Brett Battles - Shadow of Betrayal

“How did you know you weren’t supposed to go through that door?”

“Shit. I don’t know … I just know it, okay?”

“Not okay, Al. How did you know?”

Al closed his eyes. “Goddammit,” he said under his breath.

“Al.” The sharp tone of Quinn’s voice brought the man back into the here and now.

“He told me, all right? He told me about the room.”

“Who?”

“Mr. Monroe,” Al said. “Who else?”

“What exactly did Mr. Monroe tell you about the room?” Quinn asked.

“That it was dangerous. You’d die if you went in there.”

“So you never tried to see for yourself?”

“Hell no,” the man said. “He made it very clear if you went in there, you wouldn’t come out. He was right, too. Jesus, what a mess.”

“And you didn’t stay around to see if she might need any help?” Quinn asked.

“A fall like that, I figured she was dead. Didn’t want to be here when the cops came and found her.”

“So you left.”

“Yeah.”

“Where’d you go?” Quinn asked.

Al hesitated.

“You went to a bar, didn’t you?”

Al moved his gaze away from Quinn, then nodded. “I needed a drink, you know?”

“Why’d you do that?”

“Mr. Monroe is not going to be happy about this,” Al said. “I was going to get the hell out of here, then I passed the bar, and decided getting drunk would be a first good step.”

“You don’t seem drunk.”

Al licked his lips like he wished there was a bottle nearby. “I stopped after three.”

“Why?”

“Got to thinking about that woman.”

“You felt guilty and decided to come back and check on her?”

“Something like that.”

“Or did you decide you wanted to see if she had anything valuable on her you could hock?”

Al pushed himself up on his elbows, his head shaking side to side. “No. That wasn’t it. Like you said before. I wanted to make sure she was all right. I may be kind of on a downswing, you know, but I ain’t a thief. Never been a thief.”

“So what happened when you came back?” Quinn asked.

“You hear me? I’m not a thief.”

“I heard you. Tell me what you found when you returned.”

Al bit his lower lip, then took a deep breath. “I… I could tell someone else had been here. There were lots of footprints in the hallway. They weren’t there before. When I looked down into the room, I didn’t see the woman anywhere. Figured someone had come and gotten her.”

“So you decided then it was okay to stay? Your boss is still going to find out about the mess.”

“I know that! I went back upstairs to pack my things. I was sitting around wondering if I could stay the night or should just leave. That’s when I heard you all down here.”

Quinn stood. “You can get up, but I wouldn’t move around much.”

Quinn nodded toward Orlando and Nate, then made the shape of a gun with his fingers, and moved his thumb back and forth a couple of times like he was shooting. The look in Al’s eyes told him the caretaker was going to be very cooperative.

Quinn moved down the hallway so that he was out of Al’s earshot, then pulled out his phone and called Peter.

“Find anything?” Peter said.

“Your agent was a woman,” Quinn said.

“I never told you otherwise.”

Quinn was silent for a moment. “She was looking in the wrong room.”

“What do you mean?”

Quinn described the door Orlando found.

“You think you can get in without tripping any explosives?”

“There might be a way. But people will know someone’s been there. I won’t be able to cover it up.”

Peter didn’t even hesitate. “Do it.”

“Fine,” Quinn said. “Then what would you like me to do with the eyewitness?”

“What eyewitness?” Peter asked, surprised.

Quinn smiled to himself. Didn’t expect that, did you, Peter? “Says his name is Al Barker. Said he saw your agent go into the room just before the explosion.”

“He was there?”

“Says he left right after.”

“Describe him.”

Quinn gave him a quick snapshot of Al’s vitals.

The tone of Peter’s voice changed from one of surprise and concern to one of controlled anger. “Hold him there. I’m sending someone to pick him up.”

“All right,” Quinn said. “You can probably get a description of this Monroe guy out of him, but I doubt much more.”

“Find anything else I should know about?”

“No. That’s it.”

Peter hung up.

“Please,” Al said. “Don’t open it. We’ll die like that lady did.”

They’d brought Al and Nate with them when they returned to the other doorway. Once Al saw where they were going, he’d tried to stop walking. But Nate’s gun in his back was enough of a prod to keep him moving forward.

“Do you know what’s behind this?” Quinn asked the caretaker.

