Karma did a function check on all of her weapons and checked her ammo. She crouched close to the perimeter of the water compound. For now, she simply watched.
Even half a klick away, the structure appeared huge. The building was partly above the ground amongst the ice and snow. The remainder was below ground where the temperature was stable. Everyone was being forced to build this way. Even in areas where the ground wasn't completely frozen over, the Northern Earth Dens, or NEDs as they were sometimes called, had taken over. She thought about the map she'd reviewed. Karma remembered the compound had shuttles and trains that ran underneath. The tracks weren't good access points. They would be heavily guarded.
No. Coming from the ground level was the best since the weather was bitterly cold. Most guards couldn't be outside for longer than five or six hours before a shift change. Also, sensors didn't always work the best at negative twenty degrees Fahrenheit. That was another advantage.
Flipping her phone open, Karma checked the blueprints of the facility. She hoped she got a signal here. Cupping her hands, she willed warmth into her fingertips. As she studied the information Fletcher gave her, she tried to commit the data to memory. When her phone quit, she would still know every pertinent detail.
What she'd learned so far was that her target, the man who worked on the compound, was from a generations-old military family. There were a lot of those around. Everyone she killed was the same.
She frowned. Karma couldn't trust any of the data so far, but what Fletcher gave her was all she had. Her target was currently working with a researcher named Adam, aka Gears, who had discovered how to turn even the most chemically saturated water into clean drinking water. The two men had formed a comfortable alliance. While this guy Mac trained guards to police and protect the water treatment plants, Gears, in turn, convinced the C.T.O.N.A. to let him have water compounds where they thought suitable. If higher-ups in the government wanted the water, they could have it, but only as long as the elite protection could go along.
Gears was only in his early thirties. Something seemed off in both the age and the alliance. She thought she'd read the leader of the water bases was an old man. Karma couldn't place what was wrong.
Snapping her phone closed, she rubbed her hands together for warmth. There were a lot of holes in her information. Stealthily, she stood and proceeded closer to the base. After ducking behind large snowdrifts, a thought struck her that all of this was strangely familiar. Karma recognized that her past was trying to taunt her. She pushed the memory out of her mind. She had no time to let any of her ghosts haunt her. There was no time for distractions— she was rusty as it was. Instead, she broke into a jog and reviewed what she'd read about Eric Bennett.
Eric Bennett, a wealthy playboy from the Equator, was indeed on the compound. Apparently, Eric had gotten access to the base. His name was familiar also. Maybe she'd seen it somewhere. Someone could've put a hit out on him, and it was a missed opportunity. The name was from somewhere. Karma figured it would come to her sooner or later.
When she paused behind another snow mound, she considered the intelligence Fletcher had on him. Bennett was tied to the water bases in no way. This was as perplexing as everything else she'd learned so far.
As Karma slipped next to a chain-link fence caked over in ice, she became irritated. Why care about any of this? She should do the job. Once this was over, then she would go back to her freedom.
After pulling on white gloves that matched her snowsuit, she climbed over the icy barbwire. The specifics nagged at her. She didn't like puzzles. This situation was strange because neither the researcher nor Bennett was her target. They both were vastly more killable. No matter how many times she stared at what Fletcher had given her, it didn't change. Her target was some random guy named Mac— a man whom she knew almost nothing. He was a teacher, a trainer. All he did was protect Adam. He was the equivalent of mindless armor. As far as Karma was concerned, Mac didn't warrant killing, especially compared to the other men named.
Thinking back on all the people she'd executed reminded her there were always people she didn't think should be killed, but she'd done the job anyway.
Karma landed on the other side of the fence and gave up trying to make sense of all the facts. One thing she knew, the last time she'd been on a water base, someone she cared about died. It was fitting that she return to a base to kill someone. Her dad would've said this was how the chips fell. He would've insisted this was what she deserved.
Wrinkling her brow in concentration, Karma tried not to let all her thoughts distract her. Damn Fletcher, and damn my rotten luck. Instead of doing more pondering, she silently moved up to the first guard. The man was a short sentinel shivering in the snow. Easily she wrapped her arm around his neck.
