If you enjoy this excerpt, physical copies of The Arrows of Defiance can be purchased here and e-book copies are available here.
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In the back of the van, Melinda was starting to sweat. This wasn’t going to be like any other mission. She was used to the open, rugged landscape of the southwest, where there were mountains and arroyos and nooks and crannies to hide in—not to mention plenty of open landscape where you could run like hell if you had to.
This was different. Brute force wasn’t going to work here. They were too close to Omaha proper; police response would be measured in minutes and, given the amount of activity they had observed earlier in the day, driving by the old air force base in Bellevue, a significant military response was far too close for Melinda’s comfort.
She, John, Sam, and Tommy had spent the afternoon taking leisurely drives throughout the southern suburbs of Omaha, planning escape routes, learning geography, and selecting safe houses for if things went really bad. And now, it was game time. And, if things went according to plan, twenty minutes from now they would be heading south to rendezvous with Harvey and get the hell out of Dodge.
The building looked like just another farm building, low-slung, rectangular, long, and prefabricated. It blended in perfectly with the Nebraska countryside that had invaded one of the odd, undeveloped voids between the southern suburbs of Omaha. One minute, you’d be in a four-lane snarl of traffic, cruising past big box stores, aging restaurant chains trying to reinvent themselves to appeal to suburbanites, and the odd auto parts store, and the next minute it would be a sea of corn, as if the countryside had fought back and invaded the city to exact its revenge.
“Are we ready?” John asked from upfront.
“Are you sure this is going to work?” Melinda asked.
“Yes,” Sam replied. “The facility is manned by a team of three individuals. Would be hackers who like to sell secrets and get high, it appears.”
“I can’t believe there’s so little security,” Melinda shook her head.
“That’s the beauty of it,” Tommy replied. “These outposts are designed to work because of their anonymity, not their security. People don’t know where they are.”
“But we do?”
“It cost us a pretty penny,” Tommy admitted. “But that’s what we paid that hacker for.”
“So tell me again,” Melinda said as they turned into the long driveway that led up to the building.
“You go up to the door,” John said. “Deliver the pizza, and as soon as they take it from you, activate the stun gas.”
“And if that doesn’t work?”
“You’ve got the flashbang and the tranquilizer gun.”
“And if that doesn’t work?”
“Guns,” Sam put in. “We’ll be in the van.”
Melinda sighed as they pulled up to the entrance. “Give me the boxes,” she said. Sam passed her the pizza boxes and Tommy handed her a visor. “A visor?” Melinda asked.
“It’s part of their uniform,” Tommy replied.
Melinda scowled as she put the boxes down for a moment and fastened the visor to her head. She took a deep breath and set herself. “All right,” she said. “Let’s get this over with.” She swung the van door open and, pizza boxes in hand, headed up to the door. She heard the van door close behind her and kept walking, trying her best to remain calm. Showtime.
The whole building reeked of normality. It was squat and looked to be made of the prefabricated metal that was so common in the farm buildings of the Midwest. Hiding in plain sight, Melinda admitted to herself, I like it. No one would have given this building a second glance. You would have to know what you were looking for and it would probably take some serious research and digging through very, very dark corners of the Internet to confirm it.
Gaining confidence, she felt herself relax as she reached the door and rang the doorbell. Seconds later, it was flung open. “Finally!” Melinda resisted an urge to giggle. The young man who had opened the door seemed to have embraced every stereotype of a “wannabe hacker”: overweight, wearing an oversized Hawaiian shirt, boardshorts, and flip-flops, with a mop of greasy-looking hair, glasses, and remnants of teenage acne. “It’s here, guys!” he called over his shoulder. There was a rush of feet and soon he was joined by his two counterparts. One was a Mohawked, pierced, skinny guy in a ragged Slayer t-shirt and what looked to be boxer shorts, the other had a long, brilliant red beard.
Well, that was easy, Melinda thought to herself.
“What do we owe you?” Hawaiian Shirt asked.
Melinda lifted up the pizza box to glance at the side of the box. “Looks like it’s going to be twenty-two dollars even,” she said.
“Sweet!” The Mohawk replied. “I’ve got ten!”
