A New World: Reckoning (15 page)

“If they see the Spooky, and they do have the means to track it, they’ll see that a mile off,” Lynn replies.

The dialog continues. There’s talk of fast-acting poisons, launching cruise missiles from Leonard’s sub, options presented and discarded. I listen to the conversation, putting in my two cents on occasion, but most of my concentration is focused on the pictures and diagrams provided by Frank. I put together my own options, running through scenarios, discarding some and making alterations to others as I run into problems.

“Look,” I say, interrupting the ongoing discussion, which had died down some, “we’re going about this the wrong way. All of the suggestions so far have been about forcing them out and defeating them with the Spooky.”

“And what do you suggest?” Frank asks.

“We need to hit them from the inside. Anything else and they can just retire inside and wait us out,” I answer.

“And how can we do that?” Lynn questions.

“If all they are using is technology to safeguard the entrances, it can be defeated. The only thing I can’t figure out is how we can get the teams on the ground undetected.”

That statement throws the group into silence.

“At least you mentioned teams, Jack. I’m assuming you don’t mean your usual ‘go in by yourself’ tactic?” Lynn says.

“Well, initially it will be me and maybe one other person. I need to get to the security room here,” I say, pointing to one of the rooms just past the long escape tunnel. “After that is secured, then we’re going to need everyone on this one. Lynn, we have to bring those that are in training up to speed quickly. We have to replace the team members we lost and we’re going to need to add more. Those we bring up to speed will remain behind as security for the compound. I know that may sound callous with us having lost the team sent with Greg, but that’s just the way it is. Also, Lynn, I want you to take all of the teams and work on coordination, team movements, and communication. Do that in the equipment hangars so it’s not picked up on satellite.”

“You obviously have a plan, Jack. Would you care to let the rest of us in on it?” Lynn asks.

“Well, I don’t really have it all worked out, but let’s run through what I have in my head so far, starting on the ground. I haven’t figured how to get there yet. I see it coming in stages. The first will be getting through the fence and entering the tunnel building. That will require working through the outlying ground and, if one exists, marking a path through the minefield. Frank, I’ll need close-ups as clear as you can make them to study the terrain in detail to see if there are small gullies that will enable me to keep a lower profile. There are the cameras to deal with as well. I’m assuming they do a sweep on low-light and then infrared or some combination thereof. A dry suit will work best but that isn’t foolproof. The only foolproof method would be to use a large pane of glass as it blocks infrared for a period of time. But, that’s not really feasible so I’ll have to go slow and not heat myself up. Once through the fence, you’ll note that the building entrance is facing away from the fence line. The assumption is that they have a camera covering the entrance and approaches from the front. Frank, can we get a closer view of the building to make sure of this?”

“Sure thing, Jack. I’ll see how much I can zoom in and still keep the clarity,” Frank answers.

“The next phase will be gaining access to the exit tunnel. I’ll need to fool the camera, assuming there is only one. For that I’ll need several four-port coaxial switches with a main output port and a few short coax cables with quick connect ends. Bannerman, there are electronic outlets in town that will have those. I’ll show you where they are on the map when we’re finished. With the distances involved, the outer cameras can only be running coax or single-mode fiber. I’ll need several coax to fiber converters just in case. I’ll also need small video recorders with playback and continuous loop capability which can be hooked into the network. Most have USB connections so we’ll need USB to coax converters. You can find those just about anywhere. Harold, can you configure a middle-man program to spoof the system and feed our own looped video into the network?”

Harold pauses and thinks for a moment. “The problem is fooling the network into thinking the recording is coming from the camera. I should be able to reconfigure a network sniffer to do that. The basic idea will be to have the sniffer, with the programming, clone itself to mimic the camera settings. Then, I can have the program insert the looped video into the packet and it will look like it’s being sent from the camera. It’s called an ARP spoof, which will gather information about the network and mimic a certain device as programmed. That will give both the network the correct address but with the looped video. We’ll also have to configure the ports on the small switches.”

Harold pauses once again, lost in thought before continuing. “We’ll have to put the switch in a bypass mode which will act as a hub but will have the abilities of a switch. One port will be set to mirror port one which the camera will have to be hooked up to. Put the modified sniffer on the mirrored port and it will configure itself with the IP and MAC address along with the subnet mask. That port won’t send any traffic so there won’t be a problem with the network seeing multiple machines with the same address. Once that’s done, the recorder will have to be set to the mirrored port to capture the video. Then, move the camera to port two, a normal port, and plug in the sniffer to port three while simultaneously unhooking the camera cable. That can then be set to the mirrored port to make it look like it’s hooked up. The program will intercept the video feed and insert it into a protocol packet that will be accepted on the network. Yeah, I think that can be done.”

“How about the size? Won’t something that large be seen?” Robert asks.

“Most of the equipment is small and not bulky. It will look like part of the camera system to an untrained eye,” Harold answers.

“Okay, I want you in the aircraft with us in case we need your expertise. Now, once there, I’ll gain entrance and proceed to the security room. As shown, there is a stairwell down connecting with a longish hallway to another door, which is the actual entrance into the facility. The security room is past the door and down another long hallway, the exit tunnel. This door will be a secure one, most likely having some sort of keypad or keycard entryway with another camera. Getting there will be more difficult but, as you can see on the maintenance diagrams, there are large conduits along the hall which can hopefully be utilized. The camera, if there is one, I’ll bypass in the same manner as the first,” I say.

“If you’re talking about a secure entrance like that, how are you going to bypass the encryption? I mean, aren’t those kind of doors magnetically locked?” Frank asks.

“More than likely. However, high heat will break down magnets. I won’t go into the how but I’ve found that magnesium strips work quite well for this. We can find those in just about any school science lab. Just wedge a small strip in the door and light it. The only drawback is that it creates an intense light but, with an inward opening door, that won’t be seen on the other side,” I respond.

