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Climbing back into the cab, Pete raised his window and drove slowly up the drive, finally letting out a breath as he passed the front of the house.
“Okay, Scott, mission accomplished,” he declared as he headed through the gates, “and I have the security code for the cellar door. Ready?”
“Yep.”
“201918.”
“Clever,” Scott remarked. “The last two digits of the last three years, easy to remember but tough to guess.”
“Yeah, well, no one ever called Conchello stupid.”
His body curled inside the crate, Danny heard the cellar door close. Peering through the small round holes, drilled to accommodate the width of his eyes, he discovered the room was completely dark. Flipping back the bolts on the side of a panel, he pushed it down and crawled out. Dressed in brown and black camouflage, if anyone had seen him, they would have thought he was a gigantic tarantula. Retrieving a small but powerful LED flashlight from his breast pocket, he shone it up and down the walls, then across the floor.
“Scott?” he murmured softly.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Great, I was worried I might have lost you. It’s pitch black in here. I ran my flashlight around the walls and ceilings and didn’t see any cameras.”
“That validates what we’ve gathered on the network from here. You’re good to go.”
“I saw the door Pete would have come through, and the one leading into the house, so based on the plans, I estimate the entrance to the concrete room is about twenty feet in front of me, but there’s a wine rack against the wall.”
“It will probably slide out, or across,” Scott suggested, “but take it slowly when you try to move it.”
Straightening up, Danny stepped across to the rack and shone the beam across the floor.
“Hey, it’s on tracks,” he said softly. “I’m pushing it now. Yep, there’s a door here,” he announced as it came into view. “I’m trying the handle.”
It turned in his hand.
“Holy crap, it’s unlocked.”
“That’s surprising,” Scott said quickly. “Danny, be extremely careful.”
“No shit,” Danny muttered, moving the light around the door frame. “Ah, there’s a trip wire across the threshold, but that appears to be it.”
“Keep your guard up.”
“Will do,” Danny murmured, stepping over the wire as he walked into the dark, empty chamber. “Okay, I’m in.”
Closing the door behind him, he shone the beam around the barren room, then upward, and saw the huge hole in the ceiling.
“I can see the bottom of the shaft. It looks to be about six feet square.”
“So are we good?” Elizabeth interjected. “Will it work?”
“Like a charm,” Danny declared. “You’re a genius, Lizzy. I’m going to work.”
The button cameras worn by Scott’s agents inside the house offered a firsthand view of the party. Moving from room to room, the waiters had served spiked drinks to Conchello’s well-dressed wild boys. Many were now sitting down and trying to stay awake, while others had surrendered to the drug and were passed out, slumped on sofas.
“Everything’s in place. It’s time for me to leave,” Scott declared, rising to his feet.
“I wish you were armed,” Elizabeth murmured, standing up and handing him his jacket.
“I’ve got my lethal spray pen and the poison needle cufflinks.”
“But you can’t hold them out like a gun.”
