Bodie remembered the conversation well. Pantera had never been closed with him, never lied…
You’re joking, right?
Bodie set the prison events aside for the moment. Pantera had never lied, never covered anything up. Every risk, every occurrence, was laid out for Bodie in black and white. Jack watched his young protégé come to his own conclusion that, in the end, usually matched Jack’s.
He’d taken up thieving for the classic reason — to rebel. Jack had chosen to go against the grain, taking what he could easily afford, making a name for himself on the dark side of the law. But even that decision had good connotations. He didn’t need the money, so everything he took from the rich he gave back to the poor.
“What are you thinking?” Cassidy’s whispered question snapped Bodie out of his reverie.
“Just dwelling on old stuff.” Bodie sifted the significant memories from the trivial, trying to find something that would explain Pantera’s actions. With every job Bodie pulled, he preferred to go in with all the answers, every scrap of information. Here they were, ready to go, and he knew nothing.
“He once told me why he became a thief,” Bodie said quietly. “His words were: ‘Because I like the ideal of Robin Hood.’ Jack liked to take from the rich and give to the poor. That’s how it all started out. Of course, even in that game, you soon learn there are rules you can’t break. By the time Jack realized, he was already in too deep.” Bodie shrugged. “So, he evolved. Got better at it. Became the best.”
“I never knew that about his past,” Cassidy said. “We talked, sure, for hours, but never about how he got started.”
“You didn’t work for him long enough. He kept that stuff for his closest confidantes.”
“I barely worked for him at all, but he never seemed the one to betray his best friends.”
Bodie stared into the eyes behind the camera’s lens. Cassidy was right. It was time to find out what drove a man to betray his friends.
Bodie led the way. Cassidy wasn’t his equal in covert infiltration, the same as he wasn’t hers in combat. They each had their strengths. From their vantage point to the rear of the gated community, over a high wall and into somebody’s backyard they went, a silent step at a time. Every parameter had been accounted for. They chose the houses without dogs, and one particularly large yard that was empty, to regroup and assess. They chose a circuitous route and a time when the guards were at their most lethargic. They chose Pantera’s habitual heavy sleeping time. They watched their path carefully through the magic of mini surveillance cameras and Bluetooth. They moved easily, slowly, and with infinite care. The night hummed around them, populated by small creatures. The skies were dotted with stars, the great vault otherwise pitch black. A barely noticeable breeze stirred trees and bushes, chilling the sweat on their faces.
Bodie halted finally at the foot of the hedge that bordered the rear of Pantera’s property.
“We good?”
Cassidy nodded. “Ready when you are.”
“You have the restraints ready?”
“Always.”
Bodie concentrated on the hedge. It was in poor repair, being out of sight of the main internal road. He found a way through quite easily. Pantera’s house lay a quick sprint across well-tended lawns, which Bodie now made, Cassidy at his back. They checked all the cameras one last time.
Nothing. No sign that they’d been compromised by security, neighbors, or Pantera himself, although several houses and many windows overlooked Jack’s property. Bodie wondered if, for the sake of blending in, Jack had been forced to temper his cunning. The old Pantera would employ a warning device of some sort at the very least.
The rear double glass doors were secured by a high-end device, Bodie noticed. They would have to make a lot of noise going in that way. Most people fitted advanced security to the ground level of their houses and tended to neglect the upper floors. Pantera should be different, but here, Bodie betted that he wouldn’t be. They scaled a rear porch and inched along a conservatory roof, glass to both sides of the half-meter ledge. Exposed, they took just seconds to reach the end and duck down beside a second-floor window. Bodie quickly examined the lock, and knew it could be forced inward with minimal noise. That fact in itself made him wary. The Jack Pantera that Bodie knew wouldn’t use a lock like this for anything other than a setup.
“This is it,” he murmured. “Looking at the state of this lock, Jack should be ready for us inside. It’s an easy in, so burglars will be drawn here. Make sure you’re close.”
“I’ll be so close to your ass you’ll be issuing a restraining order.”
Bodie shook his head, then broke the lock. Instantly, he forced the window open and levered his body through, dropped to the carpeted floor, and moved aside to give Cassidy room to cover his back. He expected light, he expected sound, maybe even a flare of some kind to debilitate the senses — but he didn’t expect what happened next.
Pantera stumbled into the room, looking worn and tired, a bed sheet wrapped around his frame. He jabbed at a lamp, illuminating the room with a low light, face stretched with agony as he recognized who stood before him.
“No, no, no, Bodie. What the hell have you done?” Panic tautened the vocal cords and made Jack’s face as white as the sheet that covered him.
Bodie recovered quickly. “You’d better explain yourself fast, Jack.”
Pantera clutched the sheet in fear. “Did they see you?”
Bodie glanced at Cassidy, who shrugged eloquently.
“Who?” she asked sweetly.
Pantera lurched, fear sending his eyes huge. His feet tangled in the sheet, ripping it away from his body.
Cassidy made a show of covering her eyes. “Whoa, I never bargained for that. You put that bad boy away, Jack.”
“You don’t understand.” Pantera came forward, holding a hand out to Bodie.
“Right. Well, until I do, let’s get out of this room and go somewhere dark. And for God’s sake put some bloody pants on.”
Pantera tried visibly to get a grip on himself, picking up the sheet and tying it properly. Then he did something else Bodie would never have expected. He walked over to the darkest corner of the room and threw himself down on the floor, sitting with his back to the wall.
Then he motioned for Cassidy to turn the lamp off.
“I assume you chose this room because it was the easiest entry?”
Bodie nodded. “Identified it yesterday. I guess that was part of your plan?”
Pantera sighed raggedly. “Yeah, yeah, but a long fucking time ago. When… when things were better.”
Bodie sat opposite the older man while Cassidy roamed the hallway outside the door, checking for traps.
“Tell her to make no noise,” Pantera said. “No noise at all and no shadows against the curtains. I don’t know where I’m safe anymore.”
Bodie didn’t try to hide his confusion. “What are you talking about? You’re acting like you didn’t collude to get me thrown into a Mexican prison for the rest of my life, which, by the way, was going to be measured in days.”
Pantera, to his credit, only gave a pained sigh. “One of the worst moments of my life. I’m so sorry, Guy.”
Bodie had never heard Pantera apologize before. Cassidy returned to the room with a shrug. “All clear up here.”
“Please,” Pantera hissed. “Do not go downstairs.”
Cassidy appeared to take that as a challenge and turned toward the door. Bodie called her back.
“Wait. Just give him a minute. I want to hear what he has to say.”
“Could be a trap. No matter how you think of him, he’s not your father.”
Bodie was staring at Pantera’s darkened face. “I don’t think so. What’s got you so shook up? If I didn’t know you, I’d swear I was looking at a totally different man from the Jack Pantera I used to admire.”