Heidi saw a new level of dedication. Of course, that was the reason these guys were the best. And that the CIA was now using them.
“Still nothing from Bodie?” she said, changing the subject.
“Alone, I’d be worried. But the man’s with Cassidy.” Cross shook his head. “I doubt there’s a single situation on earth that girl couldn’t handle.”
They were slipping quietly along a corridor, confident that the cameras were looped out to play an empty scene supplied by Gunn. The young computer expert kept a constant watch on his feed and plotted the paths and stations of all the guards.
“Wait,” he said, holding a finger to his lips.
A shadow passed the end of the corridor, not stopping.
He waved them on. Heidi would have preferred a bit more warning but assumed the kid knew what he was up to. She concentrated on the job at hand, taking Jemma’s advice literally in an effort to quell the distracting voices in her head. Distractions would get them caught, or killed.
The stairs were unmanned and went straight to the below-ground floor. Cross paused at the end as Gunn rechecked his systems.
“Interestingly,” he said, “when I rerun the loop and check the system, which I do as a precaution, I am seeing evidence of a similar loop implant…” He paused. “Maybe from an hour ago?”
“What does that mean?” Heidi asked.
“Simple,” Jemma said. “He’s found digital footprints. Somebody has been here before us.”
Heidi gritted her teeth. “You’re sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Somebody followed protocols similar to mine. Somebody well trained. If I weren’t this good, we’d never have known.”
Heidi ignored the bravado. “So, who’s that good?”
“A few,” Gunn admitted. “But it’s not exactly a cutting-edge system. From the list you gave us… the short list of interested parties? I’d say the Chinese. I’ve seen their work before on a couple of relic-hunting missions. This mirrors their MO perfectly. The way they bypass protocols. The redundancies they leave in their work. Hackers like me… they leave trails like fingerprints.”
Heidi thought it sounded plausible, given the Chinese’s competency and dedication to any mission, the time they had already had to reach Rio, and Gunn’s certainty, but there was nothing they could do about it now. “Are we still okay?”
“We’re good to go.”
“Surely they have more security in here,” Heidi whispered. “For the vault and the labs.”
“Trust me with this,” Gunn said. “It’s my job. Move out.”
Cross pushed open the door. Heidi tried not to cringe in expectation of sudden, whirring alarms. The place remained silent, eerily so. Part of the lab ahead was illuminated while other areas lay in darkness. A smattering of shadows played games with her imagination — the broken blinds in one window with the marble head behind them might have been one of Hell’s demons, waiting to pounce. The half-finished coat of armor in a far corner might have moved once… twice…
Cross craned his neck up at the camera mounted on a white-painted swivel, set into the place where the wall met the ceiling. “I see lenses twitching up there, bud.”
Gunn checked his tablet once more. “We’re in the clear, Eli.”
“Could someone else be watching?” Jemma asked shrewdly.
Gunn caught her meaning. “An enemy piggybacking on my signal? Interesting,” he mused.
While Heidi did not think it interesting in the least, she found herself enjoying how this team complemented each other. Their strengths were widespread, not singular; nobody could rely on just one person. Cross pushed ahead as Gunn mulled over the situation. Together, they approached the room where the newfound statues should be kept.
It was dark, but the light shining from other windows was enough to illuminate that which they sought. Inside the lab stood a long bench-like table, and resting on its waist-high top were five statues. Heidi almost pressed her nose to the glass, so intent was she on getting a closer look.
Then Cross picked the lock.
“Shall we?”
They moved quickly inside, Jemma taking pictures with Heidi’s phone, as they’d agreed. Gunn shifted to the corner of the room, still thinking. Cross took out a flashlight and studied the statues more closely.
Standing less than a foot tall, they were bronzed figurines. Baal had been called the King of the Gods, also known as Yahweh and Beelzebub, and was one of the ancient Phoenicians’ greatest gods. Heidi saw them as small, decorative objects, potentially nondescript and unappealing, influenced probably by the artist’s neighboring countries or regions — Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Aegean Islands. To the untrained eye the figurines would be hard to distinguish from other cultures — crude, wearing a conical hat, and with one arm raised.
“You see the patterns there and there.” Heidi pointed them out to Cross, indicating the gold leaf around the hat and body. “You see the feet? The carving? I need pictures of that for comparison.”
Jemma took the photos.
Gunn spoke from the corner of the room. “I think we need to go.”
“Why?” Heidi asked. “Problem?”
“We’re all good, but there’s definitely another signal in the vicinity. I can’t pin it down.”
Jemma looked over. “Really, nerd?”
“I’m by no means the best when working in these conditions, and this tablet’s not powerful enough,” he said. “Really! There just isn’t enough processing power to isolate a signal. It’s a lightweight.”
“We talking about the tablet, or you?”
“Piss off.”
By now, Heidi had all she needed. To her mind, the decision was already made. The evidence was standing right there before her eyes. But care had to be taken and the chain had to be followed. “We can go,” she said.
“Are they of the same provenance?” Cross sidled up close. “I only ask ’cause it’s kinda important to the mission that these statues were made by the same person.”
Heidi hid her exultation, trying to maintain a professional face. “You’re quite right, my friend, but we will leave that to the scientists.”
“I’ve seen the photos of the Azores statues,” he said, moving out of the door before her. “And I’ve just seen these with my own eyes. If I’m not mistaken, they’re very much the same, Heidi.”
She grinned. “I know. But we don’t want to get carried away.”
“Yeah,” Cross agreed with a sigh. “Don’t wanna lose the edge, I guess. So Gunn? Same way out?”
“We’re clear,” Gunn replied. “I could leave the loop on all night and they’d never know anything different. It’s what they expect. Just got to watch out for the random patrol.”
Up the stairs and back to the window they crossed paths with only one guard. He paused briefly as if hearing something and peered down the darkened corridor in their direction. After a few minutes he moved off, and they waited another ten. With that, they left the museum the same way that they’d entered.
On the ground, in the bushes, they crouched.
“You hear that?” Cross asked, listening.
Jemma scrunched her face up. “Shit.”
Gunn tore his gaze away from the dimly lit screen he held. “Do not say my first op is about to go pear-shaped.”
“I believe I know that sound,” Heidi said. “I’ve heard it too many times before. What do you think, Eli?”
“Feet,” Cross said with an unhappy shrug of the shoulders. “Lots of feet. That is the sound of several people running toward us.”
“Bollocks,” Gunn hissed. “I bet you wish we had Cassidy here now.”
Cross didn’t reply, but the expression on his face was enough to show he agreed with the computer geek.