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Nicholas pulled the car off the edge of the road, into the driveway of a small abandoned farmhouse, and he, Mike, and Kitsune studied the four pages of architectural plans on Nicholas’s tablet.
Mike whistled. “Congratulations to Adam for getting his hands on the plans. Look at this place, it’s three thousand square meters. That’s a lot of real estate for us to cover. And what’s all this?”
There was another page attached to the documents. “It’s from Ben,” Mike said, scrolling down, “He sent it to Adam, and Adam forwarded it. It’s the palazzo’s history prior to the Kohaths’ buying it in 1905. Way back, the whole town was supposed to be a secret Knights Templar stronghold. Plus twenty more pages to keep us entertained.” She laughed. “He’s even marked all his conjectures in red type so we don’t get confused.”
Kitsune said, “There has to be another way in than by the front door. Given the palazzo is so old, I know there are dungeons or an ancient basement, and I’m betting that’s where they’ve got Grant stashed. With Lilith running the show, they know all about him, how dangerous he can be, so they wouldn’t simply put him in a guest room.” She pushed her hair off her face. “He’s probably drugged.”
Nicholas pointed to the screen. “The main entrance is on the square, smack-dab in the middle of town, and the others are down the hill, here and here. I don’t know if they’re guarded, but it stands to reason there are at least a few armed men around.”
Kitsune said, “Wait, look—there are the tunnels I remembered. There are so many of them, under the mountain, connecting to the palazzo, crisscrossing under the town. All over the place. As I told you, this was Etruscan territory—there have been lots of archaeological digs going on around here for many years. All I need is to find a tunnel entrance and I can go in that way, find Grant.”
Mike said, “All right, it only makes sense that the tunnels connect to the house, but, Kitsune, didn’t you say it’s been years since they had archaeological digs here? So they’re probably blocked off, the tunnels caved in.”
Nicholas raised a brow. “You’re thinking of Paris and our lovely evening in the crypts, aren’t you?”
Mike shuddered. “I am. I’m not anxious to go for a walk under a mountain, that’s for sure. And I don’t know if it would be safe enough for Kitsune alone.”
Kitsune said, “Let me key up Ben’s diagrams of the tunnels. See? I can tell this is an abandoned Etruscan dig site. You can bet the Italian government will have assured it was preserved. It runs right up to the wall of the house, directly into the back. Looks like basements to me. If Mike can get to the door, I can come up through the tunnel, and she can let me in.”
Mike was nodding her head. “It’s a good plan, Nicholas, if the tunnels are still workable. Will our comms work that far underground? It looks like about a mile from the entrance here”—she pointed at a spot on the map—“to here, the city wall, and the back of the palazzo.”
“I can’t guarantee they will,” he said. “I have an amplifier. It shouldn’t be an issue for Mike and me, but I don’t know if we’d be able to follow Kitsune through the tunnels. Kitsune, once you’re close enough to the house it should work. Assuming you can get close to the house.”
Mike said, “But there’s another problem.”
“What?”
“How are we going to deal with their security? If they have any brains at all, they aren’t alone up there. You won’t be able to waltz through the back door, and into the house, you know they’ll be watching our every move. We know men brought Grant here, and they are more than likely guarding him. Add in whatever staff they have at the house, cameras, sensors—”
“I’m already on it,” Nicholas said. “Let’s see what Adam’s come up with.”
The call connected, Nicholas hit speaker.
“Adam, we’re in place and ready to go. The house in Castel Rigone—I don’t know how you got hold of the plans and I don’t want to know. Well done. Have you figured out the security specs yet?”
“Give me a minute, I’m finishing running the reports. By the way, we had a quick visit with Lia. She’s feeling better, they’re going to discharge her tomorrow. Her dad is pretty cool. He waltzed right into the administrator’s office in the Doge’s Palace, asked the man to lunch, and off they went, had a big time, Lia told us. I think they’ve got a flight home tomorrow.”
“Good. Everything else okay there?”
“We found three listening devices planted throughout the suite. They’ve been taken care of. And we’re making progress. Louisa is crashed in her room, they finally finished processing the piazza but not a single thank-you from Major Russo for all her help, nor an apology to us for their missing the shoot-out.” He snorted. “I think Louisa probably gave him what for. I asked Gray for help piecing together the financials. No irregularities so far, but we’re still searching. Okay, here we go, I’ve got their plans.” He whistled. “You’re screwed. The house has full-on security. Everything from thermal sensors to motion detectors to on-air live surveillance. They have to have a whole team to run this, it’s pretty extensive.”
“Awful lot of security for a private home.”
“It is. There’s something going on there, that’s for sure.”
“So how do we get around it? We need to send Kitsune in the back through the tunnels while Mike and I go in the front.”
“You’ll
have to find a way to turn it off. Cutting off the electricity won’t work, they’ll have plenty of generators. I bet the power goes off around that area a lot.”
Nicholas said, “Well, if we can’t turn it off—”
They could practically see Adam grinning over the phone. “There is one way. You do have that Faraday bag in your kit, right?”
“Yes I do, and I like the way you think. Thank you for reminding me. We’ll be in touch. Keep monitoring us, please. I don’t want to get into trouble and not have someone to call in the cavalry.”
“Do you want me to contact the local Carabinieri?”
