Brain Storm (US Edition) (3 page)

Sara wasted no time in taking advantage of the guards' inattentiveness and slipped from the ladder landing in a crouch next to the doors. She reached up on the inside edge and triggered the switch that caused the doors to slide back closed. As soon as she had pressed that switch she crawled
into the cover provided by a nearby water fountain. She was out of sight of the three CDM terrorists but that also meant she couldn't see if they had heard her closing the doors. She strained her ears for sounds of them coming to investigate.

When there were none she slipped out of her hiding place and started her investigation of this floor. Unlike the floors above it the ground floor was divided into a series of sections surrounding a main area in the centre as a small hall. The sections surrounding this hall, starting with the foyer, were a series of interconnected rooms the largest of which was the gift shop located in the back of the statue and on the opposite side to the entrance foyer.

Sara made her way through the perimeter offices, checking the view from each one into the main area. That seemed to be where most of the terrorists were located but she had yet to see any sign of the hostages. There was a quartet of rusted brown barrels located against the inside corner wall on the other side of the hall from her current position that could contain the explosives and that Sara would try to get a better look at when she reached the offices behind that area.

Sara had no trouble making her way around the offices lining the perimeter of the hall, inside the outer wall of the statue, until she came to one that seemed to be the back office of the tourist gift shop. The door to the next room was locked, that wasn't the problem though the lock was a simple one only on the inside of the door she was at meant to keep people coming from the next room into this one. The problem was that she could hear voices coming from inside.

Sara flattened herself sideways to the door. She brushed the stray strands of her hair that had come loose from her ponytail back behind her ear and pressed it against the door.

The first voice that she could make out was male and spoke in a slow methodical manner. He was in control of the situation and he knew it.

"Your contact does not exist. There is no way out of this situation for you unless you cooperate with us. How much does she know about Project Brainstorm?"

There was a hesitation before the second voice put in and it began with a grunt of pain. This must have been one of the hostages being encouraged to speak up by a kick or a punch.

"She doesn't know anything except the name."

"We know she has been in contact with you on more than one occasion," the first voice said. "We have access to your computer terminals and will have
reconstructed all of your communications within the hour. It will go better for you if you co-operate now."

The second speaker barked out a short laugh that ended in another groan of pain. "You will get nothing from my terminal I erased it fully and then replaced the memory core after every communication. I physically destroyed the discarded cores immediately."

There was another moment of almost silence broken by more grunts and groans of pain from the hostage.

"We tracked
you
here and you have had training.
She
cannot evade us for much longer. If you tell us where to find her it will stop the risk of her being injured when we find her."

"She may not have received any formal training but she knows enough to run rings around a bunch of bloody morons like you," the hostage spat through
labored breaths. "And these fools you tricked into helping you," he raised his voice. "I'm sure they would love to know what's really going-"

He was cut off by the sound of his own air being forced out of his lungs.

"That's enough of that."

There was muffled shouting as though the hostage had been gagged.

"I'll leave you like that while you think about . . ." the questioner trailed off and then said, "Acknowledged, I will be on the alert."

Had he been warned about an intruder? Sara backed away from the door and held her weapon ready in case he came through to check things out. No-one did and Sara started backing away. She filed what she had heard away in the back of her mind, whatever was going on in there was only pertinent as far as it let her know that at least one terrorist and one hostage was located in  that room. Anything else could wait until after the operation was complete. She had to back all the way to the foyer and then start her investigation again going through the perimeter rooms in the opposite direction. The first few rooms were just like those she had investigated on the other side and looking out though them only gave her a different angle out into the main hall and the half dozen terrorists in there. Then she came to a room located directly next to where the terrorists had stored their rusty barrels.

She kept watch on the terrorists out in the main hall and slowly moved out of sight whenever they turned or moved so that she was potentially in their line of sight. She had to move slowly rather than quickly ducking out of sight because rapid movements would attract more attention. She studied the barrels from this vantage point and could clearly see the detonation device sat on the top of one of the barrels with leads trailing from it down the lids and into the barrels.

Sara knew of at least six varieties of liquid explosive that coul
d be used to make a device like that which was before her. Some of those types of explosive were perfectly safe unless triggered by a particular type of charge or device, others were so unstable that anything but the slightest shock would trigger an explosive reaction. Before she could make the bomb safe she had to find out what type of explosive these people were using. If it was any of the less stable varieties there was no way she could make the device safe, even if she removed the trigger the device could be set off physically by one of the terrorists.

Sara trailed back a couple of rooms so that she was in one where the door was hidden from all of the
terrorists’ positions by a thick concrete support column. Sara unlocked the door from the inside using a universal lock pick to bypass the simple electronic lock. She slipped outside and gently closed the door behind her. She walked softly, placing her feet with delicate precision on the highly polished grey marble floor, up behind the column which had sheltered her exit from the room from the terrorists. She lowered herself down to the floor just as silently being sure to keep all of her limbs out of sight behind the column.

She twisted around and took a quick look at the terrorists. They still had their attention focused away from her. From here she could see they were looking at the front entrance to the gift   shop. Once carefully ordered displays in the windows of the shop had been cast into disarray and dark blankets had been hung up inside the windows. That, along with the voices she had heard, strongly indicated to Sara that that was where the hostages were being held. But they could wait for now.

