Brain Storm (US Edition) (32 page)

"I wouldn't have believed she could mount an escape like this on her own. But after that display. Man, she's fast and she's strong. And she's still just a kid."

"She isn't a child, she's a weapon. Don't forget that."

One of the men delivered a final blow to her head that slammed it hard into the cold floor and she finally succumbed to the empty black.

***************

The Omnitech regional headquarters had closed down for the day a few hours ago. Most of the workers had left the building then and the last
visitor’s tour had ended an hour or so before that. Sara had decided against joining one of the tours to get a look around the building before trying to infiltrate the building and get the information they were after. If Omnitech were indeed behind everything that had gone on over the last few days they would surely have alerted all of the security staff at all of their facilities to be on the lookout for Carla and herself. It wasn't worth the risk of being identified and apprehended just to see the parts of its operation that Omnitech made available for public viewing. It wasn't like they would be walking along and see a door marked 'top secret' and know that what they wanted was in there.

It was just starting to get dark. Sara and Carla were watching the side of the Omnitech building. The streets were quite empty with most of the shops and other business closed up for the day. It was still too early for the night life to really start coming out on the streets but there were some eager people wanting to get started early. Along with the stragglers who were late going home from a day at work or out shopping there were enough people so that Sara and Carla didn't stand out too much.

They stood together as though they were chatting so that it wouldn't be obvious that they were conducting surveillance on the Omnitech building. Carla's eyes went wide and she reached up to rub her left shoulder, the signal that she had seen something behind Sara that could be a problem. Sara turned, making the movement seem casual. She heard the thumping footsteps even as she saw the security mech turn the corner some way down the street and start towards them. She turned back to Carla just as casually.

"It can't have identified us from that distance. Just turn around and walk along with me. Nice and casual. It will be programmed to come after us if we run."

Sara led Carla around the first corner they came to. They kept on going up that street, made another couple of turns that took them along the bottom of a glowing advertisement projected almost holographically, and came back up to their previous position just as the security mech turned the opposite way at the end of the street.

"We should be able to get into the building easily enough," Sar
a said. "Once we're inside you have to follow my lead. Do exactly what I tell you without questioning it, okay?"

Carla nodded her understanding. Now that they were about to do this her fear was starting to show.

Sara put her hand on the younger woman's shoulder and spoke softly, "You don't have to do this. I can go in alone."

Carla straightened and set her face with her resolve. She looked Sara in the eyes her gaze unwavering as she said, "I'll do it."

Sara nodded. "Follow me."

The Omnitech building had surveillance cameras covering every door or window on the lower floor, which was nothing special just basic good practice. This area of the city might be largely off limits for the inhabitants of the poorer sectors but some of them could still get through. And a corporation like Omnitech didn't just have to worry about general theft or vandalism by the disaffected masses. Omnitech had to be alert for attempts at corporate espionage by rival companies. You could only patent something after it was fully completed and had progressed through an often lengthy patenting procedure. Until then it was a race to be the first to complete all  the preliminary testing if a rival gained access to your work it could save them years and end up costing billions if they managed to get the patent before you.

Sara had been unable to get a close look at any of these access points because of the constant surveillance. She had to keep out of view of those cameras at all costs in case they were linked up to a face recognition system. Because of this Sara had been unable to identify the type of alarms that Omnitech had without doubt rigged up on every possible point of entry. Even though she had never planned on entering through one of these points it would have made her life easier to get a look at more of their security set-up. Whatever system they had in place on the lower doors and windows was likely to be the same as that higher up where Sara did hope to be able to gain access. Knowledge of the alarm type before encountering it would allow her to be better prepared and would help to
minimize the risks. But you couldn't have everything.

Before she could even consider trying to bypass the security on the higher windows, Sara had to get herself and Carla up there. Climbing the building wouldn't pose much of a problem for Sara and Carla would be able to follow her up a rope.
The real problem would be in doing it without being seen by people walking past or by the numerous security cameras covering the building.

The by-passers were the easiest problem to avoid. They were concentrated around three sides of the building. None walked down the alley at the back where the Omnitech building butted up against the combined backs of a department store and a general purpose office building. Both buildings were several stories high but were dwarfed by the towering corporation regional headquarters. The size of the buildings made the alley between them of a sizeable length so that at a position near to the middle a person would be out of sight of
passersby as they walked past either end. The security cameras that covered the back of these buildings also only covered the likely entry points and could be easily avoided.

There was a point just over halfway along the building where it widened making the alley narrower between the Omnitech building and the back of the
neighboring one. A door was positioned facing across the alley and it was covered by a pair of security cameras. Fortunately the way the building widened created a blind spot in the recess and this was where Sara planned to make her climb. She told Carla to wait for her at the bottom. The younger woman knew to keep herself pressed back against the wall as much as possible to avoid being seen while Sara was busy higher up. She also knew that if there was any trouble, if Sara triggered any alarms when Carla was still waiting, that she was to start running and not look back. Sara had given her a rendezvous point and time where they could link back up if they got separated. If either one of them failed to show for the rendezvous the other would know that they weren't coming. That they had been captured or killed.

