BooksBarbecue
Back Roadkill Save as PDF
Chapters (48)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Chapter One: Fender Bender
  5. Chapter Two: Bigfoot Burrito
  6. Chapter Three: Treasure Hunt
  7. Chapter Four: Open Sesame
  8. Chapter Five: Central Intelligence
  9. Chapter Six: First Flight
  10. Chapter Seven: Park It
  11. Chapter Eight: Next Steps
  12. Chapter Nine: Search Strategies
  13. Chapter Ten: Overflight
  14. Chapter Eleven: Barn Doors
  15. Chapter Twelve: Saturn Fly-By
  16. Chapter Thirteen: Getting a Clue
  17. Chapter Fourteen: Hacked
  18. Chapter Fifteen: The Spy Game
  19. Chapter Sixteen: Investigations
  20. Chapter Seventeen: Break-In
  21. Chapter Eighteen: Battening Down
  22. Chapter Nineteen: Shoring Up Defenses
  23. Chapter Twenty: Third Time’s the Charm
  24. Chapter Twenty-One: Proxy
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two: Rescue
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three: Chase
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four: Spies R Us
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five: Surveillance
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six: Making Plans
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven: Going In
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight: Infiltration
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine: Accidental Captive
  33. Chapter Thirty: Interrogation
  34. Chapter Thirty-One: Reaction
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two: Kidnappings
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three: Reviewing Options
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four: Public Debut
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five: Distractions
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six: The Big Reveal
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven: Regrouping
  41. Chapter Thirty-Eight: Waiting for Results
  42. Chapter Thirty-Nine: It Hits the Fan
  43. Chapter Forty: Disassembly
  44. Chapter Forty-One: Wrapping It Up
  45. Chapter Forty-Two: Negotiations
  46. Chapter Forty-Three: Coda
  47. About the Author
  48. About the Publisher

Chapter Fifteen: The Spy Game

Chapter Fifteen: The Spy Game

Day 10. Sunday

After much discussion, we decided that the investigation of the field had to happen today. After all, we reasoned, maybe on a weekend the putative watchers would be less on alert.

As rationalizations went, it wasn’t great, but it was all we had.

We piled into Patrick’s car with me, already invisible, in the middle. Patrick drove out to the Tate Industrial Park, keeping his speed down to avoid attracting any kind of attention.

He pulled up in front of the Harris offices, and Nat got out. She turned and had a brief conversation with Patrick, during which time I slid out of the car. Any observer would just see two people chatting for a few moments.

Nat headed for the doors. Her story was that she had to check on something at her desk. Since the Harris Institute wasn’t a high-security military installation, the guard at the door should have no objection once he’d checked her ID.

Meanwhile, I made a beeline for the field, moving as fast as I could without getting out of breath and starting to pant. I also did my best to stay on rocky ground, or packed dirt, or short scrub. If I found myself having to push my way through a wheat field, I’d likely just abort.

That proved to be unnecessary, though. The foliage around the field turned out to be short, scrubby, and patchy. It occurred to me that the Loranna probably didn’t want people seeing footprints appearing out of thin air either, so this area was probably deliberately groomed.

In a short time, I was in the field, more or less where I’d seen the landing traces. I couldn’t be positive without the GPS tracking in my phone, but the landmarks looked about right. Adopting the zombie position, I began slowly staggering around the area.

I’d been at it for more than ten minutes when my hand felt something. A brief patting down determined that it was a landing strut of some kind, although it didn’t feel like the same shape as Sheldon’s struts. I felt down to ground level, then around the foot of the strut. It was definitely bigger than Sheldon’s, maybe five feet in diameter. I reached upward but didn’t make contact with anything. I was about to leave when there was a flash of light; then a staircase lowered out of thin air. As silently as I could, I moved around to the far side of the landing strut. It would be just my luck if someone came out and walked right into me.

After a few moments, the airlock rose into the air and disappeared. There was a distinct sound of footsteps and a slight disturbance in the dust, heading for the industrial park.

Shit.