I didn’t hesitate. I walked directly up to Aslan’s door, glanced quickly down at the lock’s keyway, finally raised my head and let my fingers go to work. Fumbling just a bit, I slipped the tension bar into the bottom of the keyhole before applying torque. The snap gun’s blade followed, sliding in above the bar.
When I pulled the trigger, the blade shot up into the lower pins. Whatever noise it made was obliterated by rain and wind. But the lock stayed locked.
I pulled the trigger again, then again, then again, waiting for a slight release in the tension to indicate that the upper pins were trapped above the shear line. But there was no release and I had to fight the instinct to grab for my gun when a car turned onto the block. The car’s lights swept over my body as it approached, casting an elongated shadow across the face of the building, a shadow that steadily retreated, then disappeared as the vehicle passed me.
Despite my best intentions, I found myself holding my breath. Maybe Aslan coming home while I was standing in front of his door with my back turned was a long shot, but it was far from impossible. Meanwhile, the car didn’t slow down until it reached the stop sign at the end of the block. A moment later it was gone.
The pins lined up and the bolt retracted on my twelfth attempt. By that time, my legs were soaked, from mid-shin to ankle, and rainwater was streaming from my coat. I pushed the door open, stepped inside, glimpsing a narrow flight of stairs before closing the door and plunging the space into utter darkness.
I felt instantly reassured. Stairway, hall and door were windowless — Aslan would step into the same darkness (assuming he wasn’t asleep in his bed) when he returned to his apartment. If I positioned myself halfway up the stairs, I’d have him in my sights before he knew I was there. That was important because my raincoat was dripping water onto the linoleum floor and every step I took on those stairs would leave a puddle behind.
I retrieved my flashlight and flicked it on. About the size of a cigar, the flashlight was set to cast a very narrow beam. I ran that beam over the wall to my left, discovering a light switch. Good news. Aslan would reach for the switch with his left hand, while closing the door behind him with his right. The sequence would be automatic, leaving both hands far from any weapon he might have on his person.
It was a nice fantasy. Aslan opening the door, the light coming on to reveal Harry Corbin sitting on the stairs. I could even picture myself, coat open, weapon in hand, smiling my brightest gunslinger smile when I pressed that first button: ‘Yo, Aslan, what’s happenin’? I thought you’d never come home.’
I flicked the light switch, but nothing happened, hall and stairs remained as dark as ever. I was about to throw the switch a second time, then checked myself as I remembered Zashka’s warning; Aslan would kill me if he got the chance. Then I recalled something else she’d said. Faced with a mini-revolt, Aslan had once threatened to blow up the Eagle Street Warehouse with everyone in it. At the time, he’d also claimed the expertise to bring it off.
Surely, replacing the bulb at the head of those stairs, if it blew out on its own, would be one of those household chores that gets taken care of right away. Otherwise, you’d have to climb the stairs and find the lock with your key in total darkness. I widened the beam on the flashlight, examined the area at my feet, finally began to move forward. When I got to the stairs, I dropped to my knees before I began to climb. I was looking for a trip wire, or an electronic sensor that would mark my passing, perhaps set off an alarm, or something far worse. I didn’t find anything like that, just a series of painted wooden steps that rose to a landing barely wider than the door it fronted. Nevertheless, I checked the door carefully before turning my attention to the light fixture on the ceiling above my head. I could see the outline of a bulb through the frosted glass, but that didn’t tell me what I needed to know.
Rising onto my toes, I was just able to reach the light, to unscrew the pins holding the globe in place, to finally expose a single bulb. Gingerly, I took the bulb between my fingers and gave it a slight twist. It was loose in the socket, but I didn’t test it by screwing it down. Instead, I removed the bulb, then examined the filament, positioning the flashlight behind the bulb to maximize the contrast. The filament was perfectly intact and there was no carbon build-up on either pole.
I dropped the bulb into my pocket, next to the snap gun and the tension bar, then closed up the overhead fixture before turning to the door. By then, my brain was rocking along. Aslan’s home country was the place where booby-traps were perfected, especially as they applied to urban guerrilla warfare. According to the Russians, explosive devices of one kind or another were found in every third building when they re-took Grozny, along with a host of lesser goodies, like ceilings and floors rigged to collapse, and light bulbs filled with gasoline.
I sat down on the landing, my legs on the stairs, facing the door at the bottom of the steps. A little voice in my head was insisting that I stay the hell out of Aslan’s apartment. Do it just the way you said, this voice insisted. Wait for him on the stairs. Take him down the minute he steps through the door.
But there was another voice, too, a nasty little voice that whispered, Aslan killed your son. Over and over and over again.
Of one thing I was certain. The loose bulb was not some sort of trigger mechanism. Not unless Aslan had imagined me clever enough to check the bulb out, then stupid enough to screw it back down. There had to be another reason.
I sat there, in total darkness, until I thought I knew that reason. Then I got to work.
I wasn’t surprised to find the door unlocked, though I admit to a flash of bladder-clenching fear when the hinges squealed as it swung away from me. I was at the back of a long room, facing a narrow table set against a wall fifteen feet away. Light streamed into the apartment through a pair of windows and the room seemed well lit compared to the hallway. There was enough light, for instance, for me to pick out a shadow beneath the table, a shadow mounted flush to the wall. I could even see little pinpricks of light, so faint I might have imagined them, within the shadow.
But I wasn’t imagining the wires running from a light switch to my left, down to the floor, then out along the wall in both directions. To Aslan, the sequence must have seemed obvious. You climb those stairs in the dark, the first thing you’ll do, when you finally get into his apartment, is grope for that switch. The light at this end of the room, furthest from the windows in front, was extremely dim. It had to be, otherwise the shadow between the legs of the table would be revealed for the pound or so of plastic explosive it actually was. And that would ruin all the fun.
I leaned through the doorway and looked around. The space was large, easily fifteen-by-thirty, and sparsely furnished. The Chechen flag caught my eye first, just to the right of the rain-spattered windows. I couldn’t see the wolf’s eyes — the walls to either side of the window were in deep shadow — but I knew his gaze was as mean spirited as ever.
A worn leather sofa, an end table supporting a painted ceramic lamp, a small TV set on a rolling stand, and a coffee table littered with newspapers and DVDs were clustered before the windows. Along the near wall midway between where I stood and the windows, an open notebook computer, along with a stack of floppy disks and a small printer, rested on a metal desk.
Facing the desk, an L-shaped serving bar partitioned off a small kitchen, its metal sink piled with unwashed dishes. A pair of doors to my right led to interior rooms. The room closest to me was the bedroom, the one I’d looked through when I climbed the drainpipe. The second room was undoubtedly the bathroom.
I registered each of these items carefully, in search of anything out of order. When I was satisfied, I squatted down to examine the open spaces between the furnishings. I was looking for trip wires and the light was very dim, especially along the walls. But I kept at it, until I was sure I could enter the apartment without blowing myself all the way back to Manhattan. Then I stepped inside and took another survey, this one limited to the explosives, mounted six feet apart and six inches off the ground, on all four walls.