Above From Below Part 6

Dragging in Major Kohl had not been in the plan, but he was unsure why she'd bothered to find him in Texas. This wasn't her fight, and Nico wasn't her brother. In Rick Steele's distrustful mind, something about the Major turning on her command, and against the country, by sharing the truth with him, didn't sit well. As he hadn't stared a gift horse in the mouth, Major Kohl's revelations about Nico's accident were a blessing, but to Rick, it wasn't that simple.

Following his gut, he allowed her to come along. They arrived at the West Texas Observatory, finding it less open than he hoped. The vehicles in the observatory indicated a change in personnel, or the management of the post. The parking lot now had US Government plated vehicles, and there were more Humvee's than civilian rides.

"Did you know about the changing of the guard," Rick softly asked, handing the major the binoculars.

He watched as Andrea scoped out the area, a puzzled look on her face. She appeared to be taken back by the new regime running the observatory. As she ducked her head, Rick peeked over the edge of the hill. Two soldiers with a K-9 were starting a perimeter patrol.

"Don't worry," he promised, "they shouldn't come anywhere close to being this far out."

She breathed as sigh of relief, handing back his lenses and pulling a nocular scope from her back pack. Rick marveled at the digital controls, and was surprised she had access to something so next gen. The scope he was looking at as she operated it-it was something used by special operations, the intelligence community, and clandestine groups. Rick wondered why she'd have something like that, considering she was way out a limb, and totally off the books.

"Here," she said, handing him the scope. "Take a look."

Rick scanned the building, top to bottom. Hum, he thought, infrared penetration tech. Not exactly something you'd expect a warrant officer like the major to have. She had come back as assigned to military investigations, a Unit out of Los Alamo. This definitely wasn't something she'd have in her grasp.

"Nice toy," Rick admitted, going over the building with care. The servers inside the building were giving off enough heat to obscure anybody sitting still, but he made out only five people on the inside. The two guards on perimeter, and the two at the front, were the only men assigned to the night shift. "So, where does one get such a toy?"

Andrea looked at him. She knew he was smart enough to see she was past her pay grade even possessing something that rare in the field. She shrugged her shoulders.

"Alright, if you have to know, it pays off sometimes if you're the daughter of a general."

Rick chuckled, being as obtuse about his suspicions as possible. "You're a military brat...what a second."

Andrea looked annoyed. She had hoped that he wouldn't make the leap, but he appeared to have figured her out. Her father wasn't one in command, and her mother had retained her maiden name professionally. Not too many people knew that she was the daughter of the Secretary of State, a retired general, and someone being tapped for a future presidential bid.

"Good lord, what if mommy loses her shit?"

"So you've met her," suggested Andrea.

Rick shook his head, checking on the two roving officers and their furry friend. They were already back at the security station right inside the main door. Rick looked to his left, seeing movement out the back side of the facility.

"No, I haven't had the honor. But, I've heard stories," he admitted.

"That's my mother," Andrea sighed.

"That explains a warrant officer being issued something only the resident Johnson's and Smith's usually get," he told her.

Andrea stumbled a bit. She'd met several Smith's when she was overseas, particulary in the middle east. She'd gone into the Central American region on assignment, and met several Johnsons. On one mission, they'd even introduced themselves as Johnson and Johnson, and now she realized the depth of what she'd been into dealing with them.

"Let me guess, ghosts like you if they're Smith or Johnson," she wondered.

"Nice try," he flashed a coy smile. "But no. Look over there," he told her.

Andrea looked at the back end of the building. They'd found a way in.

"How do we keep from the guards in the front being alerted?" she asked.

Rick pullled out a laucher, and took a cannister from his bag. He prepped it as he explained, when they open the door again, he was going to fire the cannister into the front lobby. The gas inside would do the rest.

"But they'll sound the alarm," she insisted.

"No, not with this they won't. This fills the room with a thick fog in less than a half second. They'll pull back, not knowing what's being fired. It's instinctive. When they do, they'll accidentally isolate themselves inside a gas chamber that's filled with a potent form of sedation. It takes less than a second, and the victims are unconscious. Until the door is opened again, or until the gas wears off, they're going to sleep better than anybody has ever slept before," he explained.

As he prepared the launcher, one of the soldiers stepped out of the facility, his right foot barely clearing the door frame. And boom, Rick launched a cannister that ricocheted off the concrete walls inside, scaring the first officer into retreated. The room was a cloud filled gas chamber within an instant.

They waited, and there was no alarm. They could take the techs easily, and have time to look into what Nico was working on before he was killed.