I continue, “Once past that, the worry will be any roving patrols that they might have. Luckily, it’s only a short distance. The security room looks small so I’m guessing there are only a couple, three at the most, in there. I’ll gain entrance, take them out, set the fence cameras on playback, and signal for the teams. Robert will be parked in an orbit away from the complex with Lynn and the teams. Once I give the signal, he’ll land nearby and the teams will disembark, heading through the fence and inside, eventually meeting me at the security room. Then we’re onto the next phase.”

“Jack, what about if they have a duplicate security room or a duplicate monitoring location?” Frank asks.

“This has to be the main security room, assuming the diagrams are accurate, and I’ll have control of the cameras. All of the entrances we’ll be using will be running a loop and therefore show nothing. And I’ll figure out the playback system once I’m there. It won’t be that difficult as I’m sure they made the system easy to use along those lines. After all, they’ll need some way to quickly play back something that catches their notice,” I reply. “If, at any point we run against a snag that we can’t circumvent, we’ll pull back. At this point, that won’t be too difficult. That will change though once we get the teams inside. Those will be led by Lynn.”

“Okay, although I’m a little leery of this, I’m with you so far. What do we do next, assuming we get the teams inside?” Lynn asks.

“Here’s the kind of ‘play it by ear’ part,” I say.

“I knew it. I knew there had to be some part of the plan that involved that. You aren’t capable of planning something without it,” Lynn states.

“Well, there has to be a quick response force located somewhere. I’m guessing it has to be either in one of the rooms close to the security room, or near the control center, perhaps even within it. If they’re by the security room, we need to take them out quietly if possible. One of the good things about secure bunkers is their thick walls which will keep any sound from traveling far. If they have interior cameras set up, once we take over the security shop, we’ll be able to identify where they are. So, the next step will be locating this force and eliminating them. We’ll then move en masse to the large vehicle storage bay. You can see, according to the diagram, that everything is centered around that bay. From there we’ll fan out. There are exits on all four sides. There are three halls leading to the south which looks like they are the quarters for the security forces. Lynn, you’ll lead four teams to cover those exits, setting a series of claymores inside the hallways if possible. We’ll be going in at night so most of them will likely be there. There is another hallway which leads to what appears to be maintenance areas, the generators and such. We’ll need this covered as well. Horace, you’ll take your Blue Team and take over the control room which is off the bay on the western side. Watkins, you’ll cover the entrance tunnel we emerge from and provide a reserve force. I’ll take Red Team and cover the wide northern corridor leading from the bay. We’ll neutralize the security forces, or at least hold them in place, take over the control room, and sweep the rest of the facility,” I brief.

“And you thought of this while we were sitting here?” Lynn asks.

“Well, it needs some fine tuning but, yes,” I reply.

“Seems kind of risky to me. I mean, the teams will all be trapped inside if something goes wrong,” Frank states. “This plan makes a few assumptions which may or may not be true. What if they run into any patrols?”

“Once we’re on the move, anyone we see goes down. We move quickly and flow into positions before they can react. The hallway providing the entrance to the security forces will provide for a narrow enfilade in which we can hold them. They won’t be able to come out due to our overwhelming fire into those exits,” I state. “Anyone in the bay itself we take down before they know we’re there.”

“What about the eastern exit?” Watkins asks.

“That looks to be a large one for the vehicles to exit so I doubt we’ll see anyone coming from there. I don’t see any other exits from the bay other than a lift and possibly the main entrance elevator and stairwell on the western side. Watkins will cover those as well seeing they are adjacent to the escape tunnel entrance.”

“I honestly don’t know, Jack. Like I said, it seems awful risky. If the teams get trapped in that bay, it will be the end of them,” Frank says.

“Look, it is risky. But if we don’t do something, it will be the end of us anyway. Like I mentioned, come spring, without the Spooky, we’ll be done for. And that’s not counting what else may happen between now and then. We may not last that long. We’ll effectively be trapped in this compound and reacting to whatever they may try,” I counter.

“You know, for once, I’m with Jack on this. Even though his ‘plans’ give me a gut ache, this one at least seems feasible. There are a lot of ‘ifs’ and we can pull out before committing the teams if something goes wrong.” Turning to me, Lynn asks, “Jack, is it possible that you can truly circumvent the security like you say?”

I look at Lynn and shrug. “It’s not impossible.”

“Okay, so how do we get the teams on the ground?” Lynn asks.

“Well, there’s the tricky part and one I don’t have an answer for as yet,” I reply. “Frank, how many have had the vaccine?”

“Counting Julie, there are twelve that have had it,” he answers.

“Are there any of them on the teams?”

“No, I’ve double-checked that.”

“Okay, good, then let’s see how we can get us on the ground unobserved,” I say.

After some discussion, we decide to use one of the 130s stationed at the Portland guard base. We know our compound is being monitored, and if we stage the 130 from Cabela’s, it will raise flags with the other group. We’ll use semis to transport the teams down and make it look like a supply run, loading the teams into the trailers in our vehicle hangar and disembark into one of the aircraft hangars at the guard base. Extra crews will go along in order to gather supplies and load them into the trailers, furthering the impression that it’s merely a scavenging run. Supplies will also be removed from one of the 130s stationed in Portland and the rear ramp left open. After they are finished, the crews, leaving the teams behind, will return to the compound. With any luck, the other group won’t know that anyone has been left behind and therefore, they won’t be monitoring the site and know that we’re on the way. The plan is for the teams to remain in the Portland hangar for two days, providing it’s secure enough to hold the night runners out. If it isn’t, then the teams will leave that evening. If all goes well, the teams will then leave the hangar two days later at dusk and make their way to the 130.