Authors: T C Archer
Cole looked through the glasses again and shifted slightly left, brushing his arm against Jesse’s shoulder. She resisted the urge to rub back.
“
Those railings are supported by Doric columns topped with an eight-inch thick cap,” he said. “We should be able to grab the columns and climb over. How about the locks?”
“
Lever system. They lock from the inside, but we can get in using a plastic card.”
“
What about electronic security?” he asked.
“
The electric service out here is unreliable, so he didn’t have one installed.”
“
Not even surveillance cameras?”
“
No. He has floodlights under the eaves. My guess is they’ll turn on when there’s an alarm. There’s a search light in the three-story turret at the center of the compound.”
Cole lowered the glasses and looked at her. “He doesn’t seem concerned about security. You sure he’s in Perez’s pocket?”
“
Perez is the best security system in the world.”
Cole grunted. “True. We go in when he heads to the maid’s room?”
Jesse glanced at the sun. “Yeah. It’ll be dark in two hours. But we’ll keep a close watch on the guards, make sure everything’s what it’s supposed to be.”
“
What are we looking for?” Cole asked.
“
Anything that looks like it might connect to Perez: an address, bank statements, phone numbers, internet addresses.”
Cole lifted the binoculars back to his eyes. Jesse adjusted her position slightly. The airlink sniffer dug into her ribs.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Jesse cursed the full moon. Only shadows were distinguishable within the palm and banyan trees where she and Cole crouched beside the wall outside Menendez’s hacienda. Once they got over the wall it would be a different story. The bright moonlight could prove a huge liability.
Cole leaned a shoulder against the wall and cupped his hands between his knees. Jesse stepped into his laced fingers and he hoisted her up. She gingerly ran her fingers along the top of the wall until she found two spots devoid of embedded glass shards and pulled herself up. She peered over the wall at the mansion. The light in Menendez’s study glowed through the curtains of double French doors. She scanned the grounds for guards, found the area deserted, then lifted herself onto the wall. Two seconds, Cole had hoisted himself up beside her, and they dropped onto the ground.
He pointed to his eyes, then pointed to either side of a gnarled banyan tree with a trunk ten feet thick, meaning he’d keep watch from the cover of the tree as she ran ahead. Jesse ran to the right and Cole to the left. She hurried around the tree, crawled under a low palm and halted. Palm trees dotted the grounds. To her left, Cole emerged at the base of a pigmy palm twenty feet away. He opened his hand, palm down, indicating all clear from his vantage point.
A shadow, then a red ember flared in Jesse’s peripheral vision. She pressed closer to the tree as a man with a machine gun slung over his shoulder ambled along the path that encircled the house. The cigarette he drew on burned red hot at the tip. He might as well be a flashing lighthouse in the darkness. The guard abruptly turned on his heel and strolled back the way he’d come. Once he disappeared around the corner of the house, Jesse turned to Cole and pointed at the mansion.
He sprinted across the yard, running low from tree to tree. Jesse followed, dodging two palms, then a third, before reaching the south wall of the mansion behind Cole. She sidled between bushes shading the foundation, hugged her back to the wall, then pressed the audio button on her watch. “Twenty-three, fourteen,” the voice said. Another fifteen minutes before Menendez left for his rendezvous with his lover.
Cole reached into the side pocket of his ops vest, withdrew the cell phone scrambler, switched it on, and laid it between the bushes and the house. The light in the study went dark. He exchanged a glance with her, then stepped from the bushes and linked his fingers for another boost up. Within the bushes, Jesse pretended to swat a bug on her ankle and snapped off the cell phone scrambler.
She squeezed through the bushes, then grasped his shoulder and stepped into his cupped hands. He launched her upward. She was airborne for an instant, then threw both arms around one of the thick columns that supported the balcony railing. She shimmied up the stone baluster, adrenaline pounding through her veins.
