Page 37 of Captured Pawn
“Yeah, well, I’m not used to standing around useless like this,” he snapped back.
I tuned him out, focusing on typing the changes into the iPad as quickly as I could. This time when I hitEnterto start the program running, I was even less confident than I had been the first time. I’d never worked on a system this complex.
A full two minutes of code flew by on the screen. I was worried that it was time to start opening more locks by hand again when I heard the click of a drawer unlocking.
“Holy shit, you’re a genius!”
Nick’s praise helped calm my jagged nerves slightly.
He’d rushed back to the bank of lockboxes, pulling open the one I’d opened just as another click could be heard. And another. The program was opening each compartment one by one.
Since I didn’t really know what we were looking for, I let Nick take the lead, opening each door as it was unlocked. It was behind the seventh door that he let out a joyful “Whoop! This is it!”
When he turned around, he held an old-fashioned portable metal lockbox in his hands. It was locked.
“This one I can handle,” he said excitedly, pulling out a small tool he used to jimmy the lock. Inside were folders filled with papers, a large envelope with dozens of old photographs, and three external hard drives. It honestly didn’t look like much at all and not for the first time I second guessed my choice to become a felon in order to retrieve something that felt so insignificant.
“Okay, then let’s go,” I said, suddenly anxious to get the hell out of there.
“Here, secure this in the backpack. I’ll shut all of these compartments. I’m sure they’ll figure out that we were here when the guards wake up, but I’d like to slow them down from figuring out what we took.”
As I secured our hard-earned treasures into my backpack, Nick let out a long whistle and I glanced up in time to see him pulling a see-through container out of the largest locker. From my vantage point it looked like thousands of packets of powder inside.
“What is it?” I asked.
“A stash of their fucking illegal drugs.”
“We didn’t come for that,” I said, anxious to leave.
“Well, sure, but it’s tempting to take these and destroy them.”
I admit, he’d surprised me. The Nick Knight I’d thought I knew wouldn’t give a shit about protecting kids from deadly drugs, especially if there was money to be made in selling them. In that moment, I acknowledged I didn’t know the real Nick any better than I’d apparently known my own brother.
“Fine, let’s take it, but we need to go,” I urged.
We rushed to get the rest of the drawers closed. Our hands met at the final locker. I was pushing it closed, but he stopped me.
“Hold on. This one has stacks of cash.”
“So?” I asked.
“So… it’s cash…”
I heard it in his voice. He wanted to relieve the Bishops of the stack of money.
Something inside me snapped in that moment. I turned toward him and let him have it. “Listen, I helped you get in here to retrieve items that were yours. Things that will allow me to go back home and resume my life. I’ll go along with taking the deadly drugs so we can destroy them, but you aren’t going to turn me into a common thief, taking money I didn’t earn. Now… are you ready to go or am I leaving without you?”
I had thrown my gloved hands on my hips for good measure.
“Yes, ma’am. I think it’s time we head out.” I could hear the humor in his voice as he answered. If I didn’t know better, I’d have sworn he’d been testing me. The only problem was I didn’t know if I’d passed or failed.
We’d just finished closing the door to the panic room when we heard a loud shout from across the mansion.
“Time to go, kitten,” Nick said, grabbing my hand again and breaking out into a jog back through the Bishop home. I had to almost run to keep up with him.
Once we got outside, he took the walkie-talkie out and sent a message to his crew.
“We got the package and are headed back out to you now. Be ready for departure. Over.”
