The facility Smith had transferred the machinery to after abandoning the one in Great Falls was located in a wooded area outside of Manassas, Virginia. The drive should only have taken an hour and fifteen minutes, but an accident on the freeway resulted in a long delay. The detour they’d been forced to take had added almost another hour to their trip. By the time they arrived at their destination, it was fifteen minutes to five.
Ace had been driving, with Jack riding shotgun. Michelle, who sat in the back of the van with Fox, Lilly, and a laptop, had been keeping them apprised of what was going on in the vicinity of the building. Everybody in the car was wearing a Kevlar vest and was equipped with earpieces so that they could communicate easily once in the building.
“There’s definitely something going on,” Michelle said now as they stopped about five-hundred yards away.
Jack turned in the passenger seat and looked at Michelle. “Can you tell if they have surveillance cameras around the building?”
“It’s hard to see on the satellite image, but let’s assume there are cameras to warn them about anybody approaching,” Michelle said.
“We need to take them out,” Jack said.
“Easier said than done,” Michelle said. “Problem is if I cut the power to the facility, they’ll know we’re coming.”
“We’d better keep that in our back pocket,” Ace interjected, then looked at Jack. “How good of a shot are you?”
“Good enough,” Jack said, understanding what Ace was planning. “Michelle, how many entrances are we looking at?”
“One in the front, one in the back, plus the loading dock.”
Michelle turned the laptop for everybody to see as she pointed out the spots on the grainy satellite image.
“We have to assume they have cameras at all three entries. If we can get a clear shot at them, taking all cameras out at the same time, they might think that it’s just a technical glitch,” Jack mused.
“Okay,” Ace said, “we can do that. We’ll have to use the silencers and approach on foot through the woods.”
“Let’s do it,” Jack agreed. “Fox?”
Fox pulled out his gun and screwed the silencer onto the muzzle. “I’m ready when you are.”
“Lilly, you and Michelle stay here until we know what’s going on inside,” Jack said.
“Be careful,” Lilly said. She looked worried.
“I’m always careful,” Jack assured her.
Moments later, Ace, Fox, and Jack exited the vehicle.
“Fox, you take the back entrance, I’ll take the front,” Ace said, “Jack, you’ll take the loading dock.”
They fanned out and marched into the woods. The trees and brush provided good cover. Smith and his cronies had probably chosen this location because the building couldn’t easily be seen from the street, thus hiding their nefarious activities from the public. But the hidden location also meant that Jack and his fellow Stargate agents could get close to the building without being seen.
Jack hurried through the woods, constantly scanning the area for any trip wires or cameras. He didn’t detect any. If he were to set up a facility like this, he’d make sure to spread motion sensors amidst the trees around the building to be warned about an ambush.
Jack was almost in place, when he heard Ace in his ear. “I have a visual of the camera over the front entrance.”
“Getting closer,” Fox said.
“Almost there,” Jack added.
He was approximately a hundred yards from the building now, and as he snuck past a large tree, he spotted the loading dock. A white van was parked there, but the driver’s cabin was empty. Jack let his eyes roam, but he couldn’t see anybody. He had to assume that the driver was inside the building.
The double doors leading from the loading dock into the building were in Jack’s sight, though he had to aim at the camera above it from the side, since the van blocked his direct view.
“In position,” Jack whispered into his microphone.
“Same,” Fox said.
“On my count of three,” Ace said. “One, two, three.”
Jack squeezed the trigger. The bullet found its target. The camera’s lens shattered, and the glass fragments fell on the ground. “Direct hit.”
“Front door camera is destroyed.”
“Back door too,” Fox added.
“Approach your ingress points,” Ace said. “Report when you’ve cracked the lock.”
Keeping as low as possible, and using everything at his disposal for cover, Jack approached the loading dock. He glanced around but saw nobody. The windows on this side of the building were high up, and he was pretty sure that nobody was looking through them. If his premonition was correct, they were too busy inside. He glanced at his watch. Five minutes to five p.m. They were cutting it close, too close for his liking.
When Jack reached the double doors at the loading dock, he realized that they were ajar.
“Loading dock doors are not locked,” he reported to Ace.
“Working on the back door,” Fox said.
“I need a few seconds at the front,” Ace replied.
Jack pressed himself against the wall next to the double doors, his eyes scanning his surroundings. Seconds felt like minutes.
“Ace?”
“Got it,” Ace said.
“Me too,” Fox replied.
“See you inside,” Ace said.
Jack eased the door open and listened for sounds from inside, then peeked into the interior. The loading dock area was dimly lit and quiet. Jack squeezed inside. He found himself in an area with pallets and packing materials, empty crates and boxes. A curtain of thick plastic sheets, which were common in refrigerated spaces like those of a meat-packing plant, separated the area from the rest of the building. It dulled the voices and sounds coming from the main part of the building.
