Faithless in Death (In Death, #52)(100)

All assuming Roarke got them over, through, or around the wall.

“That’s that then.”

She looked up. “What? You’re in?”

“That’s the wall, and all attached alerts, alarms, deterrents, and so on. You’ve the gatehouse there, and the best solution would be to just shut it down. Shut down its communications, power. If a guard or guards are inside, well, you’ll have to deal with them.”

“We can do that.”

“Look here now. I’m highlighting what I’d consider the best areas to breach the wall. Climbing it’s going to be the best of the options, at least until we reactivate the gate from the gatehouse. But I’d stick with a very small number going over and in. I’d want to be over and in before I start shutting down other areas. It needs to be done layer by layer, sector by sector.”

She didn’t need to understand his math to get the picture. “Can you show and equip other teams of two—three tops, with one an e-cop—how to take down levels? If you and I go over here.”

“You and I?”

“That’s right. We go here, front gate, deal with the gatehouse, move on. Other teams go over at your designated points. We start working our way in, shutting things down as we go.”

“All right, I see it. I always kept my … team, we’ll say, on the very small side, so I’ll adjust for expanding that.”

“I need how many we can get inside on the first stage, how long to shut those layers—all down—so that we can spread out to every area. My focus, off the bat, is the suspected prison, the main house. But we need to hit it all.”

“Let me work out the how, then I’ll give you numbers and times.”

She had enough to start putting some meat on the bones of her operation. Yes, she could flesh it out now, could start to see.

Using a highlighter, she tried different routes in from the breach points he’d chosen, began assigning buildings and structures to each team—with backup coming in as the system shut down.

She lost track of time, building layer by layer as Roarke broke layer by layer.

He rose, put a hand on her shoulder, then kissed the top of her head. “I believe I have it. A bit more refining to do, but I can give you some times and some numbers.”

“I’ll take them.”

“From point of entry, each team—I’d keep that to two each with an e-man for three—must—absolutely must—go no more than fifteen feet from the wall. Go fifteen and an inch, they’ll set off the next layer with motion detectors.”

“Got it.”

“From that point, it will take them about four minutes, unless I can shave that down more than I have, to take down the next section. Fifteen feet at a time, Eve. No more, not a toe over.”

“Slow and steady.”

“Aye, slow and steady. When a team reaches these apartments, these houses, this building—do you see where it’s going?”

A slowly shrinking circle. “Yeah, yeah, working that slow and steady in.”

“They can adjust the jam. I can have them execute a series of codes—so you must have those e-cops—that will shut down the systems on those specific buildings.”

“Then they can keep moving, keep jamming, keep shutting down while the backup comes in behind them.”

“That would be your part of it to calculate.”

“And I can do that.”

“This doesn’t factor patrols.”

“I’ll have that handled, keep going.”

“Each building will have locks, and those require yet another series of codes.”

“Okay.”

“As you’d expect, both the prison and the main house have more layers.”

She nodded, as she had expected. “Top e-man on the prison, you and me on the main house. It’s going to take more than an hour, closer to two to shut it down, and to move in the takedown teams.”

“I’m going to work on that, but I doubt we can do it all in less than an hour or seventy-five minutes.”

“Slow and steady’s fine with me. The main house is going to be one of the last to shut down the way it’s situated. But by then, we’ll have backup. We go in, and now the takedown teams pour in. I can see how I can work it.”

She considered. “When all law enforcement’s inside, can you reactivate the wall?”

“That would be the easy part.”

“Good. Ants can’t scatter if they can’t get out of the hill. And here’s another question.”

She asked, rejected, accepted. He refined; she fleshed out.

And when she felt she had it solid, she went to her commander, coordinated with Abernathy, then with Teasdale, then with Reo.





20


With Roarke back in EDD, working out any kinks with Feeney, she sat down at her desk to think, to pick at any flaws.

Boots up, coffee in hand, she flipped through the various stages of her many-pronged operation on her wall screen.

Baxter tapped on her doorjamb. “Want good news, boss?”

Since he carried evidence bags in his hands, Eve swung her boots off the desk. “Have you got something in there that nails Mirium Wilkey to Ariel Byrd’s murder?”

“How about three nails, like motive, means, opportunity?”