Evenfall (119 page)

"Yeah, that's Roger," Pat said distractedly, then looked back at Boyd and smiled. "I'll go over in a second. Say,
whatever
happened a few months back? I heard you guys almost got taken out."

"It was an exaggeration," Boyd said with a rolling shrug. Word traveled pretty fast between rival groups, but whether what was said was truth, fiction, or a blending hidden in a rumor was difficult to ascertain. He'd assumed someone would ask about what happened when Sin and he had attacked 53, when they'd acquired Warren and the group as their mole, so he already had a cover story. "We got shook down by some people but we took 'em out. You know how it goes."

"Who were they?"

"Rival faction," Boyd said, looking irritated. "Well, they were related to the first offshoot from LoRS. They thought they'd fuck us up but Warren got 'em."

"Hmm." Pat glanced over at Roger then back at Boyd. "I'd heard all this crazy shit. Guess they were just rumors."

"Usually are," Boyd said, nodding. "I heard all sorts of crazy shit about you guys, too. I hear it about everything, really. Can't trust what someone tells you unless it's straight from the source, I guess."

Pat nodded then waved back to Roger when he impatiently called for him again. Smiling a little distractedly at Boyd, Pat said, "Well, nice meeting you," and gave Boyd just enough time to say, "Same to you," before he left.

Boyd waited until no one was in listening range before he walked to the next picture as if continuing his perusing of the flags along the wall. "Something's wrong," Boyd said quietly into the radio as he studied the Russian flag. "They're not here, seems like an orientation."

There was no immediate response and at first all he heard was the buzzing of background conversation as Sin presumably walked about the South wing. After
a while
there was a quiet, "What do you mean orientation?"

"New cells being trained in." Boyd waited until a few people passed behind him and he was alone again with no one close enough to overhear. He barely moved his lips when he continued, "No one's who we expected, no leaders, not even from the groups. Just messengers."

Another long silence and then, "Proceeding regardless?"

Boyd casually moved to the next picture. "Yes."

"ET?"

Boyd glanced at his watch, then the stage. A few people had congregated around it, trying to get a microphone to work while they adjusted the volume. "Ten." It wouldn't be long now and he needed to have a good position to see those on stage as well as be able to get out to the Northeast corridor quickly in order to continue to the next stage of the plan. He calmly wove his way through the crowd, sat down, and waited.

===

The interesting part to Sin about the security of the JKS was that they had a rather surprising amount of holes in the actual surveillance aspect of it. During his training they'd given him a lengthy tour of the surveillance room and he'd even been taught how to operate their system and how to switch between locations on it. It'd been rather easy to feign computer illiteracy and take longer than was really necessary to learn the ropes of it all so now he knew very specific things about the placement of every camera in the building. He also knew that the actual surveillance room was not monitored around the clock and according to the staff schedule for the event, there would coincidentally be no one actually watching the cameras at all in the later part of the evening.

The reasoning behind that was shady at best; they claimed that they needed all manpower on the floor. In translation, Sin supposed that meant that the director of the center and the Janus link had ordered that room to be left unoccupied so that regular civilian guards would not be aware of the activity occurring in the Northeast wing of the complex. This meant one of two things; A, he had complete range to move in and out of the blind spots in the system so that he could suitably disguise himself before heading up to the mezzanine and take his position without having to worry about anyone seeing the tapes of a masked shooter until later. Or B, that there were Janus agents occupying the security room for the time and that although he could continue on with his plan and could stay in the one blind spot of the mezzanine, it was entirely possible that his location would be found sooner after he began to take out the targets and that he would most likely have several people on his tail as he attempted to get out.

Sin glanced at his watch and then at the stage in the Grande Ballroom. Speeches were still going on as well as visual presentations and an introduction of a deceased video artist was next on the itinerary. He didn't know if it was a bad thing that he was relieved to finally be leaving this event but he supposed it probably was. He'd never been fond of long-winded babbling and assassination was his forte.

He gave the room another once over before catching the eye of Pyanin, his supervisor for the evening. He strolled over to the man as casually as he could and stopped next to him at the rear exits. "I'm going to take my break."

Pyanin gave him an incredulous look. "You've been on for six hours and haven't taken it yet?" He demanded in quiet annoyance. "That's a meal violation, you know."

Sin shrugged, attempting to look apologetic and most likely failing. "I was paying attention to the speeches and I forgot. Sorry."

That earned him a skeptical eyebrow raised and Pyanin rolled his eyes. "If that's true, you're a crazy man. I've never been so bored in my life but then again I didn't expect this evening to be very action-packed."

Just wait thirty more minutes and you'll get more action than you need
, Sin thought idly. "Should I take a forty-five to cover the fifteen I didn't take?"

Pyanin nodded. "Just clock back in after thirty."

Too bad the break room would most likely be in flames after thirty. "No problem."

Sin slipped out of the Ballroom and headed down the Southwest corridor towards the employee lounge and break room. Once in the break room he shrugged off his suit jacket, loosened his tie and left the jacket laying on the table before punching out and heading back out the door. Each wing had an exit that led to the large, diamond-shaped courtyard which sat in the middle of all four wings and he paused before the exit for a long moment. He knew there was a camera angled at the door and so he made a big production out of finding his cigarettes, popping one in his mouth and then flipping open his cell phone. Anyone watching would think that Jason Alvarez was simply going outside to the deserted courtyard for some quiet and an extended smoke break. By the time his thirty minutes were up, the complex would be rocked with explosions and it would be no surprise that he did not come back the same way in order to punch out. In essence, his persona would at least be preserved assuming he did not somehow get apprehended later on.

