End of Days (Pike Logan #16)(89)

I said, “What in the world?”

She grinned and said, “That’s Jenny’s number.”

I couldn’t believe it. The idiot in Zurich had literally used the password sent, when they were sending him a clue of what the password should have been.

I said, “You are a literal genius.” I clicked on the net and said, “We’re in. Putting in the dragonball now.”

I connected an extraction device that looked like a blob of different cables, all designed to use a different port, then connected to the Wi-Fi of the palace. I hit the power button on the ball, and Brett said, “Creed sees it. He’s got it. Stand by.”

Three minutes later, he said, “We have a mirror of the drive. Free to go.”

I said, “Thank the Lord. Knuckles, Knuckles, we’re coming out same way we came in.”

He said, “Roger that. Good job. Standing by.”

I turned to my partners in crime and said, “Going out the same way. Slow and steady.”

We went up the stairs, waited at the door, listening. I clicked on the net and said, “Any activity?”

“None that we can see, but there’s no camera at the basement door.”

I said, “Roger that,” swung the door open, and hit a security guard right in the ass.

If I’d have thrown it open with my weight behind it, I probably would have slammed him into a wall, knocking him off balance for a strike. Instead, it basically tapped him in the butt, pushing him out of the way and causing him to freak out.

He shouted, flipped his light on me, and I reacted instantly, knocking the light to the side and ripping his legs out from underneath him, flattening him on the ground, but it was too late.

His scream had alerted others.

I cradled his head in a rear-naked choke as he thrashed around, fighting me, hearing the slapping of shoes. I hissed, “No killing, damn it! No killing.”

Shoshana’s headlamp went down the narrow hallway and I saw two more guards coming our way. I finished the choke, cutting off the blood flow to the guard’s brain, but it required me to remain steady, which left Shoshana on the loose.

I saw the fight in strobe light, the headlamps and the guard’s flashlights bobbing up and down. I squeezed hard, felt the guy beneath me go limp, and leapt up, racing down the hallway. I saw one man slam into the wall, then the other get wrapped up by Jennifer, the two of them fighting for control. She torqued his wrist, rotated his arm, and forced him onto his belly. I hammered him in the head with a straight punch, knocking him out, then turned to the one still out of control. Shoshana leapt on him, swinging around his back just like she’d done in Bahrain, bringing him to a sitting position on the floor, her arms around his neck.

I screamed, “Don’t do it!”

And she put his ass to sleep just like I’d done seconds ago. She pushed his body off of her and stood up, saying, “You have no trust in me.”

I exhaled and said, “You have to admit, it’s not just me. There’s a guy in Bahrain who might beg to differ.”

She huffed something in Hebrew and Jennifer scrambled to us, saying, “Can we argue about this later?”

I said, “Good idea. Let’s go. Same way. If I were to guess, we’ve taken out the entire force.”

We started running up the stairs and Brett came on, saying, “There’s nothing on the cameras that we can see, but the guard shack outside is going batshit. Don’t know if they had radios or what, but they’re reacting.”

“What’s our time?”

“Seconds. One of them is on the way right now.”

Shoshana said, “They’ll never reach us.”

Sprinting up the stairs, I said, “You can’t beat the speed of light. With a radio, we’re in trouble.”

We reached the second floor and I clicked on the net, saying, “Knuckles, Knuckles, we’re on the way down, but there could be a response on the street. Reposition to the alternate.”

He said, “Understand you don’t want help, correct?”

I opened the French doors and said, “Yes. Correct. The response is going to come from the police. Don’t interdict. We’ll get out on foot. Meet you at secondary RV.”

He said, “Roger that,” just as Jennifer flicked the rope over the balcony. I looked at Shoshana and said, “Go.”

She grabbed the rope, swung over, and began clambering down. I turned to Jennifer and said, “Don’t wait for me to get to the bottom. Give me about ten feet, release that thing, and come down.”

Her eyes wide, panting through an open mouth, she nodded. I grabbed the rope and began going down it as fast as possible, hand-over-hand on the knots. Twenty feet above the ground, Jennifer cut the slipknot and I went weightless.

Oh shit.

I hit the ground hard, rolling over with the rope landing on top of me. Shoshana ran to me and said, “Are you all right? Did the rope break?”

I groaned just as Jennifer landed next to me, leaping off the wall like a lizard escaping a cat. I stood up and said, “Ten feet. Ten feet!”

She looked chagrined and said, “I can’t judge the damn distance in the dark. Anyway, you’re still walking.”

I shook my head, hearing sirens closing in. I said, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”