Chapter nine
The woman walked into the store as if she owned the place. She casually glanced down the rows of wine bottles stacked neatly into rustic wooden shelves, until the clerk walked up to her.
"Can I help you?"
"Yes," the woman replied in good but accented Portuguese. "I am looking for something special."
"Is there something specific you have in mind?" the clerk asked.
"A red wine. Sweet, juicy, a little spicy," the woman contemplated. "Berry flavor, maybe a touch of vanilla."
The clerk looked through the shelf next to them, then picked out a bottle. "I would recommend this Aragones," she said, presenting the wine. "A late last year's vintage, very rich."
"I was looking for something with more of a dusty note on the finish," the woman replied, not even looking at it.
The clerk smiled and replaced the bottle. "In this case, please follow me into the cellar."
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
"Good morning." The security guard nodded a greeting as the woman walked up to his desk. She was moving her tall and slender figure with the kind of authority that immediately identified her as a field agent. He couldn't tell if the face framed by dark wavy hair was suntanned or naturally dark. In either case, he decided, she was really good-looking.
"If you would put your right palm..."
The man broke off when she held up her hands, one bandaged, the other in a cast.
"I'm sorry," he interrupted himself and attempted some small talk while he adjusted the system. "Bad day, huh?"
"More so for the other guy," the agent replied with a patient smile.
The security guard quickly changed the topic. "I'm going to need a spoken pass-code and a retina scan, please."
The agent calmly gave him both and the computer accepted the identification with a soft ping.
"Agent de la Vega." The guard handed her a pass that she clipped to the front of her blazer. "If you need anything, just call down."
The woman gave him another patient smile. "I'll be fine, thanks," she replied and passed through the door behind his desk.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Benji strode down the corridor, concentrating on not tripping over his own feet. Despite the practice rounds he had done earlier the heeled shoes still felt very unstable and the tight shape-wear they had forced him into wasn't helping. Although he was doing his best to project confidence he was acutely aware that he wasn't looking as graceful as he should. He couldn't tell how some women could stand to walk in heels all day every day. He would have to ask Skye about that once they were back.
"I'm in," he whispered into his radio headset as soon as he was out of earshot. Then he called up his mental image of the map they had found on the IMF server. The facility wasn't very big and he quickly found what he was looking for. It was a small room on the first level that held two work stations with direct access to the server data but not the actual server functions.
The real back-end was reserved for authorized technicians and if he would have come in as himself he would have had access to that, too. The problem was that to just have the virus file on the server when it reconnected to the network was enough to get it into the whole system. On the plus side, thanks to his knowledge of the server structure and the back-door he had built, they had written a program that should allow Luther to get back-end control of the server.
He sat down in front of one of the two screens and looked for the USB port. As he couldn't see one on the desk he looked underneath and indeed found one there. He plugged in the flash drive that was also a transmitter interface and got an immediate confirmation from Luther that the up-link was working.
He hadn't heard the door open and when he looked up he could see a man sitting at the other work station. He was average height, dark-skinned, with slight stubble over his cheeks and a motorcycle jacket on that seemed highly inappropriate for southern Portugal climate. Disturbingly, he seemed to recognize Benji, although the techie was sure he hadn't seen him before. Because he didn't recognize him, he realized, but de la Vega.
"Hey, Ricky," the man confirmed his suspicion with a broad grin. "What are you doing here?"
"Change of plans," Benji replied with a nonchalant shrug that he regretted immediately when he felt his bra slip.
The man meanwhile was concentrating on his screen again, then suddenly looked back at Benji with a tight look. His cheeky demeanor suddenly became slightly intimidating. "You're not Ricarda," he said. It was a statement.
Benji swallowed. He had also glanced at his screen and was sure now. Ethan had been right. This man was de la Vega's backup plan. He was here to upload the virus.
Also, he was probably a fully trained agent and contrary to him had full use of his hands. Benji just had enough time to get up.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
"And we're in," Luther commented with an anticipatory grin. They had modified the up-link program they had used in Brussels to tap directly into Benji's back-door, giving him enough access to get into the server structure. But first, he made a detour via the server facility's security network. Once he was finished he leaned back with a smile. "You're good to go."
