Less than ten seconds after he’d angled the first pick into the dead bolt, it turned with a soft click.
The lock on the doorknob went even faster.
I took it from there and led the way inside. It was dark and quiet on the first floor. We stopped there to pull the black balaclavas down over our faces. Honestly, it wasn’t a good feeling. Seeing Ned and John in their masks really drove home for me what we were doing. This was nowhere I ever thought I’d be, but there was no turning back now.
For that matter, I didn’t want to. I wanted to save those kids if they were still alive.
We went in a line up the hall to the front of the house. The stairs were carpeted, and therefore no problem. It didn’t take long before we were standing outside Glass’s open bedroom door. I could hear him snoring and saw his outline, sleeping on his back with one arm thrown over his head.
I signaled John to take one side of the bed. I hurried around and took the other. Mahoney stayed at the foot with his first syringe uncapped and ready.
Then I counted it down for them on my fingers.
All at once, Glass roared awake. He rolled toward me and reached for something under the mattress, but John was already there to pull his arm back. I stuck my hand into the same place and felt the contours of a pistol. He was an avid hunter, I knew, with several legally registered firearms in his name. I left the pistol where it was.
As soon as Sampson had him, I tore off a length of duct tape and pressed it over Glass’s mouth. Then I pushed him facedown into the mattress while John slapped a pair of speed cuffs onto his wrists.
Mahoney was next. He knelt on the bed, flipped back the covers, and jammed a needle into his hip. Glass tried to scream from behind the tape. Then his whole body went rigid like he was being Tasered.
The rush of adrenaline made him even harder to handle, but that didn’t last long. Within a minute, his limbs started to go slack. Every sound he made got a little weaker, until they’d ebbed into a kind of lazy, constant hum. He shuddered the way we sometimes do at the edge of sleep. He wasn’t completely out, but he was completely useless, for the time being.
“That’s it,” Ned said. “We’re good to go.”
We hustled him into some pants and down the stairs, holding him up, dragging his legs. At the door, I threw a jacket over his shoulders to hide the cuffs. Then we walked him out to the car in a tight group.
As we took off, I had no doubt in my mind that, ultimately, we were doing the right thing. Rodney Glass knew where Ethan and Zoe were.
In fact, God help us, period.
We were kidnapping Glass.
“WAKE UP. WAKE up right now!”
It all happened very fast. Hala hadn’t meant to fall asleep. Now someone was there, shining a bright light in her eyes. By instinct, her hand went straight to the Sig in her lap. Before she could reach it, the point of another pistol came out of the light. It stopped just short of her forehead.
“Don’t, sister!” the other woman said. “Please. We’re from The Family. We’ve come to get you. We’re only here to help.”
“Hala?” Tariq was just stirring. The infection in his hand had left him feverish and bleary. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Someone is here. They say they’re from The Family.”
“We have to hurry,” a man’s voice said. “And I’ll take that weapon.”
Her finger tensed on the trigger. “I don’t think so,” she said.
“Sister, listen to me.” The woman took a step back now and lowered the light. Her voice was calm.
Hala stared up at the two strangers, but it was impossible to gauge their faces in the dark. It was also hard to think clearly. They hadn’t eaten or even had a sip of water in over twenty-four hours. Still, it was hard to argue with the information these people had. And what option was there, anyway?
“All right,” she said, and put the butt of the Sig into the man’s outstretched hand. “But I’m going to want that back.”
“Of course,” the man said.
The Al Dossaris were made to stand and lift their shirts next, to show there were no wires or listening devices of any kind. Then they were each frisked.
“Just a precaution,” the woman assured them. When her hand passed over the pocket in Hala’s skirt, she took the two cyanide capsules as well. “You won’t be needing these anymore,” she said. “You’re heroes. Both of you. Everyone in The Family honors your name and what you’ve done.”
For the first time in days, Hala smiled.
A black Toyota 4Runner was waiting at the top of the alley. In the streetlight, Hala saw that the two strangers both had olive skin and dark eyes. The woman’s hair was bleached blond, and the man’s head was shaved to a rough stubble, his scalp tattooed with an Arabian falcon at the back. In their tailored black clothing, they looked as if they could have just come from one of Washington’s trendier clubs. For all Hala knew, they had. She pushed Tariq into the backseat, then got in beside him.
