Project FILTER: Infiltration_13
It was midday. The exact opposite time in which an assault is likely to take place on a highly guarded and fortified national security installation.
Trevor calmly pulled the car into the visitor’s parking lot of Visions Systems. He switched off the ignition and faced Reggie. Trevor’s voice sounded in Reggie’s head.
This is going to be interesting.
You didn't do the air-quotes thing.
I don't have to. We will walk in, say a few choice words, and walk out with Jessica.
Reggie couldn't hold in his burst of laughter. Trevor sneered and flashed a file to Reggie's eyes.
You can't be serious. Reggie said as he read the protocol report.
Yes, I am. And yes, we are. See the attachment. Load it and execute. Trevor exited the car and began walking toward the entrance of Vision Systems.
Wait, Reggie grabbed Trevor’s arm. What if one guy there doesn’t have an implant or this FILTER shit in his head?
We’ve got that list running alongside a facial recognition scanner; Trevor pulled the lever on the door opened it, and got out.
There might be one or two in there, but the odds are they have one of these in their heads if they work here.
"Oh, Jesus," Reggie's disbelief was audible.
Trevor walked around the front of the car and tapped his wrist where a watch would have been strapped. Gotta get to the church on time, Darlin.
Fuck. This is fucking crazy. Reggie exhaled, popped the car door open, and got out.
Play it cool, Trevor tried to sound calm, but he was nervous too.
Just think of poker. You ever bluff your way to winning a hand? Remember it in a movie? You’re doing it now, and you’ve got eyes on all the other guy’s cards. You’re golden, bro.
They approached the front sliding glass doors. They opened automatically. He turned to see Reggie walking along the curving concrete path a few steps behind him.
It was an insufferable path. It curved for no explainable reason. However, it was curved, and it made a person take a ridiculous zig-zag pattern toward the door, like evading a sniper’s hostile fire.
"Just act natural," Trevor said with a calm, reassuring voice. "You'd be surprised where you can get into when you act as you belong."
The protocol they initiated in the car took hold, and their faces flickered and changed to other people’s. The front desk guard waved them through as they passed their hands over the sensors at the turnstiles. Green lights and smiling faces, and in a moment, they were in the first elevator that opened.
The elevator dropped under them.
The building was twelve stories tall but three times below ground. Enough concrete and steel were delivered to this location throughout the construction of three buildings. This means that there is one tower, but underground is a hive of metal and concrete, hiding the true nature of Vision Systems. National security required below-ground infrastructure, and Visions Systems was not immune to this industry standard. Below the standard glass building was a labyrinth of offices, hallways, and research labs. You’d never know it was there if you hadn’t watched the thousands of concrete trucks lined up for miles when this building was originally under construction.
The numbers on the elevator panel ticked lower. Reggie and Trevor's eyes glimmered with protocols and scenarios. Their implants process the probabilities and display the schematics of the floors as they pass by, with glowing dots depicting the other FILTERs and implants on those floors. The elevator came to a stop.
The other side of the door is going to be a cat-and-mouse game. Just follow my lead.
Reggie nodded in agreement.
The elevator doors opened to a floor taken from any office building in any high rise in New York. Office workers shuffled papers and walked from station to station. They ignored Reggie and Trevor. Their faces were not visible to the office workers. To the workers, they resembled ordinary and nondescript fellow office workers, files and papers in hand.
Just act as you belong, Trevor prompted.
Reggie nodded, and they exited the elevator. Its doors closed behind them.
Third turn on the left, down the hall, and through the double doors.
They proceeded along the path. None of the workers batted an eye. Reggie's heart was in his throat.
Calm yourself. The protocol has changed what they see. And you and I are on an encrypted uplink. So long as we think it to each other, we’re good.
The double doors were directly ahead of Reggie and Trevor. Trevor executed the last protocol via his implant.
###
Alarms sounded as the User grasped the electrified paddle, and it sizzled against the soles of Jessica's feet.
On the other side of the one-way glass, Robinson shrieked. "What the hell is that?!"
"An alarm, I don't know!" Clemens shouted. “Fuck!”
Robinson snatched the microphone from the desk in front of the window.
Operative. The exercise is canceled. Evacuate the room.
The double doors swung open as people streamed out in an orderly manner. To them, it was a fire drill, an inconvenience to the monotonous day. Trevor and Reggie traveled against the stream of people shuffling away from their workstations.
Now, could you go through the second door on the left? Trevor pinged the door with the message in Reggie’s heads-up display.
A man - white and ashen from the assignment - exited the door as Reggie squared his shoulders forward. The man wiped his sweaty palms on his shirt - red flecks of blood splatter were evident to a keen eye and followed the other workers exiting. Reggie saw blood, and his pace quickened.
