At the bottom of the stairs, he led Lauren back the way they’d come. In the green image of his night-vision scope, he looked at the X-ray machine again as they hurried past its strange form to the perimeter wall. Knowing his boots wouldn’t be silent if they needed to run, he removed them. Nathan gave her the hand signal to follow and started down the aisle along the perimeter wall toward the rope. They’d made it only halfway down the warehouse when a cell phone trilled to life. He couldn’t hear the conversation, but he did hear the footfalls of someone running in the direction they needed to go. This wasn’t good at all. He stopped and held up a closed fist. Lauren bumped into him.
Near the place where they’d entered at the north wall, they heard the fire door open, followed by a grunt of pain.
In Spanish, a man’s voice boomed through the warehouse. “I’m going to kill that stupid son of a bitch.”
“Easy, Boss.”
“I’m going to cut his fucking nuts off!”
Nathan knew it was Voda then.
“We need to get the bullet out of your leg and close the wound. You’ve lost a lot of blood.”
“He thinks he can make a move on me? We’ll just see about that.”
“Stay here, Boss. I’m going to grab the medical bag and turn the lights on.”
Nathan heard running footfalls recede toward the offices on the south wall.
They didn’t have more than thirty seconds until the entire warehouse flooded with damning light. The rope might be seen — its dangling form was no more than one hundred feet from the fire-exit door where Voda had entered. They were trapped, and he didn’t know how many men he faced. There were at least two — Voda and the man who’d called to the cat. How many more had come inside? Thugs like Voda tended to surround themselves with plenty of firepower.
Time to move, and the rope was no longer an option. They needed an alternate exit. He led Lauren back toward the X-ray machine and ground-floor doors on the south wall. He knew one of them would lead to the warehouse’s main entrance, but which one? At the end of the aisle, he stopped short and put Lauren on hold again. He felt a trembling hand on his back and turned. In a barely audible whisper, he said, “Become the tough girl. She has no fear.”
Nathan hoped she’d hold it together. If she panicked, he’d have a firefight on his hands, and without knowing his opponent’s numbers, he didn’t like the odds. By himself, he’d have a much better chance of neutralizing everyone in the warehouse, but Lauren’s presence complicated things. He toyed with the idea of putting her on hold while he took care of business, but if he wasn’t successful, Lauren would be at the mercy of Voda and his men — not acceptable.
One thing was certain: he’d never allow them to be captured by that nut job, even if it meant eating bullets. A quick death for Lauren would be infinitely preferable to what Voda had planned for her. He shoved the destructive thought aside.
After turning on the lights, Voda’s man would likely return to the fire-exit door and tend to his wounded boss. Nathan hadn’t seen a master set of light switches but doubted it would be upstairs where Lauren’s shoes were. Since the grappling-hook rope was dark in color and motionless, they might have a few seconds or even minutes before anyone detected it after the lights came on. He also didn’t think Voda would be looking for a rope. He turned off their NV scopes so the warehouse lights wouldn’t ruin the photoelectric plates.
Then it happened.
Without warning, every overhead fixture snapped on.
Even though Nathan had known it was coming, it still chewed at his nerves. Sodium vapor light invaded every square inch of the place, making it look like broad daylight. He held position inside the perimeter aisle and used the pallets of boxes for cover. Peering around the corner of the aisle they were in, he saw Voda’s man emerge through one of the ground-floor doors and hustle back toward the north wall where Voda had entered. He also heard multiple voices coming from Voda’s direction, meaning there were at least three men in here, possibly more. They needed to reach the same doors where Voda’s man had retrieved the medical bag and turned on the lights. But as they moved in that direction, they’d be visible from the far side of the warehouse floor. Voda and an unknown number of his men would have a clear view of them down the long-axis center aisle. Fortunately, they could traverse most of the south wall without being seen. The long rows of boxes screened them from view.
