Chapter 6

The solar facility consists of a large building with tower and sun tracking solar panels encircling it. They are then divided into four sections with an expensive strip of empty land running up to the facility in between them. Melissa and Jonathan take the southern route leaving the large crater sitting off to their right. The large feedhorn is still hot from the second blast. It looks molten angry.

Their feet slosh through mud and the occasional puddle of water created from the heat of the blast that in turn melted the snow. The facility is mostly dark with the exception of light cast by a few flood lights from the building itself. The agents chose the direct route because of the darkness and because it is direct and fast. Once they reach the edge of the mirror field, there is a twenty foot gap between it and then door. They crouch down behind one of the solar panels and wait, looking from one edge of the building to the other.

It is empty. Logically there wouldn’t be much needed security out in the wilderness of Siberia, but to have none is far too strange. Neither agent moves for several minutes, deciding it best to wait and see if there is any activity that is going to take place. “It’s now or never,” Melissa says after it becomes apparent that there is not going to be a guard appearing.

“I agree,” Jonathan says. “Wait here.”

Before she can object, he is up and running in a low crouch to the door. Midway he raises his assault rifle and fires a single round into the flood light the is engulfing the area in semi-darkness. The clear sky over head allows the stars to shine unhindered, giving the agents a gloomy look of the facility. He reaches the wall of the building, placing his back against it. He looks left and right before looking at his partner. She gives him a nod and re reaches up for the door handle to give it a twist.

Both agents are surprised at the door actually being unlocked. He pulls it open and peers in stealthily. Ahead is a lightened hallway. The light comes from hanging lights situated at six foot intervals. He gives Melissa a wave then turns his attention to the door. The lock appears to have been tampered with—tampered to the point of being broken into forcibly. “It looks like one hell of a job,” he remarks.

Melissa looks over the door frame and notices a few scratch marks, some deeper than others. “Look like a knife maybe?”

He looks to where she is referring and nods his agreement. “I think someone else has the same idea as us.”

“Keep your guard up then,” she says, allowing Jonathan to enter first. She closes the door quietly and slips in behind him.

The two agents creep slowly down the hall. Jonathan crouches a little lower than his partner while she keeps them covered over his shoulder. They reach the door at the end, finding it hinged open. Jonathan holds up a fist, signaling his partner to hold up. Then he pushes on it. The door parts a few inches before it bumps into something on the other side and stops. Both agents step back with their guns held at the ready, yet nothing swings the door open to attack.

Jonathan looks back at Melissa, but all she gives him is a shrug. He steps back to the door and places his shoulder against it and starts to push. Melissa drops to one knee, keeping her assault rifle trained at the door and eventually the room beyond. Jonathan lets out a small grunt, but eventually gets the door opened far enough to allow them entry. Melissa gives him a nod and he steps through.

Once through, he turns to the right, investigating what it is that is blocking the door, fining the body of a soldier. He quickly turns around to scan the rest of the room. It is large and packed with equipment that he assumes has to do with the processing of solar energy. Lights similar to the ones in the hall hang high in the air, but they don’t quite cast as much light. Once satisfied that they are alone, he signals for his partner to enter.

Melissa steps through the portal, doing a scan of her own before turning toward him. “Dead?” she asks, grinning.

Jonathan pulls his fingers from the man’s throat and gives her a nod. “I think you’re right about someone having the same idea. The question is: are they still here?”

“If that’s the case, let’s hope the office has what we’re looking for before we get interrupted,” she says, pointing to a set of offices twenty feet past the fallen soldier. She steps over the body and begins picking her way toward those offices. Jonathan stands up, and keeping his back to her, follows Melissa to the office door. He sweeps his assault rifle to the left then right and back again, scanning the whole area while looking for anything out of the ordinary. Melissa checks the door knob, and for once is surprised to find it locked. “We have a locked door,” she says in a whisper.

Jonathan picks up the question disguised in her statement. “No need to keep a low profile, considering the damage already done here.”

Silently, she pulls out a small rolled up pouch and unrolls it onto the floor. Within seconds she has a syringe partially filled with explosive pulled out and in placing it into the keyhole. She then puts a wire into the keyhole attached to a striker. “Fire in the hole,” she whispers and both agents step around the corner of the offices.

With an almost fizzing sound, the job is done. The door cracks open and the door knob fall to the floor. They come around the front and push through the door. It is darker than the main part of the building. A large window covers most of the expanse of the wall, allowing for light to pass through. It is just enough for the two agents to make out their surroundings and yet another door at the opposite side of the room.

Melissa repeats the same breeching technique, and like the first door, the second acts the same way. She is the first to slip in, and this room is almost exactly the same except it has a computer. “Same set up,” she calls back. “We got a computer.”