Paradise Hacked (First Circle Club Book 2) (35 page)

"An ambulance is on the way!" the bartender said.

"I'll wait outside and tell the paramedics where to go," Cat said.

She ran out with her hands full of loot. She waved at Kyle, and he sprinted over.

"What happened?" he said. "Did you drug that guy and steal his stuff?"

"You make it sound so crude." Cat gave him the keys to the Humvee. "Let's get to the motel."

* * *

Virgil was standing and looking over Mei's shoulder. Her laptop was open on a desk in the motel room. It showed a detailed map of Burr Air Force Base, and the distances were measured in tens of kilometers. Huge open spaces were designated for testing missiles and aircraft. The base included two separate airports with gigantic hangars. Directed energy weapons had their own area, but he wasn't sure what the term meant. All the administrative and utility buildings were clustered together at the south end near the main gate.

According to the internet, two thousand people worked and lived there. The good news was that their jobs revolved around aircraft and missiles. Virgil wouldn't have to fight hordes of infantry. No tanks or artillery were stationed on the base. He expected to face plenty of military police though.

"What do you think?" he asked Lisa.

She grimaced. "I hate to admit it, but it's a little intimidating. It's just us against a whole base."

"Hopefully, we'll sneak in and out."

"It won't be that easy."

Somebody knocked on the motel room door. "It's me!" Cat said.

Virgil walked over and opened the door. Cat and Kyle came inside. Virgil spotted a Humvee parked in front of the motel.

"Is the Hummer ours now?" he said.

Cat nodded. "But we can't keep it for too long. When the owner wakes up, he'll report it stolen."

Virgil raised his eyebrows.

She placed a pile of small items on the bed.

"Damn," Virgil said. "You took some sucker for all he was worth. You even stole his ribbons."

"An essential part of any disguise. You have the uniforms?"

"Yes. Kyle, look at this."

Virgil pointed to Mei's laptop. Kyle came over to look.

He frowned at the map. "That's a big base. Where are they keeping Sara and Alfred?"

"We'll find out when we get there," Virgil said. "Ready to go?"

"Not yet," Cat said. "First you and Lisa need haircuts. That long hair isn't military standard. Virgil, you're first. Take a seat."

Virgil sat in a chair, but he wasn't happy about it. He liked his thick, wavy hair.

She produced a pair of scissors from a shopping bag and went to work. She snipped rapidly like a professional barber. He wondered how many times she had done this before.

"Oh, that's creepy," Cat said.

"What?"

"It's already growing back. I can see it. This isn't going to work."

Virgil smirked. "We'll tuck our hair under our collar." He stood up. "Let's get ready to go."

He, Lisa, and Kyle sorted through the stolen uniforms. They got lucky and all found ones that fit reasonably well. Kyle would drive the Humvee, so he wore the ribbons and rank insignia. Lisa and Virgil would stay in the background.

Cat had stolen a clip-on badge, but the face on the badge didn't match Kyle's. She used art supplies Mei had purchased to alter the photograph.

Mei leaned over and watched. "I used to do it that way a long time ago. Now I use computers."

"You make fake ID?" Cat said.

"Half of Chinatown is carrying my cards."

"Hmm. What other useful skills do you have?"

"I'm a wizard with phones," Mei said. "I can trace calls, reroute connections, and track locations. I can even steal numbers."

"You're a handy girl to have around. When the others are gone, we'll talk."

Cat finished working on the badge. Virgil inspected her work, and considering the crude tools she had used, the result was amazing. The photograph was a little blurry and dark, but it could easily pass for Kyle.

"Well done," Virgil said. "Now let's go."

* * *

Virgil saw the main entrance of Burr Air Force Base ahead. Various official shields and symbols decorated a steel archway. A guard post was off to the side. He didn't see a gate, but a barrier could rise up from the roadway if needed. A chain-link fence extended into the distance on both sides of the gate.

Kyle confidently drove up to the guard post, stopped, and showed his badge. A guard wearing blue-gray camouflage waved Kyle through after just glancing at the badge. He drove on.

"Weak security," he muttered.

