“The reason I’m not worried is because you’ll be watching out for me.”
He squeezed me tighter, then released me and nodded. We were ready.
Ryan pressed his ear to turn on his comms. “Hayes and Bloom engaging.”
Ben and Kyle bumped fists and said, “Rangers lead the way.” They speed-walked to the parking garage exit and turned in opposite directions. Ben would take up a position at a security camera blind spot outside the office building, and Kyle would set up with scopes and monitoring equipment on a rooftop a block away.
After what seemed like an eternity, Ryan nodded. “They’re in position,” he told me.
He pulled a pair of glasses out of his shirt pocket and slid them on, then shouldered his backpack with a laptop in it. With his khaki pants and black polo, he looked like he would fit right in with our IT department at California headquarters, which was his cover. “Command, Wheeler and Lindstrom engaging.”
It took us five minutes to walk to the office building. We kept a couple of feet of distance between us and chatted amiably, like colleagues would. He was setting me at ease, helping me put on my own game face. When we reached the edge of the narrow, three-story, red-brick building, we stopped so the HEAT team could make final preparations. I only half listened to Ryan’s and Pasco’s contributions as I surveyed this pleasant suburban tree-lined block.
I’d been so proud of setting up an East Coast office fifteenminutes from my mom’s apartment. Within the first month, I had rented the small space, which was the right half of a converted townhome. On the first floor was a reception area and the employee kitchen. Our server room and IT desks took up the second floor. The top floor contained three small offices and a conference room, where I used to set up my workstation during the months I lived here.
By the end of my second month in town, I’d hired a two-person IT staff and an admin/receptionist. I’d added a three-person sales and marketing team the month after that. We’d needed to expand our sales and marketing operation for a while, and I made the case to Devlin that it made sense to have a team on the East Coast. And compared to the price of Silicon Valley-adjacent office space, the rent on this building couldn’t be beat. But if I could stop Devlin and staunch the bleeding of our finances, this satellite office would be the first item on the list of cuts.
“Wheeler,” Pasco’s voice came over the comms unit, “I’m in control of the building security cameras, locks, and elevator. You’re good to go.”
“Roger that.” Ryan stepped back onto the sidewalk, and I joined him.
We walked the last few feet to the building entrance, where the automated door swung open to greet us. I stepped inside, let my eyes adjust to the lower light, and smiled at the receptionist. And I froze.
28
BEN
Something was wrong.
Savannah should have been chatting up the receptionist by now. Instead, we were listening to dead air.
“Hi, Jamie Samson,” Ryan said. I could hear the grin in his voice. “And you are?”
Pam, the receptionist, hesitated, then answered, “Hello. I’m Lisa Pesco. Can I help you?”
Not Pam?
“What the hell?” at least three of us muttered into the comms at once.
In my ear, chatter rose to a dull roar. Lang was checking the name, Pasco was updating us on his progress getting the building’s security system under his control via hardware Wheeler was wearing, and Kat was pushing Bloom for a report on the number of bodies in the building, based on the heat sensor readings.
“We haven’t met,” Savannah said. That explained why she’d frozen. “I’m Savannah Lindstrom. I wasn’t aware Pam was out today. Are you a temp?”
“No, ma’am,” the woman answered. “I’ve been in this position for six months. Pam still does administrative work for us, mostly from home. I’m sorry, but I’m not aware ofanyone in the building expecting visitors today. Who are you here to see?”
“Boss, we have a problem,” Bloom told Kat, but the message was for all of us. “Nine people in the building, including the receptionist.”
“On work-from-home Friday, when there are only three scheduled to be there,” Kat said. “Wheeler, I need your assessment.”
“They have to abort,” I said, although no one asked me.
Wheeler tapped out a code on his shirt collar that was picked up by his comms unit. Three slow, two fast. Operation is a go.
Fuck me.
Meanwhile, back at reception, Savannah had explained to Lisa that she was co-owner of L&M and was therefore the woman’s boss.
“Of course, I should have known the name,” Lisa tried to cover, but even just hearing her, I knew she was lying.
