Firebreak

A small black delivery van appeared on the downhill perimeter monitors, then the exterior house monitors as it drove on by, then the uphill monitors. 'So Harry didn't make it,' Elkins said.

Lloyd was confused. 'Why? What was that?'

'Morgue car,' Wiss told him, and a black body bag appeared on the house monitors, carried to the front door by four state troopers. 'And that,' Wiss said, 'is Bob, to go with him.'

Parker turned away from the screens. 'Time to talk this out.'

They moved to the living room, sat on the sofas and chairs, and Lloyd said, 'The great advantage is, we can watch what they're doing, and they have no idea we're here.'

Parker said, 'There's at least thirty cops in that place, with more coming. A painting in a crate is too big and heavy to sneak out. It doesn't matter if you can watch them, and we don't know when somebody's gonna decide to make this place their headquarters.'

Elkins said, 'That won't happen, Parker, the action's up there.'

'I'll watch the monitors,' Lloyd offered. 'If it looks like they're coming down here, I'll warn you, and I'll let you know if anything useful happens.'

Parker looked over at the window. 'It gets dark here around five,' he said. 'That's when we leave.'

Lloyd was unhappy with that, but all he said was, 'We'll work it out before then, I know we will.' Rising, he said, 'I'll go watch,' and left the room.

The other three were silent for a couple of minutes, and then Wiss said, 'I know Larry's pressing a little hard, Parker, but he's not like Bob and Harry.'

'Fine,' Parker said.

'When the time comes,' Wiss said, 'he'll be okay, I'll vouch for him.'

Parker looked at Wiss. 'Don't vouch for him,' he said.

'Wrong word, Ralph,' Elkins said.

Wiss looked uncomfortable. 'I'm just saying he'll be okay.'

'But don't tie yourself to him,' Parker said. 'If he's gonna be unhappy, I'm not gonna leave him behind me.'

'I understand,' Wiss said. 'If it comes to that, believe me, he's on his own.'

12

A little after three o'clock, Lloyd came into the living room. He was wearing a brown uniform from one of the security people here, and he carried a liquor carton half-filled with a jumble of electronic gear, like a failed high school science project. He put the box on the Ping-Pong table and said, I've got it figured out.'

They watched him. Nobody said anything.

Lloyd said, 'I looked, and there's one Blazer left in the garage here. About an hour ago, they brought the paintings up, in the crates, stacked them in the front hall. Obviously, they're waiting for transportation.'

Wiss said, 'Larry, they're not gonna believe the Blazer is their transportation.'

'That's not my idea,' Lloyd said. He was very earnest, as though he were describing a new Internet application. 'When we see their truck go up, when we see them start loading, I follow, in the Blazer, I say, 'Hi,

I'm Dave Rappleyea, need any help here?' We don't need every last painting, you know. Whatever's in it when I get there, I grab the truck and drive down.'

Wiss said, 'Larry, you'll never get away with that.'

'Listen to me,' Lloyd insisted. 'You'll be able to watch me on the screens, and the minute I take off in the truck, you shut off their electricity and their phone, I can show you how.'

Elkins said, 'Larry, they can still radio.'

Lloyd pointed to the junk in the cardboard carton. 'I made a jammer,' he said. 'You douse their phone and electric, come in here, you see the two dangling wires? You twist them together, no radios on this mountain.'

Parker said, 'Police cars go faster than trucks.'

'I can get this far,' Lloyd told him. 'We'll have the ambulance beside the road, just up at the next curve, there's oxygen canisters in there, we can turn the ambulance into a bomb. You put the ambulance in the middle of the road right after I go by, get into the truck with me, the ambulance blows, they can't follow us or see us or radio anybody or do anything, and we're long gone.'

'Larry,' Wiss said, 'none of that is gonna work. They'll have you in cuffs the minute you're out of the Blazer.'

'Why would they? They know what the security people here look like, and what the Blazer is.'

Elkins said, 'Larry, I never knew you had yourself confused with James Bond.'

Lloyd offered a shaky grin. 'Are you kidding? The last few weeks, I've been scaling cliffs, shooting people, getting rid of bodies, stealing ambulances, I am James Bond.' Earnest again, he turned back to Wiss. 'Ralph, it's my only shot at those paintings, and without those paintings I'm dead, even if Mr. Parker here doesn't kill me.'

Wiss blinked. He and Elkins looked at Parker, who looked at Lloyd, whose expression was now that of a kid in the principal's office, insisting they got the wrong guy.