Chris parked the van on a side street a block from the library. "Okay, campers, everyone out", he announced with a meaningful grin in Tyler's direction. The latter was not amused. "See you at the pickup point," Chris continued. "All of you, got it?"
Tyler, Donovan, Maggie, Elias and Caleb were going to blend in with the many Visitors and general public filing into the building. From the lobby they'd take one of the corridors that led to the (former) offices and (current) communications center, where they'd plant the usual C4 and timers. Julie and Robert were headed in another direction, to enter the library through a back entrance.
"We're working light this time," Tyler had explained as they packed up the explosives earlier. "Even lizard TV and radio doesn't take much to knock out. And these extra charges have a little incendiary bonus… buh-bye to recordings and anything they want to store for later 'editing'."
Now the five of them strolled casually toward the entrance, mingling with other uniformed Visitors and civilian invitation holders. No special security passes had been created this time; they used the ones that had served them well on other operations, altered by Angie and Willie for use in this particular building's security system. Dressed in the uniforms, hats, and oversized goggles they blended with the scores of other Visitors. They were scanned through without incident.
"They're getting cocky," Tyler commented as they took a look around the entry hall.
"Looks like holding off on raids for the past couple of weeks was a good idea," Caleb commented under his breath. "They figure they have the upper hand now."
"No brain, no pain," smirked Donovan as Tyler returned from a quick circuit around the room. "Good to go?"
"Yup. Found that exit right where she said it'd be. Looks like real open house day, but I don't think they're gonna be taking anyone on a tour of the communications center. Angie said skeleton crews everywhere except the main halls and auditorium, and broadcast and recording is all set up to go automatic." He grinned and shook his head. "Can't wait to meet Peterson in the 'green room'."
The plan was for Maggie, Elias, Caleb and Donovan to set the charges while Tyler found Peterson. Rather than raise hell by taking him by force, he'd be told there'd been intelligence intercepted from the Resistance that a possible raid had been planned and he'd be taken off-site for his own safety. That'd keep him quiet until they actually were out the back door and into the waiting Visitor sky cruiser.
Julie and Robert made their way around the rear of the building, encountering a single disinterested guard at the loading bay exit.
"We got called in for extra security," Robert explained. No further explanation was required. When he swiped his access card, that (and his altered voice) seemed to be confirmation enough for the guard. They were inside quickly, and on their way to the biophysics area, using the deserted back corridors that had been indicated on the maps Angie provided.
"Shit this is just like some dumbass movie cliché," Angie muttered to herself as she monitored the "Friendly Human" download she'd dragged and dropped from the file directory. No little progress bars, flying pages, or hourglasses, just a blinking light on the console whose screen she'd switched off. She was supposed to be simply sitting around in the department to re-direct any visitors (no pun intended) who may wander off the guided tours. And she was to contact central security immediately if anyone truly unauthorized, as opposed to accidental, happened to trespass. As "extra security" Angie hadn't been issued a weapon, but of course she'd brought her own. The automatic scanners she passed through at the employees' entrance every day only detected Earth-type weapons, the hand blaster tucked in the back of her waistband triggered nary a blip. She checked the chronometer on the desk next to her. Julie and Robert were due any minute.
"Hard at work I see."
The unexpected voice shocked Angie right out of her seat, but she had the presence of mind to slide nearby clipboard so it blocked the blinking file transfer light on her console.
"Shit!" she exploded. "Are you trying to kill me or what?"
Todd looked a little contrite, for a Visitor anyway. "I didn't mean to startle you. You seemed disappointed to miss the presentation so I thought I'd stay here for awhile and give you the chance to go see some of it."
Oh, great. What a time to be Mr. Considerate.
"Uh, no that's okay. I don't go in for big crowds. I can catch it later on the Visitor Network anyway." With any luck it'll be a smoking ruin later. Was he looking at her a little strangely? Nah, just surprised she didn't take him up on his offer, she supposed.
"I also wanted to explain… I have considered our arrangement… our relationship, ended. Because I have learned as much as I believe you could teach me about human relationships. I believed Daniel when he said there was no more point to them than 'getting laid'. I have decided his is a shallow perspective, and there was no further need to engage in intimate relations with you, if it only could provide a limited picture. I have begun to study some human sociology to obtain a fuller understanding."
Angie found it puzzling that he felt he should be telling her this. "Well that's good, I guess. Hey, no hard feelings or anything. I've been pretty busy myself, and you and me, well that was going nowhere fast. And for the record, you're right about Daniel. If he were any shallower he'd be a convex surface." A vague smile appeared on Todd's face, so vague Angie decided it had to be genuine.
"Humor… I'd like to explore that too… but it's seems more complex than interpersonal relationships."
She had to ask. "Why is it you're so interested in all of this stuff about us? I mean, your people are in charge now aren't you? For the most part, I mean. Why be so interested in the details of a conquered race?"
"Because one day I expect we will be sharing Earth instead of conquering it. It will be important to understand the species that we will be sharing it with."
