clipped to the top edge.
“Where the hell did those come from?” Jake asked.
“You can thank me for that,” Lacey interjected. “I was snooping around to see if I could find any games or maybe a deck of cards for the kids. But the credenza’s front doors wouldn’t open.”
Marshall said, “So I—”
“We,” Lacey said, hands on her hips.
“So we pulled the cabinet away from the wall and—”
“Power cords,” Lacey said.
“It only took a few seconds to find the hidden switch that slid back the cover and lifted the workstation and monitors. It’s all state-of-the-art stuff. Pretty sweet, huh?”
Jake waited for the other shoe to drop. “And…so?”
Marshall tapped the keyboard and all three monitors lit up at the same time. Each of the screens displayed four separate surveillance images. Jake recognized the kitchen, bedrooms, and the area immediately outside the hacienda. Four additional images revealed infrared images of the perimeter. Jake saw Tony and Becker heading back toward the house. He felt a twinge of concern when another image revealed Francesca walking aimlessly in the opposite direction.
“This is not good,” Jake said.
“Damn right, pal,” Marshall agreed. He leaned over the keyboard and absently rolled up one of the sleeves of his shirt, revealing two fresh scars that crisscrossed up the length of his forearm. He’d gotten them in a fight in Venice while trying to rescue Jake, when Lacey’s swift reaction had prevented Marshall from getting killed.
Lacey stood behind Marshall, her hands on his shoulders while he tapped the keys. The images on the central monitor were replaced by an overhead map of the ranch and the surrounding area.
“It’s an integrated wireless security and monitoring system,” he said. “There’s gotta be a sat-dish nearby, probably on the roof.” He pointed to a rotating icon on the corner of the screen. “Because this is a link to a remote server.”
“Remote?” Jake said, his gut tensing.
“Yeah, but the good news is the external link wasn’t connected when I started it up.” He pointed to a series of green dots that circled the land surrounding the ranch. “I figure the link is designed to juice up if one of these perimeter alarms is tripped. It’s set up that way to preserve power when no one’s here and the generator isn’t running. The field sensors probably run on solar batteries. When one of them is tripped, it sends a signal that takes this server out of standby mode using the backup battery system. It then notifies the remote location.” He turned to Jake. “God was on our side, man, because we dropped from the sky inside the perimeter sensors. The alarm never went off. We were damn lucky. I’ve deactivated the sensors so we don’t have to worry about accidentally tripping them.”
“So…we’re okay?” Jake said, praying that they’d finally caught a break.
“No way, dude,” Marshall said. A couple of quick keystrokes opened a new window with a list of time-stamped data. “According to this, the remote server is scheduled to automatically interrogate the system at nine tonight. And there’s not a damn thing I can do at this end to stop it.”
Jake checked his watch. “That’s less than an hour from now. What happens when they hook up?”
“If I leave the system in standby, their query will register my intrusion into the system. If I shut the local server down completely, it will signal an alarm. Either way, you can bet they will send someone to check it out pronto.”
“Shit, Marsh, can’t you hack around it somehow?”
“Not without activating the link to the remote server. But the instant I connect, the alarm goes off.”
Apprehension clamped around Jake’s chest.
“We’ve got to go,” he said.
Marshall was already moving.
Chapter 21
The Sonoran Desert, Mexico
A bbas’s smile was feral. He stared through the night vision binoculars from his prone position below
“Where the hell did those come from?” Jake asked.
“You can thank me for that,” Lacey interjected. “I was snooping around to see if I could find any games or maybe a deck of cards for the kids. But the credenza’s front doors wouldn’t open.”
Marshall said, “So I—”
“We,” Lacey said, hands on her hips.
“So we pulled the cabinet away from the wall and—”
“Power cords,” Lacey said.
“It only took a few seconds to find the hidden switch that slid back the cover and lifted the workstation and monitors. It’s all state-of-the-art stuff. Pretty sweet, huh?”
Jake waited for the other shoe to drop. “And…so?”
Marshall tapped the keyboard and all three monitors lit up at the same time. Each of the screens displayed four separate surveillance images. Jake recognized the kitchen, bedrooms, and the area immediately outside the hacienda. Four additional images revealed infrared images of the perimeter. Jake saw Tony and Becker heading back toward the house. He felt a twinge of concern when another image revealed Francesca walking aimlessly in the opposite direction.
“This is not good,” Jake said.
“Damn right, pal,” Marshall agreed. He leaned over the keyboard and absently rolled up one of the sleeves of his shirt, revealing two fresh scars that crisscrossed up the length of his forearm. He’d gotten them in a fight in Venice while trying to rescue Jake, when Lacey’s swift reaction had prevented Marshall from getting killed.
Lacey stood behind Marshall, her hands on his shoulders while he tapped the keys. The images on the central monitor were replaced by an overhead map of the ranch and the surrounding area.
“It’s an integrated wireless security and monitoring system,” he said. “There’s gotta be a sat-dish nearby, probably on the roof.” He pointed to a rotating icon on the corner of the screen. “Because this is a link to a remote server.”
“Remote?” Jake said, his gut tensing.
“Yeah, but the good news is the external link wasn’t connected when I started it up.” He pointed to a series of green dots that circled the land surrounding the ranch. “I figure the link is designed to juice up if one of these perimeter alarms is tripped. It’s set up that way to preserve power when no one’s here and the generator isn’t running. The field sensors probably run on solar batteries. When one of them is tripped, it sends a signal that takes this server out of standby mode using the backup battery system. It then notifies the remote location.” He turned to Jake. “God was on our side, man, because we dropped from the sky inside the perimeter sensors. The alarm never went off. We were damn lucky. I’ve deactivated the sensors so we don’t have to worry about accidentally tripping them.”
“So…we’re okay?” Jake said, praying that they’d finally caught a break.
“No way, dude,” Marshall said. A couple of quick keystrokes opened a new window with a list of time-stamped data. “According to this, the remote server is scheduled to automatically interrogate the system at nine tonight. And there’s not a damn thing I can do at this end to stop it.”
Jake checked his watch. “That’s less than an hour from now. What happens when they hook up?”
“If I leave the system in standby, their query will register my intrusion into the system. If I shut the local server down completely, it will signal an alarm. Either way, you can bet they will send someone to check it out pronto.”
“Shit, Marsh, can’t you hack around it somehow?”
“Not without activating the link to the remote server. But the instant I connect, the alarm goes off.”
Apprehension clamped around Jake’s chest.
“We’ve got to go,” he said.
Marshall was already moving.
Chapter 21
The Sonoran Desert, Mexico
A bbas’s smile was feral. He stared through the night vision binoculars from his prone position below
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