He took Lauren past the X-ray machine along the south wall and stopped short of the central aisle. Moving his head ultraslowly, he looked around the edge of a large cardboard box and saw four men huddled around their leader with some sort of compact assault rifles slung over their shoulders. One of them looked in the direction of the rope and pointed. They all looked.
Voda used a hand signal Nathan recognized. Voda made a peace symbol, pointed at his eyes, and gestured right and left. Voda’s men fanned out in both directions and disappeared from sight.
Seconds counted. With no other option, Nathan sprinted across the main aisle.
He heard Voda’s voice boom through the cavernous space.
“The south wall! Get them!”
With surprising speed, Voda pulled a handgun, took aim, and fired two shots. The staccato reports blasted through the warehouse.
Nathan shoved Lauren forward as Voda’s bullets smashed into the wall behind them and zinged away. Lauren lost her footing and sprawled on the floor.
Nathan fired three suppressed shots down the center aisle, purposely aiming low. He hoped to score a skipping shot off the concrete. Nearly five hundred feet distant, Voda cringed and limped to the left, seeking cover. Shooting at Voda also served to put his adversaries on notice. They now knew they were facing an armed intruder, which would slow them down a little.
Nathan tried the first door.
Locked!
The second door was also locked.
From the sound of their footfalls, Voda’s men were already halfway down the aisles. In less than ten seconds, he’d be facing opponents armed with fully automatic machine guns. Surrender wasn’t an option, and he couldn’t engage Voda’s men without putting Lauren at risk. If this next door was locked, he’d force it open and try to ambush his pursuers.
It opened!
Nathan kicked it closed behind them. Seeing nothing to brace the door, they ran through the entry foyer toward the glass doors leading out to the parking lot.
Nathan saw it right away. The doors were chained through the handles.
This was a one-way trip. They couldn’t go back.
Nathan used the SIG’s suppresser like a hammer to break the tempered pane. He reared back and kicked the aluminum handle. It broke free from its frame and dangled from the chained side. He recalled a nasty memory of cutting his feet on broken glass, but figured his socks would insulate him from the worst of it. He scooped Lauren up and carried her over the shards. Clear of the glass, he set her down and fired a single shot through the door he’d kicked closed after entering the foyer. They began an all-out sprint to the southeast corner of the warehouse.
When they reached the edge of the building, he heard yelling and knew his pursuers were outside. He had to slow them down.
“Stay behind the building!”
Nathan toggled the SIG’s laser, painted the dot on the leading man, and pulled the trigger. He scored a hit. The man shuddered but didn’t go down. Nathan had forgotten about the body armor. Two seconds later, a staccato blast of machine gun fire forced Nathan to duck around the corner. Dozens of slugs careened off the sidewalk and slammed into the building across the street. Exposing only his left arm around the corner, he fired two more shots in the direction of the entrance. He risked a quick look and saw all four men lying prone for cover.
They couldn’t continue toward the Taurus without being in the gun sights of Voda’s men, so he angled across the street, heading for the loading dock of the adjacent warehouse to the east. Lauren remained silent during their sprint, but she was breathing too fast.
&nb
sp; “Lauren, slow your breathing. One breath every five strides.”
“Okay!”
While running, Nathan turned and sent two bullets toward the spot where he’d fired the blind shots around the corner. He figured it might slow Voda’s men by a few extra seconds. If they could just make it to the next warehouse, he knew his pursuers would find an empty street when they reached the corner. They wouldn’t know which way he and Lauren had gone. A few more yards, and they’d be out of sight.
When they reached the safety of the warehouse, he glanced over his shoulder and didn’t see the gunmen. Nathan knew Voda’s men would likely split up and continue the chase.
“Lauren, I want you to reach deep and run as fast as you possibly can.”
“Okay!”
She surprised him with a sudden burst of speed, and he actually fell behind for a few seconds. Rather than continue east toward the wrecking yard, Nathan took Lauren north between two smaller buildings sharing a common loading dock. Without their shoes, they’d have a difficult time managing a prolonged footrace. Also, the machine-gun fire had likely generated 911 calls. The police would be converging on the area.
