Perfect killer

CHAPTER 93

I thumbed off the Hk4' s safety.

"Not now, Benny." The wine box over my head stopped moving. "We got a line backing up out there." The case of wine came back down and sealed me off again.

"Awright," the voice said.

Then the previous voice: "Unload at the usual place. Wait for somebody to come check the inventory before you leave."

"My pleasure," Rex said.

The cargo door rumbled again and the truck began to move. Only then did I reset the safety. I heard the safety on Kilgore's pistol click about the same time.

Moments later, the truck slowed, reversed, stopped. A minute later, cool air flooded in over me.

"Wake up, asshole," Rex said.

Beyond him, the yellow and black stripes of a loading dock showed beyond the mostly closed cargo door. An electric forklift whirred in the distance. I got out and helped excavate Kilgore, who climbed out quickly and paused to suck in the fresh air.

"Okay, let's stage the scenery as best we can," Kilgore said as he started moving wine cases toward the back of the van. "Stack the plywood flat in the corner so it's not noticeable. The more innocent things look, the more time we'll have before they tumble onto us."

Rex and I followed his lead, and minutes later Kilgore keyed the microphone. "We're in."

Then we rolled up the cargo door, grabbed a case of wine apiece, and followed Kilgore through the chaos on the loading dock. Caterers, vendors, and platoons of people in white uniforms with toques cursed in a dozen languages, demanding forklifts, assistance, and insisting to be escorted upstairs immediately or the canapes, ice sculptures, gelato, and everything else would be ruined. Ruined!

Braxton's security, dressed in blue blazers, khaki pants, white shirts, and rep ties, sidled through the unruly mob, trying to establish order. The looks on their faces said they'd prefer to shoot most of these people if only it wouldn't deprive the General and his guests of pate or pastry.

"I like this very much," Kilgore said as we pushed our way through the melee and across the loading dock. To our right, an arbor heavy with summer foliage blossomed and extended the length of the lot now jammed with trucks.

"The formal entrance is on the other side of this," Kilgore said."Braxton wouldn't want his very snotty guests insulted by the sight of common people working."

We followed him into the coolness of the main service entrance.

"Right up there." Kilgore pointed at shadows in the far right corner. We stood stock-still for a moment, blending into the dimly lit area. One of the security officers looked over at us, then turned to a tall, thin young man who was haranguing him about how his was the most important course and the General would be displeased if the delivery was not made immediately

Kilgore led us around an oblique corner to a shadow-filled corridor and set his wine case down.

"This should be it."

Rex and I stacked our wine on top of his. A long, dimly lit cave stretched before us, lined on both sides with phalanxes of identical oak-plank doors bound with black iron straps.

"From here, I count maybe twenty doors."

"Damn…," Kilgore mumbled. "Let's get going." He turned and slid the heavy bolt of the nearest door. The tunnel resonated with the screech of metal in desperate need of lubrication.

"Jeez!" Rex said. "Better hope the noise back there continues."

"We have a choice," I said as I took the first door on the other side of the tunnel. It screeched slightly less than Kilgore's.

"I'll work ahead," Rex said as be walked half a dozen doors down the tunnel. I cringed as he slid back the next bolt and filled the corridor with a deafening metallic thunder.

"Listen!"

Gabriel stopped by the door and stood up. The last pieces of broken barrel staves and a hoop hung loosely at his side. Above the sounds of priceless cabernet dripping into the expensive red flood came the rusty complaints of the cave doors and muffled voices of men.

Harper sat still and concentrated. "Yes, this may be good." He struggled to his feet as Gabriel scaled the last remaining tower of barrels, the one adjacent to the door. When he looked back at Harper, something on the cave wall caught his attention.

"Doctor?"

"What's over by you? Looks like a crack in the wall."

Harper shuffled over to it. "A crack in the wall."

"These are supposed to be solid stone."

Gabriel climbed down, walked over, and stared at a small trickle of wine disappearing into the crack.

"Don't you think you should get ready?" Harper looked toward the door. "In a sec."

Gabriel rapped on the area around the crack. Hollow. He rapped on a spot about five feet over. Solid. He tore at the crack, peeling off concrete fragments. "What is it?" Harper asked.

"Maybe a better way out," Gabriel said as he worked at the wall. As the bolt sounds in the outside tunnel grew louder, the concrete came off in bigger pieces, revealing the mesh of reinforcing metal. The cool dankness of trapped air made its way through the mesh.

"Holy hell!" Gabriel said as he pulled at the bottom. The metal bent outward as he pulled loose the soft metal wires used to fix the mesh to the cave walls. With a final heave, Gabriel lifted the bottom up more than three feet, enough to crawl through. "Here," Gabriel said to Harper. "Let me help you through."

An excited voice sounded outside the door. Someone had found the stream of wine.

"We don't know where it leads," Harper said. "Or if it leads anywhere at all."

Outside, they heard the thuds of running footsteps.

"That's right, Doc, but life's like that, isn't it? We know we have a tough fight the other way. I say we make a choice and pray for the best."

The bolt on the door rattled tentatively.

Harper accepted Gabriel's outstretched hand.

"Wise decision, young man."

"From you, I'm honored."

Harper wasn't halfway in when the bolt screeched all the way back. "Keep moving, Doc," Gabriel called as he rushed to the barrel stack and scaled it with an ease that amazed him.*****

Jasmine's heart trip-hammered as she watched Tyrone paging through scene after scene from Castello Da Vinci's security cameras.

"Now, listen." He clicked on a button on one camera image, and the sounds of distant voices came from the laptop's speakers.

"Every camera also picks up sound."

"That's amazing."

Then Kilgore's voice came through on the walkie-talkie. "We're in."

"Okay, help me for a minute," Jasmine said to Tyrone as she grabbed the walkietalkie, plugged in the earbuds and lavalier mike.

"I don't suppose you can locate Brad and the rest?" She clipped the walkie-talkie to her belt and got out of the truck. Tyrone followed her.

"Not too soon, I hope," Tyrone said.

"Why?" Jasmine opened the camper shell and dropped the tailgate. Tyrone came around the side and helped Jasmine pull out one of the radio-controlled airplanes.

"Because if I can see them, so can Braxton's security people."