The buildings on the base were primarily made of concrete slabs. The paint had peeled and faded in many spots. Brick and glass were used for the nicer buildings. Kyle drove past the headquarters which was three stories tall and had a futuristic style.

"Which way?" Kyle said.

Virgil pointed deeper into the base. "There. I can see Alfred a mile or so out."

"You can actually see him from here?"

"Never mind the details. Just keep driving."

They left the cluster of buildings and continued down a narrow road. Virgil saw a sign for the "A.D.I.C.S. Facility" ahead.

The car went over a slight hill, and he looked down onto a square parcel of land protected by a tall fence. The sides of the square were a few hundred yards long. A wooden guard tower stood in one corner. Other small buildings were inside the fence, but a dark tunnel in the center interested Virgil the most. The road went into the ground.

"Alfred is underground," he said.

"Yes," Lisa said. "About two hundred feet down."

"That's inconvenient," Kyle said.

Military police officers in a battered Jeep were already on their way to intercept the intruders. Kyle pulled over and rolled down the window. The Jeep parked next to the Hummer.

"Where do you think you're going?" an MP said in an accusatory tone.

"I think we're a little lost," Kyle said. "Sorry. Where is the directed energy range?"

"Go back and take a left." The MP pointed up the road.

"Thanks."

Kyle backed up, turned around, and drove off.

"Might as well go back to the motel," he said.

"Not quite yet," Virgil said. "Let's drive around a bit. I want to get a feel for the place."

"Risky. We're in a stolen vehicle. The only person carrying identification is me, and it's been scribbled on."

"Just carry on."

Kyle shrugged.

They drove down several of the long roads but turned around whenever a checkpoint blocked their way. Virgil saw some fighter jets and missile launchers, but in general, the base wasn't very impressive. It was mostly vast stretches of dirt with a few fences.

"We can sneak in and out by running across the open spaces at night," Virgil said.

"That's miles and miles of running," Kyle said.

"Not a problem for Lisa or me. We could carry you."

"No, thanks."

"Let's head back to the hotel now," Virgil said. "We've seen enough."

On the way out, they passed a big red fire station in the middle of the base. He furrowed his brow.
That gives me an idea.

* * *

"I still can't believe you're dating Virgil," Cat said. "Doesn't he scare you?"

"A little," Mei said, "especially when he gets that funny look in his eyes, but I know he would never hurt me."

Cat studied the Chinese girl and tried to reconcile the contradictions. Her slim figure and pretty face made her an object of desire. She was the perfect age for dating, too. She could probably have her pick of men. Yet she spent all her time in front of a computer screen, and her laptop was practically another limb. She was wasting her best years. Youth and beauty were fleeting. There would be plenty of time to mess with computers when she was old and fat.

"But he's not really alive, right?" Cat said. "Does his, uh, plumbing work?"

"His performance in bed is more than satisfactory, not that it's any of your business." Mei sniffed.

"He never told me his story. I assume he died and went to Hell. How did he come back?"

"Also none of your business."

"But he was alive once," Cat said.

"The less you know about him, the safer you are," Mei said.

"Does this stuff still freak you out?"

"Sure, but they're nice people... mostly."

"But wait, if Virgil and Lisa went to Hell, how can they be nice?"

Mei paused. "They told me the rules are complicated. Everybody has a mix of good and evil in them. Are consequences more important than intentions? Virgil admitted he made mistakes in life, bad ones. He meant well, but that wasn't enough to get him into Heaven."

Cat looked down at the floor. Countless footsteps had worn down the brown carpet until the backing showed through.

She wondered about her own misdeeds. Was it too late to fix things? Did a certain number of sins guarantee a sentence to Hell regardless? Which sins counted the most, and which good deeds? Was some kind of complex calculation used during final judgement? Not knowing the answers to such critical questions frustrated her immensely.

"You're worried about going to Hell?" Mei said cautiously.

"Yes. That's why I volunteered for this insanity. Do you think it will work?"

"One heroic act won't fix a lifetime of ripping people off."

"I like to think of it as redistributing wealth," Cat said. "I take from the stupid and give to the clever. I just happened to be one of the clever ones."

Mei just stared at her.

