Page 30 of Legend of Scorpio
CHAPTER 9
Scorpio felta little guilty at leaving Rebecca to her own devices. However, she’d made it clear she didn’t want to help him retrieve the orb. He could only hope Sage was wrong when she’d stated he needed the doc for his mission to be successful. Maybe Rebecca would come around. In the meantime, might as well figure out what he faced. He went to the administration level where Aries had his office but there was also a meeting room, along with a computer lab.
He walked in to find Aquarius sitting in his usual chair surrounded by three monitors, each displaying a different thing. Random videos to his left, more of them to his right, and, in the center, Rebecca’s face.
“Why do you have Doc’s face on your screen?” Scorpio barked, a little more harshly than intended.
“Aries told me to look into her and the company that commissioned her services. You’ll be glad to know your lady friend is squeaky clean. Not even a speeding ticket to her name. Single. Lives alone. Parents deceased in the past few years. No siblings. Works as a college professor when she’s not in the field studying glaciers or hunks of rock and dirt.” Aquarius glanced at him. “I hear you brought her to the tower.”
“Yeah, kind of had no choice. It was that or let the company she worked for kidnap her.”
“Aries mentioned something about you being ambushed.” Aquarius smirked. “Not like you to run away.”
The remark brought a grimace. “I’m not bulletproof. They came prepared. Dozen dudes, all armed with rifles. While I might have prevailed with a few holes, Doc most likely wouldn’t have.”
“Damn, they really wanted that thing you guys found.”
“No shit. What did you find out about the company she works for?”
“Not much, yet, but I just started digging. I can tell you they’ve got a lot of donors for a small niche company. Most of them anonymous, which is odd. Not sure why you’d hide the fact you support climate research.”
“Doc says they only have one building as headquarters.”
“Publicly, yes, but it wasn’t hard to find a second location that they’ve been trying to keep quiet. It’s out in the Nevada desert.”
“Let me guess, Area 51,” he joked.
“Yup.”
“Wait, seriously?”
Aquarius nodded. “I was surprised too, but it seems they were given one of the old military facilities to use.”
“Are you saying their work is government-backed?”
“Not officially. On paper, they’re leasing it via a shell company.”
“What are they doing there?”
“No idea, but I intend to find out.”
“I’ll need everything you find. I’m supposed to retrieve the object they took from me. Any way of figuring out which location it went to?”
“Maybe. Depends on if they’re logging its existence online or keeping it completely off the record. I won’t know until I get into their server. I’ve got a few hacks running, trying to find a way in. Until I get access, I won’t have much to give you.”
“How long until you crack it?”
Aquarius shrugged. “Minutes, hours, days. No way of knowing.”
Which meant waiting. Not something Scorpio excelled at.
“I don’t suppose their public office has blueprints.”
“Those should be registered, as the city would have had to approve them. Hold on while I pull them up.”
Scorpio got the floorplans of their main building. A basic structure with twelve stories, thirteen if you counted the basement. The lowest level held the utilities running the place. First floor reception and a mini museum for the public showing what they did. Top was for the CEO and the top-level employees. The other floors in between were for research, six of them in total, accounting and PR, private offices for scientists on two floors, as well as one entire level for supplies.
There were no air ducts large enough for him to use to move around. All access past the first floor required authorization, and not the kind with a keycard.