Dale Brown - Act of War

“That’s easy, Special Agent DeLaine—they’re bad guys, not suspects, and they got their hands on a nuclear device,” Jason said. “If we find them, we should go in and shut them down. CID was developed to do that with speed and power. What else is there to do?”

“Folks, I don’t have time to teach you every aspect of a successful investigation while we’re standing here,” Kelsey said impatiently. “I have lots of work to do, and so do you. I’ll meet up with you in New Mexico. Good-bye.” She turned her attention to the cellular phone, dismissing them.

“Wave bye-bye to the nice FBI agent, El Cid,” Jason said. The robot turned toward Kelsey and waved a massive mechanical right hand. Kelsey ignored it. Jason whispered something else to the robot, and it raised its arms and shook its hips in her direction. That she couldn’t ignore. She rolled her eyes and shook her head in exasperation and headed for the exit.

Ari gave the command to retire, and the robot folded itself up so she and Jason could pick it up and stow it in the back of the Humvee. “How soon can you break down the lab and get it ready to move, Ari?” Jason asked.

“No sweat, J,” Vega responded. “My boyfriend broke up with me, so I got nothin’ better to do than work in the lab. This is just freaky, dude, freaky. We’re going to be this top-secret bad-guy hunting posse. Awesome!”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe what, man? You think we’re being scammed or somethin’?”

Jason went into the cab of the Humvee and punched instructions into a small palm-sized computer. Moments later several unusual-looking devices appeared: two large devices that looked like giant cat-sized cockroaches crawled down the walls of the warehouse and over to them; and a trash can–sized device with a ducted fan propulsion system, mechanical arms, and a large telescopic sensor underneath slowly flew over. “I don’t think we’re being told the whole story.”

“You mean that dude Chamberlain? He is for sure one scary-assed bad boy. I mean, schizoid.”

“He’s smart, Ari,” Jason mused. “So why would he pick me for this job? I’m just an engineer. I haven’t been in the field since…well, I’ve never been in the field, unless you count Officer Candidate School or Aberdeen Proving Grounds. And what about DeLaine?”

“I think that Chamberlain guy has got the hots for her.” She glanced at Jason and smiled. “I see you checking her out too, J. You like her too? Want her to put you in handcuffs and interrogate you?”

“She’s an intelligence officer, and obviously the director thinks she’s competent,” Jason said, ignoring Ari’s remarks, “but I don’t get the feeling she’s an experienced field agent either. It looks like Chamberlain picked two newbies to run this task force. Why would he do that?”

“That grunt is gung-ho enough for all of us put together.”

“Jefferson—well, that’s easy: he’s Chamberlain’s spy. He’ll keep a close eye on us for the boss, keep us in line.”

“Well, you and me are the gadget guys, J, and Kelsey DeLaine, the G-babe, will work the intel side,” Ari said. “The grunt will keep everybody in line, and Chamberlain will take all the credit. Sounds pretty simple to me.” She slapped Jason excitedly on the shoulder. “And we get to take El Cid out into the world and take down some really evil characters. I love it!”

Jason retrieved one of the “cockroaches” and plugged it into a computer terminal built into the front cab of the Humvee. It immediately gave him a list of cellular phone calls and radio transmissions that had taken place in the past hour. “FANBOT Two is still outside?”

“Roger,” Ari said. “It’ll follow Chamberlain for another fifteen minutes or so, report on where he goes and where he stops, download his phone calls, then head on back.” She looked over Jason’s shoulder at the intercept log. “His phone is scrambled, so we can’t hear what he’s saying, but we can pick up the numbers he’s calling.”

“Some of them we can’t, apparently,” Jason said. “Completely blank numbers and EINs.”

“Bizarre,” Ari said. “I thought we had every domestic and international ID code programmed into our computers. He’s got a bunch that we’ve never scanned before.”

“Well, he is the National Security Adviser,” Jason mused. “He probably talks with military and government leaders and spooks all over the world. Still…”

“Give me and the kids a few days and we’ll break out the EINs on those calls,” Ari said. “The numbers might take a while longer.”

“See what you can do,” Jason said. “If he’s got untraceable codes then he can probably change them quickly, so it might not help us, but maybe it’ll give us clues on what kind of technology he’s using to block his codes from our scanners.”

“I’m on it, J.”

Jason scrolled through the list of intercepts until he came across a call from Kelsey’s new cellular phone, the one given to them by Chamberlain. Clicking on the item opened up an audio media playback window:

“G-3, Cortez.”

“Hi, Rudy. It’s me. Meeting’s over.”

“New phone, Kel? I didn’t recognize the caller ID.”

“Got it from Chamberlain himself. I’ll fill you in when I get there, but I’m going to need your help. They’re sending me TDY to New Mexico. I need to build a special access server so I can get into my files on the road and search the Bureau’s intelligence database.”

“What for?”

“It’s an antiterrorist project being run by the White House. But get this: they’re pairing me up with this complete Army nerd from Louisiana.”

“That’s harsh, man,” Ari said.

“Shh.”

“Him and his even geekier sidekick have developed this…cyborg…”

“Who’s she calling a geek?” Ari protested.

“Shut it, Ari.”

“Cyborg? You’re kidding me, right?”

“It’s a robot that he can climb inside and it runs and jumps like a bat out of hell and carries cannons on its back and folds up into a suitcase.”

“Bullshit.”

“I saw it myself, Rudy. It’s pretty incredible. But the NSC thinks that we’re going to zip around the world in this thing breaking down doors and mowing down terrorists.”

“You’re shitting me. This will screw up years of investigative work.”

“I think it’s all some big power play by Chamberlain. Don’t worry—I’ll squash the cyber-Rambo wannabes. Anyway, I’m supposed to help set up this task force.”

“No way the director is going to approve you getting involved with this.”

“The director was here, Rudy. He’s not totally convinced, but he gave me the go-ahead.”

“Kingman City has got everyone flustered and running around like chickens with their heads cut off. This is bullshit.”

“I know, I know. I’ll be in major cover-my-ass mode, and I’ll need to protect the director’s six too. Fortunately the army guy and his flunky are barely one or two generations more advanced than a lab rat.”

“Flunky! Who’s she callin’ a flunky?”

“Shh!”

“Aren’t they all?”

“I’ll make sure I’m in charge. I just need you to help me get a secure server set up so I can get into my files, and back me up in case things start going south.”

“No sweat, Kel. If the boss signed off on this, getting the server set up will be a piece of cake. You’ll be able to test it from home tonight. You going to use satellite DES?”

“I’ll likely be moving quite a bit, so yes, I’ll access it via satellite.”

“Got it. Everything will be optimized for secure satellite downlink. Won’t be as fast as what you normally get but it’ll be available anywhere except the Poles.”