Page 65 of The Devil's Conflict

“The code is an old bastardized version of an old code, but with a few different twists thrown in to make it someone’s personal code. Still, it’s close enough to ones I’ve dealt with on missions. But whoever made the other copy, they were damn good at making sure that some of the things they wrote were simple mistakes, or slightly different that an untrained eye wouldn’t even notice. When you compare, the numbers only shift enough to move the pin on the map a degree or two. At least on this page. I’m not sure if that’s the same for the rest, but I’d imagine they follow the same pattern. Someone went to a lot of trouble to throw people off the scent if they ever found a journal,” she warns. “And that also makes me think that whichever is the true location, it’s heavily guarded.”

“Son of a fucking bitch,” Bullet hisses furiously. “That would explain why we had such a hard time figuring out where Bull would go when he and his minion would hide. And why we have always been fighting to keep our streets clean. Who the fuck knows how long this has been going on.”

“I would say since Dagger moved here and Prospected,” King replies grimly. “And once he got everything figured out, andmade his plans, he sold the information to Dmitri and the other secret buyer.”

“You only decoded one page?” I ask Thea.

“Yes. But now that I know the cipher, I can probably do the rest without too much trouble.”

“We’ll talk about it when we get back,” Bullet decrees. “Thea, is there anything that would tell you which one is the decoy without looking at the original sheets now?”

She’s quiet for a moment as she ponders. “I would say the one you are standing in is the decoy,” she finally replies. “Cryos showed me an aerial view of where you’re at now, and while it’s hidden, it’s not in the thickest, or deepest part of the forest. Comparing the one you’re in and the other coordinates, the other is deeper into the trees. If you’re going to hide, that’s the one you want. If anyone looks around there, they see the cabin and figure that’s it. And he showed me basically the same thing on the other side. The cabin on the other side of town, one dot is closer to civilization than the other but only by two degrees or so.”

“We need to let the other guys know,” Stone decrees grimly.

“If they’re approaching a decoy house, then it probably won’t be as heavily guarded but there will be some just to keep people away. If they approach the correct spot, they need to watch themselves,” Thea warns. “I saw it too often that if they know you might be coming, they’ll put the majority of the rest of the guards on that one and then ambush you when you get too close since they have larger numbers.”

“Fuck,” Bullet curses. He moves away from the hole and I know he’s probably checking outside. King instantly heads to the hole, jumps up, and hauls himself out. Guess all those workouts are coming in handy.

I look around the room again. Stone takes the phone from my hand and asks Thea a couple more questions, trying tounderstand how this might work. I leave them to it as I look at the room again. Just like upstairs, everything looks smooth, cool, and simple. But there has to be more. Has to be something else.

I put my hand on the wall of the dirt, realizing that it’s reinforced with concrete. Makes sense that they would want it to just look like a cold room or storage spot but need it to be secure enough that it won’t collapse on itself and destroy their stash or expose it to wandering eyes. But then I clue in to something Thea is saying to Stone and go still.

“The other thing I saw a lot with these kinds of setups is that there is either a tunnel that connects the two of them, or there is a back, hidden entrance. And maybe that is something mentioned in these journals, but I can’t tell you. Or, maybe not if they didn’t want to risk anyone finding the link between them,” she explains.

I whip back around, looking at the wall in front of me, and then the floor. Could there be a hidden door or tunnel down here? Everything inside me is telling me it’s a damn good possibility, but there’s no clear evidence of one. I step back and stare at the room again, my mind spinning as my former training kicks in.

Are the walls different anywhere? Is there even a slight impression or jut out that I can’t see? Does the floor trajectory change in any of the spots?

Nothing stands out as I continue to look but the shadows from the low light aren’t helping. I turn and grab the flashlight I set aside on one of the boxes again, flicking it on and moving it along the walls and floors again.

“Oh, and one thing I always found was that if there is a hidden door or tunnel, you’re going to find it in the worst spot, but it will be surprisingly clean or have fake webs and the like. Something to make you think that they couldn’t have gone thatway or it would have looked too clean, too disturbed,” Thea adds. “Or they put it as close to the main door as possible so that you’re looking forward, not backward.”

I spin around, as does Stone, and I point the light to the wall right below the opening. And that’s when I see it. The very small, very slight, change in the wall, and the footprints that are hidden in the darkness where the light and shadows can’t reach from the light, disappearing as if into the wall. “Baby girl, I’m going to lighten that punishment,” I call out as I make my way over, with Stone right behind me.

I can almost sense that she’s rolling her eyes before she replies tensely, “Just be careful, because if they thought you might stumble on it, they might have rigged it to blow you to pieces.”

“Good thing we have all kinds of weapons down here to choose from just in case,” Stone remarks with a dark grin.

“Sniper?” Thea calls.

“Yes, Athena?” I reply absently as I get to work on trying to find the mechanism to open it.

“If you die after you convinced me to give your geriatric, but hot, ass a chance, I’m going to be very pissed at you,” she warns.

I can’t help but grin despite the old comment. “Then it’s a good thing I’m damn good at what I do, isn’t it?” I toss back. “You’re going to be stuck with me a long damn time, baby girl.” That’s when I feel it. The small hole in the wall, just big enough to get a finger in, and a small button inside. “Found it.” I turn to Stone. “Tell your father and brother I’m going in.”

“You’re not going in alone,” Stone argues.

“Are you trained to deal with people in small, tight spaces, in the complete dark?” I ask him calmly.

“No, but I know that I’m not leaving your ass with no back-up in case there are hidden doors or some weird shit in there and get your ass killed,” he snaps.

“I can always come and help,” Thea offers. “I was trained for this sort of thing.”

“No,” both Stone and I bark at her. Though I glare at him for daring to speak to my girl that way. He just holds my stare, unyielding.

I hear her mutter something about men being idiots and something about us only caring because we have dicks we want to swing around. My lips twitch at that, but I don’t answer. Instead, she sighs and says, “Fine.” Then I hear her moving.

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