Gut Instinct: A Taskforce Story - Страница 5

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He realized he’d pushed a button he shouldn’t have and raised his hands. “Pike, I told you I wasn’t going to get into a pissing contest of who’s in charge. It’s my mission and my execution. I’m going to trust the operators on my team. You can trust the chick and we’ll see how that works out.”

I walked to the door before I did something I’d regret. I said, “Yeah, we’ll see how it works out. But it isn’t just a matter of ‘I told you so.’ You’d better hope this doesn’t end with a bunch of twisted metal and dead bodies because you chased the wrong target.”

I left before he could answer, regretting I’d said any of it. I knew the word would spread about the argument, and as incestuous as the Taskforce was, I’d be painted as having lost my focus because of Jennifer. All the other operators who hadn’t met her would now be suspicious of the whole endeavor, not only harming her ability to succeed, but possibly harming future operations.

Maybe you have lost focus. I shunted that thought to the side as soon as it entered my head. Jennifer was due the same respect as anyone else in the Taskforce.

I exited the hotel and saw her in the passenger seat of the car, watching me approach. I wasn’t sure what to say. She was already on the fence about staying in the organization, and this certainly wouldn’t help her attitude any, and I didn’t blame her. If it was me, I’d have told them to stick it up their ass and walked away.

I sat behind the wheel and said, “Hey, that was bullshit. Don’t take it personally. They just don’t trust you yet.”

As usual, I’d underestimated her tenacity. She said, “Pike, I want to have another go at the gym. Get them the proof.”

Wolverine with a rabbit.

“It won’t do any good. They won’t care. I’m assuming you were listening when he called you a split-tail.”

“I don’t give a shit about that. Well, I do, but this mission is more important. They can belittle me all day if it saves someone’s life. I want to penetrate the gym again.”

I said, “Seriously, after what they just did to you?”

“Yes.”

Those assholes upstairs could learn something from her.

I laughed and said, “Honey badger don’t care.”

“Huh? What’s that mean?”

“You know, that YouTube video about the honey badger that gets bitten by cobras and attacked by bees but keeps on going? The weirdo narrator says, ‘Honey badger don’t care,’ whenever something gets in the way of his goals.”

She just looked at me with a blank expression. Must be a guy thing.

“Never mind. We can’t go back to the gym. Johnny’s right about one thing: It is his mission. We can’t risk spooking them, even if you are correct.”

“I’m right, and I want show that to his team before it’s too late. Before they lose the thread that’s hiding somewhere else.”

“Jennifer, the only thing that’ll convince them is a lesbian porno starring the wife and the woman with the cross.”

“Yeah, I agree. That’s what I’m going to give them.”

Chapter 5

Jennifer placed the binoculars on the dashboard. Pike said, “You still want to do it?”

“Yeah. The only tricky point will be getting from the stairwell to the women’s locker room. There was no guard at the front desk in the daytime. Just the folks checking people in and out.”

Pike said, “Okay, but remember, there’s a fine line between hero and zero. You get caught in there and it won’t screw up the mission, but it sure as hell will destroy your reputation.”

Jennifer smiled, “You mean your reputation.”

“Yeah, that too.”

She said, “What do you think?”

“I think I’d like to stick the tape you get up Johnny’s ass. But I’m not going in.”

“Pike, we talked about this. You can’t scale the climbing wall with your leg and—”

He cut her off. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Doesn’t make it any easier to sit here.”

She smiled and punched his shoulder. “But if I get caught, I don’t want any excuses about your leg keeping you from helping me out.”

“Now we’re just wasting time. You ready?”

“Yeah. Let’s roll. I’ll open the door once we’re past that streetlight. You planning to circle back here?”

He reached up and disabled the overhead light, then put the car in drive and entered the street that circled around the gym. He said, “Yep. I’ll keep an eye on Barney Fife. Holler when you want me to call the gym.”

They passed under the light and she felt the adrenaline begin to flow. The drop-off was on a two-way road paralleling the side of the building, forcing a rolling insertion to prevent suspicion from anyone who was watching the car. Thirty meters beyond and Pike said, “Go.”

