Hugging the walls, she worked her way around the foyer till she was on the left side of the staircase, near the camera. Staying low, she climbed the stairs to the camera, got behind it and carefully unscrewed it from its mount, then unscrewed the coaxial cable from the back, all the while listening for the sound of pounding feet, a sure sign she’d been spotted.
She heard nothing. Just those same few clocks... and of course the steady beat of her heart.
Next, from a vest pocket, she took out a device much like a small Tazer, touched it to the cable, fired it, sending a high-voltage burst through the cable. This should short out the entire video system.
Now she heard feet pounding through the house, voices, too, whispers so as not to alert any intruder too quickly. She replaced the camera on its wall mount and hoped the security cam would look normal enough to pass a rapid inspection. Melting into the shadows behind one of the brocade curtains, she watched as four men, all in shirts and ties, converged in the foyer.
Two of these spiffy security guards had pistols drawn, 38 Colt Specials, while the other two carried automatic weapons, Heckler & Koch MP7A submachine guns. A negative wave of emotion ran through Max, momentarily breaking her remarkable self-control.
Guns made her react like that — but it was not fear...
... and she knew how to use such weapons herself, proficiently in fact; only, since her sib Eva’s death, she could hardly stand to touch the damn things.
Each man wore an earphone and... was that?... She looked closer, the cat’s eyes working their magic — yes, each also had a tiny microphone peeking out from the end of his sleeve. Sterling would seem to be serious about protecting his possessions: suits and ties aside, these boys were six feet tall or better, ranging from midtwenties to early forties, two white, one black, one Hispanic, apparently all in shape, their manner professional, their look hard-core, that chiseled emotionless quality you found only in career soldiers... or mercenaries.
Max smiled; she felt a tingle of excitement...
Not that looking at the men frightened her, or intimidated her in any way. But she knew that if the master of the house had gone to this much trouble to protect something, that something must really be worth protecting... something more, even, than a highly valuable painting like the Grant Wood. Maybe, just maybe, she would make an even bigger haul here than she had imagined.
And, too, she kind of liked the challenge of being up against worthy opponents...
Tall, with a graying crew cut, the oldest of the quartet took charge; he had narrow colorless lips, dime-sized scars on either cheek, and — like Max — he wore black from head to toe... his shirt and tie included.
“Maurer,” the leader said, “upstairs.”
One of the guys carrying the MP7As — black, broad-shouldered, clean-cut, wearing a gold shirt with a striped tie — ran up the stairs right past the camera Max had used to disable the video system.
“Jackson,” the leader barked.
Also carrying an MP7A, Jackson identified himself to Max by stepping forward. Burly, white, the youngest of them, he looked like a college athlete attending an awards dinner in his too-tight white shirt and gray slacks with a red-and-blue-striped tie.
The leader said, “You start working the grounds.”
Jackson said, “Yes sir,” crisply military, and moved over to the keyboard, where he punched several buttons, the alarm light turning green. Once Jackson had gone outside, the fourth member of the team — a muscular young Hispanic in a light blue shirt, navy slacks, and navy tie — punched the IN button, once again setting the alarm.
Max turned her head to watch Jackson heading away from the house, holding her breath, just waiting for him to turn and look right at her, standing there in the window... but he did not. Soon the foggy front yard had swallowed him.
“Morales,” the leader said, his voice soft, “you go right, I’ll go left.”
While the leader opened the door and entered the room on the left, Morales entered the room on the right. Through the second of the open doors, just before Morales closed it behind him, Max glimpsed a painting in a gold-leaf frame on the far wall.
She decided that was as good a place as any to start.
A minute ticked by. Stealing a look in the direction the leader had gone, then glancing up the stairs, Max satisfied herself neither man was headed back her way, not immediately anyway.
So she made her move.
She slipped from her hiding place and crept across the foyer; she opened the door slowly, carefully, quietly, peeked into the room...
... and didn’t see Morales.
She eased in.
The room was large, almost... huge, more like something out of a museum than a house. High-ceilinged, with a beautifully polished hardwood floor and dark mahogany paneling, this was home to painting after painting, framed canvases covering all four walls of the windowless chamber, three and sometimes four rows of them, like fabulously expensive wallpaper. A few Mission-style chairs were positioned around the floor, but it was essentially bare, and — more important to Max — vacant.
Stepping farther into the gallery, she noted another door on the opposite wall at the far end. Morales had obviously entered, not seen anyone, and exited right out the other side, to check rooms beyond.
Max strolled up the middle of the room, gazing at the paintings on either side. Some she’d seen before in Moody’s books, and in magazines and online; but others were strangers to her, though the styles were familiar and she could probably play pin-the-artist-on-the-painting...
This was more than she could ever have imagined.
Again the thought of stealing enough to retire surfaced, but she wouldn’t need a moving van to do it; she could cut canvas after canvas out of their frames, roll them up, and take the whole lot. If Moody’s lessons on quality had served her well, then her eyes told her she wouldn’t need Vogelsang to find Seth. She could buy an uptown detective agency; hell, she could buy Manticore!..
This fantasy blipped across her mind, and then she banished it — too much time, too many risks; in this house, with those four armed security soldiers roaming, she could spend no longer thinking about such things. She needed to get her damn painting — and maybe one or two more — and get the hell out of Dodge.
The thief found her Grant Wood halfway down the right-hand wall. She did not fool around, jumping the alarm wire, pulling the painting down, and freeing it from its ornate antique gold frame... which, she momentarily lamented, could have been sold for a good price, as well; but that would have made this package even more bulky than it was now.
The thirty inch by thirty-nine inch sheet of Masonite was heavy and hard, and perhaps she just should have abandoned it as her goal, and gambled on a few canvases; but this painting was a sure thing, an objective she’d researched well.
Plan and execute, Moody would say; improvise at your own risk...
Max carefully slid the Wood into a zippered waterproof bag she’d carried in folded under her vest, and glanced around to see if she dared snatch one more prize, before the security boys came back.
As her eyes flicked from frame to frame, something in a corner at the far end of the room caught her attention — a pedestal on which perched a Plexiglas case about the size of a basketball, with something resting on black velvet inside. The only such display in the room, it had a temporary feeling, as if this had been arranged only until a better showcase could be found.
As she got closer — and finally began to comprehend just what it was she was beholding — her stomach wrenched, and she suddenly had the feeling that a nest of snakes was slithering down inside her...