Page 62 of Out of Control

“Lena would have had it, along with his cell phone and wallet.” Drago looked around the apartment, measuring its internal dimensions and comparing them to the external dimensions of the building.

“What are you thinking, Dray? I can hear your mental wheels turning.”

“I’m thinking about hidey-holes.”

Spencer fell silent as well.

Simultaneously they both said, “The kitchen closet.”

They moved over to the tiny space, which didn’t quite fill the corner of the building, and peered inside.

“Should we empty the shelves?” Spencer asked. “There’s a lot of stuff in there. It’s gonna be rough to get it all back into the spot it was in before. We’ll have to take pictures and then reproduce the storage.”

“I expect Fayez wouldn’t have wanted to do that every single time he accessed his hidey-hole. Let’s look for hinges or something that swings the shelves open.”

It was tight for both of them inside the closet with the door closed, but that way they could turn on the overhead bulb and actually see what the hell they were doing. It only took a few seconds before Spencer muttered, “Got it. There’s a hinge up here.”

Drago squatted to search for a matching hinge below the bottom shelf. “Yup. Another hinge down here. Now to find the latch.”

That took a little longer and turned out to be covered by a bit of wood mounted on a spring. Drago pressed inward and was able to hook his fingers around the latch to lift it. The entire shelf swung toward them.

They squeezed into the hidden space, a tiny room perhaps three feet wide and six feet long.

Drago stared at the newspaper clippings, maps, and blueprints tacked up on the walls. A tiny table held two laptop computers and a dozen cheap cell phones.

“Holy cow,” Spencer breathed.

As for Drago, he frowned. “How come one of Hamza’s boys didn’t come over here and clean all this stuff out after Fayez was killed?”

“Maybe Hamza doesn’t know where Khoury lived. Or maybe Fayez kept this hidey-hole to himself and never told any of his buddies about it.” Spencer added, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, my dude. This is a hell of a windfall.”

“Understatement of the century,” Drago added. “Go get me a pillowcase, will you? We have to take this equipment with us and get it to forensics guys who can find out what all this is. I’ll get started photographing the walls.”

It took him over an hour just to capture high-quality images of everything in Fayez’s secret room. It rapidly became clear that Fayez had still been part of some active terror cell and that he was probably one of its primary planners.

A half-dozen targets in various world capitals had been researched in folders crammed with notes and documents, and detailed information on each was also posted on the walls.

Finally, they were ready to take the files, laptops, and phones and go. Spencer put the phones in the pillowcase and unplugged the first computer.

The faintest of hissing noises started. Had it not been late at night and the city outside mostly quiet, he’d never have heard it.

“Possible trap,” Drago called out. “Let’s go!”

Spencer grabbed the other laptop and followed him out of the space fast. A faint smell of natural gas became detectable.

“Gas leak,” he bit out. They dove out the apartment front door and raced down the interior staircase, shouting for anyone in the building to get out. A few squatters stumbled out behind them. They had to hope that was everyone in the building. There was no time to search it floor by floor.

They herded everyone toward the front door, and Drago impatiently hoisted the last stumbling stoned person down the last flight of stairs.

He heard awhooshabove him. Shoved the addict out the front door onto the street.

A rumbling, thunderlike noise rolled over his head.

“Hurry!” Spencer cried over his shoulder.

As Drago dove out the front door to the pavement, a tremendous explosion slammed into him, knocking him flat on his face and deafening him.

Searing heat poured down on his back, and he shoved himself upright, frantically looking for Spencer. He was just ahead, also just pushing up onto his hands and knees. Drago raced forward, grabbed Spencer’s arm, and dragged him upright.

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