The Code of The Alpha

Chapter Twenty-Four - Liar, Liar Fur's on Fire

No one said a word the entire drive over to the water tower.

Luca was still seething.

I sat in silence, unable to wrap my mind around Johnathan's words and nearly giving myself a headache trying to decipher the riddle I felt like he'd given me.

Getting out of the bug, I followed Blaine, Bates and Luca to the door at the base of the tower.

When we walked inside, my eyes took a moment to adjust from the bright sunshine to the darkness.

The entire structure was just level after level of mesh, metal flooring with desks of computers and monitors occupied by people wearing headsets and headphones. A tall spiral staircase shot up from the center of the floor.

I followed Bates, Blaine and Luca all the way up to the top, passing each floor.

When we reached the top, I finally caught a glimpse of daylight through the window that ran the entire circumference of the building, allowing me to see the men who circled the outside of the water tower and surveilled the land below.

Lincoln was standing behind a desk, looking at a digital map when Luca walked up to him.

"Any updates?"

Lincoln stood up straight.

"We've got the thermal imaging cameras being installed now at the gates and more motion sensors being set up around the perimeter. They should all be online within the next hour."

"And the trip wires?" Luca asked.

"Ben is working with his engineering team to make sure there weren't any glitches in the modifications we made, but those should go up tomorrow."

"Did you find out how they got in?" I asked Lincoln.

He nodded, pointing at a red line that marked a portion of the border on the map in front of him.

"My guess is they were camped out outside the pack for a few days and watched the patrol squad to get their schedule. They climbed the fence during the twenty minute gap when no one would be there. How they got past the second layer of security without their scent being caught? We still have no idea."

"Won't happen again," Blaine said gruffly. "I've randomized the patrol schedule now so it's no longer predictable."

"We've also added a wire beneath the fence that carries an electrical current. Anyone who touches the fence will be fried," Lincoln added.

"Unless they figure out how to cut the power," I said.

"It's on a generator," a voice said behind me.

I turned to see Ben coming up the staircase.

"Even if the whole pack loses power, the generator will kick on for the fence and the sensors attached to it," he continued.

He smiled at me before turning to Luca.

"We're ahead of schedule," he told him. "I've got my boys taking the trip wires out to Blaine's crew. They should be set up before nightfall."

Luca nodded.

I could tell he felt a sense of relief by the way his shoulders dropped.

"Good work," he told them. "Make sure to monitor everything and run a few pilot tests to make sure it all functions the way it should."

Bates turned to Blaine.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who has to touch the fence," he said, holding his fist up.