Debra Webb - Colby Justice

Steele shook his head before anyone else could answer her question. “We’ve taken precautions to ensure no one can see us.”

“Just in case,” Jim put in, “the enemy has a thermal imager, too. That’s the one precaution we can take in advance.”

Penny felt her brow furrow in confusion. How was that possible? All living bodies exuded heat. “What do you mean?”

Lucas pointed to the suit she wore. “There’s a material built into your suit as well as the headgear in your pack that blocks your body heat from being picked up by a scan. Once you’re ready to go inside—” he gestured to Steele’s duffel “—you’ll put on the necessary headgear. You’ll be completely invisible to them and to us as far as thermal scans go.”

If the situation hadn’t been so dire, she might have actually been impressed. At the moment she was simply grateful for the cover, she decided, determined to maintain some measure of optimism. Dying on her first assignment definitely wasn’t on her agenda. “I’ve always wanted to be invisible.”

“We’re counting on the two of you,” Jim said, his voice as weary and worried as his expression. “This could very well be the only chance we get.” He opened his mouth, hesitated, then said, “Good luck.”

More offers of good luck were called after them as Penny followed Ben to the rear exit on the first floor of the temporary command center.

Before exiting the building, they donned their winter coats, more for not drawing attention to their strange attire than for comfort. Anyone they ran into might very well report seeing such bizarrely dressed pedestrians at this time of the morning.

As they stepped outside into the cold winter air, Penny wondered how the suit could block their heat signatures but didn’t do a whole hell of a lot for keeping them warm against the frigid Chicago temperature. Even with a coat and gloves she was freezing. The shoes were not designed for the snow and ice, and the soles of her feet and her toes chilled almost instantly. She breathed deeply of the cold air. Gathered her strength and courage.

She would need every ounce she possessed to do this right. Years of therapy and determination had marginalized her irrational fears of the dark and tight spaces. She could do this. She had to do this. The job was far too important to her to screw it up on the first day.

Fate had one hell of a sense of humor. Her first assignment was all about darkness and cramped quarters.

“We’re taking the long way around,” Steele told her as he led the way along one of the city’s most well-known thoroughfares. “We’ll cross the street farther up the block and then cut along the alleyway. We’ll access the Colby building through the basement of the neighboring building. I’ve prepared the entry point.”

They’d gone over the strategy twice. She understood that stealth had to be a priority since there was no cover of darkness at this hour of the morning. Waiting for nightfall, hours from now, was out of the question. As Jim had so aptly pointed out, every minute they lost was one that might cost Victoria’s life or the lives of one or more of the others being held against their will.

The structure next to the Colby Agency building housed commercial office space, employees were already arriving but she and Steele would blend into the harried crowd. Not attracting attention was a must.

As he said, Steele had already been in the basement and spent hours achieving the essential modifications. But it wasn’t until Penny was in the basement facing the new opening in the three-feet-thick concrete support wall that separated the underground floor of the two buildings that she understood exactly what he’d accomplished in those long hours before her arrival. The Colby Agency had ensured none of the building’s maintenance crew entered the basement by warning that the problem with the adjacent building was being assessed from the area.

Clearly noticing that her jaw had dropped in surprise, he gestured to the small rectangular hole in the wall a couple of feet up from the floor. “This is our way in,” he said drily. “Our only way in or out.”

She visually measured the width of his broad shoulders, then surveyed the opening once more. “Could be a problem if we’re in a hurry to get back out.” Her throat closed, making it impossible to draw in a deep breath. The opening was damned small…but only three feet to the other side, she reminded herself. Not a problem. She could handle wiggling through.

“Once we get beyond a certain point, if they detect our presence—” Steele retrieved his headgear from his backpack, prompting Penny to do the same “—chances are we won’t need to get out.”

Inside, 9:05 a.m.

Ben Steele waited as Alexander snaked her body through the small opening he’d managed to sculpt out of the concrete wall separating the basement level of the building they’d entered from the one next door—the building that housed the Colby Agency.

Several hours had been required to slowly, carefully ease through the separating wall. A combination of low-impact charges and special mining drills had done the job an inch at a time without detection by the enemy. Every vibration had had to be measured precisely to ensure as little noise as possible.

The slightest sound could have warned the enemy.

Once Alexander’s feet had disappeared, Ben shrugged off his coat and dropped it to the floor next to hers. He pushed his backpack through the opening and then positioned himself to slide through the fifteen-by-twenty-inch passageway. He canted one shoulder to fit. Tight as hell but not impossible.

His palms flattened on the concrete floor of the neighboring basement. Alexander was already on her feet and waiting for his next order.

Ben walked his body out via his hands and pushed up to a standing position. He tapped his mic twice to inform those listening back at the command center that they were in. Via Ben’s earpiece, Ian Michaels passed along that every glowing image of the enemy remained on the fourth floor.

That was good news.

After positioning an upright, wheeled tool chest in front of the opening by which they had entered, Ben moved to the far side of the massive room and pointed to the ventilation duct that ran upward from the enormous portion of the HVAC system housed in the basement. Another section was secured on the roof. Ben had removed an access panel to the return duct on his previous visit, but then he’d repositioned it so as not to draw attention. He removed the panel once more while she watched. Since he hadn’t secured it fully, removing it was quick and easy and surprisingly soundless.

Alexander moved up beside him and surveyed the one entrance available for reaching the upper floors without using the stairs or the elevators. The main trunk of the heating and cooling system’s return duct.

The return ductwork’s main trunk was very nearly the same size as the one carrying the heated or cooled air. However, the maze of piping for the climate-controlled air branched off into numerous flex lines taking the heated or cooled air to the individual rooms of each floor. The return, on the other hand, remained large enough to maneuver as well as having more than one branch off to each floor that was equally sizable enough to use as an exit or entrance. Here, in the basement, an access point to this main trunk was provided for maintenance purposes.

Ben had attempted to make the journey alone, but certain parts of the intricate and narrow metal path made maneuvering upward without assistance out of the question. Unfortunately, accessing this metal tunnel required a certain flexibility not possessed by most with the needed physical strength and endurance.