Eden turned away from Leland as she unbuttoned the top buttons of her cream silk blouse and fished out her phone from her underwire bra. She set the phone on the arm of Suzanne’s chair and pressed in the number for Asher’s phone.
“I’m inside the gate,” Asher said instead of hello.
“What’s next?” Eden asked.
“Four of us are going into the building through the back entrance. We’ve overridden the security codes, so we get in without key card passes.”
“How?” Leland started to ask. “Never mind. You’re getting in, that’s the important thing. Then what?”
“Who’s this?” Asher asked sharply.
“It’s Leland Hines,” Eden stepped in quickly. “We’re down in the basement beside the vault with Señora Azua.”
“That’s all?”
“Yep. I figured this would be the safest place for someone who is injured.”
“Agreed,” Asher murmured. “We’re going to be able to get all of you out through the opening that we’ve blown through the gate. Then we’ll get everyone where they need to be. Let’s start with Señora Azua since she’s injured. It also helps that she is out of sight of Nomad Security and Heinrich Becker. We’re going to have to figure out a way to get the rest of the people away from them.”
“Let me work on that,” Eden said. Possibilities were already beginning to roll through her mind. Maybe they could be lured to the documents floor for some reason?
“The back entrance is through the maintenance area. In order to not be seen, we’re going to go around to the mezzanine, then the front staircase back down to the basement. Two of us will be there as quick as we can,” Asher assured her.
“Okay,” Eden answered, but she was talking to dead air.
“Eden,” Suzanne grasped her hand.
“Yes?” She wanted to be respectful and listen, but she really wanted to see how she could possibly trap Becker, Patel, and Carlson in Suzanne’s office.
“Take care of my employees first.” The woman’s voice sounded the strongest it had been in hours.
“Suzanne, we’ll take care of you and your employees. Trust us,” Leland answered.
Eden patted her hand as she picked up her phone and shoved it back into her bra. “I have an idea. If it works, we’ll all be out of here with no problems. I’ve got to go.”
As she started toward the door of the large office, Leland halted her. “What are you going to do?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” she assured him.
“I’ll damn well worry if I want to,” the man growled down at her. “What in the hell do you think you’re going to accomplish that I couldn’t do better?”
“I’m going to finesse some of the players into believing that they need to get together in the Señora’s office for instructions from the Americans. Then, when I have them in there, I intend to figure out a way to lock them in.”
Leland snorted. “Oh, really? How do you intend to do that? What else do you have tucked into your bra that I don’t know about?”
Eden stood up to her full five-foot-nine inches and glared at the man. “Look here,” she started.
“Ah, shit, I don’t have time for this. I’ll wait for the SEALs and tell them where you are. In the meantime, take this.” He shoved a pistol into her hand. Eden gleefully gripped the Sig Sauer—it felt wonderful to have a gun in the palm of her hand. It was a little bigger than what she was used to, but damn, it packed a punch.
“You were always my favorite banker, Leland.” She reached up and pecked him on the cheek then raced to the door to the stairs. Before she opened it, she ensured the safety was on, then untucked her blouse from the waistband of her skirt and shoved the gun underneath it.
All four SEALs looked over the thick balustrade of the mezzanine and viewed the baroque-decorated lobby of the bank. Overhead were four brass chandeliers and the floor was polished marble. Directly across from them was the teller area, which was still done in the old-fashioned mahogany wood and bronze bars—no bulletproof security glass for them. All windows were locked shut and the entire area behind the teller stations was unlit and looked to be locked off.
It seemed disconcerting to then have cubicles set up along the left and right walls instead of desks, but there they were. Along the left wall was the entrance to the women’s restroom, along the right was the men’s room.
“Do you see it?” Nic nudged Asher as he pointed to the exit sign to the left, next to the women’s restroom.
“Are you asking him if he sees the obvious there? Li’l Nic?” Raiden drawled.
Nic flushed.
“We need to get into the teller area so we can be watching the entrance to the bank and see the offices on the left and right of the entrance,” Ezio said.
Asher had been thinking the same thing. It gave him the heebie-jeebies not to be able to see the entry point of any building.
“I’ve got that covered. You have won the surveillance lottery. I want eyes and ears into Señora Azua’s office.”
He glanced over to the left-hand corner of the mezzanine level. They all knew that directly beneath that was Suzanne Azua’s office. But this bank had been built back in the day when real artisans and builders had been hired, so the floors were thick and solid. How in the hell he was going to get through the floor to surveil the people was anybody’s guess.
“Thanks a lot.” Ezio smiled as he backtracked away from the balustrade and went toward the dark corner.
Asher liked the fact that Ezio hadn’t been flipping him shit when he’d thanked him for the assignment.
