Death and Deception

by Seeley James

It was all I could do not to pull my pistol and end his miserable life. But I couldn’t. Not yet. The odd sounds I picked up in Jenny’s comm link told me she had come closer to shore hoping to help Danny. And that put more lives at risk: hers, Danny’s, and whoever else he brought. I took a deep breath. Griffith’s regular guards would merely beat up Danny. Mr. Baldy would kill him without a second thought.

  Decision time: kill the mission or use the diversion to rescue Cherry? As I’d told Danny, a mission wasn’t a plan, it was a series of options and opportunities. His diversion made my escape nearly impossible, but there was another option. It would depend on Joe Griffith’s next move.

  “They split up,” Jenny said. “Two of the Brothers have their hands up. Flashlights are on them.”

  I turned away from the main hallway and spoke quietly and firmly. “Jenny, if you can see that, you’re too close. Get out on the lake. Get out of there. Now.”

  “We can’t leave them here.” Jenny’s voice echoed the anger from our first fight earlier in the evening.

  Why not? I wanted to ask. The idiot was a walking disaster. Did Jenny want to defect to their losing side? But the house was too quiet to voice that argument.

  There was nothing I could do for Danny. I would go ahead with my option for Cherry as soon as I determined what Joe Griffith’s next move would be.

  “Wait,” Jenny said. “It’s going to be OK. Danny’s rushing the guards with bats.”

  Another statement I couldn’t argue without alerting the house to my presence. I knew the next scene before it unfolded. Unlike the movies, when a security team discovers a threat, the secondary team immediately protects the perimeter executing a disciplined, orderly plan. That way, no one gets the jump on them.

  Jenny read directly from the script I’d predicted in my head. “Oh no! Two more guards just came out of nowhere.”

  I heard feet hitting the attic floor above my head. Mr. Baldy had called up the reserves.

  “Jenny,” I whispered as loud as I dared. “Get out of there. Now! Circle out a couple miles, then come back for me half a mile south of here. They will search the beach any second.”

  I heard her motor in the background speed up, then slow down.

  “Damn it,” she said. “Sorry, Jacob. That anchored boat was Griffith’s. They’ve cut me off and are aiming guns at me. They’re boarding.”

  Through her comm link, I heard shouting. Then I heard feet rushing as she was boarded.

  “GET YOUR HANDS UP, PALMS OUT.” The voice came through her comm link louder than hers. “PUT THE GUN DOWN. PUT IT DOWN NOW, LADY.”

  CHAPTER 22

  The sound of pounding feet came down the stairs from the attic bunkhouse. The Knights were on the move. I crammed myself into an armoire just as they spilled out onto the second floor. I couldn’t get the door closed. I had to hook it with a finger and pray they didn’t inspect it as they ran by. All twelve marched directly to the grand staircase and proceeded down. As soon as the last man disappeared around the corner, I fell out of the armoire with a loud thump. Their tromping feet drowned it out.

  I ran back to the roof. Griffith’s property was the local guards’ territory. The Knights would be used for a sweep once they’d coordinated with Mr. Baldy.

  Using the monocular, I scanned the grounds to get an idea of what they would do next.

  Twelve Knights formed up in three rows of four on the patio between the lake and the mansion. The other twelve remained in reserve. A small blessing. Mr. Baldy and a uniformed guard discussed something at the head of the formation. A moment later, two groups of guards emerged from the surrounding trees. Jenny and Danny were held by three guards. Fiona, Mark, and another Brother stood battered and bruised next to two more.

  At least Danny had shown the discipline not to tangle with a superior force. His companions had made the mistake of trying to fight their way out.

  I heard Jenny’s heartbeat in my comm link. It took a minute to realize why. She’d stuck her comm link’s ear bud in her bra to keep comms open. Smart move.

  The leader of the guards pointed toward the house. Danny and Jenny were led away, looking dejected. The other three were led off in the opposite direction. I tried to follow Jenny’s group. They disappeared into the house right away. Fiona and the others marched around the south side and out to the front. I looked for cop cars but didn’t see any. They kept going across the front walkway and around to the neighboring house. Breaking up the Brothers into two groups didn’t make sense to me.

