Genomorph

Chapter 55

CHAPTER 55

MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2005
0900 EST

Karen was at her workstation in the Pit when Kyle sent word that he needed to see her. She closed the file she was working on and went immediately to his office.

“I just spoke to Admiral Hammerstein,” he said as she entered. “Dr. Covington may have been compromised. At any rate, they made their move and grabbed your friend Melissa. Since Dr. Covington may have told them our plans, we have to move quickly.”

“Susan doesn’t know our plans,” Karen said. “She knows about the information we collected, but she doesn’t know that we found the safe house. Brandi suspected they might be able to use her.”

“Still, we need to get things rolling,” Kyle said. “Get your gear and meet Max at the security checkpoint. As soon as we have a window, we’re going in. Mira and her techs are already on their way.”

Karen nodded and left the office. She went to her room and grabbed her purse and a long coat; the weather had turned cold as Max had predicted, and it was drizzling rain. She met Max at the checkpoint, and they went to a secure garage through a long hallway. As they drove to Arlington, Max gave her some last minute advice.

“Don’t try to be a hero,” she said. “You get the drop on this jerk and call in the troops. Whatever you do, don’t get within arm’s reach of him; he may be a geek, but he is probably a well trained geek.”

“I won’t let you down,” Karen said.

“If I thought you would, we’d have another plan,” Max said. “It’s all right to feel nervous and scared; you’d be a fool if you didn’t. You can use those feelings though. Fear heightens your senses; listen to it, just don’t let it control you.”

They reached Arlington, but Max did not turn down the road that would take them to the safe house.

“Where are we going?” Karen asked.

“Marion left the house twenty minutes ago,” Max said, smiling. “We already have her in custody. We’re meeting Capriatti and his NCIS people to get you ready.”

They pulled into the parking lot of a shopping center not far away, and Karen moved from the car into a gray surveillance van. She saw Marion Rothberg glaring at her from where she was handcuffed in the back, a blanket wrapped around her.

“You people are in so much fucking trouble it isn’t funny,” she snarled.

“Look, lady, you have the right to remain silent; do us a favor and use it,” Capraiatti said as he handed Karen a pile of clothing.

Karen ignored the woman’s glaring as she stripped out of her own clothes and donned a Kevlar vest and then the other woman’s clothes. Once she was dressed, one of the NCIS agents handed her a tiny earpiece, which Karen slipped into her right ear. She did a quick sound check, speaking in a normal voice, and an agent in one of the surveillance vans responded. Feeling a little more secure knowing that everything she said and heard would be monitored, she left the van and got into Marion’s Mercedes. Agent Capriatti stepped up to the driver’s side window and Karen rolled it down. Capriatti passed her revolver to her, nodding his approval as Karen popped the cylinder open and checked the loads before slipping it into the pocket of Marion’s long coat.

“Those are +P loads in there,” he said. “Not as much punch as full magnums, but a lot more than regular thirty-eight specials. Don’t underestimate this guy; identify yourself as a Federal Agent, and if he so much as looks at you funny, you empty that revolver into him.”

Karen drove to the house along the route Marion would have taken. As she turned onto the street, she checked the rear view mirror, but could see no sign of the chase vehicles. They had told her they would hang well back; she would just have to trust that they would be there. Karen pulled into the garage, turned off the ignition, and then popped the trunk so she could get the bags of groceries out.

“We go on your signal,” Capriatti said in her earpiece as she exited the car.

Karen nodded very slightly, knowing the agents would be able to hear everything that went on. If things went bad, they would not wait for her signal. As she walked around to the back of the car, she kept her face down, in case there was a camera watching her.

Adrenaline began rushing through her body as she opened the trunk and lifted the bags, carrying them high to partially obscure her face. She walked up to the door and used the house key on the ring to unlock it. Her eyes scanned the interior as she entered; the door from the garage opening directly into the kitchen.

“I hope you remembered my beer,” a voice called from somewhere upstairs. Karen did not answer. She began removing the items from the bags and setting them on the counter, her left hand in the pocket of her coat. She had to appear normal, and she suspected the first thing Marion would do was put away the groceries, based on the fact that the kitchen was extremely well organized.

“I said I hope you remembered my beer,” the voice repeated, this time right behind her, much too close.

Karen spun and drove her knee up and into the man’s stomach. As he doubled over, she smashed a glass jar of something over his head. He dropped to the floor covered in dill pickle chips as Karen moved away, pulling her hand from her pocket as she gave the signal to move in.

“What the fuck is your problem?” the man screamed as he looked up. His eyes widened as he saw the crystal in her hand and realized she was not Marion.

Karen pressed the button on the back of the crystal. Nothing happened. She pressed it again and still nothing happened. The man on the floor smiled.

“I guess whoever you got that from didn’t mention they have to be recharged frequently,” he said as he started to rise.

Karen backed away further as the man got to his feet, her right hand reaching into the other coat pocket. She pulled the little Smith and Wesson revolver out and snapped back the hammer with her thumb.

“This is fully charged, I assure you,” she said, amazed at how calm her voice sounded. “Federal agent, you’re under arrest.”

The man took a step and Karen squeezed the grip, activating the laser sight. The red dot settled on his chest.

“Move another inch, and I will kill you.”

The front door crashed inward, and simultaneously the French doors to the rear of the dining room were smashed. NCIS agents swarmed into the house and took the man into custody.

Mira and her computer techs were close on their heels, and they immediately rushed upstairs to the computers and started working. Agents spread out through the house and began collecting anything that might possibly be considered evidence.

Karen stayed in the kitchen for a moment and then moved into the dining room where she took a seat at the table. She had no idea how long she sat there before someone set a bottle of Sam Adams beer in front of her. She looked up to see Agent Capriatti grinning as he tipped his own beer to her.

“Great job,” he said.

Karen regarded the beer before her a moment and then lifted the bottle and took a long swig.

“I have never been so scared in my life,” she said as she lowered the bottle.

“If it makes you feel any better, you never showed it,” Max said as she joined them. Capriatti handed her a beer from the grocery bag on the kitchen counter, and Karen gave her a weak smile.

Mira came rushing into the dining room, out of breath from a mad dash down the stairs. She began speaking so fast that they could not understand a word that she was saying. Capriatti passed a beer to her.

“Mira, take a breath and a drink and start over,” Karen said.

“We got it,” Mira said after taking a swig of her beer. “We disabled their security system and disarmed the incendiary charges on the file cabinets.”

“Incendiary charges?” Capriatti asked.

“They were tied into the security system on the hard drives,” Mira said. “If it had triggered, the drives would have wiped and the house would have burned to the ground. I would have told you guys, but we only had three minutes to disable the security system so I figured I should work on that.”

Karen drained the last of her beer and stood up, still feeling more than a bit shaky. Being part of the actual arrest and seizure had been exciting, but she had been aware the whole time that she was very much out of her element.

“All right, we have to get everything back to CTAG,” she said. “I assume the computer files are encrypted; how long do you think it will take to crack them?”

Mira shrugged her shoulders. “I honestly can’t say. From what I saw after a quick scan, the encryption is much more sophisticated on these files. It could take weeks.”

Karen looked towards the front door, where agents were already carrying out metal cabinets filled with files.

“We do it the old fashioned way then, one piece of paper at a time,” she said
.
Karen walked out with Max to a waiting car and got in. They were several blocks away from the house when she began shaking. Max reached over and squeezed her shoulder.

“It’s OK to cry, Karen,” she said. “I still do.”