Sara studied the point where the wall jutted outwards for a couple of
meters. The right angle join was not a perfect match. Sara placed her fingers into the gap where the two walls met. It was a  tight fit and the rough walls started cutting into her skin even before she put any strain on them. She forced her fingers in deeply to grip the wall and then stepped up to put her feet on the walls as well. Her fingers strained to keep her supported. Steadily she moved one hand up followed by the other then she stepped her feet up and repeated the movements. By the time she reached the ledge outside the nearest first floor window her fingers were torn, bloodied and starting to go numb.

Sara released her grip in the gap with one hand and reached across to grasp the ledge. Next she let go of the gap with her other hand and moved that alongside her other. She pulled herself up by the fingertips to get a look inside the window.

There wasn't much to see. The inside of the room was dark and Sara couldn't make out anything any distance inside. It wasn't occupied though and there was no open door leading off to a hallway where people could look through and see her.

Sara then turned her attention to the window and
its frame. The ledge of the window wasn't wide enough for her to pull herself up onto it so she had to perform her study while dangling several meters off the floor. Sara let go of the ledge and reached into the pocket on her backpack. Just like on an operation for ECSIS Sara had arranged all of the equipment in her pack in the order she was likely to need it. She knew where every piece was so that she could get exactly wanted without having to rummage around. She brought out a pair of glasses and closed the pocket on the pack, she didn't want things to start dropping out.

With the glasses on her face Sara could see the infrared beams cutting across inside the window. Sara reached back into her pack for some glass cutters. Her hand and arm was starting to feel the strain of supporting her but she shut it out of her mind. She had to concentrate. The infrared beams were positioned inside the window but the only way to get at them or the boxes they came out of would be by opening the window which would break the beams and all hell would break loose. Sara used the glass cutters to cut out a small section of the pane close to each of the infrared boxes. It was a laborious process but Sara had to take her time otherwise the glass she cut free could easily fall inwards and break one of the beams.

Sara's arm was in a lot of pain from holding her up for so long and Sara took a break with all of the glass holes cut to hang from both hands. She only gave herself a few moments rest and then she moved back into her previous one armed position and started to bypass the infrared boxes. They weren't linked so she got to work on them one at a time being sure to keep her omni-tool from moving in front of any of the beams.

It took another few minutes to bypass each beam and her left arm that was supporting her was starting to throb. When she was done Sara easily defeated the lock on the window and pushed  it open. She pulled herself fully up and the over the window sill and into what turned out to be a small office.

Sara went back into her pack and pulled out a length of thin rope. It wasn't as thin or as strong as the type of rope she would have been able to get had she still been working with the division but it should be more that strong enough to hold Carla.

When the rope was lowered down the younger woman wrapped it around her body and under her arms as Sara had demonstrated she should. Sara leaned back with her feet pushing against the wall and started to pull Carla up. The other woman would also be walking her feet up the wall to take some of the effort out of getting her up.

Soon after both women were standing in the Omnitech regional headquarters preparing to start a search to clear their names. Neither one of them had any idea where such proof could be found nor even if there would be any to be had.

Chapter
Twenty-six

They had started by taking a quick look through the office they first found themselves in. Sara hadn't expected to find anything, that would be too much of a coincidence, but since they were already there it made a good place to start. It turned out that there wasn't anything much to find, the office belonged to one of Omnitech's team of accountants and most of what she found meant little to Sara, all she knew was that it wasn't what they were looking for.

"Come on."

Sara listened at the door from the office to the hallway. It didn't sound as though there was anybody out there so she pulled the door open and looked outside. The hallway was as dark as the  office. It stretched for about fifty meters total, with the office Sara was in three quarters of the way to one end. Other doors opened off the hallway. At either end there were doors to elevators and at the far end a door beside the elevator was marked as a fire escape. There were no internal security cameras in the hallway. It was dark but not difficult to see. The carpeted floor should help to reduce any noise they made when moving around.

Sara had no idea how they were supposed to search a building this size for any information that related to herself or Carla. She was used to being told exactly
where she was supposed to go in a mission briefing, before she ended up in a place like this she would have studied floor plans and would have a list of target locations and objectives. Sara had had no idea of where they ought to start looking, she had concentrated at first on simply getting this far, she had sort of hoped that inspiration would strike once she was on site.

"So, where do we go from here?" Carla asked following Sara out into the hallway.

Sara turned to face the younger woman. She tried to look as though she knew what she was doing. This was the kind of stuff she was used to and if she didn't look sure of herself the younger woman, who was in this for the first time, would be unlikely to have any confidence in her.

"This building is too large for us to search it methodically, office by office, room by room," Sara said, stalling for time as she tried to come up with a plan of action.

Carla nodded. "And anything that implicates them in our situation isn't likely to be left around just anywhere. Every Omnitech employee can't be in on it."

Sara nodded as an idea came to her. "Whatever they are up to they will
want to keep it secret. That means security. We need to search through the building until we come to areas that they are trying to keep secret and secure, and then we look through them for information on what they are up to and how it connects to you."

They didn't know whether what they were after would be found above or below them. Sara decided to give the choice to Carla, the younger woman had proved to have more than her fair share of luck, enough to cause Sara to be suspicious of her on occasion, and while Sara didn't like to trust to luck she figured that on this occasion they could use all the help they could get.