He stepped out into the courtyard and lit his cigarette as he continued to mess with the cell phone. The reception in the area was off at times and once again, he made a show of raising the antenna and attempting to get a signal. After another moment, he shook his head in disgust for the benefit of the camera and paced back and forth a bit before finally moving into one of the courtyard's several blind spots. The surveillance was poorly planned and they relied on cameras which hovered at a limited view and swung back and forth between specific areas. None of the cameras had a far enough range to pick up anything beyond the pathways and so when he disappeared into the trees that stood against the buildings, he was completely out of its line of sight. He instantly dropped the cigarette and put away the cell phone before yanking off his tie and white dress shirt to reveal a black, fitted long-sleeved shirt beneath. He kicked the clothing into a bush and yanked a ski mask out of the shirt sleeve before slipping it on. He knew that depending on who was monitoring the surveillance room he would possibly be spotted sooner rather than later and even if he escaped notice at all, during his exit there would be places where he would not be able to avoid cameras. In order to continue to preserve his identity until they could flee the city, the ski mask was a necessary precaution to make their jobs easier later on. His form was barely distinguishable from the shadows against the walls as he moved to the northern part of the courtyard. At times he heard soft laughter drifting from the various benches that spread throughout the area but he paid it no heed. The area had perfectly manicured grass, draping trees and an assortment of different kinds of flowers which bloomed around a large fountain in the center; the idea of couples from the Expo going there for alone time was not exactly strange.

He continued to slip through the trees silently, staying just out of view of the cameras until he was finally at a stone staircase which led up to the second floor mezzanine of the Northeast building. There was a roving camera just above the staircase but he had an approximate window of fifteen seconds to get up the stairs and settled into the blind spot before it returned to its original location.

Sin hovered there for a moment, counting out the seconds and deciding on the perfect moment before finally jumping up and grabbing hold of the railing. The camera moved out of view and he pulled himself up effortlessly, jumping over the side silently and immediately sprinting down the short pathway until he was just within the archway of the mezzanine and behind one of the columns.

The mezzanine was like an indoor balcony of sorts, winding its way entirely around the complex, and part of it was situated above Theater 3. There were a number of archways and walls along the structure; the design was so complex that it left quite a number of spots that were completely unreachable by the interior surveillance cameras of the area. He used that to his advantage and ducked down beneath one of the low walls, crawling along the floor until he reached the spot where he'd hidden his rifle. The outer part of the mezzanine's walls were made of stone and not all of them were completely stable; it'd been easy to pry a number of them out and place the rifle inside the makeshift cavern that he'd created.

He slid into position beneath one of the walls and peeked over, using the scope of the rifle to see clearly down into Theater 3. Speeches were starting as far as he could tell but as he scanned the faces of each man on the stage, he realized that none of them were familiar. "Status?"

Boyd's voice came quietly after a moment. "None."

Sin's mouth turned down into a frown, eyebrows drawing together as he stared down into the hall beneath him. He didn't recognize the man giving the speech; it wasn't someone who'd been on their list even though he appeared to be the person in charge of the entire event. He didn't seem to be discussing anything pertinent at all, let alone the future plans of the organization as a whole.

It was just like Boyd had said; the entire thing seemed like an orientation for new inductees into the massive organization that was Janus. Nothing specific was said about the details of future plans and for the most part they seemed to be perpetuating the same idealistic propaganda that Sin had heard hundreds of times before.

The speech droned on regarding the state of world affairs, nothing that wasn't common knowledge to anyone underground, and all the different organizations who were moving against Janus at the moment. The man seemed to be rallying the troops before a battle; inciting them against the international 'bad guys' and reiterating the fact that every man in the room was extremely courageous for taking part in the fight against the fascist state that the super powers of the world had created. It was not unlike the speeches the American administration gave to soldiers who fought rebels and terrorists.

Nearly fifteen minutes passed before the man introduced a woman named Choral Smith, who in turn gave a brief summary of who else would be speaking that evening. She didn't name anyone that had been on their list of targets. "What the hell is this," He muttered, not really expecting a response.

Choral began discussing the expectations of every group who joined Janus. She said very firmly that once they became a cell they were no longer a part of the organization they had previously identified themselves with; they were part of something much larger in scale.

She emphasized loyalty, respect, dedication and many of the things she said seemed very similar to the things rookies were told at the Agency, including the fact that traitors would be punished quickly and, essentially, without a trial. Part of her tactic seemed to be attempting to frighten the people in the room, letting them be very aware of just how serious this all was and that it was anything but a game. Her dark brown eyes swept the room as she spoke, seeking signs of weakness or indecisiveness in the audience and Sin had no doubts that anyone who seemed weak, who seemed like they would not cut it, would be silenced before they could ever step foot outside of the convention center.

But despite the fact that this was an interesting way of seeing Janus in their true colors, it had nothing to do with the information that had been so heavily encrypted on that disc. "Something is wrong. This is wrong."

"Mm," Boyd agreed over the radio, barely a breath of a sound.

Sin shifted his position, impatience mixing with aggravation as he once again searched the room in vain for his targets. "I
have no one to fucking shoot," h
e muttered softly. "There's something wrong,"
h
e repeated, not hiding the frustration that was building inside of him. He didn't understand this. He couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that they'd spent nearly a year preparing for something that wasn't going to happen. They'd spent months creating personas, plotting, and learning the city, all with the understanding that the grand finale would allow them to finally significantly damage much of the Janus powerhouse.