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Thirty
Max stoodon the roof of the Tangier and watched as Nico, Farrell, and Carlos made their way across the line. It went off without a hitch, just like Locke had promised, except for one hair-raising second when Carlos teetered on the ledge of the Drew before hooking onto theline.
“Tell me that wasn’t the ride of a lifetime,” Locke said when they’d all scrambled onto theroof.
“Fuck you,” Carlossaid.
Lockelaughed.
“Let’s go,” Nico said, heading across the roof, his eyes on the ground as he searched for the airshafts and stairwells on the buildingplans.
“There.” Max shone the flashlight of his cell phone onto a grate in theroof.
“Which means the stairs are…” Farrell moved to the left of the grate and walked a few feet, stopping in front of a door that jutted up from the roof. “Here.”
Carlos and Locke joined him while Max positioned himself nearNico.
“Keep your mics on,” Maxsaid.
Farrell’s team would make their way down the service stairs leading from the top floor to the roof, while Max and Nico eased their way through the air shafts toward the suite. They would wait to drop into the suite until a fight was under way in the hall. If everything went according to plan and Farrell’s team was able to make their move before Jason’s men started shooting, the only way Nico and Max would know it was time would be by the sound of Jason’s guards getting the shit kicked out ofthem.
Farrell reached into his pack and pulled out a pair of bolt cutters, snapping the chain on the door leading to the stairwell before tossing themaside.
“You sure those are clean?” Max asked, glancing at the boltcutters.
Farrell’s eyes flashed through his ski mask. “They’reclean.”
They’d been careful, covering every square inch of skin with clothing and tactical gear, tucking every strand of hair into the ski masks, covering their hands with leather gloves. If all went well, they’d be gone without a trace by the time the Fedsarrived.
“Good luck.” Locke shifted his pack on his shoulders and started down thestairs.
Max bent to remove the grate from the air shaft. By the time he tossed it aside, the other two men had disappeared into the rooftopstairwell.
Max looked at Nico. “You ready forthis?”
Nico nodded. “Let’s doit.”
Max fed his head into the grate and startedcrawling.
* * *
Sweat drippedfrom Max’s hairline onto the metal air shaft as he inched along, his weapon out in front of him. It was hotter than hell, something he’d realized within two minutes of entering the shaft. Nico crawled behind him, nearly silent, the soft shuffle of his clothing against the shaft and his breathing the only indication Max wasn’t alone, trapped in a hell made of labyrinthine metal tubes leadingnowhere.
He’d made his moves carefully, pausing at every fork in the shaft, imagining the layout on the blueprint, a layout he’d committed to memory for exactly thismoment.
“We should have two more right turns before we come to the fork over the living room,” Max saidsoftly.
There were two ventilation panels in the ceiling of the suite’s living room. Nico would take one while Max took the other, mitigating the risk of both dropping from the same place when they had no idea what awaitedthem.
Max had no idea how long they’d been crawling when he heard the first muffledwhooshof a silencer through the comms system in hisear.
The games were under way in the hall outside the suite, which meant the clock was ticking on the Tangier’s guards getting to the topfloor.
“Ten minutes tops,” Max saidsoftly.
He eased around the first turn as quickly as possible, his sense of urgency increasing when he heard another shot followed by the telltale sound of grunting and thudding that indicated men fighting hand tohand.
He was relieved to see that the second turn was right after the first. He twisted his body to get around it and spilled out into a slightly largerarea.
