Soft Target (Major Crimes Unit Book 2) by Iain Rob Wright

together and put them against his face pensively.  “ Dr Bennett and I will work intel while you ’ re
gone, ” he said as the others left.  “ Stay
on the wire. ”
    Howard nodded and headed out
of the room, Bradley and Sarah close behind him.  He slipped out his mob-sat
and made a call.  “ Mandy .  Get us a couple of road warriors, ready to go in five. ”
    Sarah caught up to Howard and
looked at him quizzically.  “ Road warriors?  Do you have a fleet of tanks here that I missed? ”
    Howard smirked at her.  “ Didn ’ t anybody tell you?  The Earthworm has arms. ”
    Howard and
Bradley led Sarah into the Earthworm ’ s
middle section and then into a side corridor.  “ Follow
me, ” said Howard, making his way up a steep staircase.
    The size of the place still
shocked her.  It must have been built for a thousand employees, maybe more.  A
person could die inside the Earthworm and never be found with the way things
currently were.   
    The long staircase wound back
and forth on itself like a coiled python.  By the time Sarah reached the top,
she was sweating.  Howard and Bradley were waiting for her there, two minutes
ahead, subtle grins on their faces and their hands on their hips.
    “ You get used to it, ” said Bradley.  “ There
was supposed to be a lift built, but then …”
    “ Yeah, I know, ” said Sarah.  “ Funding.  How is this
place not falling apart?  It ’ s huge. ”
    “ Sergeant Mattock ’ s strike team comes and goes, but we feel he ’ s
better placed out in the field, ” Bradley said.
    “ There used to be more of us, ” said
Howard.  He held open a door and daylight bled in with a warm almost-summer
breeze.  Sarah smiled as she felt the warmth tickle her face.  It felt good to
get out of the pit and back out into the open air.
    They emerged from inside a
rickety shed onto a derelict farm.  Sarah glanced around at the various
outbuildings and empty livestock pens.  A rusty tractor sat parked up against
an old farmhouse which was missing both its roof and one wall.  Rocks and weeds
jutted out of the ground where there may once have been crops. 
    “ It ’ s our disguise, ” said Bradley proudly.
    Sarah nodded.  “ It ’ s a good one.  I wouldn ’ t want to go snooping
around this place.  It looks like Old MacDonald haunts it. ”
    “ It ’ s more high-tech than it looks, ” said
Howard.  “ There are cameras hidden in a dozen places. ”  He
pointed to the tractor and Sarah saw the glint of a lens hidden inside the
exhaust pipe.
    She put her hands on her
hips.  “ So, do you plan on walking to Oxford, because I didn ’ t wear the right shoes. ”
    Howard trudged through the mud
toward a listing feed shed.  Its entrance was currently fitted with a
collection of padlocks, but all of them had been popped open.  Howard pulled
open the sheet-metal doors to reveal Mandy standing inside.  The big guy nodded
at Howard and Bradley as they entered, but gave Sarah only a cursory glance.
    “ Good to see you again, too, ” she grunted. 
    Inside the feed shed, a group
of powerful superbikes sat beside a couple of sleek saloons.  Near the front,
two jet-black Range Rover Westminsters idled.  The two 4x4s immediately made
Sarah think of the Snatch Land Rovers used in Afghanistan.  She shuddered.
    “ You okay, Captain? ” Bradley asked her.
    “ Fine.  So these are our rides, huh?  Not the latest models, but
pretty swanky.  Way things were downstairs, I was expecting a couple of Mini
Metros. ”
    Howard rolled his eyes.  “ We do the best we can with what we have.  Didn ’ t they teach you that in the Army? ”
    “ No, ” said Sarah in a put-on dopey voice.  “ They just taught me which end of the rifle to point at the bad guys,
herp-derp. ”
    Howard opened the passenger
door of one of the two Ranges and glanced over at the other one.  “ Bradley, you take second, follow me and Mandy. ”
    Bradley hopped up into the
other vehicle,