She opened the door without a word and slid out of the car, rolling into the ditch beside the road. She watched the taillights disappear, then scuttled across. She waited a beat, then sprinted across the parking lot of the gym, away from the circles of light pockmarking it. She reached the climbing wall and paused, staring up but unable to see where it ended because of the darkness.

During her orientation on the first day, she’d been shown how to use the wall and had scampered up it like a lizard on brick, enjoying the freedom of the climb. She’d reached the top, then had rappelled back down with ease to find her gym guide openmouthed. He’d said, “I thought you were a beginner.”

She’d silently wanted to kick herself for giving up her skill. “Well, I’ve done it before. This one isn’t as hard as the one I used in the States.”

He’d said, “You took the hardest lane.”

She’d just shrugged and they had continued on, exploring the rest of the facility.

When she’d come up with her idea of getting proof, it had hinged on what she’d seen at the top of that climb, where the roof met the climbing wall. Pike had initially balked, thinking she meant she wanted to simply repeat the previous mission in the hopes of getting proof. She’d convinced him that she needed to emplace a camera and couldn’t do that in the daytime with all the members about. She could retrieve it during the day, but installation always took much longer than removal. The final straw in her favor was the fact that she’d be de-linking this mission from the one Johnny was on. If she were caught inside at night, it wouldn’t point to the wife.

Now, staring up the wall, she wondered if this was the right call. A part of her knew it was a little bit of pride driving her forward. Wanting to prove to the chauvinist assholes that she was right. A bigger part truly believed she was possibly preventing a terrorist attack by redirecting Johnny’s team.

Before she thought about changing her mind, she grasped the first plastic rock jutting from the wall and pulled up. Seconds later, she was scaling rapidly. Not as fast as she had in the daytime, but still fast enough to look like she was being hoisted by a rope, never stopping for more than a split second to find another hold. She reached the roof and flipped over the parapet. She waited a beat, listening. She keyed her Bluetooth and said, “I’m up. Any movement?”

Pike answered, “Nope. Barney’s sitting still watching TV.”

“Roger. Moving to the door.”

She checked the frame for alarm leads, finding none. She spent three minutes with a headlamp and a pick gun to break the lock. She said, “Opening the door.” When Pike acknowledged, she eased it a crack and waited.

“No movement,” Pike said.

“Going inside.”

Pike said, “Be careful. No stupid stuff.”

She snicked the door closed and said, “That’s your department.”

She eased down the stairs, her headlamp on its lowest setting. She reached the bottom landing, turned off her light, and cracked open the door, seeing the juice bar just at the corner of her vision. Guard is to the right.

She closed the door and keyed her Bluetooth. “Pike, I’m set. Give him a call.”

“Roger.”

She heard the phone ring. And ring and ring and ring. Pike came on. “It went to voice mail. He didn’t take the bait.”

Damn it. She’d wanted him focused on the phone while she went behind his back.

“Is he still watching TV?”

“Yeah, but believe it or not, I think he was asleep before I called. He just stood up and changed the channel.”

Great.

“Okay, I’m going to work my way down. Tell me if he gets up.”

“Give it about five minutes. Get him complacent again.”

“Roger.”

She waited, running through her head what she could do. How she would react, analyzing the floor plan in her mind, developing contingencies before they happened. She saw seven minutes had passed and called Pike. “I’m moving.”

“Good to go. His head is leaning forward.”

She opened the door and slithered through, keeping to the wall. She saw the treadmills ahead and focused on the mirrors. Moving at a crouch, she finally saw him. Or more precisely, she heard the television and saw the back of his head. She had one brief moment inside the emergency lighting, then was back in darkness. She went through the free-weight room, passed the acrobatics room to the right, and paused at the hallway to the men’s locker room. There was a light in the space that separated her from the woman’s side. She glanced back at the front desk, saw a black head of hair doing nothing, and sprinted across. She went down the hall and entered the female locker room.