Page 66 of Devil's Due

“Fine,” she repeated. “I’ll be okay. You go.”

He shook his head, clearly not believing her—smart man—and got out of the van. She climbed out of the passenger seat and into the murky dimness of the windowless back, where even someone staring in the window would have trouble spotting her. He nodded, locked up and sauntered toward a big industrial building that looked oddly lost in the cavernous open spaces. This was just so weird. She caught herself breathing too fast, and deliberately slowed down. Biofeedback. She’d survived traumas and tortures; she could survive a short visit underground.

Cole even walked like a working man—as if tired, in no particular hurry. He picked something overhead and traced it with a stare as he walked, clearly intent on his own business; he had some kind of handheld device in his grasp. She could hear the crunch of his work boots on rock as he walked to the back dock of the warehouse. It was labeled J&J Electroplating—Warehouse and Distribution Center. No trucks were lined up just now. Cole climbed the steps and opened an unmarked door. It closed behind him.

“Hey!” Not Cole’s voice, someone else’s. It came from the walkie-talkie she was holding. He’d already been challenged. “What are you doing in here?”

“You guys having trouble with the plugs?” Cole asked. “We have a fault report.”

“No, we don’t have trouble. Try someplace else.”

“You sure you don’t want me to check it out? You got a faulty plug, you could get a fire.” Cole knew just how to work it, she thought; he sounded conscientious but not concerned. The subtext was his body language—he’d be ready to move to the door, convincing the subject that he wasn’t at all eager to be on their property. “Hey, your call. I can write up the report, but buddy, your insurance company could nail your ass to the wall, you don’t check out a fault report.”

“Where you need to go?”

“In there.” Cole might be choosing at random, or he might have seen something. “Line goes right in, see? Up there?” He’d be pointing at something nobody could possibly see or understand. She suppressed a grin.Beautiful.

“Wait here.”

Footsteps faded away. Cole didn’t say anything, but she heard him moving around. It seemed like a long time, but as she watched the sweep of the second hand on her watch, she realized that he’d been inside only two minutes, going on three. Probably not enough time to—

“Hey, I told you to wait!” The voice was startlingly loud.

“Sorry, man, I’m just trying to do my job, here. I got to get through twelve buildings. You know how big this place is.”

“We checked it out. Everything’s fine.”

“Okay then. I’ll write it up. Anything goes wrong, though, you—”

“Yeah, insurance, whatever. We’re closing up.”

“Have a good one.”

Cole was on the move, heading for the door.

“Hang on a second,” said the other voice. “What’s your name?”

Lucia slid her gun from its holster and put her hand on the door handle.

“Frank. Frank Scarabelli. Here—here’s my ID, okay? I don’t want no trouble or nothing. I’m just—”

“Doing your job, yeah, we heard. Listen, hang out a second, okay? I’m gonna make a phone call.”

“Okay,” Cole said. He sounded thoroughly disgusted. “You guys get an electrical short, it’s no skin off my—”

She was out of the van, gun at her side, before he finished the sentence. Her knees felt weak, her whole body not quite in tune, but it served to get her across the exposed parking lot and behind one of the massive white limestone pillars. She sucked in two deep breaths, then finished the run to the warehouse dock. Up the six concrete steps to the flat staging area. The walk-in door was closed again. All but one of the garage doors were down. The one on the end was clanking shut.

I won’t make it, some part of her thought, but she didn’t allow that to stop her. It wasn’t a matter for thinking. She kicked off her shoes and crossed the distance in long runner’s strides, moving as silently as she could.

The door was clattering down. There were two feet of clearance left.

Lucia hit the concrete and rolled, tucking elbows and knees, and she felt hard steel and rubber grab her for a heart-stopping second. But then momentum won and she was inside. The door rattled irritably shut with a boom just an inch behind her.

She was panting and shaking, but there was no time for fear now. She was exposed. There were three men at the end of the hall, one smaller, two larger. Cole was the smaller. This end of the dock was in relative shadow, which was in her favor.

Should have called for backup, she thought, but she doubted that wireless signals would make it through the solid limestone roof. She’d need a land line, and by that time … by that time, she’d have gotten another friend killed.

She rolled up to her knee, gun trained steadily on the group at the far end of the hall, and then to her bare feet. The concrete felt ice-cold. She gained the concealment of a big industrial trash bin and risked another look to assess the situation. She was close enough to see faces now, and catch fragments of words.

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