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Benji stepped back and felt the wall in his back. The other man was between him and the only door. Although they were still a meter apart the techie could smell his cheap aftershave. He raised his arms in defense, knowing that he couldn't do much more than that.
The other agent crossed the space between them with a single step. He ripped off the mask by the hair and stared.
Using the other man's obvious surprise, Benji rammed his elbow into his adversary's stomach. He stumbled backwards, but at the same time snapped out of his stun. Before the techie could lunge for the door, he grabbed him by the arm and pushed him back against the wall.
Benji tried to hit something vital with his knee, but the man had him in a strong grip and there was not much he could do as he saw the fist coming at this face. And then it stopped in mid-air when the vent shaft cover fell from the ceiling and hit him on the shoulder.
The man in the biker jacket turned around sharply, shoving him against the desk in the process, and narrowly escaped being hit by Ethan dropping out of the air duct. Loudly screaming for help, he flung himself at the other agent.
Hunt caught both his wrists before the fists could hit his face, but couldn't avoid the knee that hit him in the stomach. He staggered backwards, but quickly caught himself, then tripped him over his foot and rammed his knee into the man's face who promptly collapsed onto the floor.
"What's going on?" a concerned voice asked over the radio.
"Nothing," Ethan replied suppressing a pained groan.
Meanwhile, Benji returned to the computer screen. "Uh, Luther," he said with a hint of anxiety creeping into his voice. "They initialized the up-link. And the server is still connected to the satellite."
"I know," Luther answered sourly. "Can you disconnect it manually?"
"Yeah, right," Benji replied and settled down behind the screen, but before he could do anything was interrupted by the door flying open.
Two security guards with bullet-proof vests and assault rifles stepped in and surveyed the scene. Somehow the one who seemed to be in charge managed to keep his professional mask up. "Let me see your hands!" he barked. "And step away from that keyboard!"
Both Ethan and Benji complied. As Dunn slowly moved away from the desk he could see that behind the two security guards there were more outside in the corridor, including the one who had let him in earlier and was now looking somewhat disturbed.
"What's going on here?" the first guard asked in the same drill-sergeant voice.
The man who had been punched down by Ethan was coming back around and staggered to his feet. "He broke in," he lisped through a broken tooth, pointing unsteadily.
"That's correct," Ethan replied calmly. He started to add an explanation but was interrupted.
"How did you get in here?" the drill-sergeant asked on.
With a sigh, Hunt pointed one finger up at the still open access to the vent shaft. "Sir," he said very calmly. "Please, listen to me."
In that moment Luther was on the radio again, sounding defeated: "They have started the upload."
Then all the lights went out.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Brandt's liking for vent shafts had not increased since Christmas and he wouldn't have thought he'd find himself in one so soon again. With half an ear he listened to the radio chatter as he crawled along. What he heard was sounding progressively bad.
When he finally reached the room he was headed for, he peered down into the darkness. He shone his flashlight through the grid to make sure, but there wasn't much for him to see, so he just levered the cover out of its frame and dropped down.
Looking around he found himself in a maintenance room with walls and ceiling covered in pipes and cables. From the adjacent room, he could hear the low hum of computer cooling vents.
He turned around and looked at a whole wall of fuse-box covers. Not knowing where to start, he ripped open all of the thin metal doors and started to decipher the half-faded notes attached to the individual buttons or levers.
"Luther...?" he started, wanting to ask which switch he was looking for, but the techie was faster and cut him off.
"They have started the upload," he said. "And the server connection is still up."
No time, Brandt decided and flipped everything that looked like it could be the main breaker.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
"What's going on?" The drill-sergeant-like security guard almost shouted now, half turning back to the man behind him, but still keeping one eye on Benji and Ethan. The thin glow of the emergency exit sign above him, which was the only source of light now, was making him look very pale.
