Damn you.” The Ford swerved slightly off the road and she had to
struggle to bring it back on. She slowed down once again as the vehicle
hit a major rut. The jolt went through her entire body. It was getting
harder to see in the swirling snow.
“Sid, please, please calm down.” Rowe’s voice was suddenly panicked.
“Listen, I didn’t mean to upset you further. I’m sorry.” He paused,
then quickly added, “Can I do anything for you?”
“Yeah, you can tell every friggin’ person at Triton to drop dead.
Why don’t you go first?” She clicked the off button and tossed the phone
down. The tears were pouring so fast she finally had to pull off the
road. Shaking as if she had just been plunged into ice, Sidney finally
undid her seat restraint and lay across the front seat, one arm covering
her face for several minutes. Then she put the Ford back into gear and
took to the road once more. Despite her evident exhaustion, her
thoughts moved as fast as the V-6-powered Explorer.
Jason had been terrified of her upcoming meeting with Triton.
He probably had the job interview story ready in case of an emergency.
Her meeting with Nathan Gamble and company had qualified as such. But
why? What could he possibly have been involved in? All those late
nights? His reticence? What had he been doing?
She looked at the dashboard clock and noted the time creeping
relentlessly toward four A.M. While her mind was functioning in high
gear, the rest of her wasn’t. Her eyes would now barely stay open, and
she had to address the obvious concern of where she would spend what was
left of the night. She was coming up to Route 29.
When she turned onto the highway, she went south instead of retracing
her route north. A half hour later Sidney cruised through the empty
streets of Charlottesville. She drove past the Holiday Inn and other
possibilities for lodging and finally turned off Route 29 onto Ivy Road.
She soon entered the parking lot of the Boar’s Head Inn, one of the
area’s best-known resorts.
Within twenty minutes she had signed in and was slowly pushing her
near-immobile limbs between the sheets in a well-appointed room with
beautiful vistas that at the moment she cared nothing about. What a day
of nightmares, all of them absolutely real. It was her last conscious
thought. Two hours before dawn, Sidney Archer finally fell asleep.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
At three o’clock in the morning, Seattle time, the thick clouds spilled
open and delivered still more rain to the area. The guard huddled in
the small guard shack, his feet and hands close to the floor heater. In
one corner of the structure a steady stream of water trickled down the
wall, forming a puddle on the ragged green carpet.
The guard wearily checked the time. Four hours to go before his watch
was over. He poured out the last of the hot coffee from his thermos and
longed for a warm bed. Each building was leased by different companies.
Some of the buildings simply stood empty, but all were secure regardless
of their contents, with armed guards on-site twenty-four hours a day.
The high metal fence had barbed wire at the top, although not the deadly
razor wire favored at prison facilities.
Video monitors were discreetly placed throughout the area.
It would be a difficult place to break into.
Difficult, but far from impossible.
The figure was clad head to foot in black. It took him less than a
minute to climb the fence in the back of the warehouse facility,
expertly avoiding the sharp wire. Once over the fence, he slipped in
and out of the shadows as the rain continued to pour down, completely
covering the slight sounds that his quick-moving feet made.
On his left sleeve was a miniature electronic jamming device. He passed
three video cameras on the way to his destination; none of them captured
his image.
Reaching the side door of Building 22, he pulled a slender’ wire-like
device from his knapsack and inserted it in the sturdy padlock.
Ten seconds later the lock hung loose.