“One block,” Dante counted down. Then, several seconds later, “I’m about to pull up to the curb. There’s one guy stationed by the door, and I see another sitting at the security kiosk.”
The Chairman’s private entrance was located at the back of the building, far from the public entrance and the historic art deco lobby. If the Chairman were inside, the security presence would be more substantial and visible, although even if the entrance were unmanned, the place was the next best thing to impenetrable. It would take a rocket launcher to get through the high-tech glass doors—unless you were the Chairman Heir and had access rights.
“Are you ready?” Nate asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Nadia answered.
“Yeah. Me too.”
The car slowed, and Nadia helped Nate pull the sheet off them so they wouldn’t get tangled up in it when they tried to get out. It was still dark, but the streetlights were momentarily blinding, and Nadia had to blink a few times to clear her vision.
Then the car came to a complete stop, and Nate sprang up from the floor and opened the door.
Nate might have found the look of shock on the security guard’s face funny if his heart weren’t beating from somewhere in the vicinity of his throat. Behind him, he heard Dante gun the engine of his stolen car. Nate didn’t want the guard to pay attention to the car or try to get its license plate, so he pulled his keys out of his pocket, making it obvious he planned to enter the building with or without any assistance. He’d never had to unlock the door before—he barely showed up during working hours, much less when the building was locked up—but he knew he needed the physical key before he could trigger the retinal scanner, the fingerprint scanner, and the voice-recognition software. He would probably have looked more authoritative if he actually knew which key it was instead of shuffling through them indecisively.
The guard, looking totally flummoxed, called something over his shoulder, alerting the guy at the kiosk that something was up. Between the two of them, they would eventually scrape up the nerve to try to detain him, but right now they were both too stunned. There were three keys on his ring that Nate couldn’t identify, but before he decided which one to try first, the guard opened the door for him. Either he was being habitually polite to the Chairman Heir, or he thought it would be easier to arrest him if he let him in.
The guy at the kiosk was on the phone when Nate stepped inside, Nadia close on his heels.
“I wish to speak to my father when he gets in,” Nate told the door guard, keeping his voice calm and easy, as if nothing out of the ordinary were going on. “I’ll just go on up and wait for him in his office.”
The guard blinked, still looking confused, but the confusion gave way to determination before Nate’s eyes. The guard’s hand started moving toward his gun, but Nate pulled his own out of his pocket first. He pointed it at the door guard while angling his body so that the guy at the kiosk wouldn’t be able to see.
“No one has to get hurt here,” Nate said. “All I want to do is talk to my father. If he wants me arrested after we’ve talked, then you’ll arrest me. But right now, you’re going to walk with me to the elevator and stay between me and your friend over there.” Nate jerked his chin toward the kiosk, where the second guard was just hanging up the phone.
Nate grabbed the door guard’s arm to make sure he didn’t bolt, and Nadia relieved him of his sidearm. The second guard was leaving the kiosk, reaching for his own gun as he came toward them.
“Let’s go,” Nate said, putting his gun to the door guard’s head and jerking him toward the elevators. “And tell your friend to back off and put his gun down.”
“Give it up, Mr. Hayes,” the other guard said. He had his gun drawn, but wasn’t pointing it yet. Nate suspected the man didn’t much like the idea of pointing a gun at the Chairman Heir, wanted man or not. “There’s no way out of this.”
Nate laughed, hoping he sounded confident instead of scared. “In case you didn’t notice, I’m trying to get in, not out.” Being very careful to keep his hostage between himself and the other guard, Nate started moving toward the elevator, Nadia right behind him. “Like I told your buddy here, all I’m going to do is go up to my father’s office and wait for him. You can apprehend me afterward.”
“That’s not the way it works, son,” the other guard said, his gun finally coming up and pointing in their direction. If worse came to worst, Nate could use the door guard as a human shield, but he really hoped it wouldn’t come to that. “Put the gun down and put your hands up.”
They had reached the bank of elevators, and Nadia hit the call button. “We’re both armed, officer,” she said, holding up the massive gun she’d taken from the door guard’s holster. “And believe me, after all the crap we’ve been through, we’re both dangerous, too. Just stay back and let us go up to the Chairman’s office. As you said, we’re not getting out of here. No reason to start a shoot-out when you’ve got us surrounded.”
A couple of other security guards had emerged from other parts of the building, and Nate heard the sound of sirens approaching. It was definitely time to hurry the hell up.
The elevator dinged. Out of the corner of his eye, Nate saw Nadia turn and point the gun toward the car as the doors opened. Which was a good thing, because there were two guards inside, ready to charge out at them.
“Hold your breath, Nate,” Nadia said.
There was a hissing sound that could only be her little can of knockout gas being discharged, and then the thump of two bodies hitting the elevator floor. Nadia walked into the elevator, gingerly stepping over the limp guards, and held the door for him as he backed in. She disarmed the unconscious men, then took Nate’s keys from his pocket and inserted the appropriate one in the elevator’s control panel. Nate told her his clearance code, which she entered into the keypad, and the doors began to slide closed. Nate considered shoving the door guard out, but decided to keep his human shield instead.
The elevator rose with stomach-rolling speed. Nate wanted to take a deep breath to help calm his nerves, but the faint medicinal scent in the car suggested there might still be enough knockout gas in the air to make a deep breath inadvisable. His ears popped hard enough to hurt, and within seconds the doors opened onto the building’s top floor.
During business hours, there would be at least three security guards in the reception area alone, but not now, before dawn. Nate stepped aside so that Nadia could get out of the elevator first, holding her gun at the ready as if she were well trained in the art of using it. Which, of course, she wasn’t, but Dante had given them both pointers on how to project an aura of competence.
Nate backed out of the car, still dragging the door guard with him. Just as the doors started to close, Nate gave the guard a hard shove back into the car. Nadia sprayed another dose of knockout gas for good measure, and by the time the car started back down, there were three unconscious guards on its floor.
Nate finally took the deep breath he’d been craving. “So far, so good,” he said, and Nadia smiled at him gamely.
“Now all we have to do is live through the hard part.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
The most secure location in the entire Paxco Headquarters Building was, naturally, the Chairman’s office. Nate let himself and Nadia in, then engaged its entire series of locks, meant only for emergencies. Two of those locks were good, old-fashioned dead bolts—locks that would still do their jobs in the event of a power outage.