Free The Devil’s Share by Wallace Stroby Page B

here, we’re out of luck. What we need to do…” She walked south down the road, past the boulder. He followed. “… is stop the lead car right about here.”
    â€œAgain, how?”
    â€œWith something in the road that distracts them. Causes a big enough scare that they hit the brakes, but with enough lead time so the other vehicles don’t pile into them. We get the people out and contained, then my guy drives the truck away. We disable the other two cars, get them off the road. Then we take off in different directions.”
    He nodded, looked around, turned back to her. “Any ideas on what that distraction might be?”
    â€œThat would be your department.”
    He looked at her for a moment, then smiled. “IED. That’s what you’re thinking.”
    â€œMaybe.”
    â€œAnd you’re assuming I know how to make one.”
    â€œDon’t you?”
    â€œMaybe. But that kind of thing can be unpredictable. There’s always the risk of collateral damage.”
    â€œThat’s why it needs to be small scale,” she said. “Something that gets their attention, but gives them time to stop. We don’t want to flip a vehicle or send it skidding off the road. Last thing we need is to have to pull that truck out of a ravine. It has to be something that can be set off safely, by someone who’s got a good eye, who can measure the distance and pick the right moment. Not too soon, not too late. And whatever it is, it can’t cause any significant damage to the road. We’ll need it ourselves.”
    â€œYou’re good at this,” he said. “The planning.”
    â€œThat’s why he hired me.”
    They saw a tractor-trailer coming from the south, stepped back off the highway. Hicks stuck his hands in the back pockets of his jeans, toed loose stones with his boot, watched the truck go by, trailing dust behind it.
    When it was gone, he cocked his head at the cell tower. “What about that?”
    â€œOne of the reasons I picked this spot. It’s the only tower around for almost ten miles.”
    â€œHow’s that help us?”
    â€œIf it were out of commission,” she said, “chances are, you wouldn’t be able to get a signal here. A half mile down the road, in either direction, it might be a different story. But right here, in this spot”—she nodded at the road—“it’s the only game in town.”
    He looked at the tower, the equipment surrounding it.
    â€œMaybe we can find a way to jam signals in and out of it,” she said. “Just long enough to do what we need to.”
    â€œToo subtle for me. I wouldn’t know the first thing about that. But I’ve dealt with this situation before.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œSee all those units at the base?” he said. “That’s the equipment compound. Out here in the middle of nowhere, that tower has to be self-sufficient. It’ll use a lot of power, not just to relay signals, but to keep the whole thing cool. And since Katrina, a lot of cell towers have eight-hour power backups—batteries, additional generators, whatever.”
    â€œSecurity cameras?”
    â€œNot that I know of. And I don’t see any there.”
    â€œSo how do we cut the power?”
    â€œCouple of grenades over that fence might do it. Maybe some C-4, take the whole thing down, let someone else clean up the mess.”
    â€œNo good. Too much noise, too much smoke. They’ll see it for miles.”
    â€œA lighter touch, then. We cut through the fence, lay a couple small charges, blow out the utility supply and the gens. Either way, they’ll know when that thing goes off-line. It’ll set off alarms back at their network operations center, wherever that is. They’ll send someone out to check.”
    â€œWe’ll be out of here by then,” she said. “You see enough?”
    â€œI think so, for now.”