“No,” Al said. “Always been locked. You should leave it that way.”

“I’m planning on it.”

Quinn picked up the two-by-four he’d left on the floor earlier.

“Move him back a few feet,” Quinn said.

His apprentice nodded, then pulled Al out of Quinn’s swing zone.

“What are you going to do with that?” Al asked.

Quinn held on to the middle of the two-by-four with one hand, and wrapped the other hand around the end pointed away from the wall. He pulled it back high behind his head, then swung it forward. Like a battering ram, the two-by-four smashed into the soft spot of the wall.

There was a loud crack as the plaster and the wooden slats beneath it shattered under the force of the blow.

“Hey! Stop it,” Al said. “Mr. Monroe is going to be pissed.”

“According to you, Mr. Monroe is already pissed,” Quinn said. He pulled the two-by-four back, raising it high again. “What’s behind the door?”

“I don’t know! I swear!”

Quinn drove the board into the wall again.

“Ah, man,” Al said. “No one’s supposed to go in there.”

“What’s inside, Al?”

Al’s shoulders slumped. “You might as well finish it. I don’t know.”

Instead of taking another large swing, Quinn began punching his ram into the wall, over and over, until there was a hole approximately two feet in diameter passing all the way into the room beyond. It was just big enough to stick his head through. He set the board on the ground, then held out his hand to Orlando. She gave him one of the flashlights.

Letting the light lead the way, he leaned in.

At first it didn’t look much different from the room Peter’s agent had nearly died in. The notable exception was the floor. Though it was lower than the level of floor in the hallway, it was only by a couple feet, not twenty.

The wall across the room from the hole appeared to be made of concrete. The exterior wall, he guessed.

The wall to his right was closest to his position, about five feet away. It appeared to be constructed of the same material as the wall he’d busted through: slats and plaster. Long ago, someone had painted a red stripe at waist level along the entire side, but it was faded now. Given a few more years, it might not even be noticeable.

Stacked along the far side to the left were several cardboard boxes. Judging from the water stains on the sides and the way they sagged into each other, they appeared to have been there a long time.

Nothing obvious caught his attention. Certainly nothing that would have warranted locking the door. Perhaps it was another red herring. Perhaps the whole building was nothing but something to throw Peter’s people off the track of whatever it was they were working on.

Quinn moved the light all the way to the left so he could get a look at the door. He scanned up and down twice, then pulled back out of the hole and straightened up.

“Anything?” Orlando asked.

“The door’s wired,” he said. “There’s a block of something on the floor with some wires leading from it and running up the jamb.”

“So what are they trying to hide?” she asked.

“Good question. There’re some old boxes stacked against the wall, but that’s about it. And even those don’t look promising.”

Quinn thought for a moment, then picked up the two-by-four again.

“This mean we’re going in?” Orlando said.

“Yeah.”

“I’m not going in there,” Al said, not hiding an ounce of his fear.

“Watch him,” Quinn said to Nate, then looked at Al. “Don’t worry. You’re not going anywhere. I want you on the floor right now. Hands behind your back.”

“So I don’t have to go in?” Al asked.

“Don’t make me say it again.”

Al dropped to the floor, leaned against the wall, and slipped his hands behind his back.

Quinn used the two-by-four to punch at the wall again, this time widening the hole until it was large enough to crawl through. He exchanged the board for his flashlight, then he stepped backward through the hole and into the room. Given the difference in floor levels, the first step was a big one, but he managed it without falling.

Once he was down, he reached up and helped Orlando through.

“Musty,” she said, wrinkling her nose.

Quinn approached the steps leading up to the door, stopping a respectful three feet away. Stuck to the steps at floor level was a whitish glob of what looked like clay. Quinn had seen plenty of it over the years. C-4, a malleable plastic explosive that was the first choice of many a demolition expert. The wire that would set off the explosive ran from the glob along the steps, then up the wall and into a small plastic box attached to the doorjamb. Just opposite the box, on the door itself, was a small plate, its width and length equal to that of the switch. With the door closed, the plate and the box lined up perfectly.

Additional wires led out of the box to other mounds of C-4: one on each hinge, one along the base, and a last bit in the middle of the door itself, an arrangement sure to shred anyone standing on the other side into tiny pieces.