Jack parted the plastic sheets by an inch and peered into the space. It didn’t take him long to assess what they were dealing with. He slid the plastic shut again and retreated a few yards, before he dared whisper into his mic.
“Loading dock is clear. The machine is in the southeast quadrant. Don’t have a clear view. There are pallets stacked in the northwest quadrant, partially blocking my view.”
“I’ve got a direct view,” Fox confirmed. “Tiger is already in the machine.”
“I hear the sound. The machine is running,” Ace added. “Fox, how many men do you see?”
“Three close to the machine. Two are wearing white coats, one of them is injecting something in Tiger’s IV drip. A third guy is wearing blue overalls.”
“I see the one in the blue overalls,” Ace said. “Yankee?”
Jack peeked into the room once more. “Negative, can’t see any of them from my vantage point.” Then he picked up a movement in the corner of his eye and whipped his head. “Two people approaching from the northeast quadrant. One in a suit. The other dressed in black. He’s armed.”
The armed man moved his head in Jack’s direction, and Jack quickly jerked back behind the thick plastic curtain.
“The suit and the armed guy are in my view,” Ace said a moment later.
“There’s another armed guy, he’s coming from another door,” Fox said. “Perhaps a bathroom.”
“Where’s he going?” Jack asked.
“Heading in your direction, Yankee.”
Jack stepped to the side to press himself against the wall next to the plastic curtain, his gun ready, when he heard Michelle’s voice in his ear.
“Somebody is heading for the loading dock.”
Jack couldn’t answer to ask for more details, because the armed man just parted the plastic curtain to the area where Jack was waiting. He didn’t step through, instead, he looked toward the double doors.
“Can anybody hear me?” Michelle asked.
Ace and Fox didn’t answer either, which could only mean that they too were too close to Smith’s henchmen and had to remain silent.
Jack shifted his weight from one foot to the other to turn his torso, so he could aim at the armed man and take him out. Debris under his foot made a sound. It wasn’t loud, but sufficient for the guard to turn his head and reach for his gun.
“Security breach!” the guy yelled.
Jack spun to aim his gun in his direction, trying not to offer the guy too broad a target. Jack shot, but the guy did too, and his opponent’s gunshot echoed in the small space. Jack felt the bullet graze his arm but didn’t feel any pain. Blood spurted from the guard’s biceps, but he was still standing.
Jack fired a second shot, before the assailant couldn’t aim with his injured arm. The second bullet hit him squarely in the chest. From the corner of his eye, Jack saw a movement coming from the double doors. Too late he turned. The man Michelle had warned him about had already reached him and tackled him to the ground, knocking the wind out of him.
Jack heard shouting from inside the facility where the MRI machine was located. He had to assume that everybody had heard the guard’s gunshot, and that Ace and Fox did their best to stop more of them coming toward the loading dock.
Jack punched his attacker and noticed only now that he’d lost his gun during the fall. Luckily, the other guy didn’t have a gun either, or, Jack assumed, he wouldn’t have charged him like a football player but shot him instead. The assailant was heavier than Jack by at least forty pounds. Despite this advantage and his position on the ground, Jack was able to hold him off.
“Michelle, cut the power!”
It was Ace’s voice he heard through the earpiece.
“On it!” came Michelle’s reply.
Meanwhile Jack managed to land a punch in the assailant’s throat, making him choke. He used the temporary distraction to kick him off and roll to the side. Jack jumped up and saw his gun a few feet from where the armed guard had fallen. Next to the dead guy lay a gun, too. Jack rushed to his Glock. The assailant staggered to his feet, his eyes on the dead man’s gun, just as the lights went out.
Michelle had managed to cut the power. Only a sliver of light shone from the partially closed double doors into the space where Jack was fighting. Jack lunged for his gun, hoping that he’d estimated the distance correctly. With the fingertips of his left hand, Jack felt the cold metal of the Glock. He stretched farther to wrap his hand around it.
Just then, he heard a loud humming sound like that of a furnace, and an instant later, the lights were back on. Jack had no time to transfer his gun into his right hand, because the assailant now had a gun pointed in his direction. Jack pulled the trigger twice in quick succession. The heavy opponent fell like a dead tree.
“Michelle, the damn power is back on!” Fox yelled.
“They’ve got backup generators. I’ve gotta come in,” Michelle replied, breathing hard as if she was already running toward the building.
Jack jumped up, heading through the plastic curtain. More gunshots came from the area where the oversized MRI machine was located. Simultaneously, he heard through his earpiece how somebody cried out in pain. He didn’t know whether it was Fox or Ace, but he knew his friends were in trouble.