, and other dry goods.  And also one special package for the colonel.  Make that two packages—or two small crates.  Man had highbrow tastes.  A penchant for the good stuff.  Bordeaux wine.

Wine was big over here.  Particularly French vintage.  The stuff in the two small wooden crates cost a small fortune.  Well, it would have, if it was real.

Unknown to most wannabe oenophiles over here, most high-end Bordeaux wine purchased in China was counterfeit.  “Leftover” bottles and labels were reused again and again.  Didn’t matter that some of those labels had tracking chips to validate they were the real deal.  There were work arounds those chips too.  This was a hacking culture, after all, and where there was money to be made, ingenuity soon followed.

Marks eyed the two armed guards on the dock watching them offload.  They looked bored.  Mei had the lowdown on security details.  Hopefully that intelligence was on the mark.  Lip and Marks each picked up a wine crate, and the three of them walked past the guards.

Guards didn’t challenge them.  The three of them walked inside the building.  Unknown to everyone, except to Mei, Lip and Marks, a timer had just started back at their truck.  Six minutes, and counting down.  Make that five minutes and fifty-nine seconds…. five minutes and fifty-eight…

52

Tower 9

NA PANICKED WHEN she heard a knock on her door.  She immediately wondered if it was grey men coming to take her away.  Of course that went through her head.  She’d just seen two people murdered, out a window; them tossed in, while concrete was still being poured.  It was that smiling couple she’d seen yesterday at the restaurant: Chen and An.  Today was to be their last day.  They were leaving here.

They didn’t get far.  Was that what happened to anyone that tried to leave here?

Silly question.  She knew the answer.  Her intuition had known it all along.  The wall… this place.  Na’s eyes swept her prettified apartment.  The beautiful furnishings and the luxe space.  All this room and there was nowhere she could go, nowhere she could hide.  Like that song bird in the story, she was trapped in a gilded cage.

Another rap at her door.  Firmer this time.  Insistent.

She needed to think.  Get her head straight.  She was fortunate in one sense that the crazy banter in her head was now gone.  No extra oxygen here.  No crazy voices competing for attention.  They must know the seriousness of this.  They were being very quiet, letting Na have room to think.

Think.

Not answering would look bad.  It would make them think something was wrong.  Make them wonder why she was upset.  She needed to put a brave face on.

Act normal.  Buy some more time.  Time where she could think and formulate an escape plan.  But first… breathe.  Calm down.  Get composed. 

She took a deep breath and held it.  She exhaled slowly.  Okay.  Greet your visitors. 

She walked in no particular hurry to the door.  She stopped and looked out the peep hole.  A face loomed in the fish eye lens.  Not grey men, after all.

Na opened the door.

“Huiliang!”

Huiliang tilted her head and looked at her curiously.  “Hello, Na.  Is something wrong?”

Na smiled.  She was being watched, she knew—cameras were everywhere. 

“Mm… no.  Just glad to see you,” Na said, managing to speak with less emotion.  “Please.  Come in.”

Huiliang gave a curt smile and entered the apartment.  As she walked into the foyer her smile vanished.  She looked at Na and blinked twice.

Bemused, wondering what that was about, Na followed Huiliang into the living room.  Huiliang held a small duffel in her hand.  She looked at Na again and gave another curt smile.

“Do you mind if I take a shower?” Huiliang said.

53

Hive

THE SOLDIER WAS not proud of himself.  This was wrong.  He shouldn’t be doing this.  But he couldn’t draw his eyes from the screen. 

He adjusted his headset’s volume.  He had audio on, and the hidden listening devices were now picking up all sounds for Zone 3 in the apartment.  He enlarged the viewport on his screen, and minimized the other viewports; no longer paying attention to his other charges.

[Na Zhou]

That was the girl he was watching.  She was in Room 6008 and was having a visitor.  The RFID tags embedded in their keycards and clothes let him know their names. 

[Huiliang Hon]

She was the visitor.

Huiliang, like Na, was quite beautiful too.  Both were in the bedroom now.

The bedroom.

A moment ago Huiliang had turned the lights on and opened the blinds.  And now...?  Now she was taking off her clothes and letting them drop to the floor.

Thanks for letting me do this
. 
Huiliang was speaking.  She was just in expensive looking underwear—the type he’d seen in banned magazines.  Very tiny things; they looked to be silk.

She stepped into the bathroom and left the door open.  He quickly toggled to pull up the vid feed for the bathroom.  Huiliang went to the shower area and leaned over the tub to turn on the water.

He was transfixed, watching.  He had two viewports full screen now.  The vid feed for the bathroom was from a camera that was behind the mirror.  On his other monitor was a vid feed from one of the cameras in the bedroom.  Na Zhou was still standing in the same spot.  She hadn’t moved.

Huiliang Hon had moved to the sink.  She ran her fingers through her hair, and looked at herself.  It was almost like she was looking into his eyes.  She leaned forward and her breasts practically spilled out of her tight brassiere.

He almost forgot to breathe as he watched.

She turned on the faucet.  She tested the water temperature by cupping her hand and letting the water spill from her hand into the sink.  After a moment, she used a towel to dab her fingers dry, and went back to the bathtub area and bent over again.

He was deep into base thoughts now.  Carried away by what he was seeing.  Infused with man lust and desire.

The water must have been hot, because she took her hand quickly away.  He could see there was steam forming.  It was beginning to condensate on the mirror and was affecting the camera lens.  Oh no… not yet.

Huiliang stood up and her hands went behind and began to unclasp her bra.  But he was finding it hard to see.  The image was blurring…

No.  No no no!  Not yet.

The girl unhitched her bra, and…

Nothing!  He couldn’t see anything.  Condensation had formed all over the mirror.  He switched to another camera view that looked from the bedroom into the bathroom, but for some reason it was only static.  Getting angry, he fiddled with his controls, and pulled up another vid feed, but it just brought up more static.  What was going on here? 

His eyes flicked to the vid feed that showed Na Zhou.  She was still in the bedroom.  She was walking towards the closet.  And…

That viewport became static too.  What?!  At that moment a high-pitched screech filled his ears. 

Ow!

He yanked his headset off, blinked, and looked around at the other screens in the room.  On those screens was the same thing.

Static.