Well. He never had been as militant as some of the others. No better than he should be, of course… he was no Fifth Columnist by a long shot. Angie shrugged. There was no such thing as a benevolent conqueror, so she dismissed his words as idle philosophizing.
"If you're certain you don't want to attend the presentation, I'll return to the event."
"Yeah, thanks Todd but I'm good here."
He nodded and walked away. For reasons she'd never understand, even much later, Angie called after him. "Todd? Tell me something, will you?"
He stopped and turned to face her. "What do you wish to know?"
Angie rose from her desk and took a few steps toward him so she could look him in the eye. "When you decided that we were over, why didn't you do it, you know, 'officially'? The battle, and all that?"
He looked as if she were being obtuse. "There was no need. You're human, not like us."
"So nobody cared that you didn't maintain the ritual, I guess."
"Yes," he nodded, then added casually, "I saw no need to injure you for the sake of a custom nobody would expect."
"Oh. Uh, thanks. See you later."
"Perhaps."
He hadn't been gone a minute when Robert and Julie slipped in through the side door next to the main computer room, a small black satchel slung over Julie's shoulder.
"Okay, point us to the module and we're good to go," she told Angie. "Hey, you all right?"
Angie shook her head to clear it. "Yeah, fine. This way," she led them into the glassed-in room-within-a-room and pointed to a small metallic rectangle plugged into a larger unit. "There it is. I've disabled the data interruption alarm for that module, so you can just slip it out." Robert did just that, and dropped it in Julie's satchel.
"That's it?" he asked. "I was expecting something a little more challenging."
"Well we haven't gotten out yet," Julie reminded him. "Okay, let's go."
Angie was half a step behind them, and then remembered her download (she was not yet willing to share that information with her companions). "You go on, I have to make sure the alarm is permanently off." Or some such bullshit, she thought to herself as she returned to her console. Julie and Robert stood staring at her. "It's okay, guys, I know the way, remember?"
"All right, but you'd better be no more than a minute or two behind us. When Donovan and the others come out, we've got to be ready to go."
Angie was already at her desk. "Yeah, go on, I'll be right there I promise!" Goddammit, the file still had a small way to go. Well, she supposed it had to be a big one. There were probably plenty of asshole humans willing to sell out to the Visitors.
Elias and Caleb were busy setting the explosives in the automated communications center, Maggie keeping watch in the doorway, as Donovan caught up with Tyler.
"You sure you don't want me to do this?" It didn't seem to Mike that Tyler was the logical choice for luring Peterson to his capture. Not only was he better suited to make sure the explosives were set and timed properly, there was the matter of Angie's relationship with that sleazebag… it just seemed a little too close to home to have Tyler that involved.
Tyler was glaring. "I know the plan, Gooder, don't worry about me getting it right. You just make sure the job gets finished here, and catch up with me behind the auditorium." From there they'd take the back corridor to the loading bay behind the library, and make the dash across the parking lot to the waiting Fifth Columnist and the "borrowed" Visitor transport. The destruction of the communications center was timed to give them an additional diversion while they escaped, but none of it was an exact science. Before Donovan could respond, Tyler was off to find Peterson.
It was a quick route from the comm center to the "green room" behind the auditorium. Tyler entered without knocking, and found Dr. David Peterson in what could be termed an intimate chat-up with a young lady some years his junior. No surprise there, he was bound to be a serial asshole. He was just finishing telling the young lady in question, who was hanging on every word, about the painful loss of the love of his life… a woman he'd known in Boston, who didn't make it out in time. Tyler felt his commitment to the mission slip just a bit, and barely remembered to engage his voice synthesizer.
"Dr. Peterson," Tyler announced, "its been learned the rebels are planning a raid. I've been sent to keep you secure while the threat is investigated." He nodded to the young woman. "You'll have to leave." Run for your life, sweetheart. The young lady reluctantly complied.
"We'll continue our conversation later," Peterson assured her with a winning smile, then turned to Tyler. "How long will this take? I have an important address to make."
Yeah, how to turn kids against their own, Tyler sneered internally.
"They'll inform me when it's all clear." He studied Peterson as the latter sat down and reviewed his notes. Just the kind of guy a smart woman would find appealing… if she was blinded by brains.
"Why don't you sit down, no sense not being comfortable while we wait," Peterson invited.
Tyler sat, still looking in the direction of the door where the young woman exited. "Uh-huh," he grunted. "Lots of ways to be 'comfortable' in this occupation, huh?"
Peterson's expression became self-indulgent. "Perks to any job… more power, more perks."
"Go where the power is, and get all you want."
"That says it all." Now Peterson nodded toward the door. "Amazing how many women can't get enough of a good vocabulary and a little intelligent conversation. To think of the time I wasted in my youth, chasing after empty heads."
