The trail sloped down into a narrow canyon. Sandstone walls loomed high above on either side. The passage was painfully slim for a machine of such bulk. Archer had to concentrate to not shave off the side mirrors against the sandstone bluffs. The temperature dropped noticeably as they were swallowed in the shadows of the canyon.
The third gate materialized as they emerged from the canyon. It was the most substantial of the three. Archer approached the gate and rattled the chain. He knew he was probably being watched through the telescopic lens of a riflescope. There had been laser sensors all along the thirty-odd miles of desert they had crossed, announcing them.
Archer waved his arms high over his head. He stood for a moment at the gate, the cool of the shade falling across the back of his neck, his face edging into the sunlight at the mouth of the canyon. He was relaying a message that he was not a threat.
A few minutes later a cloud of dust became visible moving toward them from about a mile in the distance. He could see a small dark silhouette among the dust. It was a man driving a 4-wheel ATV.
The ATV stopped outside the gate. The man was wearing goggles and leather gloves. He raised the goggles to his forehead and smiled as he approached Archer.
“Been a long time, Archer,” the man said.
“Good to see you, Raj.”
“Let’s get you in out of the sun,” Raj said.
Archer nodded and turned for the Hummer. Raj entered a code into the lock on the gate and opened it. Then the Hummer followed him on the ATV down the dusty track. They rocketed across the rugged terrain for about two miles as the blinding sun bore down on the barren landscape, and then suddenly they were driving into an underground tunnel.
CHAPTER 45
Metal-paneled doors had opened before them, the ATV and the Hummer slamming down a concrete ramp into a passage supported by rounded concrete walls. The doors closed behind them. The sunlight was cut off with such abruptness it was as if someone had flipped a switch. They drove with headlights on.
Lindsay and the children rode in stunned silence. Twenty-four hours earlier, she had been shopping and the kids had been in school, and now they were speeding through a tunnel somewhere in the middle of the desert.
The passage opened up into a cavernous space lit by banks of fluorescent rods. The Hummer parked alongside the ATV in a circular hub. Raj led them through a door into a narrow corridor lit by canned lighting in the floor. No one spoke. Then the corridor opened into a low-ceilinged space divided into many rooms and hallways.
A second man, the mirror-image of Raj, entered the room from an adjacent wing of the living quarters and greeted Archer with a firm handshake.
“Simeon,” Archer said.
“Where have you been, brother?”
“I’ve been around,” Archer answered.
Archer made quick introductions.
Simeon said, “We have satellite, so we’ve seen the news. You will be safe here.”
Raj nodded in agreement.
Lindsay cleared her throat. “Thank you.”
“Please make yourselves at home,” Simeon said. Then he and Raj took Archer into another part of the living quarters to talk.
The men assembled in a room they called the library. Raj closed the door. The furniture was stout and plain. They were identical twins born in Egypt to an American mother and Egyptian father who had been a professor at various universities throughout Europe. And aside from Raj’s clean-shaven face and Simeon’s neatly trimmed white beard, their physical appearance was indeed truly identical. Archer had met them a lifetime ago in a far corner of the globe. He had not seen or spoken to them in years. The brothers lived off the grid. They communicated with the outside world solely by means of a satellite phone, and all communication was filtered through their only other sibling, a sister named Penny.
The library contained wall-to-wall metal shelving, books and periodicals stacked high and deep. There were books on every conceivable topic. Every one of them having been read and reread. The Egyptian brothers were a wealth of knowledge with eclectic interests.
Simeon offered him a glass of tea with ice.
“Think you were followed?” Raj leaned against a wall, folded his arms over his chest.
Archer stood in the center of the room. A long rectangular rug covered much of the smooth concrete floor. The glass of tea was cool in his hand. He glanced from wall to wall of the windowless room. He wondered exactly how deep underground they actually were.
Archer shook his head. “I was very careful.”
They discussed strategy. The best case scenario would be that they’d ride out three quiet days and nights in the cool stillness of the underground compound, playing cards, sharing stories, staring at the sunrise, and watching the clock tick slowly toward 12:01 AM, Monday morning.
But it wasn’t quiet for long.
Suddenly an alarm sounded in the underground compound and red lights mounted on the walls began flashing.
Raj and Simeon made eye contact.
Simeon stood. “The outer perimeter alarm,” he said. “Looks like someone has already found us.”
CHAPTER 46
Lindsay rushed to find them, concern in her eyes.
“What is that noise about? What’s going on?”
Archer needed to calm her. “Probably nothing,” he said. “We’ll know more in a few minutes. How are the kids?”
She shrugged, trying to look past him. “Mostly just tired. Still pretty scared.”
“Tell them to not let the alarm bother them.”
She looked into his eyes, then she nodded.
Archer followed a corridor that branched in the opposite direction from the library. He entered a long, narrow room with a metal table that occupied the entire length of one wall. The table was covered with electronic surveillance and monitoring equipment. There were several flat panel computer monitors with cables trailing to computer towers standing upright on the floor beneath the tables. A half-dozen laptop computers. A laser printer. Shortwave radios. Digital broadband receivers designed to intercept thousands of channels of outside communications.
