"Hear that?" Nick asked.
"Hear what? It's quiet."
"Exactly. The shooting's over. They've killed everyone they came across. You see someone, they're an enemy. Take them down."
She nodded.
"They don't know we're here. If I were them, I'd be headed this way to check out those vaults. I don't want to get stuck in this kitchen. We'll take it to them."
The doors from the kitchen opened onto a wide hall and staging area with tables where dishes could be set before being taken to the dining room. To the left of the staging area, stairs led up to the second level. To the right, the space was taken up by storage closets. Straight ahead, the passage continued toward the rest of the ground floor. Another body lay facedown beyond the tables. He was dressed in a suit. The stock of an assault rifle stuck out from under his body. His blood made a wide red pool on the floor.
One of Gutenberg's guards, Nick thought.
They moved past the body and took up positions on either side of the opening where the hall moved on into the rest of the building. Voices sounded ahead, coming closer. They were speaking Russian. Nick held up three fingers and mouthed on three.
One. Two. Three.
On three, they leaned around the doorjamb and opened fire.
The first thing Selena saw was three men in gray battle dress and red berets. They carried short barreled assault rifles that looked ugly and efficient. The bullets knocked them down before they had a chance to raise the rifles. Out of sight in an adjoining passage, Selena heard someone start shouting in Russian.
Ronnie took a grenade from his belt, pulled the pin and hurled it down the passage. They ducked back. The grenade detonated and Nick ran forward into the hall. Without thinking, Selena followed. Someone looked around a corner and fired. The rounds whistled by as Nick shot him. She sensed Ronnie pounding along the hall behind her. She felt invincible, strong, adrenaline punching through her veins.
They passed the spot where the grenade had gone off. The walls and floor and ceiling were spattered with blood. Two bodies lay on the floor, blown apart by the grenade. At least she thought it was two. It was hard to tell.
Behind the wall, Gutenberg watched them go by. He recognized Carter.
Those are the people who have been causing so much trouble, he thought. Well, they won't be doing it for much longer.
The dining room had a long, polished mahogany table with a gleaming crystal chandelier hanging over it. Vysotsky's men opened fire as Selena started into the room. Bullets ripped into a half dozen oil paintings hung on the wall behind her. A round slammed into her vest and knocked her back into the hall and onto the floor. She gasped for air.
Ronnie and Nick fired into the room. The chandelier exploded into glittering fragments. The noise of the guns was deafening. A door opened on the opposite side of the hall. She rolled to her side and fired at the opening. Someone screamed and fell back into the room.
Then it was over.
The hallway stank of burnt powder and hot metal. The coppery scent of fresh blood seeped into the air. Nick came over to her.
"Give me a hand," she said.
He helped her to her feet. "You're okay?"
"It just knocked the wind out of me. I'm fine."
"I make it nine dead Russians," Ronnie said.
"That figures. Eight enlisted and one officer," Nick said.
"We still haven't found Gutenberg."
"He's probably hiding."
Somewhere a door closed.
"You hear that?" Ronnie said. "It sounded like it came from the kitchen."
They ran back the way they had come and into the kitchen. The body of the cook still lay on the floor. The door to the vault was closed.
"Didn't we leave that open?" Selena asked.
Nick nodded. "Somehow Gutenberg must've gotten past us and gone down into the vault."
"Bad move," Ronnie said. "He's trapped."
"Yeah. Maybe. Or maybe not. Why hide where he can't get away?"
"There could be another way out," Selena said. "Something we didn't see when we were down there."
"Only one way to find out," Nick said. "Let's go see."
In the vault beneath the kitchen, Gutenberg and Halifax stood in front of a tall wine rack.
"Help me empty this," Gutenberg said.
He began pulling bottles off the rack, two and three at a time. They shattered on the stone floor, splashing wine onto his dove gray slacks.
Halifax said, "My dear man, this is hardly the time for a glass of wine."
"Don't be an idiot, Albert. There's an old tunnel behind this that will take us outside the walls. This isn't the first time the château has been under siege. Now, give me a hand."
The two men began throwing bottles onto the floor. The wine spread in a growing pool around their feet. Soon the heavy wine rack was light enough to move. They pulled it away from the wall, revealing a dark, wooden door.
A rusted, iron ring hung from the middle of the door. Gutenberg took hold of the ring and pulled. With difficulty, it began to come open.
CHAPTER 63
Nick came down the steps, MP-5 held close by his cheek. He heard something scraping across the floor. He reached the bottom of the steps and saw Gutenberg and another man in front of a door set into the wall of the vault.
"It's all done, Gutenberg. Stop what you're doing."
Gutenberg froze. He turned toward Nick and raised his pistol. But he wasn't pointing at Nick and the others. The gun was aimed at the rows of steel containers.
"I wouldn't advise you to shoot," Gutenberg said. "Bullets will ricochet in here from the stone walls. If one of them hits any of those containers, you are all dead. It will take a week or so before they put your rotting, blackened body into the ground, but you'll still be dead. If you make one move toward me I'll fire."
"Nick, he means it," Selena said. "He's crazy."
Gutenberg heard her and laughed. "Crazy? I'm not the one who's crazy. It's people like you."
Ronnie whispered in Nick's ear. "I can take him. Let me take the shot."
"Don't try it," Gutenberg said.
"Looks like we have a stalemate," Nick said. "You know I can't let you go."
"You don't have a choice. I really will shoot, you know. Let me make a proposal."
Beside Gutenberg, Halifax started breathing heavily. He raised his hand and began rubbing his chest.
"Humor him, Nick." Selena's voice was quiet.
"I'm listening," Nick said. "What did you have in mind?"
On the side of the room, the big boiler fired up. The flames made a low, steady roar in the background.
"We're going into this tunnel," Gutenberg said.
Halifax clutched his chest. He gave a strangled cry, dropped his shotgun and fell against Gutenberg. The shotgun struck the floor and went off. The blast struck the big meter feeding gas to the boiler furnace. Gas poured out with a loud hissing sound. Ronnie fired at Gutenberg and hit him in the shoulder, sending his pistol flying. Gutenberg cursed and ducked behind the wooden door and pulled it shut behind him. They heard a bar fall into place on the other side.
The air in the vault stank of escaping gas.
"We have to get out of here," Nick said. "That gas will blow and we can't do anything about it."
"Which way?" Selena asked. She coughed.
"The way we came in. It's the quickest way out."
They ran to the stairs leading to the lower vault and scrambled down them. Fresh air blew in from the river, clearing away the cloud of gas that followed them. They went through the old door. The moon had come out, shining pale silver light over the river. Their raft was tied where they'd left it. They clambered in and paddled hard, away from the château. They'd reached the middle of the river before the gas exploded.