Page 20 of Own

The gun in close quarters would deafen the man, but I wanted his guards down. Then we had all four of them in the elevator. One elbow to Suitcase’s jaw and he went down. The other three collapsed at our feet.

“Switch,” Voodoo said to Lunchbox who was already pulling out the darts he’d readied for this. He stabbed each one of them swiftly, one in the neck and two others in their arms. He glared down at Reznik, then stabbed him behind the ear.

It was hardly going to kill them. As much as I wouldn’t mind beating Reznik to death, I’d rather see him spend the rest of his life in a cage.

Soon, I promised myself.

We took the elevator down to the control room level and the guys were out, leaving our passengers in the wedged open space. I passed the gun to Voodoo and trusted them to have my back as I got the control room open.

The techs inside weren’t top level security and they ran as soon as they saw us. “Server room,” I told Lunchbox and he corralled them in there. I spat out the gum I’d been chewing and used it to secure a magnet under the console.

It was a fast job, but I ran wires to it from the three nearest consoles. The screens were all playing a saver. Smart techs had already logged us out.

That was fine. I slid a flash drive into a server rack at the back, leaving it while I wired another magnet to the front console. As soon as I was done, I yanked out the thumb drive before I smashed the button over the fire alarm and yanked it.

The sound was ear splitting, but it would ripple upwards to the hotel and down to the casino.

“Done,” I called and we left the control room and headed past the open elevator and to the service stairs. We took them three at a time, and climbed back up to ground level, then up three more levels to guest floors.

I used one of the keycards I’d collected to open the door to the hotel room hall. We were stripping suit jackets and ties. With one hard tug, I pulled the bloodied shirt off over my head.

There was a laundry cart mid-way down the hall and we deposited the clothes in that one. Weapons went in a trash cart farther down. Voodoo grabbed a master key off one of the maid carts wedged into a door. The alarms hadn’t gone off up here?—

Then right on cue, they sounded. We were already in another room. I went through the closet. “Nope.”

We gave it a beat then went to another. The search turned up fresh shirts. They would fit. No pants.

That was fine, I’d rather wear my own. There was a baseball cap in the suitcase and I tucked it over my head. There was also a jeweler’s box and I popped it open. The sapphire bracelet inside was stunning.

Tempting.

But I left it. I could buy Gracie one of her own. I snagged the backpack though and shoved a couple of fresh shirts inside it and the shaving kit. At the rate we were going, we were going to need it.

I made sure there were no trackers in the bag then slung it over my shoulder. We needed to move. As long as the adrenaline was pumping, the aches in my right leg were tolerable.

Lunchbox opened the door and scanned the hall before he motioned to us. “Let’s go.”

The fire alarm would lock down the elevators, so we headed for the fire stairs on the far end from where we’d come up and we fell in with the other guests descending to get out.

Going up was always easier on my leg than down, but I ignored the jolt shooting up from my knee with each step. Security was everywhere on the ground floor trying to keep the chaos in check.

We split apart, moving steadily but separately. I took a woman’s elbow and her bag to “help” her. Lunchbox was ushering an older couple ahead of him, particularly the man who seemed to be struggling to catch his breath. Voodoo had his phone to his ear and a violent expression that kept everyone away from him.

It took us less than fifteen minutes from leaving that room to walk away from the hotel, the security, and the crowds as local authorities poured in. They were going to have a hell of a time explaining this mess.

Opening another piece of gum, I popped it into my mouth and limped my way toward the Monte Carlo station. They might be looking for three guys, they wouldn’t be looking as closely at individuals. While Reznik had our IDs, he’d also been unconscious, with a broken nose, and probably nursing a concussion.

Couldn’t happen to a better guy.

We had twelve out of twelve bidders photographed. At least half that many were already ID’d. I’d have the others as soon as I could sit down and decrypt the images I’d taken. The uv-reactive serum made them traceable, at least for a time.

If they were smart, which everything pointed to them being, they’d check themselves for something and the reactivity would keep them on lockdown for a couple of days.

Enough to buy us some time to regroup. By the time I got to the station, Voodoo sat at a table eating a burger and looking like a Magnum PI reject in his Hawaiian shirt, dark sunglasses, and smirk. He must have grabbed it on the way in, cause there were no cafes in here.

Shaking my head, I snagged my own mealafterI hit the ticket office. There were three trains departing over the next ninety minutes. I booked the one leaving after those three.Lingering would send any trackers in the wrong direction and on the wrong trains.

I found the Starbucks right outside, and got a coffee and a sandwich before I headed back in. The lack of my laptop had me itchy. Still, we’d get it back after we got to Marseille and picked up our gear from that station.

---