Patricia whipped back around. What? What was he doing? He wasn’t really going to step out where the man could see him, was he?
She was about to go back to stop him, when she saw his shadow passing along the top of the container. Somehow he had climbed back up without her hearing him.
Now she understood what he was planning. He was going to get above the man and jump on him. That was actually a great idea. She should have thought of it herself.
Rodrigo noticed her through the opening in the wall, and waved for her to keep moving.
The rat hole. That’s where he wanted her to go.
She nodded, and moved into the corridor. As she reached the room where the rat hole was, she heard something in the distance that sounded like a spit or a slap. It happened twice in a row, and after a moment, a third time. But she didn’t have time to figure out what it was. She had to keep moving.
When she and Rodrigo were kids, they imagined the room had been used as an office by the factory’s owner. It was the only room in the building with an actual fireplace. The rat hole was in the corner of the same wall the stone fireplace was located. It wasn’t really a rat hole. It was a broken area near the bottom that, if she turned herself just right, she could squeeze through and slip inside the wall. She contorted her body into the position she’d used in the past, and hoped she was still skinny enough to fit.
She was. Just barely.
She shimmied to her left, toward the fireplace. There was a wide spot there, an open space behind the stones of the facade and mantel. As soon as she reached it, she crouched down and began to pray.
Perez eyed the man who said he was a cop. Were there others coming? He doubted it, but he needed to know for sure, and the only way to do that was to force the man to tell the truth.
Perez heard a low creak come from the IDM container, but pretended he hadn’t noticed. To try and surprise him from above was an obvious ploy. Inside he was smiling. Assistance, however unwitting, with his information problem was about to drop into his lap.
“Perhaps we should both walk away,” the maybe-cop said.
“Perhaps we should,” Perez agreed. “What do we call this? A misunderstanding?”
“I’d be willing to do that.”
Perez smiled. “I bet you would.”
In the silence that followed, Perez focused on the container. First there was a hint of a scrape, then a breath.
“So,” the man asked. “Do we have a deal?”
No further sounds now, but Perez could sense the person looking at him. Though he couldn’t know for sure, it was safer to assume it was the young man and not the girl.
“I think I’ve reconsidered,” Perez replied.
The other man was doing everything he could not to look at the container. “A mistake is all this is. Walking away is not a bad thing.”
Any second now. Any-
As soon as he sensed the man above him start to jump, Perez moved toward the IDM. The jumper-he was right, it was the man-arced over him, missing him by half a foot at most. He tried to grab Perez as he went by, but his outward trajectory was having none of it. When his feet hit the ground, he turned to take on Perez, but instead got a face full of pistol grip. Down he went, nose bloody, eyes rolling back.
“No!” the older man yelled, taking a step forward.
Before he could take another, Perez aimed his gun at the guy on the floor, really more of a teenager than an adult. The older man halted, getting the message.
“Now, who knows you’re here?”
The guy stared at him for a moment, clearly running through options in his mind, but Perez knew he’d eventually realize he had only one.
“No one,” the man said. “I haven’t called anyone yet.”
“So no colleagues on the way?”
Looking defeated, the man shook his head.
“What about family?”
“No. I’ve been at work all day. Haven’t talked to anyone. Please, just let them go. They’re just kids.”
Perez remained silent, considering what the man had told him. After several seconds, he decided the guy was telling the truth.
“What I don’t think you understand,” he said, “is that the greater evil would be to let them go. What I can give them now, give you now, will save you a lot of pain later.”
“What are you talking about? Please, harming us isn’t necessary.”
“Fine. If that’s what you want. I will let them go.”
Perez was waiting for it, that look of relief he knew would pass through the man’s face. As soon as it did, Perez pulled his trigger twice, each bullet piercing the man’s forehead. The guy dropped to the ground, dead before gravity even took hold.
In Perez’s mind, what he’d done was humane. The man died thinking his two friends would be allowed to live. It was a small gesture, but a thoughtful one as far as Perez was concerned.
He turned his pistol to the kid on the floor, and put a single shot between his eyes.
With a sigh, he checked the older man for ID, wanting to know if he’d been lying about being a cop. Sadly, no. He’d told the truth. That meant it was all the more important to locate any car the man might have arrived in and have it moved.
That was second priority at the moment, though. The girl was number one.
Perez headed around the container and out of the room. Unfortunately, despite the condition of the building, the floor did not readily show prints. He glanced back at the room where the hole in the cabinet came out. Contrary to what he’d said, he hadn’t blocked it.
Had she checked? Or was she somewhere else in the building?
His bet was that she was somewhere in the building, so he began a room-by-room search. What he found was…nothing.
For the first time, he felt angry. If she got away, she would surely bring others back. And if that happened, the IDM would be discovered, which might snowball to others being found, too.
How long before she might return? Minutes? Hours? A day?
No, not a day. At best, hours, but even that might be unrealistic.
There were contingency plans for situations such as this. The payload of this particular IDM would have to be destroyed immediately. Each of the devices was equipped with one of two different types of self-destruct mechanisms. This particular mechanism would superheat the interior to the point where the metal of the box itself would melt, and there would be nothing left for anyone to know what was inside. Perez preferred the boxes that simply exploded, but this would do.
He returned to the box, used the master combination to open one of the side doors, then engaged the self-destruct. To give himself enough time to get away, he set it on a ten-minute delay. If the girl and whoever she brought arrived before then, too bad. They’d be consumed by the blaze. If not, then there’d be nothing left to prove her story. Even the bodies of the two men would be gone.
Ten minutes. That would be more than enough.
Patricia heard the board in the floor creak in the room just on the other side of the wall. She stopped breathing, afraid that even a slight sound might be enough to give her position away. If it had been Rodrigo, he would have called out her name, but whoever it was hadn’t said a word.
Another creak, this one closer to the wall.
He’s going to see the rat hole. He’s going to see the rat hole and know I went through it.
She could hear him approach the hole. In her mind’s eye, she saw him kneeling down, examining the opening, sticking his head in just enough so that he could look down the inside of the wall to her hiding spot behind the fireplace. She was so sure that was exactly what was going to happen, she at first refused to believe her ears when the sound of the floorboards grew fainter and fainter.
Not only did he not look through the hole, he wasn’t even in the room anymore. The breath she’d been holding rushed out of her lungs.