  From my perch high above, I could hear Mr. Baldy giving orders to the Knights. They marched to the lake and began a professional and effective sweep of the property. Calculating their possible patterns, I figured they would comb the beach, up to the patio, then fan out on both sides until a smaller number of them reached the front. They would then come in all the entrances at the same time and push any intruders to the roof. In short, they would eventually find me. It was unavoidable. The armoire I’d used once would be inspected as they conducted a floor-by-floor, room-by-room search.

  Mercury had given me a warning. He reminded me of Consul Paullus’ horrific defeat. Hannibal surrounded Paullus in the same way Mr. Baldy was in the process of surrounding me. Paullus was killed in the battle but he wasn’t to blame. His co-consul, Gaius Terentius Varro, engaged Hannibal prematurely, against Paullus’s orders. Which was exactly the situation Danny put me in. And Jenny had been caught up in his fiasco.

  Now I had to rescue Jenny—while little rebel Danny tagged along. Rescuing one person is a problem to be solved. Rescuing two is exponentially harder. The fact that Danny would pitch a fit like a five-year-old being forced to eat broccoli unless we also rescued his Brothers—in another building—would escalate the problem into infinity.

  The first thing to do was to get back to the level where they were holding Cherry and look for options and opportunities. I made my way back down to the second level and listened. The Knights were doing the search as predicted. One man searched a room while another covered him. Separated like that, the option of taking out one of them went out the window. Which left only one option I could think of.

  I had to stick to the original mission. The only way to save Jenny was to rescue Cherry first.

  With any luck, that would send the Knights into a frenzy to find Cherry, leaving more opportunity to find Jenny and the Brothers.

  Moving silently down the hall, I counted steps to measure out which room would be the one where I’d seen her in the video. I counted off doors and opened one slowly. One of Griffith’s uniformed guards stood at the window, looking outside. He heard me as I ran across the room, my Sabel Dart in my hand. He raised a defensive arm but collapsed instantly. The dart works quite well in the forearm.

  Looking around the room, I realized I’d miscounted steps. I was in Joe Griffith’s master bedroom. He was nowhere to be seen. No doubt the guards had put him in a safe room at the first sign of trouble. I dragged the sleeping guard into the bathroom and stole his uniform. He didn’t have my shoulders, but I wriggled into it anyway. I propped him up on the toilet and closed the door.

  I checked myself in the mirror. I wore the uniform better than the guy I stole it from. But would I pass inspection? The Knights had the run of the house. I could only hope they didn’t know the guards by name yet. I exited quickly.

  Recalibrating my steps, I tried the next room down the hall. No Cherry. No rumpled sheets. No indentation in the chairs. Two towels lay on the sitting bench at the foot of the bed. On the floor were some price tags, one for a dress that cost more than my kitchen remodel. Nothing in the walk-in closet but an echo, nothing in the other walk-in closet either. Nothing under the bed. No phone, no charger, no means of communication. No purse.

  On the bathroom floor lay Cherry’s shorts and shirt from Guatemala and a small generic-looking makeup kit on the counter. She had been in the room at some point, but they had moved her elsewhere. In the convention hall of a house, she could be anywhere.

/>   All my options and opportunities were gone. Where were they holding her?

  I heard the Knights marching to the second floor. They would search this wing shortly.

  I ran back to the master and waited for a knock. A Knight threw the door open and strode in. No knocking involved. His partner waited in the hall outside. He looked me over.

  “Did you find them?” I asked.

  He circled me, his stare going up and down. I twisted halfway, then repositioned myself to face him.

  “You don’t speak English?” I asked.

  “I speak English good.” He frowned. “You here whole time?”

  I flopped my hands. “I would never leave my post.”