There seemed to be some conversation going on in the background or on his radio, and he clenched his teeth. "Then someone go and check that out!" He was definitely shouting now. Then he turned back to the three agents. "Did you do that?"
"We've just been standing here," Benji pointed out.
The guard huffed sarcastically. "Whatever, you're coming with us," he decided and took a step back to give them space to get out. Ethan and Benji calmly stepped forward, but the third agent was hanging back and the guard gave him a stern look. "All of you."
"I didn't do anything," the man protested, clearly unwilling to move. "They broke in here!"
"He tried to hack the server," Ethan put in.
"It's not technically hacking," Benji pointed out but decided not to elaborate.
The head of the security guards was apparently running out of patience. He waved at two of his men and they flanked the reluctant man, threatening to stun him, should he resist.
The procession was almost at the door when the leader halted them with a wave of his hand. His gaze was slightly unfocused indicating he was listening to someone on his radio. "Well, then get the lights back on and get him..." he started loudly, then broke off and his eyes went wide. For a moment everything was silent, then he incredulously asked: "What?"
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
The hum from the adjacent room stopped abruptly when Brandt flicked the switch and quickly replaced by a louder noise that he identified as an emergency generator.
"That did it," Luther confirmed over the radio. "No trace of the virus on the server net."
"Well, that's good," Brandt muttered and looked around. There was no way he was going to get back up in the air vent, so he turned to the door and opened it with his skeleton key. The corridor outside was illuminated by a pale green emergency exit sign, so he switched off his flash-light.
Just as he stepped out of the door, he heard footsteps from behind. For a moment he considered potential hiding places, but he had already been discovered.
"Stop!" a female voice shouted behind him. "Show me your hands! And turn around, slowly."
Brandt slowly raised his hands and turned to face the woman.
"This is Chang," the woman said, obviously talking to her radio. "We found another intruder on the maintenance level.
When Brandt looked at her, she had one hand still on her ear-piece, the other was aiming an assault rifle at him that he suspected was loaded with IMF-issue stun bolts. She had her gaze fixed sharply on him, but when she recognized him it took her a moment to pick up her jaw. "Sir, I think the intruder is the Chief Analyst," she hissed into her radio, but the agent heard it anyway.
The young man accompanying her incredulously stared first at his colleague, then at Brandt who gave him an encouraging smile. "At least you got that right."
Even in the pale light, he could see Chang blushing. "Sir, how did you get in here?" she asked in a thin voice.
"Through the ventilation system," Brandt answered truthfully, then changed the topic. "I need to talk to your superior, there has been a serious security breach."
"We did find two intruders on the main level," Chang put in.
"I know," Brandt replied. He had already suspected that Benji's entrance had been discovered and was glad Ethan was backing the techie up. "But it's a bit more complicated than that. That's why I need to talk to someone in charge."
Chang considered this for a moment, then nodded. "I'll take you to McManus," she decided. "Mitchell, you get the power back online."
The younger security guard nodded and turned to the maintenance room Brandt had come out of, but the analyst stepped in his way. "I'm afraid I can't authorize that," he said. His stance was relaxed with his hands by his side.
Although Brandt was unarmed, contrary to the security guards, Mitchell decided it was a bad idea to pick a fight with a fully trained field-agent, especially considering that agent was technically his superior. Hesitantly he took a step back and looked at Chang for help.
"Mitchell, stay here and let nobody into this room, until and unless I say so," he ordered, looking at the young man.
"Sir, we need the power,..." Chang put in, but Brandt cut her off.
He knew that the emergency generators were enough to run the security systems. Which, he thought with slight amusement, were now run by Luther, a fact the security personnel seemed to not have noticed yet. However, it was not enough to run the server, which was the important part. "On my order, and my authority," he decided. It was enough to satisfy the two security guards and Mitchell took his post in front of the maintenance room.
Chang, her face still significantly darker than it naturally was, motioned at the corridor that Brandt knew led to the main staircase. "This way, please, sir."
