The Amazon Code (8 page)

He was a sitting duck, and they were in between him and Julie.
 

He forced himself to breathe, sliding over a few feet to his left, fully hiding now behind the check-in counter. It wouldn’t do much good, but it bought him a few precious seconds.
 

They’re trained well. They’re not going to just leave here without searching thoroughly. They’ll find me, and then —
 

He was cut off by the sound of more gunfire, this time farther away.
 

Jules
.
 

He started breathing faster, now unable to control his excitement.
If they found her…

He forced the thought out of his mind, knowing it wouldn’t lead to anything productive.
You need a plan, Harvey.
He looked around. There wasn’t even a fire extinguisher hanging on a wall. The three computers at the check-in station all had keyboards and separate monitors, but if he threw them at the attackers it wouldn’t do much more than call attention to himself.
 

I have to get to Julie.
He dared himself to stand up, peering out over the counter.
 

The soldiers were gone.
 

The lobby was empty, save for the dust and remnants of smoke still billowing around the ceiling.
 

He stood up a bit more, now able to see the entire lobby area. Paulinho and Amanda were nowhere to be seen, and neither were the soldiers.
 

What the hell?
 

He heard a shout from outside the building, then another stream of gunfire. His eyes caught the far-off flicker of a three-round burst of gunfire from an assault rifle, and he instinctively ducked behind the computer in front of him. The shots never landed, and he rose back up to see the exchange.
 

Another flash of light — only one this time, and he heard a sickening thud and a scream as the bullet apparently found its mark. Another yell, unintelligible, rang out, followed by more shots.
 

He watched the exchange for a few more seconds until a huge spotlight lit the parking lot in front of the hotel. The blinding brightness of the yellow glow stung his eyes, but as they adjusted he saw an empty parking lot, full of glistening dew and a thin haze of smoke in the air.
 

Nothing else moved. He waited a full minute, then another. He thought about reaching for his cell phone to call Julie, but then remembered they hadn’t even set up their international service yet.
 

Another minute passed, and Ben stared at the parking lot until a shadow moved. It grew, the shape of a man emerging from it, silhouetted in the glow. He walked toward the hotel, taking a long, circuitous route through cars and between pillars, obviously attempting to remain behind cover.
 

He got close to the first of the broken glass walls, and stepped through. He was now in the lobby.
 

“Paulinho!” he shouted. He raised his weapon, a short, stubby pistol, in front of him. A longer rifle was mounted on his back, diagonally between his shoulder blades.
 

Ben watched and waited.
 

“Paulinho? If you’re alive, now’s a good time to prove it to me, buddy.”
 

Ben held his breath.
 

Paulinho stepped out from behind the wall separating the lobby from the hallway. Ben winced, waiting for another gunshot or explosion, but none came.
 

“Well, look at that! You survived!” the man yelled toward an obviously shaken Paulinho.
 

“Reggie!” Paulinho said. “Are — are you sure it’s safe out there?”
 

Reggie crunched over broken glass strewn about the lobby floor and came to embrace Paulinho.
 

“It’s safe, for now,” Reggie said. “They’ll be back for their flood wash, though.” Reggie motioned toward the massive light array that was pointing at them from the parking lot. “I set up staged-detonation rounds, mostly for effect. Made it seem like a whole squad was up on the hill. They never saw me — decided to get away with what they had, probably to regroup and come back later.”
 

They stood together a moment, then Reggie urged Paulinho toward the wall at the back of the lobby. “Still,” he said, “probably smart to get out of the light. Anyone with an aim half as good as mine could hit you from out there.”
 

Paulinho turned to face Ben as he stood from behind the booth. Ben brushed off his sleeves and jeans, wiping away the dust and fragments of drywall that had collected there. He lifted a hand, still unsteady from the explosions, and waved.
 

“Harvey!” Paulinho shouted. “Please, join us. Julie is here, too.”
 

Ben felt a wave of relief pass over him. He glanced out toward the parking lot as he started walking through the lobby, but couldn’t see anything other than the brilliant light of the flood lamp. He reached the other side, joining Paulinho and Reggie just as they had turned the corner into the hallway.
 

Julie rushed forward and grabbed Ben, embracing him. Her laptop bag bounced on her shoulder, swinging along behind her as she ran toward him. Amanda stood behind her, terror in her eyes. Ben thought about saying something, but nothing seemed appropriate. The woman had lost her company, her employees had been murdered, and now it was clear she was being hunted. Nothing Ben could say would do anything to calm her.
 

He looked again at Julie. “Are you okay?”
 

“I — I heard everything, and then I looked out, and… I rushed downstairs when it all started.”
 

He squeezed her, then let go. “I’m fine. Glad you’re okay. Did you see anyone else in the halls?”
 

“There were a couple of families, and a few other people. We all ducked into our rooms when it started, but I think the hotel’s mostly empty.”
 

Paulinho introduced Reggie to the group. “This is Reggie, our history expert. He’s also an ex-Army sniper.”
 

Reggie bowed with a practiced flourish, and grinned. “
American
Army, in case you were wondering. Glad to meet you. Sorry it’s got to be under these
less-than desirable
circumstances.”
 

Ben immediately felt turned off by the man and his cockiness. He was about the same age as Ben, mid-forties by the looks of it, but he hadn’t lost an ounce of his Army-days physique. Chiseled jawline, hardened brow, and the ability to smile with his mouth, yet keep his eyes cold and calculating.

Ben stuck out a hand, preparing for the man’s death grip. It came, and Ben forced himself to keep his expression muted as he felt his fingers and palm being crushed together in the vice grip.
 

“We owe you a thanks,” Ben said. “I’m not sure we’d be alive without you.”
 

