The guy shook his head. "Nope."
"Shit." Jack loosed a disappointed sigh. "Well, anything I can do around here till they get back?"
Now he was getting a different kind of look—incredulous. Jack guessed not too many of their peers volunteered.
Finally the thin guy spoke. "You can go upstairs and help Ansari and Stayer clean up the mess in the boss's room."
"Hank's room?" He assumed that was on one of the upper floors—just where he wanted to be. "What happened?"
They glanced at each other. The heavy guy shrugged and said, "Someone got killed."
Jack feigned shock. "No way! I heard something was stolen, but nobody said anything about—"
"We're keeping it quiet for now. Look, you want to help those guys, be our guest. Don't think you'll get an argument from them. They're on the second floor."
"Great."
He headed up the granite steps but passed the second floor and continued to the third. He hurried from room to room—all unlocked, all empty.
Well, he'd seen Dawn through a second-floor window. Maybe he'd find her there.
On the second floor he did another room-to-room search until he came to one with two guys scrubbing a red stain off the floor.
"Is there where Haber bought it?" he said, remembering the name and trying to sound more knowledgeable than he had downstairs.
Ansari and Stayer—he didn't know who was who—looked up at him.
"Who wants to know?"
"The guys downstairs said I should come up and help you. What needs to be done?"
"Well, your timing's fucking great," one of them said. "We're just about through."
Jack decided to go for the gold.
"Where's the girl?"
This earned him instant suspicion.
"What girl?" the other one said.
Jack was flowing toward a kneecapping mood. The Glock was a growing itch against the small of his back.
"The one whose picture I've been hanging all over town for weeks. Word is they found her. They got her here?"
"If you know so much, you should know the slants took her when they grabbed the boss's sword."
Jack didn't try to hide his shock. "They took her too?"
"Yep."
"What the hell for?"
The first one shrugged. "That's the million-dollar question. All we know is that Menck and Darryl was watching her down in the basement, now they've got broken heads and the girl's gone."
Jack stared at them for a few heartbeats as his mind reeled, then he spun and ran back down the hall.
"Hey, where you goin?" said a voice behind him. "I thought you was gonna help."
In your dreams.
He pounded down the stairs.
What the hell? He hadn't seen this coming. The Kakureta Kao had taken Dawn? Why-why-why?
And it didn't sound like a spur-of-the-moment thing, as in taking a hostage for insurance. The sword had been on the second floor, and Dawn in the basement. Taking her couldn't have been happenstance.
Goddamn. He'd thought he was drawing the Kickers away from her when all the time he was sending them to her instead.
He blew through the foyer and out to the street. He needed a cab. He was turning toward Allen Street when he heard a toot. He looked and saw a green Land Rover double-parked in front of the Lodge. A bearded, older man stood beside it.
Veilleur waved. "Need a ride?"
Jack fairly leaped toward him. "How the—?"
"A woman with a dog told me you might need some company." He opened the driver's door. "I suggest you drive."
"The Ladies… you know them too?"
A nod. "Very well."
Jack jumped in and started the car. As soon as Glaeken was settled in the passenger seat Jack gunned it toward the Manhattan Bridge.
"But how did she know?" Jack said.
The old man shrugged. "She doesn't know everything that goes on, but she knows quite a bit."
"Who are they?"
"You really don't know?"
"Would I be asking if I did?"
A pause, then, "Perhaps she doesn't think you're ready to know. I think you're more than ready, but the decision is hers."
"Come on. A hint at least."
He shook his head, then said, "All right. You keep saying 'They.' There's only one."
That shocked him. "But I've seen—"
"Only one, but she comes in many shapes and sizes." He waved his hand. "Forget the Lady for now. Let's plan what we'll do when we reach our destination."
Jack forced his thoughts back to Dawn, but they wouldn't leave the Lady entirely.
"Did she at least say why this cult kidnapped Dawn?"
"She's not sure. One thing we agree on is that her baby is important to all the wrong people."
"What about the sword? Why do they want that?"
"Apparently it was instrumental in fulfilling a prophecy that doomed them in the past. They think controlling it will protect their future." He looked at Jack. "It might be best for the world if the Kakureta Kao has no future."
Their eyes locked for a second, then Jack turned back to driving.
"That might already be in the works."
He prayed Dawn wouldn't go down with them.
Hank saw the building, saw the wall, saw the gate, saw the guard in his corny kung-fu getup. A big entrance opened in the center. He'd never been here before, but for some reason the place looked familiar.
No matter. They'd arrived.
His blood sang in his ears. He'd counted thirty-seven Kickers, including himself, in nine vehicles. How many of those Japs could be in there? Two dozen, tops. He couldn't see any reason why he wouldn't have Dawn and the sword back in fifteen minutes.
The sooner the better. His head still throbbed and he felt like puking. He just wished he'd seen the guy who'd done this to him. All he remembered was a bright light in his eyes and then nothing. So if he couldn't make the guilty one pay, they'd all pay.
He phoned ahead to Menck in the lead car—the one with the GPS.
"Slow down until we can get one of the pickups in front, and then we'll run that fuckin gate. No talk, no dickin around. We're going in."
He watched a battered old truck make its way to the front, then gun forward. The rest followed in its wake.
The guard stepped out behind the chain-link barrier and waved them to stop. But instead of slowing, the pickup accelerated. The guard dove for cover as the truck hit the barrier dead center, sending the double gates flying back on their hinges.
And then they were all barreling through, one after another, pulling up before the entrance and piling out. No flood or security lights on the outside, and hardly any light inside. Headlights provided all the illumination. As they were milling around, getting organized, the guard from the gate came running up behind them, shouting and waving a sword. A length of chain whirled through the air, catching his knees. He went down and in a flash a dozen guys were on him. Crowbars and two-by-fours rose and fell. When the whooping knot stepped back, the guy lay flat, facedown, unmoving. A grinning Kicker brandished his sword.
This was going to be easy.
"Everybody inside!" Hank shouted, waving his crowbar in the air. "Trash the place and everybody in it!"
The Kickers roared and charged the entrance. The big glass doors weren't even locked. Again that sense that he'd seen this place before.
Hank hung back. Menck and Darryl, each carrying two-by-fours, did the same. Their heads must have felt like his.