Extinction Machine

Chapter One Hundred Five

Near VanMeer Castle

Pennsylvania

Monday, October 21, 7:22 a.m.

Ten miles from Shelton’s castle there was a distinctive bing-bong in my ear and I heard Bug say, “Bug to Cowboy, do you copy?”

“Bug,” I said tightly, “this line has been compromised.”

“Not anymore,” he said with a laugh.

“What?”

“We found a whole bunch of these weird little transmitter things stuck to the outside of the Hangar and the other offices. That’s how they hacked our system. Well, that kind of pissed me off, so I took a laptop up to the roof, cut one of the little bastards open and uploaded a whole bunch of really fun viruses, kicked them off the satellite and long story short—we have a clear com channel. If they hack it, they get a feedback screech at one hundred and eighty decibels. Anyone listening in is going to be saying, ‘Huh?’ a thousand times a day for the rest of their lives. So, booyah!”

I laughed. “Bug, I could kiss you.”

“Um, dude … no. Just … no.”

“Where are you, though?” I asked. “I thought they shut the Hangar down.”

“Well … yeah, they have us surrounded and all that, but Aunt Sallie initiated Protocol Seventeen. We sealed the upper levels and we’re down in the bunker. They, um, probably don’t know we have a bunker.”

“Nice.”

“Where are you?” he asked, and I gave him as much of the story as I could.

“Shelton, huh? Yeah, maybe. I’m going to put all of this new stuff into MindReader and see what she says. Last time I ran him, we only got a sixty-eight percent confidence that he’s the bad guy.”

“I need more than that or I really am going to jail.”

“Speaking of which, before that … stuff down in Baltimore … Mr. Church called a bunch of his lawyer friends. Jesus, Cowboy, you wouldn’t believe who he has on our legal team. Three of them are former U.S. attorney generals. Three. And other guys. It’s like the Justice League of America without the spandex. They’re putting together your defense right now.”

“Nice.”

“Tell you one thing, man,” said Bug, “if this is a frame up and the acting president is involved in any way … this will take him down.”

“I’m going to block out some time later on to cry about that,” I said. “But right now we’re pulling up to Shelton’s place.”

“And I got your back.”

I stopped on a rise a mile from the estate. Top and Bunny leaned forward and peered through the windshield. Bunny whistled. Ghost made a corresponding whuff. He was impressed, too. Though, I’m not really sure whether we were really impressed or simply appalled. The Shelton house was a castle. An actual castle. One of those old world fairy-tale castles brought over from Europe and reassembled stone by stone here in the States. Bug told us that it had two hundred plus rooms. Plus. Like they have so many rooms they lose track. The room count didn’t include the bathrooms. Made me want to piss in as many of them as I could and leave all the seats up.

The castle had spires and turrets and wings sticking out at improbable angles. Smoke curled from several chimneys. I didn’t even bother trying to count the windows just on the side I could see. My math skills don’t extend into abstract numbers.

“Wonder if Count Dracula rents a room from him,” said Bunny.

“Time to go,” I said.

Without another word, Top and Bunny exited the car. The plan was to have them close on the property through the thick pine forest that lined the right side of the road. They took heavy equipment bags out of the back. They left the door open for Junie.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” asked Junie.

“Not a chance,” I said. “Stay with Top and Bunny and make sure you keep your communicator turned on. You’ll be able to hear what I hear, and I’ve got a lapel camera that will let you see what I see. Feed me any intel you can. People, weird science stuff, anything. But whatever you do, stay away from the house. If we’re right about Shelton, then things could get very nasty in there and you are not a soldier.”

“I can handle a gun,” she said.

“Since when?”

“Lydia showed me this morning. Loading, gun safety, as much as she could, and you know I can’t forget what I learned.” Her eyes met mine. “Or what I experience.”

It was suddenly three hundred degrees too hot in the car.

“Um … listen,” I began, but before I could embarrass myself, she bent forward and kissed me.

And then she was gone. Top, Bunny, and Junie vanished into the woods.

Ghost looked at me with a pitying expression.

“Oh, and like you’re a class act,” I said. “You sniff dog asses.”

I took my foot off the brake and rolled down the long hill.