“The headlights should have remained visible longer.” Reese glanced at the computer screen. “They stopped and turned off the lights.”
“I had the video analyzed. The distance of the headlights from each other and to the ground suggests that vehicle could have been a PLS.”
“What is that?”
Harrington pushed off the shelf. “A large heavy-duty military vehicle capable of carrying up to a twenty-ton payload in a shipment container.”
“We used the video to give us an idea where the truck might have pulled off before coming into view of the guard post,” Phillips said. “There were tracks leading just twenty yards shy of the back side of the facility.”
“The terrain hid the tracks pretty well, so we didn’t notice them when we walked the perimeter outside of the facility. Plus, we looked at the outer wall for a possible escape route not the ground for signs of unauthorized vehicles.”
Reese rubbed his temples. “Someone drove a container truck up to the facility?”
“Yes,” Phillips said.
“And why would anyone need a truck capable of carrying a metal container?”
“We think someone released the C02 to kill the personnel and make sure there were no witnesses. Then they were going to enter the facility and take Koda and the betas.” She pulled the computer back over and closed the lid. “I couldn’t figure out how they were going to control them until you said you gassed them if they wouldn’t cooperate.”
“Yeah, but it wouldn’t have lasted long enough to get them out to those trucks. The only way to keep a beta sedated is to hook them up to an IV drip of phenobarbital.”
“But they could have been moved.”
“I suppose, but it would have taken a lot of men to move fifteen people quick enough to avoid getting caught. The perimeter guards make rounds every hour.”
“A lot of men or just three inhumanly strong ones?”
Reese looked at each of them.
Sounds seeped into the walls from the movement outside the trailer. A knock came from the door.
Reese startled.
Harrington answered, but whatever the visitor said didn’t carry. When the colonel looked up, he said, “Our ride is here.”
“Ride?” Reese stood when Phillips did.
She ushered him out the door.
“Where are we going?”
They wove through a surge of uniforms. Was it Reese’s imagination, or had the population of military personnel tripled? A small group of plainclothes people exited a vehicle and headed in the direction of the facility entrance. They watched their surroundings with nervous gazes, and their ages ranged from what looked like the twenties to mid-sixties.
“You’re bringing in more scientists.”
Phillips cut Reese a look.
An SUV pulled up at the edge of the parking garage. Colonel Harrington stopped at the back and opened the door.
Reese was directed to climb in. He did. “Will someone please tell me what’s going on?”
“There’s a plane waiting on us at the airport.” The colonel sat beside him. Phillips predictably sat up front.
“Plane?”
Phillips took out her cell phone and texted.
“What did you see on level three that bothered you so much?” The weight of Harrington’s scrutiny landed full force.