“I’ve got ten!” Redbeard said.
Melinda rolled her eyes as they gathered around the pizza boxes and then she pressed the button to release the stun gas. As promised, they all dropped like rocks, and then Melinda stepped through the door. She put the pizza boxes down in the corner. She heard the van door open and Sam and Tommy running to help.
“Worked like a charm,” Melinda said as she grabbed Mohawk by the feet and began to drag him away from the door. Tommy laughed and stepped over the bodies, heading for the computer consoles that were clustered together in the center of the room.
The prone bodies were out of the way of the door, Sam shut it and he and Melinda walked over to where Tommy was busy typing, glancing around as they did so. Other than the computers in the center of the room, the place was half empty. A forest of humming, blinking servers filled the back half of the building. In the front half, were computer consoles, a half-pie, couches arranged around a huge, flat-screen television, and a small kitchen.
“Well, they’ve got nice digs, I’ll give them that.”
“It’s like nerd paradise,” Sam said.
“I heard that!” Tommy replied. He was typing fast, glaring intensely at the computer.
“How long do we have?” Melinda said.
“Not long,” Sam replied.
“Got it!” Tommy said. He held up a flash drive. “Server thirty-eight,” he said. “Plug this into the port just above the light that’s flashing blue. And hurry! I won’t be able to stay undetected for long.”
Melinda grabbed the flash drive and she and Sam plunged into the forest of servers that took up the back half of the cavernous building. “Three hundred!” Melinda called.
“I’m in the six hundreds!”
Melinda ran back further, almost running into Sam as they met at an intersection in the maze of servers.
“It’s got to be this way,” he said, pointing. “Everything’s moving downward in this direction.” Melinda turned left and followed him down the path. “Two hundreds, one hundreds—”
“Guys!” Tommy yelled from the computer consoles “We’ve been detected! You need to hurry!”
“How long do we have!” Melinda yelled back.
“Maybe a minute, probably less!”
“I’ve got it,” Sam said. Melinda ran down the row of servers to him, flash drive in hand. Sam pointed. “There!” Melinda jammed it into the slot and the flash drive began flashing green at them- the flashing quickened pace.
“They’re wiping the servers!” Tommy yelled. “When the light stops flashing, pull it out!”
Melinda and Sam both jumped as several rows behind them, crackles and pops of electricity began snapping in the air, and showers of sparks followed. One row, then another row, a wave of destruction creeping closer and closer. Another row.
“Come on,” Melinda said, watching the flash drive. Another row gone. “Come on, damn you!” she said.
Another row. It was two rows away now. “You’re going to have to pull it,” Sam replied. “If we don’t get it, we don’t get it,”
“Just a little longer,” Melinda replied.
One row now. The flashing on the flash drive was frantic now and, down at the far end of the row, the servers began to explode one by one.
“Melinda,” Sam said.
Twenty servers away. Maybe less.
“Melinda, you have to pull it now,” Sam said.
“Almost there,” Melinda said.
Ten servers.
“Pull it now!”
“Just a little longer,”
Eight servers.
“Melinda!”
Seven, six, five, four, three—the light on the flash drive turned a solid green and Melinda pulled the flash drive and began to run, Sam a half-step behind her as sparks began to fly from the servers as they were destroyed one-by-one. Tommy fell into step behind them and they flung the door open and sprinted to the van. Melinda reached the door and flung it open even as Tommy climbed into the front seat and Sam flung himself into the van behind Melinda.
John wasted no time hitting the gas and they screeched down the driveway and swerved out onto the busy avenue. Melinda, her hands shaking, handed the flash drive up to Tommy. Now the real clock started. They had to abandon their van, get to the rendezvous, and get as far away from Omaha as quickly as they could. In the front seat, Tommy was already plugging the flash drive into his small, portable laptop.
“Yes!”
“We got it?” John asked.
“Yep,” Tommy replied. “And oh, wow,” he said. “Miss Melinda, you’re going to want to call that husband of yours, I think. He’s going to be a lot closer than we are.”
“What do you mean?”
Tommy told her and Melinda shook her head. “You mean all this time and she’s been right there under our noses?”
“It appears so.”