It was a pretty simple setup. Someone opens the door. The switch and the plate move out of sync. An electronic jolt is sent out.

And boom.

Dead and destroyed.

Whoever it was who actually used the door must have had a remote device that turned the switch off when necessary.

Quinn checked the setup again, making sure there were no hidden backup switches. Luck was with him. Everything looked pretty straightforward. Since there was only one perceived way into the room, no extra security measures would have been needed. The booby-trap maker would never have expected someone to come through the wall to get at his handiwork.

Quinn started with the C-4 next to the steps. He separated it from the wire, then repeated the procedure with the other mounds.

“You could have just left it,” Orlando said.

“I didn’t feel like climbing back through that hole to get out,” Quinn said. “Besides, this way some wino won’t stumble into it someday.”

Orlando cocked her head and smiled. “I knew there was a reason I loved you.”

“If that’s the only reason, then we’re both screwed.”

Quinn opened the door and stuck his head into the hallway. Al looked over at him, his eyes wide with fear. Nate looked over, too, but he seemed considerably less surprised.

“Everything all right out here?” Quinn asked.

“Couldn’t be better,” Nate said.

“You want to bring him in here?”

“I’m not going in there!” Al said, fear in his voice.

“It’s safe now,” Quinn said.

“I’m not. I told you I’m not. I’m not going in there.”

“We’re okay,” Nate said to Quinn.

“Quinn?” It was Orlando.

Quinn pulled himself back inside. Orlando was across the room, next to the gap between the stack of boxes and the exterior wall in the far left corner. She was looking at the floor.

“What is it?” Quinn asked.

“I think this might be the room Peter’s agent was looking for.”

Quinn hurried over. Instead of concrete like the rest of the floor, here was a four-foot-square piece of metal. It was dark and showing signs of rust along the edges, but otherwise was in remarkably good shape. There were hinges along the left side and a latch on the right. Through a loop on the latch was a large, very new padlock.

“Shall I?” Orlando asked.

“It might be wired also,” Quinn said.

“Should be easy enough to check,” she said. “The metal’s warped at this end.”

Without waiting to hear what Quinn thought, she got down onto the floor and pressed the side of her face against the concrete. She moved her light so that it played into the opening, moving it back and forth several times. After a minute passed, she sat back up.

“Clean,” she said.

“You’re sure?” Quinn asked.

“Enough to stake your life on it.”

“My life?”

She moved over to the padlock, removed her set of lock picks from her backpack, then set to work. It took her less than thirty seconds to open it.

“This is the part where you open the door,” she said after she removed the lock from the loop on the latch.

“Maybe Nate should do it,” Quinn said.

She stared at him. “You trust me that little?”

Quinn let out a short laugh, then reached down. “You might want to stand back. Just in case you’re wrong.”

“Oh, I’m not wrong,” she said. But she took a few steps back anyway.

Quinn smiled, then pulled the trapdoor up. There was a loud groan as the hinges protested under the weight of the metal door. Quinn swung it all the way open so that it was leaning against the back wall.

“You guys all right in there?” Nate called.

“We’re fine,” Quinn and Orlando said in unison.

Orlando shone her light into the opening, revealing a steep, narrow concrete stairway.

“Nate,” Quinn said, voice raised. “We’ll be on radio.”

“Radio?” Nate said. “Where are you going?”

“That’s a good question.”

Quinn looked at Orlando, then mounted the steps and started down. He could hear her following him a few feet back.

“What’s going on?” Nate said in his ear.

Quinn gave him a quick description of what they’d found.

“So I just wait here while you guys have all the fun?”

“Call Peter,” Quinn said. “Get an ETA on his men.”

“Okay,” Nate said. “What if he asks me what we’ve found?”

“Tell him I’ll call him when we’re done.”

The steps of the stairwell were made of stone and spiraled downward. It reminded Quinn of some he had climbed in old European churches, just tread after tread surrounded by walls and ceiling. A curving tunnel leading to God knew where.

When they reached the bottom, there was only one way to go, a brick-lined tunnel leading away from the stairs. Unlike the cramped space of the staircase, this tunnel was wide enough for them to walk side by side, and the gently curving ceiling just tall enough for them to stand upright without being concerned about head injuries. In the distance they could hear a low rumble, almost more a feeling than a noise.