Don't touch him. He doesn't see you; he sees some non-descript face that he won't be able to describe. She's on the other side of the door, Trevor’s voice in Reggie’s head. Stay on mission.
Jessica panted and tried to calm the racing of her heart. The blood had stopped when the Operative sprayed her with coagulating serum after he cut into her, but the event's trauma was taking its toll even against her years of resistance training. Every Air Force Officer gets anti-interrogation and anti-torture training. But it does little to help when the interrogator uses a scalpel against flesh.
On the other side of the glass.
"What now?!" Clemens wrung his hands and looked at Robinson.
"We respond to the drill," Robinson straightened his blue tie and stepped toward the door. "Operator, remain at your station. This is just a drill, eyes on the prisoner."
The Operator settled back into his chair and wiped his brow.
Clemens and Robinson exited the room and nearly knocked over two Operators crossing past the first door on their left.
"You heard the alarm, Operators!" Robinson howled at the men. "Topside! Now!"
"Sir, yes, sir. Checking back stairwell for stragglers, topside! Affirmative!" Trevor sounded as he pressed past the General’s motley assortment of insignias and medals on his uniform and a nondescript man in a black business suit.
Don't take the door. Continue down the hall, Reggie. We’ll backtrack once those two are gone.
Reggie did as instructed and did not make eye contact with the two men they almost collided with.
Clemens was past the double doors. Robinson paused as he looked back at the two Operators swimming against the stream of personnel in the hallway and thought to himself, Fucking, Operators. They never know when it isn't a game.
He pushed through the double doors and headed toward the exits.
Trevor counted a beat and grabbed Reggie's shoulder. They stopped.
Back to the door.
The hallway was empty as Trevor and Reggie reversed their course. Reggie stopped at the door and pressed his hand against the doorknob.
Jessica was sobbing as she lay strapped to the table.
Reggie's veins filled with rage at the bloody sight of her.
Trevor's eyes swept the room.
The window. Wait, Reggie. There's an operative in the other room. Stand down.
But she's right there. She sees us!
Jessica did see the face of the man she did not recognize peering through the squared safety glass window.
I'll give you the clear. In a minute. Eyes on the prize.
Trevor spun around and wiped his wrist against the first door sensor on the left of the hallway. The door opened, and he disappeared through it as it closed.
"Operator dismissed. Orders of Command," Trevor said with authority. The Operator snapped to attention. He saw Robinson standing in the room, and without hesitation, he pressed past the chest full of insignias and medals and pressed the exit panel of the door. He snapped to his left without looking back down the hallway and scurried toward the double doors at the end of the hallway.
Proceed. All clear.
Reggie pressed through the door and found his heart in his throat when he saw and smelt the room. Coppery with pangs of bleach and antiseptic solution. The clotting compound left a strong scent that was difficult to forget. He had just had an eye socket full of the shit a few hours ago.
The restraints unbuckled with a few flashes of Reggie’s hands and wrists. With one free hand, Jessica freed her other hand from the restraint as Reggie tended to her ankles.
Trevor manned the doorway and kept an eye trained on the double doors at the end of the hallway the Operator left through.
They gathered up Jessica and shuttled her down the hallway, away from the double doors toward a maintenance hallway - a longer route but away from all the Operators and employees gathered topside. The schematic of the floor displayed in their eyes and a rear service elevator glowed; their objective.
The doors opened, and they entered, then it lifted them toward the surface. Jessica sobbed into Reggie's collarbone and shoulder.
Once topside, hit the first exit door, then we'll shift right. We'll take a service vehicle or whatever we see. The car we came in is untraceable. I hope you didn’t leave your wallet in there, Reggie.
###
Robinson tapped his fingers against his thigh. He glanced at his wristwatch. He was one of the few who still wore a gold wristwatch with a leather band.
It had been fifteen minutes. This was longer than normal. The lawn of the building was flooded with personnel. Emergency lights flashed through the windows of empty offices.
"It's been too long," Robinson started toward the front door. Clemens followed behind him.
Then Robinson saw the Operative he assigned to guard Jessica exit the building. His eyes widened, his pulse raced, and he broke into a sprint.
"Sir, you can't..." A security guard tried to stop Robinson, but a cold glance cut him off as Robinson burst through the front doors and streaked toward the elevators.
###
Jessica shuddered and sobbed into Reggie's embrace. Trevor pressed his foot down on the pickup truck's accelerator as they sped north toward Baltimore.
They did not speak. They did not transmit to each other. They only counted the breaths and miles between them and Vision Systems.
Trevor took the exit toward Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
“We flying somewhere?” Reggie asked.
“No, dumping this thing and picking up one of my drop cars," Trevor said and downshifted the clunking pickup truck. “I’ve got caches scattered all over the place.”
A map pinged in Reggie’s eyes; a map of Maryland and Virginia, with hundreds of red dots spread along highways and in some public parks. ,