  He scratched his scruffy beard and looked out at his friend in the hall. The guy outside shrugged and said something in their native language. The man nearest me looked over his shoulder at me as if I were a mosquito, more annoying than threatening. He tracked around to the bathroom and checked inside. The toilet was in a second compartment, hidden behind a wall with its own door. I’d left the door open. The darted guard could have slumped his way off the porcelain throne and be visible. I couldn’t tell because the Knight stood in the way. He stood there a long time.

  In my comm link, I heard Jenny say rather loudly, “You’re putting us in a bedroom? If you’re planning anything sick, I’ll kick your—”

  Someone slapped her. Not hard and not gently. A voice said, “Shut the fuck up. Don’t get your hopes up, you’re not going to be violated.”

  “Tell me the window has a view of the lake,” Jenny said. “I want to send a Morse code message to the next passing boat.”

  The voice on her end said, “Lake’s on the other side of the building. Now shut up.”

  My clever bride-to-be had just given me her relative position in the house.

  In front of me, the Knight grunted, closed the bathroom door, and strode out into the hall.

  CHAPTER 23

  With my ear pressed to the door, I listened while Knights checked the other rooms on my end. I heard them march back to the connecting corridor. I heard them say something in English and a woman’s voice replied. Not loud enough to make out the words through the solid wood. When all the prowlers cleared the hall, I slipped out. It would only take a minute for them to figure out I’d tricked them.

  I turned toward Cherry’s door and found a beautiful woman in an expensive cocktail dress ahead of me. When she pressed her key to open Cherry’s room, she sensed my presence. Our gazes met. It took us both a moment to recognize each other. I hadn’t seen Cherry out of shorts and plaid flannel. She had never seen me in a stolen uniform. She looked to be on the verge of screaming in surprise.

  I slapped a hand over her mouth and pushed her inside and kicked the door shut.

  When I let go, we stared at each other for a moment. A small purse hung from her shoulder. Her black dress had white flowers embroidered on one side. She was stunning.

  She said, “What are you doing here?”

  “Rescuing you. Why are you dressed up like—”

  “You can’t rescue me right now.” Her eyes darted around the room. “Could you come back later? Maybe in a couple hours?”

  I was too stunned to speak at first. After a moment, I said, “That’s not how rescues work. C’mon, let’s go.” I grabbed her wrist.

  She yanked free with a look that was half angry, half scared. “No, really. I’m busy. I, uhm, have a meeting.”

  My eyebrows rose so high, they hurt my forehead. “Did you notice Mr. Baldy is here?”

  “Who?”

  “The man who executed Hidalgo and fourteen of your friends.”

  “Oh, you mean Captain Amanow. Yes. That was unfortunate. Horrible, I mean. But I’m not ready to go.” She stared at me with that look people get when they’re telling you it’s not raining, yet you’re standing in the middle of a downpour. “I … I have to change. I can’t go out in this.”

  With my mouth hanging open, I pointed to the bathroom where her shorts and shirt waited. She all but ran to them. I hooked a finger around her purse strap and slipped it off her shoulder as she walked by. She looked at me funny. I pointed to the shorts hoping to get her moving. She went in and closed the door.

  In my earbud, I could hear Jenny giving Danny a piece of her mind about his foolish actions. Which meant the guards had left them alone for the time being. That eased my mind.

  I opened Cherry’s purse. Her phone was in there, fully charged.

  Somewhere else in the house, Mr. Baldy was shouting in Turkmen. Boots tromped back up the grand staircase. They sounded like a herd of buffalo.

  Cherry opened the bathroom door in her camp gear. She looked a lot better in the cocktail dress. I grabbed her wrist and pulled her to the hall door. It was like dragging an anchor.

  “They’re coming,” I said. “We have to go. Now.” When she didn’t move, I said, “Your uncle begged me to come save you.”

  Pain covered her expression. Her face crinkled in a prelude to tears.

  The pounding boots came closer.

  There wasn’t time for why are you crying? I stuck my shoulder into Cherry’s ribcage and hoisted her up. Running out into the hall, I could hear the Knights coming from the center. Looking the other way, I saw a door with a small window in it. I ran for it, slid inside, closed the door, and set her down. I put a finger across her lips to keep her quiet.

