Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
W ith his voice low, Tai tells us, “They came in dressed in chef’s whites. They must have stolen swipe cards from someone but I can’t see how they got past the biometric security checks. What I saw on the security recordings, they don’t look like any of the staff.”
We decide to split up. Tai heads off toward the service corridors.
Alessio and I draw guns and Tai pulls out a long knife with a wide, vicious blade and we start to prowl the corridors.
Alessio is getting ready to head down to the restrooms when I hear a sound. A fast movement. Two men in chef’s whites run out of the locker room and down a hallway. They’re wearing paper protective face-masks.
Alessio and I turn after them. We rack our weapons as we run. He shouts into his watch, giving details to his security detail.
We turn a corner after the men. Too late, I realize,
“It’s a trap.”
When the two men in whites reach the end of the hallway, they turn. There’s nowhere to for us go.
In a blur, Alessio and I both dive. We slide on the tiled floor. Guns up. Firing straight ahead. Bullets rip in a hail into the chef’s tunics. I shout,
“Body armor!”
The men have their weapons up and ready. Alessio and I keep firing.
Alessio rolls and shoves me aside, against the wall. He skids in front of me, rising on one knee. Body-blocking. Shielding me completely. But now he’s the target and I can’t see past him.
He still has his motorcycle helmet on his arm, on the crook of his shoulder. He holds that out, in front of his body. It means that he only has one hand to fire. However skillful he is with the helmet, he’s bound to catch a bullet.
I feel like the world plunges into slow motion. Like a dive in a dark pool. My heart pounds, but I feel the rhythm of the beat.
With the gunmen protected by Kevlar, only their wrists and ankles are reliable target zones. They both have strong firing stances. Feet parted, weigh balanced.
Still firing, I roll to the other side of the corridor. My plan is to draw fire and confuse them, but they’re too well trained.
Almost immediately, the one on the left tracks and shoots at me. The other is still firing at Alessio.
But I see his forearm is exposed. Taking as slow a breath I can, I wait for my heartbeat and squeeze on the trigger. the Sig Sauer jolts hard in my hand. I feel the pull, up and right.
I don’t wait for the result, I know that shot was clean. I aim at the ankle of the one on the left. Before he can fix a solid aim on me, I get two shots off. The small burst in the wall behind his leg tells me I missed.
I reverse my roll. I can’t afford to be still. Not for an instant.
But I see his gun steady. It’s aimed right at my chest.
From beside me, Alessio’s gun sparks. A tiny cloud of dust and sparks bursts from the gunman’s weapon. The gun shakes as it spits fire. A shower of bullets whistles and whines as they whip past me.
Alessio springs to his feet. He runs hard and fast down the corridor, firing two handed.
I get up and run as fast as I can behind him. He’s deliberately blocking my way though. Still acting as a shield.
My heart aches for him. I love him for doing it. I wish he would give e a clear line of fire, though.
His foot pounds the floor. He runs like a truck at the two men.
He’s shielding me. I can see that he’s aiming and firing at the one on the left. the one who targeted me. I scored a hit on the other shooter’s dominant arm. He slides down the wall but, as he does, he’s taking the big machine pistol in the other hand.
I want to be sure that we get at least one of these men alive, but saving Alessio is more important.
Aiming at the man’s hand, I squeeze the trigger. Three times. I miss the hand, but all three shots go under his arm, into the side of his chest.
He jerks and slams back into the wall. As he crumples down, he leaves a long red smear behind him.
We won’t be getting any information out of him.
Alessio is on top of the other shooter. He slams the man’s gun hand against the wall. He slams the barrel of his gun against the man’s wrist and fires. Then he jams the gun up, into the gunman’s chin.
“Say something, motherfucker. Say something right now that will make me not kill you.”
The man’s voice is choked and strangled.
“What do you want?”
While I kick the weapon away from the other man for safety, I shout, “Who sent you? Who’s paying?”
Sounding like he’s gargling, the man says, “I don’t know.”
Alessio tells him, “Wrong answer. Try again?”
“The contract came through the dark web. There’s no way to know who’s on the other end.”
Alessio smiles, “Then an entertaining death is all that you have to offer me.”
The gun barks. Behind the man’s head, a wide splash of red sprays the wall.
“So, what happened, Tai?”
Alessio and I are on Tai’s bare chairs, back in the big office. Two tribal wall hangings are all the luxury he permits himself. He doesn’t drink, so we’re taking tonic water, too.
“Four men came in. Somehow they got in past security. One of them got away.”
I say, “We have fingerprint and face biometrics here, don’t we?”
“We do for staff.” All three of us know it, but Tai goes over it again. “For guests, we mainly rely on the facial biometric.”
Alessio says, “That’s a pretty advanced system, though.”
Tai nods. I’m familiar with it. Carlo demonstrated it to me. Guests don’t want to feel like they’re being tracked and monitored, so the biometric cameras are discrete. For that reason, there are a lot of checks, including earlobe and iris scans.
Tai says, “These didn’t come in as guests, though. They were all wearing chef’s uniforms.”
Alessio asks him, “What was the damage?”
“They robbed everyone in the restaurant and bar area. Took jewelry, watches, wallets, and phones. Plus key fobs for their cars, although most people don’t drive here. Our clients are usually driven.”
I’m shaking my head. “That’s bad enough, though.”
“That’s not the worst of it, unfortunately. They robbed everyone in the Number Four cards room, too.”
That’s a shock.
Under his breath, Alessio says, “The Number Four?”
That’s where the high-stakes poker tables are. All cash. And invitation only.
“The two you found in the corridor? They came in and went straight to Poker Room Four.”
Alessio’s eyes are stunned and angry. Like mine. How could an outsider even know about that room?
I ask Tai, “The one that got away?”
“He had a motorbike rider waiting outside. He took the sacks from the other three with him.”
We don’t say anything more in front of Tai, except to express sympathy and reassurances. I can see it in his face, though. He can see what this means.
If he didn’t known that we had a rat before, he certainly does now. A rat that has travelled a long way through our organization.
Before we leave, Tai gets a fresh update. His men have combed through the CCTV.
“Rubber fingerprints and medical face masks got through the biometrics.”
Alessioand I both frown. Tai looks uncomfortable as he goes on. “It was set with an override for facemasks.” Oh, no. “Looks like that never got switched back out.”
Under my breath, I say, “Seriously?”
Alessio shakes his head, “Insane, right?”
Tai doesn’t believe that, no more than we do. I’ll have Mikey and Carlo make a thorough review of the security systems. And all of the security personnel.
Something is not right here.