When he stopped struggling, he went down with a soft thud on the hard-packed snow. Once she was sure he was out, she let go. Karma yanked him into one of the shelters near the doorway, out of the unforgiving wind. Hopefully, he would be found before he froze to death. She glanced around and then continued onward.
If what little information she had was correct, her target was somewhere in the main building. Fletcher had guessed he was training men at this time of day. She guessed he might be showing the facility to Bennett. If Mac were showing off the base, as most visits went, the man would show his guest around. After, they would settle into his private quarters.
Ahead of her was more rough brick and more snow. She leaned on the wall. Mac might also retire to an office to work. The map had many rooms labeled, but nothing marked as Mac's specifically. Wasting time on needless searching didn't appeal to her. Besides, she didn't have that kind of time. If he was the type of man to task out work, then someone else could be showing Bennett around, and she would still find Mac in either his office or sleeping quarters.
Tossing out the idea of hunting, Karma decided to sneak into where the security cameras were located. That would be easiest to get clues to where Mac hung out. From there, she could come up with a plan. She didn't have a clear description of him, and that was her biggest problem, but she might get some luck once she got inside. The info she was given stated that Bennett was a large six-foot-tall man with black hair peppered with gray. He was also fairly rotund from what she could see in the pictures. She would be unlikely to miss him. The researcher was a shorter man with big eyes, a tiny nose, and a skinny frame. If she found either of these two men, she had a good chance of finding her target.
Once more, Karma rushed along and stayed close to the facility. Her eyes studied the layout. The compound was massive with the water treatment rooms at the heart. As she crawled along the wind shelters, she stayed out of the camera's view. When she came to guards, she silently knocked them out, one by one.
Karma jogged covertly without stopping. Her timeline was on repeat in her head.
As she located the main building that housed the security cameras, she took a moment to assess this scenario. Too easy. Why had Fletcher passed this to her? What was she missing? She looked for something to tip her off that this was a trap. The grounds were as peaceful. The dull gray pile of stones stood sleepily in the snow.
Not being able to put a finger on what was wrong, she climbed a catwalk that wrapped around the second floor. All the ventilation grates were bolted to the building with large locks. She figured she would pick a vent, slip in, and make her way to the security room.
With that as her next plan of action, she glided surreptitiously along the railing and waited next to one of the more sizable ventilation grates.
Using a bolt cutter and a small torch, she freed the cover. Unfortunately, she would have to abandon her supplies. The items were too bulky. Effortlessly, she wiggled her body through the piping. The fans impeded her progress. Once they were dismantled, she looked over the sensors.
When she paused at the sensor boxes, she closed her eyes for a second. She recalled what her father had taught her about rewiring them. Karma gauged the plastic boxes as a minor problem. Again, with every easy task, it had her thinking this was so basic. What made killing this guy so difficult? Apparently, getting into the building wasn't the tough part. Maybe the problem was that no one had a description. Not having an exact picture of her target would slow her down, but not stop her. She hoped she wasn't going to find out he was bulletproof. Well, she'd never met someone bulletproof before.
Karma chuckled at her musings as she stopped at a vent directly above a set of neatly organized greenhouses on a thick dirt floor. She shimmied out of her white snowsuit. After she waited to make sure the earthen chamber was empty, she dropped out of the vent and landed on soft soil in a raised wooden flower bed.
Descending the massive flower box, she scanned the long room with only cement beams holding up the ceiling. She was now completely underground. The temperature was a pleasant sixty degrees. Ahead of her were greenhouses, all the same size and separated by the same distance across the floor. The smell of fresh earth and healthy growing plants greeted her as she ducked behind a huge bathtub that had been converted into a planter. As much as she was curious to see what was growing, she had a strict timetable. Karma checked there were no other exits and then stood.
The double-wide wooden door at the far-right corner was the only entry into this room. She assumed that access point would get her into the hall. She reviewed her next plan. Find her target, kill him, come back, and then exit through the vent. This area was empty. Karma was confident she would be in the clear if she made it this far after completing her mission. Also, she could escape through the train tunnels a few floors below. Near the tracks were other stored snowsuits and snowmobiles. That would be Plan B.
While she got her head clear on her strategy, she put her hand on the door handle. The cool metal knob turned in her palm. Someone was outside the door. That wasn't good.