Today's Reading
On the security monitor, they see the two SUVs have arrived at building seventeen. Side doors slam open, and a dozen heavily armed men with balaclavas and Kevlar begin jumping out. They carry HK417s. They also have a magnetic card to bypass security.
"It strikes me," Dez drawls, "that there might be some what don't want nobody messin' with the addictive qualities of opioids. Yeah?"
Jamison sighs. "Quite."
Dez spots a tool kit under one of the tables, kneels, draws a screwdriver, and moves to the door. He begins tearing apart the wall-mounted security monitor by the door.
Jamison says, "What are you doing?"
"Buying us time, squire. Here."
Dez draws his nine-millimeter pistol and hands it, butt-first, to the British agent, then goes back to fiddling with the innards of the security system.
"The professor speaks English?" Jamison asks.
"He does." Dez addresses the wiring he's now exposing. "An' his magical formula for opioids? The good professor was showing you a compound consistin' of, ah, eight carbon atoms, ten hydrogen, four nitrogen, an' two oxygen atoms, if I've done me sums right. Yeah? 'Less I miss my guess, they was showin' you the atomic structure of caffeine."
Miss Gomez says, "How did..." Then catches herself.
Jamison says, "Jesus."
A puff of smoke roils up from the security device. "Should do.
Get me that acetylene torch over there, will ye?"
Jamison sees it, moves swiftly toward it.
Dez grins at Miss Gomez as he takes the torch from Jamison. He quickly whisks up his left sleeve and shows her a tattoo of a two-faced Roman god.
"Janus. God of beginnings an' gates, transitions an' time, duality an' doors, passages an' endings. I'm what's called a gatekeeper, yeah? Can open any door. Can keep it open as long as is necessary. Can control who does—and who don't—get through. Means I've studied me chemistry, miss."
Jamison brings him a sparker, too. Dez fires up the acetylene torch.
He winks at Jamison. "Them's the skill sets my commander was thinkin' of when I drew the short straw."
Ten of the assault squad crowd into the elevator; two stay in the lobby. The elevator quickly rises to their floor.
He turns to Miss Gomez. "This lot's not with you, I assume?"
"Oh, hell no!"
"Then we all need t'get out of here, pronto."
Dez holds the torch to the doorknob on the inner side of the door. He speaks over the hiss of the flame. "Dr. Castillo and Miss Gomez, I'm guessin', are thieves. Was hopin' to take the British government for several million pounds sterling. An' if they're any good at what they do, they've an exit strategy. In case this caper went pear-shaped on 'em."
The assault squad is on their floor now. One man draws a magnetic key card and attempts to open the door. It's not working, because Dez bollixed it from the inside.
Dez continues to hold the torch to the doorknob.
"We...we do have a way out," Miss Gomez says.
The alleged Professor Castillo spins on her. "Cat! Shut the fuck up!" He speaks English. They both sound like Americans.
She ignores him, checks her watch. "If you can keep them out for eight minutes, we can get gone."
Dez says, "Well, love, your way out just became everyone's way out. Ta."
The woman—Cat—whisks off her glasses and throws them in a trash bin. "The building AC is set to go off in just over seven minutes. When it does, small packets of explosives will blow the air filter mesh in a maintenance tunnel, back this way." She points deeper into the lab. "The AC will mask the vibration of the explosion. We can crawl out to the roof. There's a ladder down to the parking lot on the north side. The explosives are on a timer, so we can't blow it early."
"Cat, for fuck sake—" her accomplice growls.
...