From somewhere on the opposite side of the building, Nathan heard a man yell and felt confident it was Voda. Would he call off his men and cut his losses or have them continue the pursuit? Nathan believed the former but wouldn’t assume that. Voda had already shown his disregard for caution at the Fashion Valley Mall and in the grocery store parking lot. In Nathan’s mind, this hunt was still active.
He felt his cell vibrate and ignored it.
At the far end of the loading dock, Nathan turned east toward the auto-wrecking yard. If only he could secure a different set of wheels. The problem with auto-wrecking yards was that all the damned autos were wrecked. He shoved the useless thought aside to stay focused.
Lauren seemed okay now. Earlier, she’d been on the verge of hyperventilating. Nathan planned to circle back to the Taurus, but without knowing if Voda’s men were still in pursuit, he’d have to slow his pace and check every blind corner. He turned right at the street paralleling the wrecking yard and was surprised to see there weren’t any cars parked along the curb. They’d have no cover if they ran its length back to the Taurus.
He knew what to do, but it involved some risk. They’d hop the fence and use all the junked cars for cover as they worked their way south. The risk would be from four-legged sentries. The term junkyard dog wasn’t just a colloquialism. They existed, and there could be one or more of them in there. He didn’t like the idea of shooting a dog, but it was vastly preferable to engaging Voda’s men in a firefight.
A cheap, tattered canvas covered the fence of the wrecking yard. Although missing in places, the canvas would offer them additional concealment. He took Lauren across the street to where several nicer-looking cars were parked just inside a small U-shaped area of the fence. He was about to help Lauren scale the barrier, when he felt two pokes.
Lauren pointed to a narrow opening in a vehicle gate where its locking chain didn’t keep it tightly against the post.
“Good eye,” he whispered. “Think you can fit?”
She nodded, turned sideways, and easily slipped through under the chain. Nathan would never make it. His profile was twice Lauren’s. With the duffel still slung over his shoulder, he used the chain as a foothold and climbed over. The chain clinked, but it wasn’t too loud. A noxious odor of motor oil, old tires, and gasoline hung in the air. He took a few seconds to watch the opposite side of the street for any sign of Voda’s men. All quiet.
“Watch and listen for dogs.”
Lauren visibly tensed at the comment and drew her arms against her chest.
“Don’t worry, all they’ll do is bark and raise hell. I won’t let them get close.”
They needed to traverse around a thousand feet to make it back to the Taurus.
Without their shoes, they had to be careful in here. “Use your night vision to look for glass and sharp objects on the ground.”
“It’s turned off.”
He turned their units on. “Focus about three feet in front of you.”
Nathan took them deeper into the yard, where he found a north — south corridor of cars parked hood-to-hood. All of them had varying degrees of accident damage, most of them looking totaled. There wasn’t more than eighteen inches between the cars, but it allowed them to make decent progress. Every so often they had to scramble over a hood to continue. Both of them were rapidly growing filthy with grime and dirt. At roughly the halfway point, Nathan put Lauren on hold and climbed into the bed of a pickup. He eased up just far enough to look over the fence but saw no one.
“You okay?”
She nodded tightly.
“We’ll get through this.”
Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be any dogs patrolling the yard. He saw no prints or scat. Thinking about it more, Nathan realized this place didn’t lend itself well to dogs. It was too confined and would tear up their paws.
They both heard it at the same time. A distant siren.
“We’re going to pick up the pace a little. We need to clear the area before the police get here.” There was no point in telling her a canine unit would probably be coming — in this border area of San Diego, canine units were common.