Jesse reached the railing, wrapped her arms around the cold stone, and tapped her feet together. Cole leaped, caught hold of her right ankle, then grabbed her left. She felt the strain in her arm and healing shoulder muscles as she pulled him up with her legs until he reached the bottom lip of the balcony.
He grabbed the balcony lip. With the sudden release of dead weight, she scrambled over the railing, followed by Cole. They hit the stone balcony noiselessly, paused for a split second, then rushed to opposite corners near the house. Jesse tensed in anticipation of the guard who would be patrolling the section of ground below in three minutes or less.
Two minutes later, steps sounded to the right. A guard stopped, waited for a few seconds, then returned the way he came. Jesse glanced at Cole. He nodded at the doors. She sidled to the double French doors and tried the handle. Locked. She squatted, and pulled out a stiff plastic card from her front pocket, then worked it between the doors until the latch popped. She stepped inside the study with Cole inches behind.
Jesse donned the UV glasses. The interior lit up in a blue glow around her. A second later, another glow appeared around Cole. He faced her, two brilliant points of light shined from the temple hinges. She pulled her glasses down her nose and peered over the frame. The room was pitch-black with no sign of visible light from Cole’s glasses.
Jesse pushed the glasses up and scanned the room. A massive oak desk and two carved guest chairs dominated the left side of the room. The Persian rug reminded her of the one in her grandfather’s dining room. To the right, four armchairs encircled a coffee table. The odor of cigar smoke hung in the air. Floor to ceiling bookcases lined the walls, broken by an eight-by-five-foot, solid wood door. The high ceiling and the corners of the room lay in shadow, revealing the range limit of the UV glasses. Dammit, no computer.
“
I’ll take the desk,” Jesse whispered into the mic.
Cole nodded and headed toward the big door. “I’ll comb the bookcases.”
She headed for the desk. The judge had a Tiffany banker’s lamp and hand-carved humidor for his cigars. Only the best for high-paid criminals. Jesse reached into her vest as she dropped to a squat beside the desk, pulled out the air link sniffer and hit the on button. Three lights lit, then two went dark, leaving only the power indicator lit. She glanced over the top of the desk. Cole faced away from her thumbing through books.
Jesse looked back at the sniffer. A second green light now glowed.
The sniffer had located a cell-phone signal.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Jesse forced a slow breath in an effort to slow her pounding heart and pushed the sniffer under the desk until it touched the back, then stood. A dozen legal-sized documents were stacked in two neat piles on the desk. She rifled the pages and found common court proceedings. A tug on the top drawer found it locked. She retrieved her lock picks and got to work.
She had the drawer open in fifteen seconds; meanwhile, Cole had worked his way through three of the bookcases. The top drawer of the desk held pens, pencils, and paperclips. Jesse halted. An address book. Adrenaline pumped through her. She cast a glance at Cole. Still busy with the books. She opened the address book to P. No Perez. She set the book on the desk and began snapping photos of each page.
Five minutes later, she was rifling through the bottom drawer when Cole whispered over the radio, “A safe.”
Jesse turned. He squatted before an open cabinet at the bottom of a bookcase. The UV light illuminated a small safe about eighteen inches square. She hurried to the desk and squatted beside Cole. The safe was a low-end Englemier, with a four-tumbler dial lock. She removed her glasses to save battery power, then nudged Cole with her hip. He scooted aside, then she shifted to her knees in front of the safe and rotated the dial two turns right, then two turns left. The mechanism hadn’t been well maintained in the humid tropical climate. The tumblers vibrated under her fingers.
She rubbed her fingers together to get the blood flowing, then pressed an ear to the safe and slowly turned the dial, sensing even before she felt each tic of the tumbler. First three turns to the right, and felt the first tumbler engage. To the left, the drag of the first tumbler gave her hope. She rotated the dial two full turns and missed the second tumbler on the way around. Cole’s warm breath bathed her neck. A shiver raced down her back.
Five minutes later, the last tumbler clicked into place. She looked at Cole and twisted the lever, her gaze locked with his as the door opened without a sound. He gave a nod of appreciation.