The man waved off the thanks. “It’s nothing. Just glad Paulinho had the sense to give me a ring before it all went to hell here. I like history, but I
really
like a good fight.” He turned and looked behind them at the devastation in the lobby. Pieces of ceiling tile and lighting fixtures littered the floor, and dust and chunks of wall continued to fall as they became fully dislodged from the structure. Ben could hear police and ambulance sirens ringing out from the distance, closing in.
 

“Like I said, though, we should be clearing out. They’ll be back, and I’m guessing they’ll be a little better prepared.”
 

“Where are we going to go?” Amanda suddenly asked. It was clear what her question really meant:
Can we really hide from them?

Reggie considered it a moment. “You’re the girl they’re after, right?”
 

She nodded. “Amanda Meron,” she said.
 

“
Dr.
Amanda Meron,” Paulinho added.
 

Reggie raised an eyebrow. “Then we just need to hide
you
. They don’t want anything to do with the rest of us.”
 

Amanda looked confused. “Excuse me?”
 

Reggie burst out a laugh. “I’m kidding!” He smiled, surprised for some reason that no one else shared his affection for mildly off-color humor. Ben watched him closely, still not trusting the man that had saved their lives. In an instant, his facial expression changed. His eyes and brow receded back to its prior state of cold nothingness, and the smile was replaced with the look of someone who’d been through enough in life to deserve a serious outlook on it. “Here’s the plan: I’m in charge, at least until we’re clear of these bozos. When I say we’re safe,
then
— and
only
then — do we try to figure out what they want with you, Doc.”
 

Everyone but Ben nodded, and Reggie continued. “However, we do need a destination, so we might as well get somewhere safe that might also help us along. Any ideas? A library? An office?”
 

Amanda shook her head. “No, just somewhere with a good internet connection. Julie — the laptop?”
 

Julie’s face brightened a bit. “Right! I forgot all about that.” She swung the laptop bag around and unzipped the top, showing off the silver machine tucked inside. “Here it is.”
 

Amanda explained to Reggie. “Let’s move out. Anywhere but here. We think Dr. Ortega — one of my employees — was trying to tell us something. I’ll need to access our shared folder from the secure cloud backup site.”
 

Reggie was already moving down the hallway, but he nodded and motioned for them to follow. “Right on. Sounds good; let’s take the side exit, see if we can’t get out and around the building. I parked over the hill in the parking lot next door, and we can all fit there.”
 

“What about their stuff?” Paulinho asked.
 

“Right, and our rental car?” Julie added. Ben and Julie had a rental, but Paulinho and Amanda had driven over in Amanda’s hatchback.

“You won’t need it anymore,” Reggie said, still talking over his shoulder. “Besides, you ever see those movies with the cars that blow up when you turn the key?”
 

Julie shot a glance at Ben, but he didn’t say anything.
This guy’s sick
, Ben thought.
But he seems to be confident enough to get us through this.
And if Ben knew anything about these situations, it was that confidence — if nothing else — just might be enough to carry them through.
 

13

THEY DROVE FOR WHAT SEEMED like hours, toward Reggie’s self-described “compound.” He wouldn’t give more detail until they’d arrived, but only said that it was where he lived and worked when he wasn’t in the city. When Ben awoke again and looked at the dash clock, he was surprised to see that they had, in fact, driven for nearly two hours. Straight north, almost reaching into the lower basin of the world-famous jungle territory. Most of the drive was pitch black, and Julie and Ben had used the time to catch up on their sleep.
 

Amanda and Paulinho were on Julie’s laptop, using Reggie’s ad-hoc wireless network from his cellphone to connect the computer to the internet and download the information Dr. Ortega had left for them.
 

Julie had been right — Dr. Ortega had indeed been trying to tell them something, without the information getting into the wrong hands. He’d meticulously organized the images in the folders into numbered files, then uploaded an explanatory video he’d titled
pega-veretas
. The video was large, and since the phone had an almost-unusable download speed, they’d been waiting the entire drive to discover what the video and files were all about.
 

Ben heard a gentle
ding
as the download finished, and he nudged Julie. She wiped a trickle of drool from the side of her mouth, then looked up at the computer on Amanda’s lap in the front seat.
 

“It’s done,” Amanda said. Paulinho stretch up in the seat behind Amanda’s, next to Ben, and looked over her shoulder at the screen. “Ready?”
 

She pressed play before anyone could respond.
 

“Dr. Meron, if you’re watching this, there is a good chance I am dead. I…”
the man in the video, Dr. Juan Ortega, swallowed hard, then clenched his teeth and began again.
“I — I’m sorry. Please tell my family that I love them, and…
” He couldn’t finish the statement.
“Yes. You know. Well, at approximately 8:55pm, the NARATech facilities were breached and entered by what appears to be a military operation. They immediately shot and killed our two guards on duty, and raced toward the main laboratory section, where I was testing a theory. I was able to move to the conference room and begin uploading this video, along with some of the research that I believe proves my theory.”
 

The man was analytical, and Ben could tell he was trying to outline the events in as clear and concise way as possible. To him, it must have seemed surreal, but his education and training took over and he tried to keep his voice steady for the camera, providing as much detail as possible that might be useful in the inevitable police investigation that would follow.
 

“I will try to send a quick update directly to your phone, but it will no doubt be low quality. Since you are watching this video, you’ve obviously seen that video, and the message therein. Here is the entire message: I have a theory about the golden man we have seen in the dreams of the subjects. ‘Pega-veretas’ is a game I play with my daughters. I saw the sticks, and how some of them seemed to point in a certain direction.”
 

The man paused once more, gathering his thoughts, then continued.
 

“There is not time to fully describe my thought process, so unfortunately the scientific method will have to wait.
” He smiled.
“I’m sure you can understand the results I’ve collected in these folders.
”