Ryan Kaine_On the Money (Ryan Kaine's 83 series Book 5) by Kerry J Donovan

Author:Kerry J Donovan [Donovan, Kerry J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Human Vertex Publications
Published: 2019-09-29T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Sunday 19th February – Evening

Walthamstow, NE London

19:47.

As with the previous night, a bitter, driving rain hammered down on Kaine’s back and legs. This time, with Lara safely in the hotel and under Connor’s close protection, Kaine could relax into his task a little more easily. Not that he would ever fully relax when working.

He adjusted the aim of the laser mic, trying to improve the sound quality, but the scraping of feet on wooden floors and the mumbled chatter of two dozen youngsters, mostly male, made the detail difficult to identify and the conversations impossible to follow.

Useless.

Kaine powered down the mic and set it to one side. He tweaked the focus on his field glasses, bringing the lighted window into greater clarity. The vertical blinds remained in place, unmoving, backlit by the brilliant white of fluorescent strip lights.

A bleep in Kaine’s headphones indicated an incoming signal.

The state-of-the-art, bone conduction headphones were a recent addition to their communications arsenal, provided courtesy of Rollo in his role as the team’s Quartermaster. The device’s prime benefits being silent operation, minimal interference on the reception from ambient noise—an absolute boon for battlefield operations—and the security of the scrambled wireless transmission.

He pressed the earpiece into activation.

“Alpha One receiving. Over,” he whispered.

“You there, Mr K?”

Gritting his teeth, Kaine shook his head slowly. No matter how hard he tried, he could never instil proper radio protocols in their hacker, but he wouldn’t give up the attempt. He had to tread carefully, though. Corky was, after all, a volunteer who could disappear from the grid any time he chose—as could every one of his team. Even though they worked with Kaine and gladly accepted the generous fees and bonuses he provided, they mainly did so out of a rather humbling loyalty.

“Alpha One receiving you full strength. Over.”

“Yeah, right. Good oh! What’s happening your end?”

“TM’s transmission’s about to start. Over.”

“Yeah, okay, Mr K. Corky’s not picking up nothing of interest my end. In fact, there ain’t no internet traffic within one hundred metres of the gaff … I mean the Hub. On top of everything else, mobile phone activity in the building’s just stopped. Er, … over.”

It seemed as though the Tribesmen were obeying the standing orders.

Excellent.

During his earlier recce, Kaine had studied the area surrounding the Tribe’s HQ.

A ninety metre wide strip of scrubland dissected by multiple railway tracks separated him from the rear of the four-storey building. The commercial estate close to the Hub stood dark and empty, the multiple warehouses and workshops being occupied only during the day. Some were boarded up and derelict. Most of the streetlights were dark, broken. At night, the industrial zone was pretty much a wasteland.

Beyond the radius of Corky’s predicted internet and comms blackout, rows of terraced houses radiated away, some running east to west, others north to south, some of their windows lit yellow, indicating occupation. Further away, the active streetlights and the rainbow of colours—moving headlights, flashing blues of emergency vehicles, shopfronts, bars, and restaurants—the rumble of life—showed a city in movement, a city alive.

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