With a terse gesture indicating the building beyond the room, Tyler noted, "Libraries must be good hunting ground for that." He knew he was flirting with blowing his cover, but cared less the more he saw of this self-satisfied, traitorous prick. Peterson was looking at him a little oddly, though… lizards wouldn't have much of a taste for young human women except in the literal sense. "Get lots of converts that way… for the 'program'."
"Oh, right," Peterson nodded smugly. "Converts, and rebels too. Once you tap into what someone's interests are, it's amazing how quickly they trust you. History and philosophy, two great topics for loosening the political opinions of others."
"Got you pretty far, I guess." It was getting harder to feign neutral lizard interest.
"You have no idea."
"You must have scored some big points back in Boston. Word gets around." Shit. Tyler realized his syntax was almost entirely human, but it was too late to shift gears. Peterson didn't seem to notice, he was too into his own ego now.
"I confess my accomplishments there were a hard act to follow. Helping to bring down and entire city's worth of resistance," he leaned forward and winked confidentially, making Tyler want to puke, "not to mention an entire city, that laid some important groundwork for what we're announcing today. Whole classrooms of children brought in week by week. More members than the Visitors could ever get on their own, because I'm recruiting their teachers, who will recruit the children, who will recruit their parents, and so on."
"Lots of impressionable women there. That what you did in Boston?"
"No, I simply gained the confidence of a library employee." The smug smile appeared again. "She loved to talk about her friends as much as history and philosophy. It didn't take much to track their activities. And another young lady… well," the smile became a leer. "It's amazing how an earnest, unsociable thing can open up when presented with the right scenario. Frankly I didn't expect she'd 'engage' so quickly with a supposedly married man, it was part of the scenario that I never banked on bearing benefits."
Tyler faked confusion. "Humans are a strange bunch. Being married was like bait?" he asked.
"Actually it was intended to have the opposite effect. Can't have people getting too deep into my day-to-day life, so it was safer to appear hands-off. But this one, well she was surprisingly willing to accept things as they were, so why deny myself a little recreation?"
"Sure, why not?" The edge that sharpened in Tyler's voice got Peterson's attention, and the latter looked at him with open challenge.
"You're awfully interested in my personal life, for a military functionary," he observed suspiciously.
Tired of the game, Tyler rose and checked his watch. "Okay, time to go. We're moving you. For your own safety." The last word was grossly exaggerated.
"I don't think so," Peterson sat more firmly in his seat, and shook his head negative. "I think I'd like to have a word with your superior first, to confirm what's happening."
Tyler jerked Peterson to his feet. "I got no superiors, asshole. You're coming with me, and where you're going there's gonna be no recreation, no 'benefits', no nothing but doing what you're told and telling us what we want to know. And no clueless computer geeks to pump for information… or anything else."
Peterson stopped still as he realized something was very wrong, and this person, whoever he was, knew a great deal more than he was letting on.
"Who are you?"
Grabbing Peterson by the collar Tyler glowered, "Friend of Angie Harper. Now are you coming, or do I bust your head and carry you?" Up until the next second, Tyler truly was intending to continue per the rebel plan. That changed as soon as Peterson opened his mouth again.
"Angie Harper? She wasn't any use to me… just a little diversion when I wasn't pumping her supervisor for information." In the extremity of the moment Peterson dropped his superior speech patterns.
The two men glared at each other, Peterson in disdain and Tyler in something very close to a nameless edge he hadn't visited in a long time.
"Did you even try to warn her." No question mark.
"Oh please," Peterson snorted, "I was halfway to Los Angeles by the time the willing Ms. Harper knew what hit her."
Tyler shoved the other man back a step. "Wrong answer." The blast from his disruptor slammed Peterson against the wall. "Eye for an eye," he snarled down at the man whose chest now sported a smouldering hole, "how's that for philosophy?" He gave the body a shove with the toe of his boot, knocking it from a sitting position into a tangled heap.
"Shit!" Mike Donovan stood in the doorway, disruptor ready. "What the hell happened here?"
"Asshole drew on me," Tyler growled defiantly.
Donovan came into the room and gave the body a once-over. "With what, his ego?"
The two men stood staring at each other. In all of his years and familiarity with "The Fixer" Mike had never known him to freestyle during an operation, never changing things to suit his own agenda. Something in Tyler's eyes told him that this went much deeper than any operation or agenda and Mike had to admit he couldn't find a reason to disagree with it. He pulled the Beretta, the one he'd brought to "cover all the bases", from the back of his belt, bent down and put it in Peterson's hand. "Must have been this. Who knew he'd have a gun?" He stood and looked straight at Tyler again. "Go figure."
"Thanks, Gooder. I owe you."
Donovan snorted. "For what? Nothing happened here. The asshole drew on you." He leaned out the door and took a quick look up and down the corridor. "Let's get the hell outta here, those charges are gonna blow any minute, not to mention they're gonna be looking for the guest of honor," he jerked his head toward Peterson's body. "Maxwell and Julie and Angie should be at the Visitor transport by now, and the others are on the way."
Leaving the body of the man that neither of them had really wanted to take alive, they took off to meet the others and make their escape.