Nathan abandoned all stealth and began running between the cars whenever possible. He snuck another peek over the fence and determined they were close enough to the street where the Taurus was parked. They climbed over several rows of cars before making it to the perimeter fence. Nathan saw a new problem right away. The top of the chain-link fencing employed sharp, forklike prongs. He worked his way over to a rear-ended SUV that would offer them a good platform for hopping the fence. He saw what he needed inside the vehicle, but he wouldn’t be able to open the door. The SUV was sandwiched between its neighbors.
He kept his voice low. “We need a floor mat.”
Scanning the immediate area, Nathan was amazed that every window of every vehicle was intact. Incredible. He didn’t want to break any glass, because that would make a substantial amount of noise. They didn’t have time for this.
“Lauren, I’m going to take my shirt off. Don’t freak out.”
“What do you mean?”
He scaled the hood of the SUV and looked across the street. There was no sign of Voda or his men. He removed his shirt, folded it half, and placed it on top of the sharp prongs lining the top of the fence.
“What happened to you? All those scars!”
“Come on. Up and over. I’ll hand you the duffel.”
She straddled the fence before dropping to the other side. He lowered the duffel into her arms and climbed over. Lauren gave him the bag, and they ran in a full sprint toward the Taurus. The police siren sounded much closer. They had less than a minute.
At the Taurus, he retrieved the keys from the top of the tire and used the remote to unlock the doors. The car made a damning chirp, and all the parking lights flashed. He’d have to talk to Harv about disabling that feature. He tossed his shirt and duffel into the back but left his NV on. Before starting the engine, he twisted the headlight switch from auto to off.
Nathan believed the police response would be coming from the west, so he backed onto the street paralleling the wrecking yard and accelerated toward Otay Mesa Road. The buildings on his right would screen them from any approaching police units.
“Lauren, look around. Let me know if you see any cars following us.”
“I don’t see anything.”
“Keep looking.”
“Are those scars from when you were tortured?”
“Yes.”
“They’re horrible…”
“Stay focused. Keep looking for cars following us.”
“I will.”
He hadn’t planned on exposing his damaged skin to Lauren, but there’d been little choice. At Otay Mesa Road, he removed his NV, turned on his headlights, and accelerated into the light traffic. Up ahead, he s
aw the flashing light bar of the arriving SDPD unit.
He pulled his cell and handed it to Lauren. “Check the call log.”
Lauren’s voice held a softer tone. “There’s one from Harvey Fontana.”
“Put it on speaker and play the message.”
Harv’s deep baritone survived the tiny speaker. “Call me back as soon as you can.”
Chapter 16
“Should I press call back?”
“That won’t work.” He gave the international code for Turkey, then gave her Harv’s number.
Harv answered on the third ring. “What’s your status?”
“You’re on speaker. Lauren’s with me. We’re just leaving the warehouse.”
“What’d you find in there?”
He turned right on Otay Mesa and relayed what they’d seen: the portable X-ray machine, the typewriter, and the Bolivian passports.
“The X-ray machine’s probably related to Voda’s smuggling operations,” Harv said. “The passports are a tougher call, but they might be connected to the border murders case. It sounds like all the passport photos fit the descriptions of the victims. The question becomes, why would he need them? Illegals are inherently untraceable.”
“Yeah, I thought of that.”
“Have you made heads or tails of those hand-typed numbers?”
“Not yet.”
The police cruiser they’d heard earlier screamed by.
“Is that for you?” Harv asked.
“Voda’s men aren’t overly concerned about using automatic weapons in public.”
“What happened to avoiding more firefights until I get there?”
“I feel a lecture coming.”
“If I thought it would do any good…”
“We’re heading to La Jolla for a change of clothes. We’re both trashed.”
“Last I checked, you don’t have any twelve-year-old girls’ attire in your closet, unless there’s something you haven’t told me.”
Lauren smiled at the lighthearted comment.
“Cute, Harv. We’ll wash them. There’s something I didn’t mention when we had Holly on the three-way call. I confiscated a cell phone from the gunman at the grocery store. I haven’t had a chance to look through it, but I will once we arrive at the house.”
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