The Second Ship (The Rho Agenda #1)(105)
Within seconds he had removed the small panel allowing access to the circuit board and memory cards. Picking a spot directly adjacent to the central processing unit, Mark retrieved the QT chip from his pocket, added a tiny drop of superglue, and pressed it into place, holding it just long enough for the adhesive on the back side to take hold.
As he finished replacing the cover and spun the screw tight, he heard the front door open.
Shit.
Mark set the computer back in its spot on the desk, grabbed his tools, and moving as quietly as possible, left the room. As Mark moved down the hallway, he spotted Janet’s head in the den. Ducking back from the spot where the stairway opened to the room below, he barely avoided being seen. Making it down the hallway to the bedroom and the window he had entered was impossible without being spotted.
Mark moved back to the spot where the rope dangled down from the attic. Holding his breath, praying that it would open silently, Mark pulled on the cord.
For once his luck was good. The hatch opened, soundlessly lowering the steps leading up into the dark opening above. Mark climbed up and pulled the hatch closed behind him. As he glanced around, he found the small room cluttered with sophisticated-looking electronic gear. Unfortunately, it did not have the one thing he was looking for: another way out.
The sound of footsteps on the stairway ended his perusal of his surroundings. Janet passed through the hall below him heading directly for the office. Through a small crack where the trapdoor closed, Mark could just make out her lithe form.
Suddenly she stopped, staring directly at the laptop computer. As Mark watched, a new horror dawned in his mind.
Damn it. He had forgotten. When he touched the laptop, the screen saver had stopped, leaving the secure login screen in its place. The timeout on that screen had not expired, so the screen saver had not yet restarted. And as she did with everything around her, Janet had noticed.
Chapter 79
Hunger gnawed at his guts like a tapeworm so large he could no longer satisfy the primal need that drove him. As he watched Janet walk out of her house and get into her car, Priest was consumed by it. Today it was bearable, though. Today, at last, his hunger would be sated.
Priest started his truck, letting Janet pull out of her driveway and disappear around the bend before he moved out after her. As he slid onto the street, he passed a high school kid walking down the sidewalk. The face looked vaguely familiar. Then he remembered. It was the basketball player in the tabloids, the kid who almost blew the state championship by hitting the bottle before the game.
Priest chuckled softly to himself. Shit. The kid reminded him of himself at that age.
But he did not have long to dwell on stupid high school kids. He wanted to make sure he did not lose Janet. If he was lucky, her outing might just give him an opportunity to invite her over to his place. Priest licked his lips. His type of invitation never got refused.
Priest stayed well back, only getting close enough to catch an occasional glimpse of her car. He knew the twists and turns of the streets by heart and how to maintain the perfect distance. When she turned into the grocery store parking lot, Priest passed on by, his disappointment palpable. He would get no chance here. Not at this time of day. At least he knew a trip to the grocery store meant she would be returning directly home from the errand.
Priest made his way back to Janet’s house by a circuitous route, picking a different spot to park his truck. This time he parked in the woods a full two and a half blocks away from the Johnson house. After all, he wouldn’t be needing the truck’s secret compartment below the bed for a good while yet.
Priest reached around behind the driver’s seat and pulled out a large plastic box. Flipping up the catches, he extracted the tranquilizer gun and put it in the second of his two shoulder holsters. After examining the liquid-filled darts to ensure the little plastic tip-covers were in place, he grabbed a handful and deposited them into the large outer pockets of his fatigue-style pants. He would need only one of them, but Priest liked to be prepared.
Then, closing and locking the door, he slipped into the woods lining the canyon slope behind the winding row of homes. As he approached the back side of Janet’s house, he noticed the second-floor window had been left wide open. Unfortunately, there was nothing around to climb on, and it was a couple of feet too high for him to jump up and grab the sill.
Instead, he made his way to the back door, inserted a small, oddly shaped tool into the lock, pressed a button, and turned. The lock clicked open. As he stepped inside, he heard a car pull up out front.
Moving quickly to the pantry, Priest ducked inside, leaving the door open, just a crack, behind him. Through that crack he watched as Janet entered the house, two bags of groceries in her hands. She set her purse down and dropped the groceries on the kitchen table. Priest could feel his pulse pounding as he watched her slender body move. Soon now, very soon, she would move to the pantry, open it, and get the biggest surprise of her life.
But Janet did not move directly to the pantry. Instead, she left the kitchen. Priest could hear her light footsteps climbing the stairs to the second floor.
As soon as the sound indicated she was upstairs, Priest moved, his footsteps making no sound as he climbed. At the top of the stairs he paused, but only for an instant.
Janet had stopped in a small room at the end of the hallway, her posture suddenly alert as she stared at the computer on her desk. She must have heard him. Having no time to load a dart into the tranquilizer gun, Priest charged. And as he did, Janet turned to meet him, her spinning side kick only barely missing his groin as he twisted sideways and barreled into her. Still, the blow from her foot disrupted Priest's momentum so that his shoulder only partially caught her side, preventing him from pinning both her arms.