Page 70 of No Safe Place

“The ’80s is going back a while,” I said. “Isn’t it possible that it’s gone now?”

“We would’ve heard about something like that. Not much changes around here. Just look at this place. They’ve hardly touched it.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’m convinced. My pickup is parked near the museum building so when we go through the tunnel, I grab my truck and we all pile in and make a run for it.

“I thought we could hold them off here because it’s like a castle but that cherry picker is a game changer. Changes the entire terrain, so we need new tactics.”

I went to the window as I heard the rumble of the machine again.

“But we have to time it right.”

“How so?” said Mathias.

“We have to have them come at us first. They have to think we’re still in here hiding. Have to keep them busy here while we skedaddle or it won’t work.”

61

Shaw, in the war room going over the siege plan with Don and Doug, fished out his SAT phone that was going off.

He blinked at the caller ID.

Shahu, it said.

Shahu?

Shaw quickly took off down the corridor.

Because it wasn’t Shahu.

It was the targets who were inside the factory building who had taken Shahu’s phone.

“Who is this?” he said.

He walked outside and headed down the loading dock.

“I need to talk to who’s in charge,” said a woman.

He jogged out to the street to stare at the old brick factory.

“I’m in charge,” Shaw said. “My name is Special Agent Thompson of the FBI. Who am I speaking with?”

“Special agent, my ass,” the woman said. “Who are you trying to kid? I watched my friend Big Joe get gunned down in cold blood then taken away like a bag of garbage. Cops or FBI agents don’t do that.”

“Who am I speaking with?”

“Me? You can call me J Lo. What do you want, anyway? Why did you come here?” she said.

“You seem pretty sharp, J Lo. You tell me what we want.”

“You’re looking for a woman, right? The college president’s wife?”

This broad really was sharp.

“Maybe,” Shaw said.

“I knew it,” J Lo said. “I’ve been to games at the school, seen ol Jodi, the Martha Stewart clone, with a stick up her ass and her nose in the air waving down from the VIP section like Lady Godiva. She comes in with some broad from New York all upset and they leave and come back and the lights go out. Figured it wasn’t a coincidence the way those things added up.”

“Keep talking,” Shaw said.

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