CHAPTER 73
Cassiopeia caught sight of Monica Butler-White on the ground level. She motioned to Cotton, who was at the far end of the second-level pathway that led around the stern of the Vasa.
He understood her perfectly.
That was their target.
And he confirmed that with a nod of his head.
“The guy approaching Monica,” Koger said in his ear, “is Aleks. And Sandra has just arrived.”
Stephanie kept her eyes glued on the monitor as Sandra entered the main area of the museum and approached Aleks and Monica.
“Do we have audio,” Stephanie asked.
Koger switched on the receiver for the wire Sandra was wearing now that it was in range.
That had been a non-negotiable point, but Sandra had not objected.
More of the stuff that really seemed important to her.
She’d actually been thrilled to finally be back in operation, no matter the risk she was taking.
“Do you think she knows her life may be in danger?” she asked Koger.
“Not a clue.”
“You care?”
“Not in the least. You play with fire, you get burned. She’s a traitor.”
A hard truth, but the truth nonetheless.
Sandra’s fate would be a jail cell for the rest of her life.
True, they would debrief her ad nauseam, extracting every piece of information they could, but none of that would forgive what she’d done.
Unlikely the Russians would ever trade for her.
That was the problem with turncoats. The one you turned on hated you and the one you turned to never trusted you.
“You and I both know that a bullet to her head would be merciful,” Koger said.
Another hard truth.
The door to the security room opened and one of the uniformed guards stepped inside. Koger walked over and they spoke in whispers while she kept watch on the screens that filled the wall before her.
The guard left.
“Two men have entered the building through a rear exit,” Koger said. “One of the custodial staff let them in, thinking they were here on business. The security people want to know what we want to do. I told him we would handle it.”
He activated the walkie-talkie. “Okay, listen up.”
Cotton reacted to Koger’s information.
We have two uninvited visitors back in the work areas. Probably headed your way. Find them.
He hustled forward, past the Vasa’s bow, to a metal door marked in Swedish and English.
EMPLOYEES ONLY.
And eased the door open.
Cassiopeia was toward the Vasa’s stern. Cotton was to her right on the third level with her, but more toward the bow.
The three targets remained at ground level on the ship’s port side, currently out of view.
But Koger and Stephanie were monitoring what was occurring there.
Cotton was dealing with one problem, heading through a metal door.
She had to deal with the other, so she stepped to a metal door marked EMPLOYEES ONLY.
And turned the lever.
Cotton stepped through the doorway and allowed the panel to quietly close behind him.
He stood in a small corridor that surely led to the back bowels of the museum, where staff and maintenance people toiled out of sight of visitors.
To his left a staircase led up and he heard the peppering of footsteps ricochet off the concrete-block walls.
One of the men?
He started up, careful with his feet, staying quiet.
He heard a door open and close.
Then silence.
He hustled up the risers that right-angled their way toward the museum’s roof.
Before reaching the top he came to a small landing where another metal door led out.
No choice. He had to risk a peek. He gripped the handle and carefully twisted it open, exposing a one-inch view of the world beyond, which opened out into the museum and the bow of the ship.
Right past the door was a metal catwalk attached to the inner stone wall.
Some sort of service area for the stage lights that illuminated the ship.
Wrought-iron screening formed a waist-high railing that blocked any views of below.
The door moved to the outside left and he was afraid to open it any further, which meant there was no way to see to the far left where the catwalk stretched.
Then he heard it.
A zipper being worked.
Somebody was out there to the left of the door.
He eased the door closed.
“Got mine in sight,” he whispered into the mic.
Cassiopeia allowed the metal door to gently close.
She’d climbed a set of metal stairs and found herself at a small landing with an exit door, then a final flight of stairs that led up to the roof.
She’d already risked a look past the door and determined that someone was out on the catwalk.
Cotton had one of the intruders toward the bow of the ship.
She had the other at the stern. Both of whom had sought out and taken the highest ground in the room.
“Got mine too,” she whispered. “Now what?”