Balance (74 page)

“So how did we get here?”

“Michael …
this is my home.
  I have lived here since I was thirteen.”

“How is that possible?”

“My
godfather
, Leonida
s Drakos … as you know, was an E
xecutive Professor at M
IT.  He’
s one of very few people aware of this project.  All of the documentation destroyed.  So until you, he and I were the only people alive aware of this particular installation.”

“Why would you live here?”

“Michael, you saw how many people sought Leonidas, how ma
n
y want him dead.  He worked for the government, highly secret projec
ts prior to and at the time
the government collapsed.
 
He was afraid for my life, so he moved me down here
to protect me
.  He was
here
with me most of the time
,
until I was seventeen.  He and I had a falling out. 
I asked him to leave
me alone
. 
Until the hotel, w
e’d barely
spoken.”

Michael considers her explanation for
several
moments.  He knows Rena, there
’
s more to the story
,
but he trust
s
her.  She would
n
o
t keep anything from him
,
unless it was important
.  Expecting
she’ll
tell him at the time he needs
to know, i
t was the bond they’
d
formed
.  S
he was smarter than anyone h
e knew.
E
verything had a reason
,
and
usually, a
good one.

“So how did MIT find this cavern?”

Rena knows
Michael suspects
the
re is
more to her story, but
he’s
willing to forgo pushing it
,
out of his trust in her.  She hopes
,
with all her heart
,
that trust will not be lost when she tells him the rest.
 
“
This
cavern is
located
on the shores of Lake Michigan, Southern tip
,
Indiana. 
D
iscovered in the 1920’s
,
during prohibition,
it was
used to hide stores of illegal alcohol.  The access is through an ol
d bar in Gary, through
an upstairs
apartment, by way of a
hidden
entrance.”

“Aren’t you afraid someone will find
it
?”

“Not really
.
I own the bar, under a different name of course. 
Leonidas purchased
it
as soon as he discovered the existence of the project,
at the same time
he
destr
oyed
the documentation
. 
He placed the deed in my name, when I turned thirteen.
The bar
,
maintained
by
a very nice
woman named Alice
,
the last twenty-years
.  She knows me by the name on the deed
. 
I
hold
residence
in the upstairs ap
artment, coming and going
for work.”

“So
you come and go, as you please?
”

“Yes
.
I go shopping in the street markets
, have access to the trains,
subways
and skywalks.
I
t’s
proven
quite functional.” Rena smiles, sensing Michael accept
ing
all
she’s
telling him.

“This is amazing
…
Y
ou
’
r
e
amazing
.
”
Michael stands,
t
he pain in his head return
ing
.
 
Rena steps over to help
, putting her arm around his waist to steady him.  He pulls her in front of him, wrapping both his arms around her shoulders, kissing her on the forehead.
 
“I think I need a little rest, but tonight
,
you have to tell me what happened at the hotel.”

“Okay.  I’ll ask Alice to pick up some supplies for us.”

Rena prepares dinner while Michael explores the house.  They eat at
the large chopping block island.
A
sk
ing
more questions
regarding the
construction and
how materials got into the
cavern,
he’s
surprised to discover
there'
d been an access
by underground river
from Lake Michigan.  Once the house was constructed, using prefabricated, rapid erected sections made of
plastics, they
sealed
the river passage
to prevent accidental discovery. 
The house designed to be completely self-sustaining,
heated geo-thermally,
a deep natural gas pocket
tapped
for cooking,
with
electricity created by hydro-generator, harne
ssing the spring-fed waterfall.
  The lake,
spring fed and geo-thermally warmed
as well
, provid
es
a water source and exercise
.

“Now that I know where we are, what happened at the hotel?”  Michael asks the question he’s wanted to ask since the moment Rena shot the would-be assassin in the balcony.

Rena thinks the question through a bit, trying to determine just how much to tell Michael at this time, “As I
said, Leonidas Drakos is my
godfather
.
S
everal months
ago,
Ms. Smith
told me about an Executive Professor from MIT
under investigation
.  I
suspected
it might be
Leonidas
, considering his ties to the government.  When
Mr. Black
confirmed
Leonidas was in fact their target, I contacted him,
instructing
him to go into hiding.
I knew he wouldn’t.  I knew the message he intended to deliver
.
”

“Wai
t
,
how did you contact him? We were
under surveillance almost constantly.”  Michael asks
, worried they’d
been
discovered
.

“That
night
a
t the bar, when we took Meg out;
w
hen we
discovered
White
mire.  I orchestrated that trip
so I could get hold of a
cell
to get a message out.”  Rena explains
.

“I never saw you with a
cell
.”

“Actually you all did, when I took the first popper’s
cell
to give him my number
.  I sent a coded text message to
Leonidas
.”

Michael replays that evening in his head, remembering the drink switching game Rena and Meg played on the predator.
 
“You said at the hotel,
you picked that location.”

“The long nights I spent lo
oking for Whitemire, I was also
monitoring Leonidas, doing research to find the right time and place to facilitate the operation in order to stage all three of
our
deaths and ultima
tely our freedom.  I needed
a suitable location
for
Leonidas
to give his address,
and
orchestrate
our escape from Takada.”

Michael now understood her obsession and
exhaustion
leading
up
to the Whitemire operation.
  “So
,
you’ve been planning our escape…”

“Since the moment we got into the
Bunker
.
” Rena
states
coolly
.

“But how could you have facilitated the coordination with your
G
odfather
?  You couldn’t do that through a text message on a
cell
.” 

“The Whitemire operation provided me a secure
system
and external access.  While
I was downloading their server
,
and
Meg was out of the conference room, I sent a message t
o
Leonidas
with the location for
the address
and instructions
.”

“
There’
s a lot more isn’t the
r
e
?
” Michael asks
.

“Y
es …
I had to get Meg out of the
Bunker
, not only for her safety, but to guarantee
you and I were sent in
together to
terminate Leonidas.  Meg was unexpected.  I think Takada introduced her specifically for
our last two
mission
s
.  I also had to make sure
the
I
mmersion
Teams
did
n
o
t have time to
provide better controls
or
tactical
, so I didn’t suggest the profile search until just before the address
.
  I knew the search would work
and work well, but only when the
attendees started arriving in Detroit.  The short notice
prevent
ed
I
mmersion from effectively profiling the site. 
Normally, t
hey
would’ve
separated us.  That would’
ve made
our
escape far more difficult.  The short preparation forced the bodyguard immersion
, which I anticipated
.”

“But all the other agents
…
were they expected
?
”

“
I
needed
a
fire
fight to mask our escape.  The balcony provided the appropriate environment, so I instructed Leonidas to not confiscate weapons. 
Many of the people in attendance were
sympathizers of the
Elite,
so they weren’t necessarily innocent.
 
Leonidas made sure undesirables, Chango’s competition, were in attendance.
”

“Why
call the sniper
’
s handlers?”

“Actually, that was Takada’s doing.  Remember when I told you
the Harbinger of Death
notorie
ty might actually be beneficial?
  This is why. 
The Harbinger became an enemy unto itself, which many powerful people feared.  I
witnessed it firsthand,
with Frienz.
 
When
your
reputation started growing out of control, I knew we could use it.  I needed to cover our escape from prying
eyes
. 
Th
e call brought down the hotel. 
I made the sniper call his
handlers
, expecting them to
attack
the hotel
with
intent to demolish the building
, bring it down on top of the Harbinger
.
Leonidas provide
d
additional
structural
explosives that
helped
reduce it to rubble, making recovering our bodies nearly impossible.”