to reload, and he’s still coming! We have work to do.”
She watched Louie change her clip with lightning-fast precision. This was her new reality, and she was going to be ready for it. Time to grow up, girl, and fast, she thought, putting a bullet through the target’s head for the first time after several wasted clips.
...14
...Sunday, January 3, 1:07PM Local Time (UTC+2:00 hours)
...CANWE Headquarters
...Undisclosed Location, Greece
The property spanned over several acres of forested land, showing some glimmer of blue towards the West, where the Mediterranean was visible between two mountain peaks. The owner of the property didn’t care much for that view though. A high security fence surrounded the main property, eight feet tall and two feet thick, made of concrete, its top covered in glass shards cemented into the structure. The fence was equipped with motion sensors that triggered silent alarms anytime something passed through their invisible rays. An electrified spiraling barbed wire roll, too wide to hop over, would also greet any daring intruders. The barbed wire was installed on the inside of the fence, making it almost invisible from the outside. Inside the fence, there was a neatly mowed lawn, about ten acres or so, surrounding the main house. Security guards with Dobermans patrolled the yard, walking along the fence and around the house. A gardener was the only other human being that would normally make an appearance in this yard, tasked to keep the grass neatly trimmed. He also had the unpleasant duty of picking up the numerous dead birds and squirrels killed from climbing over the wall or getting zapped by the electrified roll of barbed wire.
Behind the house, there was a small heliport, equipped to handle night flights. At night, the pilots had little trouble finding it. Tucked in a clearing within acres of thick forest, it was equipped with an airport grade lighting system, inset LED lights in green, yellow, and orange, marking the approach and safety zone for inbound choppers. The landlord’s helicopter, a black Eurocopter EC-145, was able to accommodate up to six passengers. The EC-145 could come and go as needed, unnoticed by any neighbors, who were too far to have any suspicion of anything out of the ordinary. The villagers thought the place belonged to a famous Hollywood movie star who wanted to lead a secluded life in her retirement, hiding away from countless paparazzi.
The house appeared quite normal on the inside. The graded roof covered the best part of the house, extending over a large living room with very high vaulted ceilings. Nothing was unusual about it, other than how it was equipped and what it was used for.
Entering the house, one had to go through three layers of security screenings. The first step was to pass through an imaging device that detected, using resonating ultrasound, any unexpected items hidden in the visitor’s clothing. A thorough pat down was next, followed by passing through another portal, this one meant to identify any recording or transmitting devices the visitor may carry. All this happened while the visitor’s personal items were screened via a high-resolution X-Ray machine, a few generations more sophisticated than the ones the TSA currently used in high traffic airports.
Then the visitor could enter the living room, leaving his cell phone and any other electronic devices with security personnel. That’s where most new visitors stopped and stared before proceeding. In the middle of the huge living room sat a structure housing an eight-seat conference table and chairs. It was elevated two feet off the floor on posts, and built entirely out of thick transparent glass. A room within a room, completely transparent and lifted from the floor of the house; the structure made it absolutely impossible for any surveillance device to be placed inside those walls. This type of structure contained all vibration within its walls, making even passive surveillance impossible. Most visitors hesitated before stepping onto the transparent floors, but they were thick and sturdy enough to hold eight elephants instead of people. House staff referred to the glass room as The Aquarium, but no house staff was allowed to enter it without supervision, not even to clean the shiny surface of the glass conference table.
There was chopper traffic expected at the property, and the helipad lights were on. The EC-145 landed and dropped off one passenger. The moment Myatlev set foot on the heliport surface, lowering his head slightly under the moving rotor blades, his Chief of Security greeted him promptly.