The Egyptian brothers were studying a series of monitors. Raj was seated in a swivel chair with a wooden seat while Simeon remained standing, looking over his brother’s shoulder at the computer screen.
There was a black and white video feed visible onscreen. The imagery was of the monotonous desert landscape.
“Switch to camera fourteen,” Simeon said.
A new camera perspective filled the screen. Still all they saw was dust and sand blowing across the scrub, as well as a small section of what Archer believed he recognized as the first gate he had passed through on the drive in.
“Hmm. Okay, try camera fifteen,” Simeon said to his brother.
Again the camera perspective changed.
Simeon leaned in close over his brother’s shoulder.
“There,” he said, pointing at an upper corner of the screen.
Raj nodded, moving the mouse and clicking on a tab to zoom in. “A small car.”
“A Honda or Toyota. A little rice burner.”
“No one inside,” Simeon said. He turned to Archer. “Recognize it?”
Archer stood with his hands hitched on his hips. He nodded. “There was a yellow Prius in my rearview mirror for a while. It came and went but disappeared a few hours back. Lost sight of it long before we turned off the highway.”
Raj typed on the keyboard. “Apparently whoever was driving has gone for a walk.”
The video screen divided into a dozen separate windows. Each was an angle from a different camera.
Then they saw movement.
Raj clicked on one of the video squares, enlarging it to fill the screen. “There he is,” he said.
They saw a small man wearing a Lakers jersey and baggy shorts, casually following the dirt track inside the first gate. He had what looked like a rucksack on a strap over one shoulder.
“Climbed over,” Simeon said.
“What do you make of it?” Archer asked, studying the moving image.
“You were followed.”
“Impossible.”
Simeon turned to face him. “My friend, you are the first visitor inside that gate in seven or eight years. This guy makes two on the same day. You got tailed, brother.”
“Doesn’t look dangerous,” Raj said.
Archer turned for the open door. “I’ll find out.”
CHAPTER 47
Soji had walked a mile and a half and still couldn’t see anything. The gate had been locked, so he’d been forced to scale it and go a distance on foot to look for evidence that the black Hummer has passed this way.
He stopped to catch his breath. He was soaked in sweat.
He dropped the messenger bag off his shoulder, opened the flap and removed his laptop. He refreshed the screen and saw the icon denoting the Hummer still hadn’t moved. It had been stationary for at least the past forty-five minutes. It was definitely somewhere inside the gate.
He needed to return to his car before he dropped dead of heat exhaustion. He took out his cell and dialed Smackdown’s number.
“It’s me again, boss,” he said. “She’s hiding in the desert.”
CHAPTER 48
Smackdown was on Line 1 with Soji. He had him live on the air again. Soji was complaining about the heat and about the long drive from the city, and Smackdown laughed along like they were old frat buddies.
Wes banged on the glass.
Smackdown frowned and gave him the bird.
Wes held up a handwritten sign. LINE 3 – SERIOUS!!!
Smackdown sighed. “Soji, I ever told you about my producer Wes?”
“What about him, dude?”
“He’s a punk.”
“Sorry, man.”
Smackdown put Soji on hold. The red light on Line 3 was flashing. He took the call.
“This is Smackdown,” he said.
A voice said, “I have a business offer for you. Tell Soji to shut his mouth. Give me your cell phone number and I’ll call you back in three minutes.”
Smackdown swallowed. “Who is this?”
“Call me Mr. Jupiter.”
CHAPTER 49
They met face to face on the fourth level of a massive parking structure located amid the high-rise buildings of downtown Los Angeles. It was only seventeen minutes since Mr. Jupiter’s call to Johnny Smackdown’s cell phone.
Smackdown roared up the ramp in his silver Porsche Spyder 550, the same make and model of the car James Dean had died in when he crashed in 1955. The tires squealed as he took the corners. He parked beside a black Mercedes S-class.
The rear window of the Mercedes buzzed down. Smackdown approached the window with trepidation. Inside was a dark-skinned man in a stark white suit.
Smackdown was nervous. “What’s this about, man?”
“I’ve come to buy Lindsay Hammond.” Mr. Jupiter passed a thick manila envelope through the opening in the window. Smackdown folded back the flap and looked inside.
“This is a lot of cash,” Smackdown said, pretending to be unimpressed.
“One hundred thousand dollars. It’s yours. All you have to do is tell me where she is.”
Smackdown closed the flap on the envelope. “Not interested.”
Mr. Jupiter was unfazed. “What is your price?”
“One hundred million. Take it or leave it.” The corners of his mouth turned up, proud of his tough negotiation skills.
Mr. Jupiter wanted to laugh. He would have doubled the price without blinking. One hundred million dollars was a bargain.
“Done,” he said. “The money will be deposited into a numbered account as soon as I receive the bounty from Dunbar’s attorney. You will be contacted at that time.”
Smackdown felt his knees go weak. He’d just made a hundred million for doing nothing but answering the phone.
