“Twenty seconds.”
Numbers were scrolling through a box on the screen. Another box was gradually filling up with asterisks below it. This was hard to watch, and my stomach felt sick at the tension. The computer beeped.
“Ten. Why did it beep?”
“Shut up, Lorenzo!”
“Five.”
The screen changed color, and Reaper clapped his hands together above his head. “I so rock! We’re in. I think I should be the new sysadmin.” Reaper began to tab through windows. Alarm systems, cameras, laser arrays, surface-to-air missiles; you name it, we had it. He immediately found the camera for the infirmary. It was a black-and-white image of the two of us standing over the computer, with a bunch of people lying on the floor. He fiddled with the track ball, and the camera rotated until it was looking at the far wall. Now it was an empty room.
“I’m going,” I said. I reset the timer on my watch. “Mark, ten minutes. Then we blow this sucker.” From our best estimates, that was how long we figured we had before system command figured out that they were compromised and the whole place locked down on red alert.
“I know the drill,” he replied, not taking his eyes from the screen. Of course he did. We had practiced this a hundred times. He was already screwing around with the palace’s communications. In a few seconds, the only people who were going to be using the radio net in this place were the ones Reaper was going to allow to do so. He didn’t need to do anything to the outside equipment; Starfish had destroyed most of that. So now he was randomly closing down interior systems. Hopefully they’d think that it was some sort of equipment malfunction and not that they were being violated by people like us.
At ten minutes, I exited, took a quick glance down the hallways, and then walked purposefully toward the main elevator. Some servants noticed me, but I smiled at them like I belonged there, and they let me pass. I entered the elevator and waited for the doors to close.
Nine minutes left. The elevator was secure and plated in gold and polished mirrors. You needed a card key to access anything other than the main floors. Only a handful of the staff here had the card necessary to do so. I didn’t even press any buttons, and the car began to move smoothly down. A digital display counted rapidly into the negative numbers as we headed deep into the bowels of the palace.
My radio beeped. I pulled it out. “Go.”
“I’m in control now. I’ve locked out everyone else. They’re confused, blaming it on the surge. You’ve got two guards standing at the base of the elevator shaft, and you’re going to walk right into them.”
“Put me through to them,” I said, then cleared my throat. I had only spoken with him for a moment, but I needed to do a real convincing Hassan, real quick.
“You’re on,” Reaper said, and the radio clicked.
“All guards on basement six report to the level command post.” I could only hope that those were the correct terms, as that was what they had been labeled on Big Eddie’s stolen plans. “I want you there immediately.”
“But, sir, you said not to leave our—”
“Tigers! I will feed you to the tigers! Hassan out.” I shouted.
“They’re moving, Lorenzo,” Reaper said.
At seven minutes the elevator slid to a halt at negative six and the doors whooshed open. This was the lowest floor, chiseled out of the solid rock and containing one very secure vault. The hallway was empty. The concrete floors echoed as I walked down them. The level command post was just around the corner. I needed to get past it to get to the vault room.
I slid along the cold wall. Even the desert heat couldn’t reach this deep into the Earth. I carefully took stock of the command room. I could see at least a half a dozen men through the glass doors, most of them standing, looking around nervously, waiting for Hassan to arrive.
I checked my watch. Six minutes. There was no way I was going to get past there without getting spotted. I pulled out the radio. “Need a distraction at the guard room.”
“I’m looking through the menus. Hang on.”
The clock was ticking. I was going to give him thirty more seconds, and then I would try to sneak past on my own. Knowing that I was probably going to get spotted, I pulled one of the pistols and checked the chamber. No time for thought, once you pick a course of action, you were committed, and you’d damn well better see it through.
“Got it.”
The guards shouted in confusion as the fire sprinklers came on. I was immediately drenched in the downpour. I moved quickly while they were either looking up or covering their heads. I ran, splashing down the hallway, and pushed my way through the heavy double doors at the end. Once again, I didn’t even have to swipe a card.
“Oh shit. I screwed up, chief.”
“What?” I stared at the mighty vault door. It was enormous, a circular stainless-steel ultra-modern monolith to security engineering. To a thief like me, it was the most intimidating thing I had ever seen. Multiple combination locks ringed the device, over a dozen giant bolts were compressed into the tempered steel at different angles. The fact that the sprinklers in here were dumping water everywhere made the scene slightly surreal. On the other side of that vault were the greatest treasures in the world, wealth beyond all comprehension.
But that wasn’t what I’d come for.
“That command turned on all the fire sprinklers in the palace. I’m watching the cameras. Everybody is freaking out!”
I continued down the hall. The carved stone became rougher and rougher and the passage started to trend sharply downward. I was now in the ancient tunnels that predated the construction of the palace. There were no sprinklers here, but their water flooded in a fast trail past my feet to disappear ahead of me.
“The IT guys know something is up,” Reaper exclaimed. “Hurry.”
They were ahead of schedule. Why was it that nothing ever went according to plan?
The tunnel opened into a larger room. A string of lights had been bolted into the ceiling. The room was perfectly square, every surface covered in carved writing. I didn’t recognize any of the words; everything was too archaic. There was a circular indentation on the floor. The room felt ancient.
And it should. This space had been carved over a thousand years ago by unknown hands. Discovered by Saladin’s armies, it had been used to house his most valuable possessions. Or so the Fat Man’s report had said. All I knew was that the thing I sought was under my feet.
There were only a handful of these keys still in existence, passed down from fathers to whoever was the best warrior among their sons for hundreds of years. Over time they had gained something of almost religious significance. It was prestigious to be the bearer of the key, even though the reasons had long since been lost to the sands of time. Eddie’s file had said the prince didn’t understand what he was sitting on, except that it was prestigious and therefore had to be hoarded.
I found the keyhole in the center of the floor, a bizarrely geometric shape, going straight down. Standing in the indentation, I took the key out. I had to turn the base slowly until the protruding spines lined up with the hole. I inserted it until it clicked into the lock. As I twisted the base back, there was a cold hiss of air around me and the stone under my feet began to shudder. Steps appeared one by one as the floor sank. I leapt back in surprise. I had expected a simple door or something, not an elaborate construction that seemed to work like oiled silk even though it was a millennium old.