Page 80 of Wild Sentinel

I grimaced when I realized how they found us. "The truck. There's a tracker on the truck. They followed us here.”

Once they found the truck, it wouldn't be hard to spot us on infrared.

The helicopters landed, kicking up dust. A squad of goons deployed from each craft, wearing desert camo, shouldering M4 automatic rifles. These guys were well-funded private contractors. It didn't take them long to find the camouflaged main entrance to the bunker.

The locked heavy metal hatch gave them a hard time. After a few minutes of fiddling with it, they broke out the C4. Once they rigged it up, the squad cleared the area.

"Fire in the hole!" one of them shouted when they were all a safe distance.

KABOOM!

The explosion rocked the bunker.

When the smoke cleared, bits of the hatch lay shredded in the desert. The goons cleared the debris out of the way, then filed down the steps to the steel blast door.

My phone buzzed with a call from an unknown number. I was surprised I got reception through the thick concrete. I answered, knowing who it was.

Scott's voice filtered through the speaker. "You've become quite the nuisance. You killed two of my best men.”

“If those were your best men, you’re in trouble.”

Scott laughed. "You're the one who's in trouble. You're surrounded by a superior force. It's only a matter of time before we get through that door. I can assure you, once we do, it won't end well for anyone inside. I'm sure you're smart enough to see that. I think you might be smart enough to negotiate. I would like to offer you a deal. I want that hardware security module. I'm willing to pay handsomely to get it. I want you to eliminate Brooke and Adam. Acquire the HSM and come out of the bunker.” It was clear Scott only knew about one key. “I will assure you safe passage, and $1 billion. That's not a small number. On a Florida cop’s salary, I think that would be an opportunity too good to pass up.”

It was a lot of money, no doubt.

I laughed. “Now might be a good time to tell you I volunteer for the county. I don’t need your money. You want the HSM? Come and take it,” I dared.

“As you wish.”

I ended the call and said to Adam, “Tell me the worm worked.”

Panic filled his eyes.

CLANK!

CLANK!

CLANK!

The goons hammered at the steel with a ram. It wasn’t going to do squat against the vault door.

They figured that out pretty quickly and started rigging it with C4 and blasting caps.

“I told you,” Adam said. “It wasn’t ready.” His frantic fingers raced across the keys. Then he grumbled a few obscenities and smashed his fists against the desk.

The keyboard bounced.

Adam closed his eyes and exhaled a frustrated breath, trying to calm himself down. "The system patched the vulnerabilities the worm was designed to exploit. It disabled the worm. Now it’s learned from that attack, and any further exploits will be impossible. We’re dead in the water."

My jaw tightened. "There has to be something you can do."

I kept an eye on the monitor as the goons prepared to blow the blast door. It wouldn't be long now.

"We should move to a more secure location," I said.

"This is about as secure as it gets," Adam said.

I ushered Brooke down the hallway to the far end of the bunker. We stepped into one of the rooms. Adam grabbed his laptop and joined us.