Page 53 of Freedom Fighters
Chapter Ten
Nemesis slid into the camp at dawn the next day and only the close proximity guards were alerted. He had slipped right through the outer ring of sentries.
Garrett swore and muttered when he realized there were holes in his defense line. Nemesis shrugged it off. “I’ve been climbing Vistarian mountains and hiking through the bush since I was small and I’ve got sneakier with eachpassing decade. The Insurrectos have no bushcraft at all. You’ll hear them coming a mile off. Don’t worry about it. Your inner guards were alert enough.” He shrugged off the heavy backpack and put it on the ground at his feet. “I’ve brought another present for you.”
“Another radio?” Carmen asked dryly. She had spent the last twenty-four hours learning Morse Code and swearing mightily over it.“Typing is faster,” she had pointed out to Garrett while sweating over long and short taps. “Can’t we rig up a keyboard to send the stuff? It’s crazy-making.”
Garrett had tapped out his answer in Morse, his finger on the desk, proving that he had picked it up with lightning speed.Get back to work, he’d told her.
She had scowled and poked her tongue at him.
He’d just smiled and gone back tostudying the code book.
Now, with Nemesis in front of them, Garrett crossed his arms. “A week’s supply of groceries would be better than another radio,” he said, “only I don’t think you could fit them all into that backpack. Even though it’s a monster.”
Nemesis grinned, his blue eyes twinkling. He pushed the toe of his boot up against the pack. “This has everything I need to survive. It letsme stay one hundred percent mobile.” He bent and unzipped a side pocket and delved into it. Then he held out toward them a small plastic model car, shaped like a Ferrari.
“Huh?” Carmen said, flummoxed. Nemesis had gone out of his way to find them to give them a toy?
“What is it?” Garrett asked. He didn’t sound puzzled at all.
Nemesis tugged the car between both hands and the hood and frontwheels separated from the back end, revealing a USB connector. “It’s a memory stick. There’s a program on this that will self-install. Once you’ve installed it, you can use any network, including the Internet, with complete impunity. You’ll be invisible. No one can trace you or see what you’re doing on-line.”
“We can talk directly to the big house?” Carmen asked.
“You can. You can use the camerain the laptop and video chat, too.” Nemesis grinned. “It means the radio and the code books are redundant, but that’s war for you. New technologies every thirty seconds.”
“Thank heavens,” Carmen said heartily. “Morse is a complete bitch.” She took the USB drive. “I’ll do it now.”
Garrett held out his arm in welcome, toward Nemesis. “There’s fresh coffee just made. Come and sit for a while.”
“Just a moment or two,” Nemesis said in agreement. “I have three other units to reach today.”
“We’ll feed you before you go,” Garrett told him.
Carmen hurried away as the two men settled on the cinder blocks circling the fire place, their heads together, talking. She retrieved the laptop from Garrett’s office and went back to the fire. Everyone sat around the fire if they had idle time, not forthe heat, but because it was the social center of the camp.
Garrett and Nemesis were still talking. Carmen settled on the brick next to Garrett and fired up the laptop. She inserted the USB drive, which flashed at her, then a dialog box popped up, asking her if she wantedHarry’s Cloakinstalled.
She smiled at the name and told it YES.
The program installed quickly and down on the bottom rightof the screen a little icon glowed green. It was a magic wand.
Confident that the program was running as it should, Carmen brought up an Internet browser. Hernandez had his home page set to MNTV, the Mexican national media network, with news streamers running across the top banner.
—Olympic Games competitor…Vistarian Loyalist leader completes successful US visit…Three people killed in head-oncollision on—
Carmen clicked on the streamer about Nick, curious.
Video immediately streamed, showing Nick leaving the Acapulco airport, a beautiful blonde woman by his side. He was brought to a halt by the reporter. “I can’t answer questions that might undermine our efforts,” Nick said.
“Did you speak to the President of the United States?” the reporter asked. “Did he recognize your authorityas PresidentPro temfor the loyal Vistarians?”
The blonde woman stepped forward, drawing the attention of both the reporter and the camera man. “We spoke to several businessmen and concluded several business deals. Naturally, the political side of our visit must remain undisclosed at this time.”
The video cut back to the studio where a woman with upswept hair and a white smile said, “And thatwas the new Vistarian Ambassador to the United States, Señora Olivia Davenport de Castellano.”
Carmen looked up as Nemesis made a soft sound. He was smiling.
