Logan was impressed with the variety of curses Alicia was spewing out as she tried to reconnect the signal. He had no idea that a headset's mother could behave in such a manner, especially with a goat. He had never thought of placing certain items in certain places, and was pretty sure he'd never heard a certain curse word used seven times in a twelve word sentence.
Her fingers flew across the computer keys trying to bounce the signal through different relays to get through the hospital. Nothing. She ripped her headset off in frustration, flinging it to the floor with another inventive curse. She leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes trying to think. Why wasn't it working?
"The signal should be using the hospital's satellite system to relay into the hospital itself," she said aloud, trying to talk through the problem. "The shielding prevents a direct signal, so it's got to bounce."
"All the equipment you used before was Manticore?" Logan asked carefully. He didn't want to get her cursing again. It was interesting, but useless. She nodded, still in her own thoughts. "And you were on government property when using it?"
Her eyes met his as comprehension dawned. "Damn it!" she yelled, hitting the desk. "Our equipment has scrambling signals built in, I knew that. Their satellites must have something that will only let a scrambled signal through. I didn't even think about it." She said a few other things, much more colorful. Logan was blushing by the time she was done. She definitely had the stereotypical military ability to curse.
Logan scooted another chair beside her and took control over the computer. "We're going to have to scramble it to get it through," he said, "and then tell it to change the coding pattern to what the headsets will recognize." He started to get a fix on the satellites and get the coding. "It's going to take some time."
"Time that we don't have," she muttered as the program began to run. She thought for a minute. "Maybe we can do this by hand."
She started to run through the known frequencies. The communication equipment that they used ran at different frequencies that normal equipment used. Most tuners didn't have the ability to pick them up, and even if they did, it would be hard to pinpoint. There was an algorithm that changed it enough to keep unwanted listeners from tuning in. Unless of course, you knew what that pattern was.
"If I can find a usable channel now, we can funnel that to them," she said, trying to run it by hand. "As soon as I get the start, the computer will keep pace with the change, and we'll be able to run that to the remote unit. It won't be encoded, but since I'll be watching it, if someone else picks up, we'll kill the signal."
Several minutes more ticked by as she worked. They'd been out of contact for nearly fifteen minutes. That was totally unacceptable in a mission parameter. What if Zack was waiting? No, he would proceed. He knew enough of the building to get down to the underground areas. If Jhondie were as good as it was claimed, they would nearly be down there by now. Unless they had been caught. No, don't think failure.
She heard a voice and nearly jumped out of her skin. Cray. "Sir," he said. "Sir, we have a security issue." She moved fast to get the algorithm running. It was incredibly simple, so simple that most people never caught on to it. Ah, success!
"Report 641!" Lydecker barked.
"Two lab technicians did not report back to their stations," Cray said. Alicia stiffened. What had they done? "No shows on the security cameras." OK, maybe Jhondie was as good as she said.
"Any signs of an intruder?" Lydecker asked.
"No sir, none as of yet." Cray was lousy with security systems. He wouldn't know if one had been tampered with unless there was a sign on it. Who had been the idiot that assigned him to security checks?
"Take 609 and 611 and find the lab techs," Lydecker ordered. "Out."
Without even thinking, Alicia opened a new signal to the command line. In the past, only she and Lydecker would use it. She wasn't the least bit surprised to hear Cole speak up.
"604 on standby," he said.
"Any sign of an intruder?" Lydecker again.
Logan glared hard at Alicia's back. How did they know there was going to be an intruder on the base? Was she setting them up? If anything happened to Max, pregnant or not, Alicia was going to be the one to pay the penalty. If Lydecker wanted this baby so much, he would have to trade Max for it.
"No sir," Cole replied. "641 is staying at the hospital as I ordered. 622 and 619 are at security command. All reports are negative so far." He paused. "The norm shakedown teams are in position." The disgust was evident in his voice. "Sir, permission to have them removed? They're going to get in the way, and possibly get hurt like the last ones that got in 608's way."
"The director wants them there," Lydecker replied with an equal amount of disgust. "You're only going to have a short time to talk 608 down."
"Understood. 604 out."
Alicia leaned back in the sudden silence, digesting this information. How did they know about tonight?
"They think it's you," Logan said.
"They would be right if Zack hadn't asked me not to go," she replied, absently rubbing her stomach. Why was Cole assigning people so stupidly? 619 should be at the hospital, and 641 doing a perimeter patrol. 622 was in a good position at command, but 611 should be in the hospital already with Bryn. The only possibility wasn't a possibility at all.
"He's doing it all wrong," she said. "He knows better than this. He's been trained better. He's acting like he wants them to fail." She froze, and then looked back at Logan.
"Didn't Zack say that Cole told him you needed him?" Logan asked, remembering what had happened when Zack broke in.
"Cole helped me escape," she said. "I don't know how, but he knew I was going to make a run for it, and put some stuff where he'd knew I'd go for some supplies. My gym bag was there all ready to go. It had just been put there within a few days. He understood why I was running, but he would not understand why I would turn traitor."
"I thought he helped you find out about Bryn."
"He would expect me to do something about it, but not do what I've done. He'd…" she stopped as it hit her. "He'd expect me to do it myself!" She groaned. "I am so stupid!"
She jumped up and started pacing. "I knew I should have gone! I knew it! Cole would let me go with Bryn, that's why he screwed up the placing. The minute he finds out that I went traitor, he's going to nail them all. Damn! They're in good placement to act as a flush, that's what he wants. If I'm not there, he's going to flush them right to the people that have orders to kill!"