Chapter 43

SPOV

The next two days we saw a hive of activity taking over the Rangeman building. Ranger called in some guys from the Miami and Boston offices to oversee some of the more tedious tasks, releasing the Merry Men to be part of the planning for the Hastings job and for the distraction on Morelli and Gannon. I had little to do with the new arrivals though they all seemed really keen to start up conversations with me. I wasn't sure why that was but as none of them were rude to me or asked awkward questions I found I liked them.

Rangeman still had cameras at Hastings so they were re activated to keep a surveillance of the building. So far there was no sign of anyone entering or leaving the building. Hal was going to stay at Rangeman in the comms room downstairs and monitor those whilst staying in touch with the team patrolling outside. That team though, like the park wouldn't be seen. Another team would be patrolling the inside of the building while a smaller team were going to try and access the inner sanctum that had been Buckley's research area. For some reason I was feeling excited and worried but so far my spidey senses were staying dormant.

As for the plan to distract Morelli and Gannon, well I called in the troops, so to say. I spoke with Connie, Mary Lou, Sally Sweet and Rita, Mooner and Dougie and even good old Randy Briggs. The icing on the cake was Eddie and Carl. They were going to Point Pleasant, courtesy of money from Ranger, to celebrate a birthday, Mooner's birthday. I'd told Mary Lou everything that was going on and she was really keen to help out. Word was bound to get around the Burg of the party day out so hopefully Morelli and Gannon would tag along to try and find me. I hoped they would see it as an ideal location to snatch me in plain sight, even with all those friends around. Randy was going to be making sure that different people received messages as to where I was supposed to be throughout the day. I just hoped Morelli was stupid enough to take the bait.

The party would begin at 1700hrs, yeah 5pm, when people would arrive at the beach town resort. Everyone would be taxied there arriving in different cars at slightly different times to different locations. While that was happening, we would be entering Hastings. I was sat in the comms room waiting for word from anyone that Morelli was on his way and Zeph was with Mary Lou to keep a look out for Gannon.

"I don't know how you come up with these ideas Angel but it looks like Morelli's on his way"
I watched as the tiny blip left his house and started to follow the route out of town toward the beach.

"Let's head out"
I followed Tank out to the garage and was in the back of one of the SUVs with Ash and Ranger.

"Babe you okay?"
"Yes, I'm keen to find out what the hell Buckley was working on"

"Remember to keep your comms unit on, just in case"

The atmosphere was tense as we unloaded from the car and approached the main door to the Hastings building. It swung open revealing Gaunt who stood to the side allowing the men to walk in. It was agreed that Ash would be the first one in so that he could scan each area we passed through.

"All clear, no motion detectors or bugs"
"Ash follow Mr Gaunt and clear as we follow"
The way the men disappeared from the entrance lobby amazed me. They didn't make a sound as they went to their assigned posts. I stayed close to Ranger as Gaunt led us down an open spiral staircase into a large empty room and watched as Gaunt keyed in a number into a pad creating a clunking sound from within. We watched with bated breath as a solid metal door slid open looking beyond it to another set of stairs.

"This leads down to another similar door, it is beyond that where Buckley's work area is"

Okay so he'd been down here before so there weren't any traps to be worried about. I watched as Ash went first followed by Gaunt and then with Ranger still at my side we followed. These stairs were metal and even though the boots the men were wearing were soft rubber I could still hear the echo of footsteps around me. At the second door Gaunt again stood aside as Ash went through and after we heard the all clear each man turned on their flashlights and followed through.

I watched as beams played around the room lighting up computer screens and terminals, so much equipment it almost reminded me of the room I'd been in with Dolby. The place was devoid of anything working.

"Hector see if you can find a source of power. Tank set up the spotlights. Ash"
"Yeah I know do my thing"

As the large lights came on, I began to appreciate the size of the room and took a path that skirted along the outside of the walls. There wasn't a spot of dust to be found and as I looked up higher on the walls, I could see ventilation shafts.

"It's too clean in here, the ventilation must be working"
"Good call Angel, maybe we just need to find a switch"

Now normally a switch would be where you walked into a room but looking back toward the door there didn't look to be one there, but in the strange shadows that the spotlights were throwing there was a darker square that seemed to stand out. The walls were strange, at first glance they appeared to be painted in white but had an iridescence to them. I walked toward the door and looked again at the shadow I'd seen. It was a good two feet from the door at waist height and almost seemed to be non-reflective.

"Babe have you seen something?"
"Not sure, it's as if the wall is slightly different here"

I bent down so I was eye level with the area so as to get a better look, shocked when a beam of light passed over my face. Ranger pulled me down to the floor but whatever had just happened suddenly brought life to the room.

"You okay Angel?"
"Yeah, what the hell was that?"
"Looks like an infra beam that needed to recognize a face"
I let Ranger help me to my feet and looked back at the room now. Every machine and piece of equipment was buzzing. Monitors were flickering to life. Doors slid open revealing work benches covered in what looked like computer components and wires. Shit this is what I'd seen that day I'd first gone into that room with Buckley. I watched as Ash, Hector and two guys from Boston started to try and make sense of what they were seeing. There just didn't seem to be any keyboards to go with the screens. As the room settled to a steady buzz I walked up behind where Hector was studying a screen. No one was talking which freaked me out a little so wanting to fill the silence of human speech I asked Hector a simple question.

"How do you access and control the data in the machines?"
"Good evening. Please repeat the question to form a command"
Hector just shook his head at the sound of a computerized voice and smiled, then told the machine to show the last data input. Immediately the screen was covered in rolling numbers and letters.

"I thought I'd never say this Estefania, but you are genius"

"Why would you say that?"
"Voice activated control system. It responded to you speaking"

"Do you understand it?"
"It would take months to decipher this information"

I saw Ranger talking with Gaunt, men were gathered around the screens and Tank was stood by the door keeping watch. I suddenly felt like a spare part with nothing to do so continued my patrol around the wall. I came across an opening which I'm sure hadn't been there before. Inside was dark so maybe there was another panel that would light up this room? I was stood in the entrance when Ranger shouted out to me, causing me to step forward and turn around.

"Babe don't go in there alone"
"Okay"

I was about to step out when there appeared from the sides and top lots of red beams crossing the opening.

"Ranger what are these?"

"Stay there, don't move"
I looked at Ash I'm sure with wide eyes, why would he be so concerned with beams of light?
"They could hurt you Angel"
I watched as Ranger, Ash and Les approached. Ash took out a sheet of paper from his jacket pocket and moved it into the beams. The paper ignited into flames making me step further back. I watched horrified as metal slid out from the sides then the top and the bottom and I was suddenly left standing in the dark.