"Send coffee down to the target room, please," Roarke ordered as he led Eve up the stairs.
He was holding her hand again, but Eve decided it was less a sentimental gesture than one to make sure she didn't balk. She could have told him she was much too intrigued to go anywhere, but found she enjoyed that ripple of annoyance under his smooth manner.
When they'd reached the third floor, he went through his collection briskly, choosing weapons without fuss or hesitation. He handled the antiques with the competence of experience and, she thought, habitual use.
Not a man who simply bought to own, but one who made use of his possessions. She wondered if he knew that counted against him. Or if he cared.
Once his choices were secured in a leather case, he moved to a wall.
Both the security console and the door itself were so cleverly hidden in a painting of a forest, she would never have found it. The trompe l'oeil slid open to an elevator.
"This car only opens to a select number of rooms," he explained as Eve stepped into the elevator with him. "I rarely take guests down to the target area."
"Why?"
"My collection, and the use of it, are reserved for those who can appreciate it."
"How much do you buy through the black market?"
"Always a cop." He flashed that grin at her, and she was sure, tucked his tongue in his cheek. "I buy only through legal sources, naturally." His eyes skimmed down to her shoulder bag. "As long as you've got your recorder on."
She couldn't help but smile back. Of course she had her recorder on. And of course he knew it. It was a measure of her interest that she opened the bag, took out her recorder, and manually disengaged.
"And your backup?" he said smoothly.
"You're too smart for your own good." Willing to take the chance, she slipped a hand into her pocket. The backup unit was nearly paper thin. She used a thumbnail to deactivate it. "What about yours?" She glanced around the elevator as the doors opened. "You'd have video and audio security in every corner of this place."
"Of course." He took her hand again and drew her out of the car.
The room was high ceilinged, surprisingly spartan given Roarke's love of comfort. The lights switched on the moment they stepped in, illuminating plain, sand colored walls, a bank of simple high-backed chairs, and tables where a tray holding a silver coffeepot and china cups had already been set.
Ignoring them, Eve walked over to a long, glossy black console. "What does it do?"
"A number of things." Roarke set the case he carried down on a flat area. He pressed his palm to an identiscreen. There was a soft green glow beneath it as his print was read and accepted, then lights and dials glowed on.
"I keep a supply of ammunition here." He pressed a series of buttons. A cabinet in the base of the console slid open. "You'll want these." From a second cabinet, he took earplugs and safety glasses.
"This is, what, like a hobby?" Eve asked as she adjusted the glasses. The small, clear lenses cupped her eyes, the attached earplugs fit snugly.
"Yes. Like a hobby."
His voice came with a faint echo through her ear protectors, linking them, closing out the rest. He chose the.38, loaded it.
"This was standard police issue in the mid-twentieth century. Toward the second millennium, nine millimeters were preferred."
"The RS-fifties were the official weapon of choice during the Urban Revolt and into the third decade of the twenty-first century."
He lifted a brow, pleased. "You've been doing your homework."
"Damn right." She glanced at the weapon in his hand. "Into the mind of a killer."
"Then you'd be aware that the hand laser you have strapped to your side didn't gain popular acceptance until about twenty-five years ago."
She watched with a slight frown as he slapped the cylinder shut. "The NS laser, with modifications, has been standard police issue since 2023. I didn't notice any lasers in your collection."
His eyes met hers, and there was a laugh in them. "Cop toys only. They're illegal, lieutenant, even for collectors." He pressed a button. Against the far wall a hologram flashed, so lifelike that Eve blinked and braced before she caught herself.
"Excellent image," she murmured, studying the big, bull-shouldered man holding a weapon she couldn't quite identify.
"He's a replica of a typical twentieth-century thug. That's an AK-forty-seven he's holding."
"Right." She narrowed her eyes at it. It was more dramatic than in the photos and videos she'd studied. "Very popular with urban gangs and drug dealers of the era."
"An assault weapon," Roarke murmured. "Fashioned to kill. Once I activate, if he hits target, you'd feel a slight jolt. Low level electrical shock, rather than the much more dramatic insult of a bullet. Want to try it?"
"You go first."
"Fine." Roarke activated. The hologram lunged forward, swinging up his weapon. The sound effects kicked in instantly.
The thunder of noise had Eve jerking back a step. Snarled obscenities, street sounds, the terrifyingly rapid explosion of gunfire.
She watched, slack jawed, as the image spurted what looked entirely too much like blood. The wide chest seemed to erupt with it as the man flew back. The weapon spiraled out of his hand. Then both vanished.
"Jesus."
A little surprised that he'd been showing off, like a kid at an arcade, Roarke lowered his weapon. "It hardly makes the point of what something like this can do to flesh and bone if the image isn't realistic."
"Guess not." She had to swallow. "Did he hit you?"
"Not that time. Of course, one on one, and when you can fully anticipate your opponent, doesn't make it very difficult to win your round."
Roarke pushed more buttons, and the dead gunman was back, whole and ready to rock. Roarke took his stance with the ease and automation, Eve thought, of a veteran cop. Or, to borrow his word, a thug.
Abruptly, the image lunged, and as Roarke fired, other holograms appeared in rapid succession. A man with some sort of wicked looking handgun, a snarling woman aiming a long barreled weapon – a.44 Magnum, Eve decided – a small, terrified child carrying a ball.
They flashed and fired, cursed, screamed, bled. When it was over, the child was sitting on the ground weeping, all alone.
"A random choice like that's more difficult," Roarke told her. "Caught my shoulder."
"What?" Eve blinked, focused on him again. "Your shoulder."
He grinned at her. "Don't worry, darling. It's just a flesh wound."
Her heart was thudding in her ears, no matter how ridiculous she told herself was her reaction. "Hell of a toy, Roarke. Real fun and games time. Do you play often?"
"Now and again. Ready to try it?"
If she could handle a session with VR, Eve decided, she could handle this. "Yeah, run another random pattern."
"That's what I admire about you, lieutenant." Roarke selected ammo, loaded fresh. "You jump right in. Let's try a dry run first."
He brought up a simple target, circles and a bull's-eye. He stepped behind her, putting the.38 in her hands, his over them. He pressed his cheek to hers. "You have to sight it, as it doesn't sense heat and movement as your weapon does." He adjusted her arms until he was satisfied. "When you're ready to fire, you want to squeeze the trigger, not pump it. It's going to jerk a bit. It's not as smooth or as silent as your laser."
"I've got that," she muttered. It was foolish to be susceptible to his hands over hers, the press of his body, the smell of him. "You're crowding me."
He turned his head, just enough to have his lips brushing up to her earlobe. It was innocently unpierced, rather sweet, like a child's.
"I know. You need to brace yourself more than you're used to. Your reaction will be to flinch. Don't."