“Call him now,” Mr. Jupiter said. “Tell him to contact you only on your cell. Find out her exact location. Then the money will take care of itself. But if your friend Soji is wrong, and we cannot find her, or someone else finds her first, I will kill both of you.”
CHAPTER 50
Noella Chu took a taxi from LAX to a strip mall located next to an overpass on 43rd Street. At a small Copies & Stuff franchise, she used her key to open a rented postal box. Inside was a yellow slip of paper notifying her that she had received an oversized delivery. She presented the notice to a kid standing behind the counter and he promptly retrieved the FedEx parcel she had shipped from New York.
The same taxi delivered her to her hotel of choice, where she locked the door to her room and discarded the cardboard shipping carton and opened the metal flight case. Everything was as she’d left it. The assembled pieces would produce a SIG SG550 Sniper rifle.
Her carryon from the flight from New York was an empty book pack. She unzipped it and transferred the disassembled rifle from the flight case to the backpack. She stowed the flight case under the bed and put her arms through the straps of the pack, shrugging it onto her shoulders. She locked the door behind her and took an elevator to the lobby.
On the street she headed south on foot. Noella Chu was intimately familiar with LA. She had conducted business assignments in the city on many occasions. The hotel was a frequent stop.
She was in fantastic shape and walked briskly. Nine blocks from the hotel she came to a self-storage facility and stopped at the door to unit 118. She turned a key in the pad lock and lifted the door. The storage unit was ten feet by twelve and mostly empty. Two metal file cabinets stood against the back wall. A plastic tarp had been draped over something bulky in the corner.
Noella Chu stripped off the tarp. Before her stood a jet-black Kawasaki Ninja 1198cc motorcycle. She inspected it with lust in her eyes. She straddled the bike and fired the ignition, revving the throttle, listening to it howl. The growl of the engine was like a symphony to her ears.
She pulled her Buell helmet down over her head and walked the bike out onto the asphalt beyond the door, sunlight gleaming off its every curve. She dropped the storage unit door and locked it. She adjusted the shoulder straps of the backpack so that it rode snuggly against her. Then she gunned the throttle and released the clutch, riding a wheelie through the narrow alley to the street.
CHAPTER 51
Archer brought Lindsay Hammond into the camera monitoring room and sat her down in the chair with the wooden seat where Raj had been seated at the computer a few minutes earlier.
“I want you to take a look at something,” Archer told her.
Lindsay nodded. “OK.”
“There is a car at the gate where we came in. Take a look. Tell us if you recognize it at all.”
Raj was standing beside the chair where she was seated. He worked the mouse, moving windows around to bring up the one they needed. He found a static image of the Toyota Prius, black and white and slightly grainy. He left-clicked the mouse and maximized the size of the window onscreen.
“It’s one of those hybrid things,” she said, shrugging. “I see them everywhere these days.”
Ramey and Wyatt had wandered down the low-ceilinged hallway and crowded together in the narrow doorframe of the monitoring room.
Lindsay turned to them and frowned.
“Kids, you don’t need to be in here.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Simeon said.
Archer motioned them in. Gestured at the computer.
“Either one of you recognize this car?”
Archer stepped aside so the kids could bunch in behind their mother.
Wyatt screwed up his face, his eyebrows scrunching together. “That Chinese dude yesterday had one, didn’t he? The dude with the camera.” He glanced over at his sister.
Ramey nodded again. “Oh my God, yeah. He’s right. The paparazzi.”
Lindsay gasped, remembering the trauma of him jumping out of his car and trespassing on their property. She pressed a hand to her chest and took a deep brea
th. She glanced up at Archer.
Archer looked to Raj, then over at Simeon. “What color was the car?”
The kids said in unison, without a beat of hesitation, “Yellow.”
Lindsay nodded agreement.
Wyatt spoke up. “He was taking pictures of us to sell to magazines! Smackdown was telling everybody where we live!”
“Pull up the other one,” Archer said.
Raj opened a new window. A static image of the small man in the Lakers jersey.
“Oh…my…gawd!” Ramey gasped.
“That’s him,” Lindsay confirmed. “He’s here? How did he find us?”
“Archer said there was a yellow Prius way in the distance in the rearview mirror this morning,” Raj said.
Wyatt glanced up at Archer. “Seriously?”
“Today?” Ramsey said.
Archer nodded.
Then something pinged in Ramey’s brain. Her mouth dropped open. She backed away from the chair and the long table and stood with her back against the wall, eyes growing big and round.
“Oh my God oh my God oh my God,” she stammered, slightly above a whisper. She started blinking rapidly, shaking her head. “That…that was him.”
“What are you talking about?” Lindsay asked.
“I saw someone at the truck stop this morning. As I was coming out after using the restroom. I was walking back toward the pumps and I saw someone hurrying away from the Hummer. I saw him for a few seconds, then he disappeared behind the big trucks. Mr. Archer came out and we drove off.”
Archer stared at her.
“You’re certain he was near the Hummer?”
She shrugged. “The sun was in my eyes, but that’s what it looked like from a distance.” She shrugged again, as if punctuating her thought.
Simeon frowned at his brother. Then he said to Archer, “I’d suggest you inspect the Hummer.”
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