34
Darren
Ten hours later, allthe preparations for the hit on Marcus’ production factory were in place. Barbara handled the distraction portion of the plan, while Darren worked alongside Aiden and Nikos, who was ex-military and one of the few with combat expertise amongst George’s associates, on how to secure a cargo load of fifteen conduits meant to be leaving for the spaceship construction base on Mars.
“Darren.” Bea waved him over when he entered the Maine’s bridge where Aiden and Nikos were briefing the rest of the heist team. “I’ve got your ground shuttle sorted. It will be waiting when I drop you off at Port-Gentil. The factory is about thirty miles south from there.”
“My team will approach from the other direction and wait for your signal,” Nikos said, stroking his neatly trimmed beard with one hand and pointing at the zoomed-in section on the holographic map with his other. “As soon as we get the confirmation from Barbara, they can go in.”
“We are at the location and all set up,”the woman in question chirped over the secure comms,“so make sure you are in position before 1305.”
Darren’s window of opportunity was short. He and the infiltration team had to execute their parts flawlessly or they risked alerting Marcus to what was really going on before they’d managed to snatch the shipment. George’s ships and the Maine had their engines and the synchronization devices ready, missing only the conduit component Darren was about to steal. Thanks to Kristen and Leonard, every ship had a team ready to do the necessary installations as soon asthe Sinaloa, George’s commercial grade frigate, delivered the components while the Maine served as decoy.
As long as things didn’t go completely south, they were hours away from escaping Marcus forever.
“We’ll be there,” Darren assured her, cracking his neck.
“Keep me in the loop if there are any changes,”Barbara said, ending the call.
“I’ll head to the Sinaloa and together with Nan to make sure the cruisers are in position. Are you sure about using the Maine as bait?” George said as he appeared around the curve of the corridor.
He and Nan were in charge of coordinating the cruisers for the jump and ensuring the authorities didn’t get suspicious. The ships were currently headed to Lambert Outpost, located halfway between Earth and Mars.
“Yes. Marcus knows it’s my ship. It will provide the perfect cover for the cruisers,” Darren said, nerves clutching his stomach.
“Okay. Just be careful.”
Darren smiled, pride swelling in his chest. “Bea is the best pilot I’ve ever met. We got this.”
The scorching heat that welcomed them at Port-Gentil made Darren’s T-shirt stick to his damp skin. The cotton fabric was soaked within minutes, molding to his chest, back and arms like an uncomfortable second skin. The tanned workers around the docks were in the same boat and so were Nikos and Aiden, who, like him, also wore beige shirts and camo cargo pants.
Darren sighed, fanning his face. The lighter tones of their clothesweresupposed to help fight the heat, but humidity seemed to be off the charts today and, according to the forecast, would only get worse in the afternoon. Still, if Darren had to name one good thing about it, it was the fact that he got an eyeful of Aiden’s toned back and chest in proper daylight.
Shaking his head to chase the horny thoughts away, he focused on the mission.
“Darren,” Aiden said, pointing at the fenced-off shuttle hub at the end of the dirt road.
Darren gestured to move out. He enabled his earpiece just as they reached the nondescript dust-covered vehicle a trustworthy contact of George’s had prepared for them. “Barbara, we’ve touched ground. ETA to the factory is thirty-plus-ten minutes.”
“Roger. It sounds like you’ll be there earlier. Do you want me to push things forward?”she asked, her voice breaking up a little.
As much as Darren loved the idea of getting this over with as soon as possible, he wasn’t going to risk it. “Negative. We stick to the plan.”
“Understood. We’ll strike at 1305 as agreed. Make sure your people don’t go in too early.”
“Will do. Over.” Turning to Aiden and Nikos, Darren indicated the shuttle. “Let’s go. We’ll use the extra time to scope out the complex.”
The ride to the warehouse lasted half an hour and went by mostly in silence, save for Nikos comming the rest of the infiltration team, who’d taken a different route so they could cover more ground.
“OK, my boys are in position and have visual,” Nikos said from the backseat in his booming voice. He had an accent of some sort, European maybe, though Darren couldn’t quite pinpoint it. “There are two security teams of five each, as well as twenty drones and surveillance.”
Darren glanced at the tablet Aiden had propped on top of the console, which showed they were three minutes away from their destination—an abandoned scrapyard, 600 yards to the east. Based on the size of the compound, the numbers Nikos had cited were standard and what they’d expected to find. Nikos’ guys were tasked with securing those ten guards, while the codes Barbara and Nyle had managed to get hold of would take care of the drones and cameras.
“You’ve got the network device running?” Aiden asked, his voice leveled and flat as his eyes stayed on the road.
“Yep.” Nikos patted the phone-sized device on his right. It contained the codes and frequencies and all they had to do was link it up with the network and issue the maintenance reset command, which would give them twenty minutes of security downtime. “We are good to go as soon as I press the button.”
Another two minutes and Aiden parked behind a stack of flattened car frames. The three of them slipped out and ran across the scrapyard to the other side, keeping close to the piles of metal and parts. When they reached the high wall that spanned the perimeter of the manufacturing factory, Aiden took out the foldable ladder while Nikos checked that the network device was connected.
