It was more difficult to get into the grounds around the Basilica unseen this time, something that made Heidi uncomfortable. The operations staff had changed the stagger to the security cameras and adjusted the frequency of the elint scanning system. The motion detectors had been changed out, too. Still just simple edge detection boxes, but still, changes like that made her nervous. Companies are stupid, after all. They don’t generally upgrade security unless they’re worried about something new.
Still, she’d made it in. Slipping under the radar so to speak with the shoeborn jammer she’d developed last month, and working with the shadows to avoid optical assessment. The door locks were a simple matter of dropping a machine learning prod into the mechanism and having is spit out the number sequence that would slide the bolt back.
Now she was in the back-office connections—a set of essentially private (secret) corridors that ran behind the scenes, giving top executives and those in the now easy access. The network felt more like catacombs than office space, though. The hallways and rooms were dark, of course, cloaked in shadow everywhere except when the walls were broken by tall windows that looked out over the city. It was late, now, and it was quiet. The orange yellow light of a full moon sliced through those windows to give everything a gauzy feel.
There would be one office operating, though.
If she knew her old boss it would him, Collins, working through the nighttime. That’s when their best chats had always come. Back in the old days when she would just walk in and announce her arrival. Collins was in danger, though. Heidi had heard the conversation between Camacho and the doctor. Kochensmeltz (she recalled the name, remembering her earlier near-run-ins with that whole family back in those same days). Didn’t think it wise to be advertising anything right about now. She was here to save him, though. If she could get to him before Camacho and the doctor, he’d find a way to avoid any issues.
She thought, anyway.
A shiver ran through her spine, though, recalling the edge on the doctor’s voice as she spoke to Camacho. There was more to her than met the eye. More to Camacho, too. They seemed to move without a trace—something Heidi was extremely good at. That even Heidi couldn’t find them sometimes gave her the willies. There was something off about the Kochersmeltz crew. She’d felt that from back in the beginning. She wished now that she’d just had at it and been done with them when she had the chance.
Striding through the hallway carefully, and approaching Collins’s office, she pulled the hood back on her garment.
Stepping into the foyer, her gaze flicked to the open bay window where the centerfield tower rose, flashing the same mystical green flares she’d seen last time she was here. They were bolder tonight, if anything. Another bad sign. She was right, though. A line of light came from under the doorway to the office with RON COLLINS = GENERAL MANAGER stenciled onto it.
With a sigh of relief, she opened the door.
“Hello, Ron,” she said unable to suppress a grin. It would be good to see him again.
She drew to a halt, though. She’d been right about the office. It was Collins’s place.
But instead of him sitting behind his desk and pouring over reports from members of his staff, the GM’s seat was occupied by a woman.
Blonde hair.
Sharp features. Wearing a lab coat.
With green eyes that burned with emerald fire.
Dr. Kochersmeltz.
“Heidi Hickman,” the woman said, sitting more stiffly upright. She intertwined her fingers on the desktop before her. “So good to finally meet you in person.”
