'A-L-I. Ambient Light Iris. With this one you have vision with lights on or off. With infrared you sometimes get exposure blooms on your LED screen when lights are on. So we developed this. It operates with what light is in the room and gives you enough picture to see what you have to see – shapes, shadows, movement. Green field of vision, as usual. Tell you what, t'night's supposed to be a full moon. If you – '
'A void moon, too.'
'A what?'
'Never mind. Go on.'
'I was just saying that if you can get some moonlight into the area you are filming, then that'll be all you need for this camera to work.'
'Okay, sounds good.'
Cassie only needed to be able to see enough to confirm the mark's location in the darkness of his room. The ALI seemed to be all she needed.
'Good, then moving on, you can take any of these boards and use them in any of the shells contained here.'
He removed a false smoke detector and showed it to her. There was a small drill hole in the cowling. On the inside he showed her where the board camera would fit, aligning the lens with the drill hole.
'Now if you need a lower angle…'
He next removed a phony electric wall socket plate. The board camera could be installed behind the upper socket. He handed it to Cassie and she marveled at how small it was.
'This is great.'
'But a little risky. Guy could try to plug something into it and – bingo – he finds a fucking camera in his room. So if you use this one, put it in a spot where it's not likely the guy will want to plug in his computer or shaver or whatever.'
'Got it.'
'Okay, good. So what you do is connect your cameras to the batteries like so.'
Paltz plugged tiny round batteries into cradles attached by wires to the board cameras.
'Then install. You then have to hook the cameras to the transmitter. This is all going to be short run, right?'
Cassie nodded.
'Right. Eight, ten feet at the most, probably less.'
He pulled out a roll of what looked like Scotch tape and held it up.
'Conduct-O tape. You used to use this, right?'
'Yeah, toward the end… on a few jobs.'
Paltz went on with his explanation as though Cassie had said the opposite.
'It's your magic tape, man. It's got two conductors in it, one for video and one for ground. You connect to the camera and then run it to your transmitter. Just remember, keep it short. The longer the run, the more image distortion. You don't want that if you're readin' numbers.'
'Right. I remember.'
Sweat was running out of Paltz's hairline and down both of his cheeks. Cassie didn't think it was warm enough inside the van to create such a response. She watched him raise his arm and wipe his face.
'Something wrong?'
'Nothing,' Paltz said as he reached into the suitcase. 'It's getting toasty in here, that's all. This is a four- channel transmitter.'
He pulled a flat square box about the size of a cell phone out of its place in the foam. It had a six-inch stub antenna.
'This is omnidirectional – it don't matter what angle you place it at. Just get it close to your cameras for the clearest signal. You notice this is not disguised in any way. Since it ain't a camera, you can hide it just about anywhere – under a bed or in a drawer or a closet or wherever. It, too, has a battery – lasts about as long as the cameras. Okay?'
'Got it.'
'Now what this transmitter does is send your captured image to your remote. This little baby.'
He pulled from the case the largest piece of equipment. It looked like a small laptop computer. Or maybe a space-age lunch box. Paltz flipped open a screen and folded up another stub antenna.
'This is your microwave receiver/recorder. You can set this up to two hundred yards from your transmitter, depending on the knockdown, and still pull in a decent picture.'
'What's the knockdown?'
'Nothing you'll probably have to worry about. Water mostly. Tree sap is a killer too. You're not going to be working near a forest, right? Those trees just send a signal into the dirt.'
'There a forest in Las Vegas, Jersey?'
'Not that I know of.'
'Then no forest. No trees, no sap.'
She was getting annoyed with his manner and his nervousness. It was getting contagious. She realized that without any windows in the back of the van she had no idea whether there would be someone waiting outside for them – or for her – when they opened the door. This rendezvous had been a mistake.
'What about the pool?' Paltz asked.
The question took Cassie out of her thoughts. She thought a moment and remembered the pool at the Cleopatra was at ground level.
'No pool.'
'Good. Steel, concrete, all of that is no problem. Just stay inside with it and it should work perfect.'
Paltz started working the buttons on the receiver/recorder. He turned it on and the screen came up full of static snow. He tapped a red button on the right side of the mini-keyboard.
'That's your record there. You can record everything or just watch it. You can quarter the screen and watch up to four cameras at once.'
He hit a series of buttons and the screen split twice. It was still four views of snow.
'We won't get a picture because we don't have the cameras connected. But I've got your four camera freeks already loaded on here and it's good to go.'
'Okay. It's a great kit, Jersey. You got anything else to show me? I gotta go.'
'That's it. Now if you pay me what we agreed on, you can get out of here and I can go back to my chili – though it's gotta be cold by now.'
Cassie pulled her backpack around to her lap.
'You working this one alone, Cassie?'
'Yup,' she answered without thinking.
She pulled open the flap just as Paltz closed the suitcase and raised his other arm, revealing that he was holding a pistol pointed at Cassie's chest.
'What are you doing?'
'Stupid, girl,' he said.
Cassie started to stand but he raised the weapon and nodded her back down with it.
'Look, man, I'm going to pay you. I have it right here. What's the matter with you?'
Paltz switched the gun to his other hand and lowered the suitcase to the floor of the van. He then reached out for the backpack.
'I'll take that.'
He roughly grabbed the backpack out of her hands.
' Jersey, we had a deal. We – '
'Just shut the fuck up.'
Cassie tried to remain calm while she waited for him to go for the money. Without flinching a muscle she took all the weight off her left foot and raised it slightly off the ground. Paltz was sitting directly across from her, his knees a foot apart. She spoke in a calm, measured tone.
' Jersey, what are you doing? Why put the kit together if you were just going to rip me off?'
'I had to make sure you were working this alone. Make sure you didn't go and get a replacement for
