“Your plans are all contingent on Josh being able to collaborate from the inside,” Mace was arguing. “But we don’t know if he’ll be able to pull that off. It all depends on how bored, stupid or sloppy the guards are. That’s still an unknown element. We’d be better off assuming that they’re extremely disciplined, and that we’ll have no contact from inside.”
“True, but the only one who limits the gaming is Clemens, and he’s not there,” Nate said. “So he should be connected. Hopefully Josh will be able to at least tell us the best time to move, even if he can’t cut the power or create a diversion.”
Mitch held up his phone. “Newsflash. Anton is sending us Clint. Fiona decided that it was stupid to leave two guys covering them and only one on Elisa while all this stuff is going down, so Clint is on his way here as we speak.”
“That’s crazy!” she protested. “All of you should go on the mission! I’m fine here on my own! No one but you guys know that I’m here, so what’s the danger?”
Nate exchanged glances with the other three men at the table, and shook his head. “No,” he said. “We’ll proceed as we planned. Clint’s on his way.”
“You’re being ridiculous,” she said. “Do you all have full body armor, at least?”
“Yes, and thermal cloaking, too,” he assured her. “They won’t see us coming. We’ll come down on them like a hammer.”
Elisa winced. If that was supposed to comfort her, it didn’t work.
She laid her half-eaten sandwich down, her appetite gone.
19
Nate hung back and kissed Elisa passionately when she came out to the driveway to see them off. When he drew away, her eyes were bright, shining with tears. “Thank you for doing this,” she said, her voice tiny. “Please. Please, be careful.”
“I will,” he assured her. “I’ll call you, and text you. Whenever I can.”
He kept his eyes on Elisa in the rear-view for as long as he could. She lingered on the deck, watching them drive away. There was utter silence until they turned the corner and she was lost to sight.
Then Jim whistled, and Mace started to laugh.
“Damn,” Mace murmured. “Just look at that. And you said she wasn’t into you.”
Nate shifted uncomfortably in the seat. “It’s been an interesting two days.”
“Yeah? Interesting how?” Mace’s dark eyebrows waggled suggestively.
“None of your goddamn business,” he snarled.
“Oooh. I love it when they get secretive,” Mace said jubilantly. “That’s how you know it’s a big deal.”
“Look, her brother’s head is on the block, and this thing is not in the bag. So don’t shoot the fucking confetti cannons yet. You’ll jinx me.”
“Sure, man,” Mace murmured swiftly. “Sorry. Absolutely. My bad.”
It took a few hours to get to Amity Springs, with the combination of bad weather and narrow, winding roads. Then another hour and some to drive deep into the mountains behind it up toward Bailey Ridge.
They left the car off the road in the brush a couple of miles away from the house and hiked closer, staying well clear of the perimeter that Josh had specified as being in range of the cameras until night fell, and the lights came on. Hours passed as they studied the place, and the man slowly patrolling the grounds outside.
Conditions weren’t going to get better. Nate pulled out his burner and dialed Elisa, one final time.
“We’re in position,” he said when she picked up. “Can Josh give us a progress report from the inside?”
“One second.” He heard the keyboard as she relayed the question. She spoke again after a few moments. “Belker is sitting across the room playing on his phone. Ray’s at the security monitor. Aldo is patrolling outside, but Josh can’t tell where.”
“We’ve got eyes on Aldo,” he said. “We’re moving in five. If he can create a distraction without paying for it too highly, now is the time.”
“Be careful,” she whispered.
“I will,” he assured her. “Tell him to do whatever he can, and get down as low as possible. The best thing would be to get into one of the cast iron bathtubs to ride out whatever comes afterward. If he can.”
He heard the tap on the screen. “I told him,” she said. “He says, see you on the other side. And whatever happens, thanks. GeekwadX1000 just signed off.”
“Balls of steel,” he said. “A family trait, evidently. Hey, Elisa?”
“Yes?”
“These last couple of days? They meant everything to me.” He waited, holding his breath.
“Me, too,” she whispered.
“I don’t have the time to tell you how I feel about it. Or the privacy, either. Besides, it would take fifty, sixty years to do it justice. I’ll leave it for afterward.”
“Agreed.” Her voice was a strangled, breathy thread of sound. “Afterward.”
“Right.” Nate closed the call, turned off the ringer, and shoved the burner into his pocket. Mace and Jim were both giving him get-off-your-ass looks.
He fastened the thermal poncho over himself, dropped to the ground beside them on the muddy leaves and snow, and started crawling toward the house.
20
Josh looked down at the translation of the last message Lu had inscribed on the Obelisk one last time, willing it to be true. He shook inside.
u can do this. c u soon bro. love love love.
Let it be true. Please, God, let it be true.
He’d spent hours, days, weeks and months fantasizing about this moment. Feeling helpless and trapped. Getting slapped, kicked, punched and insulted by those mouth-breathing troll assholes. For months.
Today, they were going to get a big fucking surprise. And he could not wait.
He looked at Belker, the one he hated the most, and pitched his voice to its most annoying nasal whine. “I’m hungry,” he said. “I want some toast.”
Belker looked up from his phone. “What’s that? The little prince wants a snacky?”
“I’m hungry.” Josh kept his face sullen, slack, dull. Head hanging, mouth slightly open, eyes half closed and clouded. “You don’t have to like, fuckin’ starve me.”
Belker put his phone in his pocket and stood up. He’d gotten that hot, hard glitter in his eye that Josh had come to dread. “Fuck your snack,” he said. “You still think I’m supposed to serve you? You are one fucking slow learner, kid.”
Josh started to snivel. “I just want to eat something,” he whimpered. “I’m just so hungry. I did all my chores today, so I—”
“Shut the fuck up, turd,” Ray called impatiently from the other room. “Shut your trap and go get your own fucking food.”
Josh blinked stupidly in Ray’s direction, then hopefully in Belker’s, sniffling loudly as he wiped his nose with his sleeve. “Can I?”
“Do what you want, shitstain,” Belker growled. “Just get the fuck out of my sight.”
Josh hurried into the kitchen. His feet made no sound, since he wore only socks. One of the first things they’d done when they brought him here was to take his shoes. Even if he did by some crazy chance get outside, he wouldn’t get far, not in the snow. He’d lose his feet to frostbite before he found anyone to help him.