How many times in your life do you get to be outnumbered by super soldiers on your way to rescue a couple of kids from mercena

How many times in your life do you get to be outnumbered by super soldiers on your way to rescue a couple of kids from mercenaries, Janice thought to herself as they were bumping through the air. She'd managed to go from enemy to hero in about two minutes. Well, not quite hero, but less likely to be target practice. She'd been in worse predicaments. Hell, if it's your time to go, at least go in a spectacular way. It didn't get any better than this.

It was Zack that had given her the phone. Alicia had tried to protest, but Janice was already giving directions to the other end. After about ten seconds, they all realized she knew exactly what she was doing. It was pretty impressive to realize that she was annoyed at Logan's lack of skill in hacking certain systems. All of them had long considered him the best at it, albeit the admission was more reluctant coming from some.

Janice had heard Alicia call him Logan on the phone, and she had excellent voice recognition. Logan. Logan Cale. Janna Cale's father. She had met him last month at a parent-teacher conference. Him and his wife Max. Was one of them a member of the barcode club? Probably. Didn't matter at this point.

"You got about three seconds to get in and bypass security or all hell is going to break loose when you hack SYSEC," she greeted. "You ready?"

"Who the hell is this?" Logan asked, bewildered. Sure. Break into SYSEC. It was impossible. He'd tried. More than once. There were so many false fronts and trap doors, and everything was on a timer. If you didn't have someone on the inside, it couldn't be done.

"Janice Miller," she replied pertly. "By the way, Janna is going to fail gym if she doesn't start dressing out and participating, but that's beside the point. Do you know the approach key to SYSEC or not?" Her tone conveyed every bit of her disgust at having to deal with an amateur.

The others could only listen with amazement as she started firing off directions. She mentioned something about looping the secondary functions, and then none of them had a clue as to what she was talking about. Finally she paused for a second. "Ok, wait exactly thirty seconds and then hit escape four times." She covered the receiver and explained to the others still looking a little dazed. "My roommate was a great hacker for the agency. When our apartment had to get fumigated, we were at Langley real late, and he put in all sort of neat things for me to learn on."

"And they're still there?" Zack asked suspiciously.

Janice shrugged, waiting for Logan to hit the next bounce point. "DiAngelo was a sweetie, but he liked to drink and drove fast when he got drunk. He wasn't around long enough to remove what he did." She was back with Logan, and less than ninety seconds after starting, he was fully embedded in the new and alien world of SYSEC. Janice didn't give him time to look around and explore. They had work to do.

"Pull the satellite systems and jump to the one named Mouse," she ordered. This was it. "Search Colorado, localize to Search and Rescue units, and look for one way out away from any of the others. There's going to be a tracer line on his coming from local."

Logan sounded a little impressed when he gave her the coordinates. Janice repeated them, not doubting that at least one of the three were likely to be able to recall those numbers. "I thought GPS units couldn't be tracked," Logan commented. "They tracked the satellites, not the other way around."

Janice snorted. "And I bet you believe them when they say that the other shot came from the grassy knoll, don't you." She hung up before he had a chance to respond. "The first set is where the kids are," she announced. "The second is where their tracker is. He's not far from here and it can be arranged that he starts giving bad information." She smirked. This was exactly what she was best at, and it did feel good to be back in action.

Arranging for bad information was much easier with a group of genetically engineered soldiers. They had been closer to the lodge than Janice had thought, and the trackers were in a maintenance shack at the edge of the property. There had been one guy acting as a lookout, and one on the inside. Janice was almost amused watching Zack and Alicia take care of them. They had simply come up in the helicopter, and Zack had jumped about thirty feet straight down and taken the first guy out without a struggle. Alicia had followed, and they went into the shack to interrogate. Janice didn't ask how it went. Alicia was wiping blood off of her when she got back in a minute later. That said enough.

"Male subject answered the com," Alicia reported coldly. "He thanked us for the new information and broke off."

Zack was looking more thoughtful. He glanced over at his wife, her look confirming his suspicions. "Too casual," he said softly. It didn't take a genius to understand what Zack meant. The guy could afford to be casual. He already had the kids in sight.