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"One . . ."
Her tongue touched a dot of sweat hanging from the swollen wound on her lip.
"Two . . ."
Okay, Rhyme, here we go . . .
"Three!"
The explosion was very sedate, a distant pop, and then the teams were moving. Fast. She sprinted along behind the ESU troopers as they slipped inside and scattered, their muzzle-mounted flashlights crisscrossing the shafts of brilliant sunlight that streamed through the windows. Sachs found herself alone as the rest of the team dispersed, checking out armoires and closets and the shadows behind the grotesque statues the place was filled with.
She turned the corner. A pale face loomed. A knife . . .
A thud in her heart. Combat stance, gun up. She laid five pounds of pressure on the slick trigger before she realized she was staring at a painting on the wall. An eerie, moon-faced butcher, holding a knife in one hand, a slab of meat in the other.
Brother . . .
He picked a great place for home.
The ESU troops clopped upstairs, searching the first and second floors.
But Sachs was looking for something else.
She found the door leading down to the basement. Partly open. Okay. Halogen off. You've got to take a look first. But she remembered what Nick had said: never look around corners at head or chest level--that's where he's expecting you. Down on one knee. A deep breath. Go!
Nothing. Blackness.
Back to cover.
Listen . . .
At first she heard nothing. Then there was a definite scratching. A clatter. The sound of a fast breath or grunt.
He's there and he's digging his way out!
Into her mike she said, "I've got activity in the basement. Backup."
"Roger."
But she couldn't wait. She thought of the little girl down there with him. And she started down the stairs. Paused and listened again. Then she realized she was standing with her body fully exposed from the waist down. She practically leapt down to the floor, dropped into a crouch in the darkness.
Breathe deep.
Now, do it!
The halogen in her left hand stabbed a brilliant rod of light through the room. The muzzle of her weapon targeted the center of the white disk as it swung left to right. Keep the beam down. He'd be at crotch level too. Remembering what Nick had told her: Perps don't fly.
Nothing. No sign of him.
"Officer Sachs?"
An ESU trooper was at the top of the stairs.
"Oh, no," she muttered, as her beam fell on Pammy Ganz, frozen in the corner of the basement.
"Don't move," she called to the trooper.
Inches away from the girl stood the pack of emaciated wild dogs, sniffing at her face, her fingers, her legs. The girl's wide eyes darted from one animal to the other. Her tiny chest rose and fell and tears streamed down her face. Her mouth was open and the dot of her pink tongue seemed glued to the right arc of her lip.