She crossed the gap between the column and the barrels in a crouch with her attention focused on the CDM terrorists. She came to a halt behind the barrels and ducked out of sight. She slipped the pack off her back, the specially constructed material of her clothes that was designed to make no noise still sounded loud to her nervous ears but there was no sign that she had been noticed. The pockets to the pack did open silently and Sara removed a small pen-sized object from one of them. Nothing more than a thin cylinder with a rectangular display running most of its length and a thin needle to collect samples, the device had the chemical makeup of many of the most common types of explosives stored in its memory ready to be compared to a sample. After checking the lead for any type of anti-tampering booby trap she inserted the needle end of the analyzer through the hole in the top of the barrel.

While she waited for the analysis to be completed Sara took a look at the initiation for the bomb. The detonator appeared to be a device that would send an electrical charge down the leads into each barrel. It would be initiated by a signal from a remote control device. There was no manual trigger on the bomb. The CDM operatives on this operation weren't willing to make themselves martyrs to their cause. At least not like that.

Sara could defeat the remote trigger easily but she still needed to know if the explosives could be set off by the terrorists shooting or setting fire to the explosives or by detonating a smaller explosive like a grenade nearby. Sara took a look at the display on the analyzer but it had yet to come up with anything. She took another device out of another pocket of her pack. This time it was a small ring that would fit onto the palm of her hand. The ring was actually two rings stuck together facing each other. Sara used separate hands to grip each of the rings and rotated them a quarter turn. That would start the jamming device up putting out a field of just a couple of meters. Not enough to interfere with any other signals the terrorists might be using but enough to create a bubble around the bomb that would stop the detonation signal getting through. She slipped the thin jammer through the gap in the nearest barrels so that it would be hidden in the middle of them all.

The
analyzer had finally finished its work and Sara let out a metaphorical breath. The explosive was completely harmless unless triggered by a specific electrical charge. She had made the bomb safe. Half of her mission was complete, now she had to locate and safeguard the hostages.

Sara slipped back inside the room she had left by and made her way through the adjoining rooms to the opposite side of the tourist gift shop. The door leading in to it on this side was not solid but it had been covered with the same type of dark cloth which blocked out the display windows. A thin sliver of light showed under the cloth creating a patch of light several
centimeters long. She knew there to be at least one hostage and one terrorist inside that room and she had to find a way to at least get a look inside without being noticed.

Sara lowered herself down and put her face sideways against the cold polished floor trying to get a look through the gap where the cloth ended just above
the level of the floor. She could make out nothing more than brief movements of shadow interrupting the light. There was no way she could interpret that into anything she could use.

Sara pushed herself off the floor and indulged herself with an almost silent sigh. She hadn't held out much hope that she would have seen anything useful but she had had good luck so far and was disappointed that it hadn't held out a little longer. But Sara had never trusted nor relied on luck before. She would find a way to take a look inside.

While she was sitting in the middle of the room staring at the blacked out door trying to come up with a plan, the problem was removed without her having to do anything. Without any warning the door opened out towards her.

Chapter
Three

Carla Swift was just sitting down to her lunch when the news report came on concerning the terrorist take-over of the statue in the memorial park. No doubt the report was being transmitted to all of the major cities in the affluent Member States as well. It was more than just local news. It may also have been transmitted to those States that weren't as well off. If there was anyone in those States with the technology to receive the transmissions they were no doubt rooting for the terrorists to get their way. They would want the wealth spread throughout the entire European Confederation rather than being concentrated in certain States.

Not that the affluent States didn't have their own share of poverty. While the situation may not have been as bad here as in other places the situation was still bad and it was getting worse. The rundown establishment where Carla sat was testament to that fact. No doubt this place, at least the owner wasn't trying to fool anyone by attempting to pass the place off with the title restaurant or cafe, was in violation of several of the codes of hygiene that were supposed to be enforced wherever food was prepared and served.

The pitted metal tabletops were covered in a thick layer of grime and the floor was a patchwork of stained linoleum, grease patches, and bare exposed floor. There were droppings in the corners but at least Carla hadn't seen any other sign of what had made them, but there were boards of almost clean wood nailed at floor level up against the walls where someone was trying to cover up the vermin's entryways. The walls seemed to have almost as much food on them as the floor. The wall paper was peeling in numerous places exposing the plaster underneath.

At least the plates were clean and the food was relatively good, very good in fact if you took into account the prices. And somehow, despite appearances, the place didn't smell bad. There was a faintly unpleasant that hung in the background but it was too distant to ever make out fully.
Carla had never had cause to look in on the kitchens and had no mind to ever do so. The food tasted decent enough and she didn't want to spoil it by seeing where it was prepared.

She was just picking up her utensils from the paper napkin that rested on the tabletop when the news came through. The napkin protected her knife and fork from picking up anything they might get from being in direct contact with the table but she didn't plan on putting them back down until she was finished. She could already see a spot where the paper was starting to become translucent from contact with the grease. There was no way she would be using the napkin to
wipe her hands or her mouth when she was through.