"Or maybe not," Cat added lamely.

Somebody knocked on the motel door. "We're back!" Virgil announced.

Cat opened the door. Virgil, Lisa, and Kyle entered, still in their military costumes. Cat gave Kyle a second long look. She loved a man in uniform.

"Mei," Virgil said. "See what you can find out about something called the A.D.I.C.S. Facility. I think Alfred is being held there."

Mei turned to her computer and began typing.

In a surprisingly short time, she reported, "The Alien Decontamination, Isolation, Confinement, and Scholarship Facility. It was built in 1955 as part of a program for defending against possible alien invasion."

"Is it a secret?" Virgil said.

"No. The entire project was declassified in 1991 as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The designs and specifications for the Facility are available on the web. Come look."

He hurried over.

Detailed diagrams were displayed on Mei's laptop. They showed an underground installation constructed from five concentric rings. Each ring was a separate, independent security zone. The "alien containment cell" was in the center. To get there, an intruder would have to weave through all five security zones. Interior checkpoints and blast doors were additional obstacles.

The structure was deep in the ground, so digging through the dirt wasn't an option. The only entrance was a tunnel which curved like a corkscrew.

"Why would they put Alfred and Sara in a declassified facility?" Virgil said.

"Maybe they forgot it's declassified," Mei said. "It happened a long time ago. And the place was built for this specific purpose."

"Typical government screw-up," Kyle said. "Let me take a look. I've had some experience penetrating secure facilities."

Virgil made room. Kyle stared at the diagrams with a thoughtful expression. He used the mouse to expand sections and flip to different images.

He sighed. "This is going to be tough. That place is an underground fortress. You and Lisa are amazing fighters, but I don't think it's physically possible for you to get in there."

"What if they wore a disguise?" Cat said.

"A disguise won't be enough. They would need proper credentials and maybe passwords. And even if they managed to get in, rescuing Alfred and Sara is an impossible task by itself. The guards won't let you walk out with aliens no matter how good your credentials are."

Virgil pointed at a spot on the diagram. "What's this?"

"Looks like the main power junction," Mei said. "The facility runs on external power normally, but it can switch to a generator in an emergency."

"And that's the air intake for the generator?" He touched another spot. "It goes straight down."

"I think you're right, and this big tube is the air intake for the whole facility."

Virgil smiled grimly. "I have an idea, but we need bombs and tear gas.
Lots
of tear gas. We'll turn that place into a black, smoky hell."

Kyle's eyes widened. "That might just work, but what about the soldiers on the surface?"

"Lisa and I can take them out. Then we'll go down and rescue Alfred and Sara. The guards will be in no condition to fight us."

"And how will you escape afterwards?"

"That's the brilliant part," Virgil said. "You'll pick us up in an ambulance and just drive away."

"I will?" Kyle said.

Virgil nodded. He turned to Mei and said, "Assuming that works, let's think about what happens afterwards. We still need to locate Colonel Knox and his crew. I expect he'll get a phone call shortly after the rescue. Can you trace that call?"

"Maybe. I'll need to tap the right line. It will take a little research."

"Get started. I want to do this tonight."

"Ambitious," Kyle said.

"No reason to mess around," Virgil said. "Our first step is acquiring explosives and tear gas. We could go back to the base and rob the supply depot."

Cat shook her head. "We don't want to rile up base security prematurely. We'll buy what we need. You have money, right?"

"Sure. Cash and gold."

"Perfect. You, I, and Kyle will go shopping."

"What about me?" Lisa said.

Cat gave her a sympathetic look. "We'll be talking to ignorant, back-country hicks with guns. I don't want to offend or sound racist, but they might not like your skin color."

"Oh." Lisa frowned. "I'll just hang out with Mei, the other token minority on the team."

"I knew you would understand. Come on, guys. We'll buy new costumes on the way."

* * *

Virgil didn't like his new cowboy boots. The leather was stiff, and the hard heels made it impossible to walk quietly. His new jeans were more comfortable. They had been purchased at a thrift store so they already had the right amount of wear and tear. A blue flannel shirt was the last piece of his costume. He was glad Cat hadn't insisted he wear a cowboy hat.