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Charles McManus, head of security for the IMF server facility in Faro, Portugal quietly observed the scene while he waited for Chang to show up with her charge. He had never been a field-agent himself, nor had he ever wanted to be, instead going straight into the security branch after ten years of army service and worked his way up there. He liked the remote location, precisely because it was usually quiet and they didn't have to deal with the kind of weird things that happened on a semi-regular basis back in D.C.
Still, he had enough experience to figure out that the three men in front of him were likely field-agents and there was something extraordinarily strange going on. He knew at least two of them had somehow gotten past his security, and looking at the ceiling he had a fairly good idea how, only that it should have been impossible. The only access to the ventilation system was inside the facility, all pipes that lead outside were too small but up until he had entered the room, there had been no sign of the security breach.
The men also were a mystery to him. The small guy with the weird hazel hair and the one in women's clothes were astonishingly calm, although the eyes of the latter looked huge under the slightly smudged mascara, while the one with the busted face was spouting wild accusations. Granted, the accusations the other two were directing at him were just as wild, but they seemed much more collected. Somehow McManus found he trusted them more, but something about their calm made him profoundly uneasy. Especially since the lights had gone out and all the urgency they had exhibited earlier had suddenly gone.
McManus turned around when he heard steps coming down the corridor and suddenly knew what was making him so uneasy. He felt like he wasn't in control anymore, just as Chang wasn't in control of the man walking in front of her with long authoritative strides. He had only seen him a few times before, but the security chief immediately recognized William Brandt, although the black t-shirt and cargo pants looked a little misplaced on the analyst.
"Chang," he barked when the duo was only a few meters away. "Why are the lights still out?"
The woman's face turned dark again, but Brandt answered in her stead. "My orders," he said curtly and fished his phone out of his trouser pocket. "You're in charge here?"
"Yes, sir," McManus said exaggeratedly sharp. "Sir, I will need to ID you."
"I understand that, but your identification software taps straight into this server instead of the network, so to do that, you would need power. Right?" Brandt didn't wait for an answer before he continued: "The problem is that either of us could have altered that data before the power went out. For that matter, this man has attempted to sabotage the server."
He nodded at the man still flanked by two of McManus' guards whose face was starting to look pale under the trickles of blood running from his nose and mouth.
"Apart from that we currently have full access to the server, so if we were hostile intruders it wouldn't help you to check me against the data there," Brandt continued as if he was talking about the weather. "And if you do insist on powering up the server right now, Agent Stickell will gladly prove to you that you are no longer in control of your systems."
McManus blanched at the mention of the name. He glanced back to the two men standing in the door, while it slowly dawned on him who he was dealing with. Suppressing a curse he looked at the analyst again who was offering the security chief his phone. He accepted it and saw there was an ongoing call. "Yes?" he answered, then any color that had remained drained from his face. "Mr. Secretary, sir," he stammered disbelievingly.
Ethan leaned back against the door-frame with a sigh. All that was left to do now was clean-up and paperwork. The adrenalin rush was fading and he was starting to feel the effects of not sleeping enough the previous night. Or the night before that, he thought with a bitter smile.
Tired, he rubbed his eyes. There also was a dull ache emanating from his stomach. He hadn't thought the other man had hit him that hard earlier. Or maybe it was just his body telling him that it was time to take a few days off.
"Fuck," McManus breathed when he had ended the call and handed the phone back to Brandt. He was starting to realize that his problems were only scratching the top of the shit-heap they were in. "Let's discuss this in my office," he finally decided, then nodded at the two guards still flanking the beat-up man. "Take him into custody."
The guards seized the man by the arms before he could do anything and dragged him out. McManus ordered two other men to accompany them, then waved the agents to follow him.
Ethan let Benji go first, then pushed himself off the wall. He was looking forward to sitting down, and hopefully a cup of coffee when suddenly the dull ache turned into a hot, stabbing pain. He staggered forward, stretching out his hand to catch something to hold onto. Deep breath, he thought, just stay on your feet. But before his hand could find the wall, his knees caved in and he collapsed onto the floor.