The Dark Edge Chronicles - Hardwire

Chapter 45: The Final Gambit

Agony yawned as she slowly and luxuriously stretched beside the window, all the while keeping her eye on the building across the street. A glance at her wristwatch was enough to tell her that she had been standing on station for well over twelve hours straight. It was 1:43 pm, January 1st, 2020 and the New Millennium Economic Conference was well underway.

After another yawn, the Brotherhood hardwire rubbed the grit out of her eyes before lifting her binoculars back into place to give the conference center and grounds yet another scan. As far as she could tell, delegates had begun arriving at the center just before 8 am, their agenda getting them started fairly early in the morning.

Just as early in the morning the first of her trigger team had also arrived, a wraith that moved smoothly and silently through the gathering crowds, looking relatively untouched from her ordeal through the frozen streets of Calgary from the night before. As soon as she had spotted her, Agony had fished out the monitor to watch and make sure the team member found her programmed destination.

When she had confirmed that the trigger team member had managed to elude the Normals' security and get herself to her pre-designated place on the grid coordinates set out for the conference center, Agony had nodded in satisfaction before turning her attention back to her binoculars. The monitor went down onto the windowsill to await the arrival of the next member of her trigger team.

She didn't have to wait long: within ten minutes of the first member of the team appearing out of nowhere to glide into place, the second member faded into view, moving slowly around the security cordon as he worked towards to his final position. The rest of the trigger team followed shortly after, slipping out of the side streets surrounding the convention center to take their positions, silently waiting for Agony's signal safely out of sight.

The last team member, despite being stopped by the Normals' security and searched, reached her position just a few short minutes ago. With a glance at the monitor to confirm that all members of the trigger team had reached their final positions, Agony yawned again and slowly put the binoculars down on the windowsill beside the monitor. She then looked over at Martin, who was sitting on the edge of the bed he had spent the night in, slowly working his way through a box of croissants bought from a small bakery just down the street.

"Mr. Martin, sir. The trigger team is in place and is awaiting our signal."

"Good," the Frenchman rasped after swallowing what he had in his mouth. Martin was dressed in the same suit he had worn the day before, oddly unwrinkled despite the fact that he had slept in it.

Dipping his hand into an inner pocket of that suit, he consulted an old style pocket watch with a frown.

"And it would appear that they are ahead of schedule," he noted. "The final part of the conference where the ministers of finance and their nations' leaders will gather for a closing ceremony won't take place for a number of hours yet."

Martin looked up from his watch at Agony.

"Can your team members stay hidden that long?"

"Guaranteed, sir. That's what they're made for. They are currently in full stealth mode and should easily elude Normal security until they are needed."

"Good," Martin repeated, slipping his watch back into its pocket before reaching for another croissant. "Then we wait!"

Agony nodded in acknowledgement before turning back to the window, once more reaching for the binoculars. If the big chief wanted to wait, then they were going to wait! Lifting the binoculars to her face, she placed her eyes into the eyepieces as she swung them back down onto the grounds across the street to make yet another sweep of the security arrangements.