Drake had to admit that Doukas’ plan was bordering on foolproof, but he was furious with the old man. Time was passing and they’d already put their lives on the line. Now they were being told the chain was hidden inside some old police station?
“Is it still active?” Alicia asked.
“Yes, yes, I’m afraid so. Though not terribly.”
“Not terribly? What does that mean?”
Alicia gazed over at Drake. The Yorkshireman stood up and kicked the overgrown grass at the base of the bench. “Does anyone else know?”
He expected a negative reply and received one.
“On the one hand it doesn’t sound like a hard target,” Alicia said. “But on the other, what’s our response if the cops resist?”
Drake stared with sad eyes into the graying skies. “The response will be as light as can be,” he said. “But we have to get that chain and it has to be tonight. Tempest could be scouring this entire town right now with a GPR like ours. We have no time.”
Kenzie squinted then. “Hey, why did our GPR think the chain in the museum was real?” she asked.
Drake shook his head at Doukas. “I have an idea about that,” he said. “Why don’t you tell them, mate?”
“I scraped flecks from the chain,” he admitted. “Added some paint scrapings, coal and water. Made a good paste. You see, I still wanted the chain. Couldn’t help myself. So I kept a small portion of the links.”
“Weirdo,” Kenzie glowered at him.
Drake called in Mai and Luther and then told them the bad news. The team gathered to make a plan.
“A shame we don’t have Yorgi,” Drake said. “The kid makes a fine cat burglar.”
“He was a cat burglar,” Alicia said, “who got caught.”
“Not through his profession,” Drake said. “That was something else.”
“Yes, I know. Family. He should go back there.”
“I could do the job,” Kenzie said. “I’ve carried out similar operations before. But I’d feel safer with someone like Dahl at my back.”
“That’s a much different operation,” Alicia said bluntly. “It’s called doggy-style. Let the grown-ups talk, bitch.”
“I do love a cat fight.” Luther looked between the two of them. “You two ever get it on?”
“Once or twice,” Alicia responded. “Almost as many times as your girlfriend and I.”
“My girl…” Luther raised a hand. “Now, whoa. I’m not part of your little life-experiment and never plan to be. I have a job, a calling, and as soon as this Tempest mess is sorted out I’ll be getting right back to it.”
Mai didn’t look happy. Alicia saw it but decided to let it go. There were too many broken hearts already in this team. Kenzie moved next to Drake.
“Do you want me to do it?”
“Not on your own, Kenzie. You shouldn’t have to take on that kind of risk. We’ll all go in together, including Doukas here. Let me tell you this, mate, if you’re still lying I’ll put you in one of those overnight cells, straight through the goddamn bars.”
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“Move out and prep,” he said. “We go in just after midnight.”
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
With no easy choices, they chose the most direct of several problematic ones. A disturbance on the other side of town would draw away the bulk of the night force and, before searching for the chain, they needed to obtain some Tasers. Luther was sent to devise a disturbance.
Everyone else headed for the police station.
Drake stood in the darkest shadows, silent, cold as midnight passed. At this rate we’re gonna have to storm the bloody place.
It had already been a long delay, just waiting for an opportunity. At first they had found good fortune — a patch of greenery lay within sight of the police station’s rear gates. They were able to scope out approximate numbers, coming and goings, even civilian activity. Luther’s distraction was due any minute.
Alicia stretched. “I’m bored.”
“But you’re still luckier than us,” Kenzie told her. “Because we’re forced to look at you.”
“Oh, you wound me.” Alicia gripped her heart and doubled over.
“Not yet,” Kenzie murmured, turning away.
Mai watched them and then shook her head. “Please someone, hand me a Taser.”
Drake counted down the seconds, watching the silent Doukas. Luther’s distraction should have happened minutes ago, but with no active comms they were ignorant for now. Luther would probably be too busy to contact them by cellphone. Drake saw a police van leaving the police station, light blazing across their patch of land as it turned into the road. The team hunkered down behind old tree trunks and a thick hedge, hidden on all sides. Darkness set in again, leaving the team to twiddle their thumbs.
“Wait,” Mai said. “That sounds promising.”
The Japanese woman’s hearing was as acute as it could get. Drake heard the noise a few seconds later — the sound of a van approaching.
Alicia saw it first. “We’re on.”
They broke cover, walking briskly and as unobtrusively as possible toward the rear gates of the police station. As the white transit van approached, they slipped out of sight behind the pillars that anchored the gates on each side.
A low buzzing noise signaled the gates being opened by remote control. Drake waited for the van to drive in, bouncing down a ramp into the station, and then slipped around the slowly closing gates, following it down a slope. Alicia and Mai were right behind him, backed by Kenzie. Quickly, they dispersed into the accumulated darkness between parked vehicles and hoped the man studying the CCTV images covering this quiet, small, out-of-the-way police station had missed those last few seconds.
“Silence is golden,” Mai said. “Let’s go.”
At that moment the van came back, followed by two police cars. The gates grated apart and both vehicles raced out. Drake nodded happily.
“That’ll be Luther.”
“Perfect.”
Breaking cover, Drake found himself praying for luck and moved toward the rear doors of the police station. An unusual sentiment when starting a mission, but this undertaking was entirely different. Very little needed to go wrong to turn it into an absolute disaster.
The building had two rear doors — the first a single opening which Drake assumed led to a cage that held a small number of people, and a second with sliding double doors. A well-placed explosive charge shattered the doors, enabling them to crow-bar the frames apart. Mai slipped in first.
The desk sergeant crawled around the side of his wooden counter where he’d fallen, gun in hand. The man’s hand trembled and his eyes were wide. Mai rolled, took cover behind the desk and then jumped silently up onto it. She watched the sergeant crawling beneath her, picked her moment and then dropped down onto his back. With a twist she disarmed him, pocketed the gun and unhooked his Taser.
“Done,” she said aloud, rendering him inert before zip-tying his hands and legs.
“Masks.” Drake slipped his own across his face, before any CCTV could spot them.
A second policeman came into the room, an enquiring expression on his face. The blast had been deliberately quiet, just powerful enough to crack the glass and sound like a hundred different things. By the time this man realized intruders were breaking in, Mai had spun back across the deck, pinned his upper body between her legs and flipped him onto his back. Before he even caught his breath, she’d zip-tied and gagged him.