The 13: Fall (10 page)

He pulled the disposable credit card out of his pocket and inserted it into the receptor. The monitor came to life, and he began typing. Nervously, he felt inside his jacket pocket for the thumb drive. Still there. That made him feel a little better.

He finished typing his letter, pulled the thumb drive out, and stuck it in the machine. He dragged the file over to the icon on the screen and watched the little blue line streak across as the file was copied. Clicking on the icon, he watched as it opened and showed the contents of the small drive. There was his letter. And right next to it, another program. He double-clicked and watched again as the blue streak told him the program was opening. A little white box appeared with the words L
AUNCH
S
WEEP
? on it. He clicked Y
ES
and ejected the thumb drive.

As he walked out the door, he could hear the patrons’ grumbles. Two seconds later, he heard the snap and sizzle as sparks flew from the desks of computers. The entire café had been fried.

   CHAPTER 16   

S
o how do you know him?” Taylor asked as they drove.

“Who? Artie?” Keene said.

“No, President Grant,” she said. “Yes, Artie.”

Now there was a complicated story. One that he didn’t really have the desire to get into with her. He had used Artie on a number of jobs, jobs that he was neither authorized to talk about, nor did he want to. Shortly after leaving the SEALs and newly with the CIA, he had been introduced to Artie by his mentor, Sam. Sam had tried to explain to Keene, who was fresh off the Farm—the CIA’s training facility—that there were assets, and then there were
assets.
Artie was the latter: a pure genius who, from a technological perspective, could get you anything you needed. However, unless he felt his life was in danger by you, you couldn’t trust him farther than you could throw him. Keene only hoped he had instilled that level of fear in the little computer nerd before they left.

“We go way back.”

“Seriously, Keene. Can we trust him?”

“He better hope so,” Keene said as he reached into his pocket. Pushing the button, he put the phone up to his ear. “Keene here.”

It was Artie.

Suddenly, he jerked the wheel and crossed two lanes of traffic, pulling the truck over to the side of the road.

“Hey!” Megan shouted. “A heads-up next time?”

Keene shushed her with his hand and said, “Hold on. I’m putting you on speaker.” He put the truck in park and pushed the little speaker icon on his screen. “Go ahead.”

“Okay,” Artie said. “What I was trying to say was, listen to me before you just start yelling and geting mad at me.”

Keene pinched the bridge of his nose.
Please
, he thought,
please don’t make me have to go back there and kill him.
“What?” he said impatiently.

“Okay. So I kinda made a copy of the video.”

“You did what!” Taylor screamed.

“Artie,” it was Keene now, “you better—”

“Hey!” Artie shouted over them. “You can come back here and shoot me if you want. But after I’m done telling you what I found.”

Keene looked at Taylor. He could see the curiosity in her eyes, too.

“Go ahead.”

“Okay,” Artie continued. “So like I said, I made a copy. Don’t ask. Trust me. I’m just that good.”

“Speed it up!” Keene’s voice rose.

“Okay, okay. I’m getting there. So I went back and just looked at some different things. First, I just watched the dude sitting on the stool. Then I took time to zoom in on all of the monitors behind him. They’re all national networks, so I figured that’s not going to help. But I kept looking anyway, ‘cause, you know, never know what you may find right? Right. So, I kept going and still didn’t find anything.”

“That’s it, I’m turning this car around!”

“Okay, okay. Jeez, hold on. I’m getting to it. So I started to just look around the room. And I noticed something.”

“What?” Keene asked.

“So, like, there’s not a lot of light around this guy. Just what looks like natural daylight. But I noticed that it wasn’t coming from any of the sides. It was coming from above.”

“How did you see that?” Taylor asked.

“‘Cause I threw a couple gamma ray filters in there and diffused it. I can see sunlight rays coming from above and at an angle. Like skylights or windows up high. So I used a couple other filters I have, and I was able to get some shadows. Looks like a tic-tac-toe board shadow being cast over the wall of newspapers.”

“So?” Taylor said. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“It’s a warehouse,” Keene said.

“It’s a warehouse!” Artie repeated. “Exactly! So I got back on the net and started looking for warehouses around Racine Station. Turns out, there’s a whole neighborhood of them there.”

