Chapter 26
333 Words
26
We’re barely down the stairs into the cavernous, darkened living room when Jacka snaps, “Anda!”
The girl doesn’t need any urging. She dashes away, easily avoiding the bulky furniture by the dim light leaking through the windows. She’s been here long enough to find her way in the dark.
“Civilian fleeing,” Rob mutters into his mike.
“Ack,” Bradley says in my ear. “One girl. Suitcase.”
I waste half a second hoping the kid makes it, not just out of here but out of this life, then we head to our next target.
There’s a stubby hall off the main room, ending in the ornate mahogany door of Noah’s home office. The hallway seems even darker than the main room, but it adds the pleasure of claustrophobically close white plaster walls.
I doubt it’s going to work, but I try the thug’s hand on the fingerprint sensor.
The red LED flickers. It recognizes the thumb, but rejects it. Either the thug never had access to this room, or the hand is too cold.
I drop the arm with a relieved sigh. Pulverized thug soaks my flank and armpit, seasoned with smoke and dust. When we get out of here, I’m burning this outfit. “Have to break the lock the hard way,” I mutter into the throat mike.
The cover comes off with a tug, exposing the wiring. Like the last door, this one doesn’t have any brains on the outside. I pull a small, specialized handheld gadget out of my pack and clip it to the exposed wires. I wish I could say I had a whole bunch of thoughtful stuff to do here, but the truth is the computers fight it out. With enough time, I’d win.
Why break this lock the hard way? People like Noah don’t let others walk in and raid their computers. If I just blew the door, we’d probably trigger a digital self-destruct. Even killing the house power might make the systems inaccessible without Noah’s personal intervention.
My gadget starts to work, dim red LED numbers flickering.
A gunshot shatters the close tight blackness.
Behind me, someone screams.
- Writer
