Flame and sparks sprayed out from the steel roll-up door blocking their way into Alvin’s warehouse, and a thin line of molten metal began to appear.
“How long is this going to take?” she said over the noise, backing up a few more paces so they could converse more easily.
“About five minutes. We only need to cut a man-sized hole, then we can go through and open it from the inside. Hopefully.”
Gabe and the rest of the thralls waited quietly, like they weren’t concerned about being caught red-handed in the small hours of the morning doing illegal shit. Cally didn’t feel so calm, and couldn’t stop checking the road, visible through the trees.
Noah nudged her shoulder. “Eyes on the prize,” he said softly. “We’ll be done and gone in half an hour, and next step is the sea, then Antoine.”
She nodded once, tentatively, and then again with more conviction. “Right. There’s just a lot riding on it, you know?”
“Yeah, I know. I want him back almost as much as you.”
“It’s not my first crime spree,” she said conspiratorially. “Eve and I once broke into an abandoned building, because it was ‘haunted’”—she made air quotes—“and someone dared us to spend the night. We had a Ouija board and everything.”
“Uh-huh.” Noah grinned. “You get caught?”
“I did; Eve didn’t. She and the two other girls ran, but I stayed behind to cause a diversion.”
“Bet she loved you for that.”
Cally blinked. Had that been what started it? She shook her head; it was just a turn of phrase. “We were sixteen and stupid. I got a slap on the wrist from the cops and a stern talking to from my dad, who couldn’t keep a straight face.”
“You’re a witch, right?” he said, keeping his voice low under the noise of the generator. “Is that why the Ouija board?”
“Hell, I didn’t know anything back then.”Still don’t.“It was Eve’s idea.”Of course it was.
“So what did you do? Go taekwondo on the cops?”
“How did you know I did… Oh, Minh’s club.” Cally smiled. “Nah. I’d barely started taking classes by then. I let them see me, then ran the other way. They followed me, not the others. I would’ve gotten away with it too, if it hadn’t been for those pesky kids.”
Noah chuckled.
Gabe’s thralls were nearly finished cutting through the steel roll-up door, and Cally fell quiet as she watched. The light from the plasma torch blinded them to what was beyond, casting dense, wild shadows that danced around the warehouse within. The panel sagged as they worked around the last edge, then dropped inward with a clang.
Cally took an involuntary step forward, eyes prickling and her hand covering her mouth.
Gabe was there first. He stopped in the entryway, blocking half the view, but Cally had already seen.
“Fuck,” he said; an explosive, vehement curse. “Where the hell is it?”
The warehouse was empty.
Fifteen
“No. No, no,no.” Cally pushed past Gabe, the sleeve of her borrowed shirt skimming the red-hot edge of the hole they’d cut, but she hardly noticed, brushing the sting away. “How can this be?”
Her voice echoed through the gaping, empty warehouse, lit only by the dull glow of a few low-level security lights. A rectangle of oil-stained flooring marked the sub’s footprint, fringed with gouges where it had been dragged free. A coil of thick power cabling snaked across the floor, disconnected at one end. Crates and bulky shapes stood in shadow against the walls, all left behind. A faint chemical tang hung in the air; grease mingled with cleaning fluid, and someone had swept, but not well.
There was nothing left to even shout at.
“Ryan,” Gabe barked. “You said it wasn’t scheduled to leave for Puerto Rico for another three days.”
Gabe’s lieutenant stepped in, eyes narrowed, guard up, as he took in the empty space. “That’s the information we had, boss.”
“Yeah? It was wrong.”
Ryan looked at Cally. “I apologize, Miss Davis,” he said formally. “We did the best we could.”