“That doesn’t help,” Keene said.

“Yeah, but maybe this will,” Artie said. “So this neighborhood only has a few small buildings like the one this guy is in with that kind of blueprint. Don’t ask. I pulled the records. So anyway, there’s like twelve of these warehouses that were built with plans that match what we were looking at. All of them have been renovated in the last ten years. And all of them were either turned into some kind of boutique store or apartment building. In the last couple years, with the bad economy, four have been abandoned.”

“Okay,” Keene said, his interest rising.

“Only one of them is close enough for us to have been able to get that audio,” Artie said.

“So you found it,” Keene said.

“I found it!” Artie said.

“Good job,” Keene said. “I told you there was something. Text me the address. Oh, and—”

“Yeah, I know. Delete the video. I already did.”

Keene clicked off the call and put the truck in gear. He stepped on the gas and shot out into the street, pulling a complete U-turn.

“Hey!” Taylor shouted again. “I thought you were going to warn me when you did that.”

“Sorry,” he said.

“Where are we going?”

“Your place.”

“For what?”

“To pack a bag. We’re going to Chicago.”

“Why Chicago?” Director Preston asked.

“Found a lead,” Taylor answered, gripping the handle above her window with her free hand as Keene swerved in and out of traffic. “Keene seems to think we should go.”

“Anything big?” Preston asked.

“Don’t know yet. One of Keene’s buddies,” she watched as Keene made the face again, “is a computer hacker. Pretty good one, too. Has some gear that he shouldn’t have. But that’s neither here nor there. It’s a good lead, and we’re going to check it out.”

“Anything you need me to do?”

“Nah. I’ll keep you posted.”

“Check in when you get there.”

“Will do.”

Taylor clicked off the call as the truck pulled into her driveway. She undid her seat belt and opened the door.

“I’ll be a couple minutes. You can come inside if you want.”

“I’ll wait out here,” Keene said. “I’ll call Jennings and let him know.”

“Suit yourself,” she said. “Give me ten minutes.”

Inside, she ran to the bedroom and grabbed her overnight bag, stuffing it with underwear, jeans, T-shirts; a toothbrush followed. She zipped up the bag and headed into the kitchen where Barney, her Jack Russell, was sitting on his doggie bed.
Shoot
, she thought.

“Sorry, buddy. I almost forgot about you.”

She pulled out her phone to call the neighbor, but as she did, it buzzed.

“Taylor here,” she answered.

“Ms. Taylor, it’s Boz.”

“Oh hey, Boz. What can I do for you?”

“I’m still at the White House, but I wanted to try and catch up with you and Mr. Keene. Where are you?”

“Ah,” Megan paused, unsure what to tell him. “At my house. But I’m about to leave.”

“I see,” Boz said.

Megan could hear the questioning tone. She figured she might as well tell him.

“Keene and I are on our way to Chicago. Seems there may be something worth checking out. We’re leaving right away.”

“Great. I’ll come with you.”

Aw, man
, Taylor thought. No way this was going to go over well with Keene. “Tell you what, Boz. Keene and I are in a pretty big hurry. What if I just call you and keep you updated?”

“I really don’t think that will work. But I also don’t want to be the cause of any friction between you and Mr. Keene. So if you’d like, you can keep this conversation between us, and I’ll just meet you at the plane.”

Megan was about to try and protest again, but the line went dead. She opened the cupboard and grabbed the bottle of ibuprofen, took two out for the headache that was now pounding in her temple, chased them down with a glass of water, and threw the rest of the bottle into her bag. She quickly called the neighbor and explained her unexpected trip. The neighbor promised to take Barney out and feed him for the next couple days. Taylor left a twenty on the counter with a note that read,
Thanks a bunch! I owe you one!

She barely got the bag in the backseat and her seat belt buckled before Keene pulled out onto the road again.

   CHAPTER 17   

B
oz clicked off the phone call from Taylor as President Grant came back into the room. He had been left there by himself while the president attended to a quick briefing. While alone, he tried to think through everything Grant had shared with him the last couple days. First there were the letters. Then there was the video. And finally, there was Jonathan Keene and Megan Taylor.