Jesse donned the eyeglasses and reached inside. On the top shelf, she found a million in pesos, ten thousand American dollars, a dozen bearer bonds, and a small jewelry box. The bottom of the safe held a stack of expandable legal folders. A folder contained the judge’s will and family birth certificates. She motioned for Cole to photograph the documents. Deeds to his various properties, stocks, more bonds, bank statements and incorporation documents filled other folders. Another ten minutes, and they’d photographed all the documents. Jesse returned the folders to the safe in the order in which she’d found them, closed the door, and spun the lock.
The light from Cole’s glasses flickered, then extinguished. Out of power, and hers were next. She checked her watch. Twenty-seven minutes. They had been there too long.
Footsteps sounded in the hall.
Jesse and Cole shot to their feet. The footfalls stopped at the study door and they exchanged glances. Jesse swallowed the fear that lodged in her throat. Cole dashed toward the balcony doors.
A key jiggled in the door lock.
No time to retrieve the sniffer or lock the desk drawer. She rushed toward the balcony. A loose page fluttered off the desk as she passed.
The doorknob turned.
Jesse dove onto the balcony. Cole eased the door shut and the study light snapped on as they dove for opposite corners of the balcony. She yanked off the glasses and stuffed them in an inside vest pocket. A door closed inside the room. No sound of footfalls on the carpeted floor. She peered through a gap in the curtains. Menendez’s butler, Alfonzo, stood in the doorway looking around the room.
She tensed as his gaze settled on the paper that had fallen to the floor. He walked to the paper, picked it up, then slowly looked around the room before placing it on top of the documents on the desk. Jesse’s heart pounded. Had she closed the desk drawers? She had pushed the sniffer under the desk against its back wall, but if Alfonzo stepped left, the green lights might catch his attention.
He took three steps to the coffee table and reached inside his breast pocket. Jesse unsnapped the safety strap on the Beretta at her hip, then paused when he produced a white handkerchief. In what appeared to be an automatic reaction, he picked up the ashtray, stepped to the desk and dumped ashes into the trashcan beside the desk, then began polishing it. His gaze swept the room.
Jesse’s mouth went dry.
He knows.
Out the corner of her eye, she saw Cole motion to leave. She shook her head, then returned her attention to Alfonzo as he set the ashtray on the coffee table. He headed for the balcony doors. She pulled back against the wall. A second later, the door handle jiggled.
Jesse swung her gaze onto Cole. He gripped his gun with both hands, the weapon pointed skyward beside his head. Now, who was the one ready with guns blazing? The door handle stilled. Jesse counted off ten seconds before the room went dark. The study door closed with a soft click.
She glanced at Cole. He held up a fist and nodded at the balcony doors. He was right. Alfonso might still be in the room. She nodded, then pressed the talk button on her watch. “Twenty-three, forty-two,” the watch cooed into her earpiece.
Jesse pulled back against the wall. Time for the guard to make another round. She caught Cole’s attention, pointed to her watch, then down at the ground. He melted back into the corner and they waited. The guard came and went. No one burst from the study. Her heart slowed.
“
Let’s move out,” Cole said.
Jesse shook her head. She pulled the glasses from her vest. “We didn’t find anything. I have to finish the desk.”
She started to turn, but Cole grabbed her arm. “I don’t like it.”
“
You forget, I’m Blue Team, covert-ops. This is my expertise.”
He didn’t release her.
“
This is our only shot.” She put the glasses on. “I’ve got a few minutes of power left and I’m not leaving until I’ve found what I’m looking for or run out of juice.”
He hesitated, then nodded.
Jesse unstrapped her Beretta and pulled it from the holster, then nodded. Cole slid his plastic card between the doors. She held her breath in the seconds it took him to disengage the lock. When he soundlessly eased the bolt back and inched the door open, she stepped inside, weapon ready. The glow from her glasses swept across an empty room.