  Extracting her phone from her purse, I held it to her face to unlock it, then looked at the recent calls. Five calls went to her mother, lasting three to five minutes each. Two to her father, each lasting ten minutes. The last in the series went to a San Francisco area code not in her contact list. It lasted over an hour. Given the time zones, they took place after midnight on the West Coast.

  I gave her my soldier stare long enough to make her shiver. Then I softened and said, “Your uncle begged me to bring you back. You made eight calls, but none to him? You could tell him you’re fine, wearing a small fortune in a cocktail dress, and have an urgent meeting coming up at four in the morning.”

  Her face slumped. Her gaze fell to the cement at our feet.

  I waited for her to say something. Most people would explain their behavior after the silence dragged out long enough.

  Instead, her nose crinkled. Her gaze rose to mine then darted around the space. “This place stinks.”

  We were in another service stair on the other side of the building. And it stank of garbage as much as the first. How much stuff did the staff spill in the stairwells? Or was it that no one ever cleaned it because the owner never came in here?

  I turned my attention to the window. Intended to prevent one servant from crashing into another while carrying heirloom crystal, it worked well for me. My monocular periscope allowed me to see Mr. Baldy coming down the hall holding his Scorpion at the ready. Four Knights followed him. They burst into Cherry’s room.

  Jenny’s voice hit my ear. “Jacob, can you hear me? I’m looking out the window and see the driveway below me. We’re in a bedroom, but the door’s locked from outside.”

  A quick mental review of my drone video told me she and Danny were on the other side of Mr. Baldy. Which could be the far end of this hallway or another one running parallel. That didn’t narrow it down much.

  But the locked-from-outside mention gave me an option. I turned the monocular to focus on the doorknobs up and down the passageway. They were odd looking. Lever handles set into large metal locks, the kind you see on secure facilities. Not the kind of knobs usually found in mansions.

  With my focus elsewhere, Cherry slipped her purse out of my hand and fled down the stairs heading for the ground floor.

  I could go after Cherry or Jenny.

  “Your Highness,” I called down as she rounded the landing below me. She stopped and looked up. I said, “Your rescue is leaving the station. Now or never.”

  She continued running down.

  A mission is a series of options and opportunities. Cherry
lost all of hers right then.

  I pulled the door open and stepped out into the plush carpeting of the hall. I ran to Cherry’s room with a dart held at the ready.

  Mr. Baldy left one sentry outside and took the second inside with him. A smart tactical move. The sentry’s mistake was keeping his back to the short end of the hall. He heard me coming but couldn’t get all the way around with his pistol before the dart plunged into his neck. He crumpled to the floor. I snatched a magnetic card clipped to his belt.

  I grabbed the handle to the open door and yanked it closed. As I did, I got a satisfying look at a shocked Mr. Baldy. I’d rather have shot him, but that would complicate rescuing Jenny alive. When the door slammed home, I yanked the handle upward and felt a rewarding click.

  I’d seen handles like it in storage rooms. Only a magnetic key would open it from the outside. And every door on the second floor had these odd, industrial handles. Which meant that all the bedrooms could be locked from outside. Joe Griffith was one paranoid old man. His guest rooms doubled as jail cells.

  CHAPTER 24

  Running back down the main corridor, I found the service hall next to the grand staircase and slipped into a dark space behind my favorite armoire. It was beginning to feel like home. I thought about the layout of this odd house. There were at least two service stairwells. Why would Griffith want that? Maybe he wanted servants using different access points to reduce the noise of them trotting past the bedrooms at night. Or maybe he didn’t want the staff hearing the anguished cries of his prisoners. I’d come down from the roof in a central stairwell. Cherry had disappeared in one on the southeast corner. If there was any symmetry in the floorplan, there could be another well on the northwest end.

  I checked out the furniture-strewn corridor I was in. Sure enough, behind a grandfather clock was another hall leading off at a right angle. It ran behind the wall of the grand staircase in the center of the building.