So he waited. He counted off the seconds in his head. Patience. He had spent years learning that trait. There were few men who could outwait him. Ten minutes passed and the only part of Stone that moved was his chest, with each shallow breath.
The only problem was that Friedman, and thus her men, knew that one could not go back in these sections. One had to go forward. How long were they willing to wait? How long was Stone willing to wait?
We’re all going to find out.
CHAPTER 98
“Wait a minute, how’d you know to bring that laser thing?” Knox asked Chapman as they crouched in the darkness.
“Like your Boy Scouts, it’s the mission of MI6 to always be prepared.”
“Meaning you didn’t believe Stone?”
“The key?” Chapman scoffed. “Of course I didn’t believe him. Reading his psychological profile was fairly easy. He wasn’t going to endanger us too.”
“He let us go to New York with him,” Finn pointed out.
“I guess he believed the South Bronx was safer than this place,” pointed out Knox.
“Murder Mountain,” said Chapman. “Made for interesting reading.”
Both men looked at her.
“I researched it, of course,” she said. “Didn’t you?”
Knox cleared his throat. “How did you know what to research? Stone didn’t mention the place until we were on the way here.”
“The place where it all began? Remember, that’s what Ming said back in New York. So I did some digging, got my folks back in the UK doing the same. I knew that Stone started out his career in Triple Six. What I didn’t know was that it began with a year’s worth of training right here. Got a file emailed to me two hours before we left. Like I said, interesting reading.”
Finn looked down at the laminated plan of the place Stone had given him. “Looks like multiple spots to be ambushed.”
“That cuts both ways,” said Knox, and Chapman nodded in agreement.
She pointed at the plan and said, “We have two choices. Go through each side together or split up.”
Finn said, “I vote for getting out of the open. If we need to go through these section things, let’s split up. I’ll go to the left and you two to the right.”
Chapman shook her head. “No, you two go right, I’ll go left.”
The men looked at her again. “What?” she said. “A woman can’t go it alone? She needs a precious man to hold her poor, fragile hand?”
“It’s not that,” said Knox uncomfortably.
“Good to hear it,” she said. “I’ll take the one on the left. Now here’s some little tidbits you need to know about the section on the right to traverse it safely.” She filled them in on particulars she’d gained from her research.
“Got it?” she said, looking at them.
“You’ve given this a lot of thought,” said Knox.
“Why wouldn’t I?” shot back Chapman. “It’s my job.”
“Good luck,” said Finn.
“Cheers.”
She left the two men standing there staring after her until she disappeared into the darkness.
Stone was still waiting in the firing range room. He considered his options. It didn’t take long since there weren’t many. He could stay here until he starved to death. Or he could go through the door.
Or…
He got up, grabbed the wire that the targets rode on and pulled it free. He wound one end of it around the door handle and over the existing pulleys. Then he crouched down behind the counter and wound the remainder of the wire around his hand. He counted to five and aimed his pistol at the door opening. He slowly pulled on the wire. The door handle lifted. He tugged harder. The door started to open. As soon as it was open halfway, a barrage of bullets poured through, clanging off metal surfaces in the firing range room.
Okay, probably against orders, the Russians are done playing around with stun darts.
He tugged on the door some more until it opened all the way, then tied off the wire onto a hook to keep the door open. He sidled along the counter and slid down the pair of NVGs he had brought. They were older and had a major drawback if the other side had night-vision equipment too.
He edged closer to the opening, but keeping something solid between him and the doorway at the same time. Then he did something unusual, at least to the untrained eye. He took off his goggles, but still kept them powered. He placed them on top of the counter, facing the doorway. Then he scuttled away, aimed his gun and waited for what he was pretty certain was coming.
The shots came. He counted four of them. Stone couldn’t see the rounds, but he was sure they had passed an inch above the red dot revealed by his goggles to someone looking at them with NV eyewear too. That was the drawback to the old-generation goggles. While on infrared power they painted a red dot basically on your forehead, allowing a sniper to draw a fatal bead.
But by firing the Russians had revealed their position to Stone by their muzzle flashes through the open doorway. He fired rapidly, once, twice and then a third and fourth time, aiming at spots two inches above the twin flashes. Stone could tell by the weapons’ discharge that they were pistols. If they were firing from classic shooting positions, Stone’s target selection would coincide with their heads, bypassing their body armor.
He heard two distinct thumps as the bodies hit the floor.
He got up, snared his NVGs and kept moving.
Three Russians down, three to go. Plus Friedman.
CHAPTER 99
Finn and Knox made their way carefully across the catwalk that was suspended over a tank of foul-smelling liquid. They knew this for two reasons. One, because they could smell it, even if they couldn’t see it. And two, it was on the plan Stone had given them. But it was Chapman who’d told them the secret of passing safely over it. Stone hadn’t done so, because he had never intended for them to get inside this place.
They had to keep their weight in the center of the metal walkway. If they made a misstep and touched the sides, only bad things would happen. They had nearly reached the end of the catwalk when they heard it.
A groan.
Both men looked around, guns pointed at obvious threat points.
Another groan.
Finn whispered to Knox, “Sounds like it’s underneath us.”
“Thinking the same thing,” replied Knox.
“I recognized it.”
“The groan?”
Finn nodded. “Keep a lookout.” He dropped to his knees and put his face against the floor of the catwalk that was only inches from the top of the tank. “Caleb?” he said softly.
Another groan.
“Caleb?” he said in a louder voice as Knox gazed anxiously around.
Another groan and then, “Harry?” The voice was weak, the mind obviously muddled.
Drugged, was Finn’s first thought.
He looked up at Knox. “Remember what Chapman told us?”
Knox nodded and glanced around. “Got an idea.”
Keeping to the center of the walk, he headed back the way he had come. He couldn’t go back out the door they had come in. It had locked behind them and it was thick and made of stainless steel. But there was an old packing crate set against the wall. He slipped his gun in its holster, hefted the box, which weighed about fifty pounds, and carried it back over to where Finn was, again keeping to the center of the catwalk.
Each man climbed up on the railing of the catwalk. This was difficult for Knox with the weight of the crate, but he managed it. He looked at Finn and told him his plan.
“You ready?”
Finn nodded.
Knox counted to three and then dropped the box on the side of the catwalk. The floor immediately tilted down on that side while the other side tilted up, revealing a blackened strip of empty space on each side. The crate fell through the opening on the right side and they heard a splash. The foul smell got even fouler.