Joe shrugged. “Maybe not. Let’s park down the street, then go have a peek in the window. They won’t be able to see us with the inside all lit up.”
Richter frowned, “You’re sure?”
Joe nodded. “Lights on the inside at night make windows act like one-way mirrors. We can see in, but they can’t see out. Even if someone’s there, we’ll at least be able to scope out the interior and make plans.”
“Okay,” Richter said uneasily.
They pulled over and got out. They pulled on black nitrile gloves and got their gear out of the trunk. Since their night vision glasses wouldn’t be needed and were pretty suspicious-looking, they left them in the car. Making their way over to Staze’s building by a somewhat roundabout route, they approached the alley side of the building. Richter had a look around and walked up to a tall narrow window, trying to make it look as if he were simply curious.
Joe quietly said, “Don’t get too close. If the light from inside illuminates you they would be able to see you.”
Richter glanced down at himself, then stepped back until he didn’t seem to have much light on him. Raising his eyes, he looked in the window. The room looks empty! he thought. Did they just forget to turn out the lights? He walked a little half-circle around the window at the same distance so he could see the entire room. Still without seeing anyone. The room was big but spartan, furnished with folding tables and chairs. There were quite a few of those silvery objects called Stades, several of them large. One looked like a coffin. He looked at Joe, “What do you think?”
“No one’s home. No sign of security or alarms. Let’s do it.”
Once Richter said okay, Joe quickly used his glass cutter to scribe a large hole in the glass of one of the bigger windows. After putting a suction cup on the piece, he gave it a hard bump with his elbow and broke it loose. They climbed in.
Inside Richter made a quick tour, then a slower one. There were several of the big silvery boxes that were supposed to make the Stade. They all had cables coming off of them that ended in fancy fixtures Richter didn’t recognize. I wonder if any of Bob’s smart boys’ll be able to figure out what to hook them up to? He looked over at Joe, “There are three of the machines. Suppose we’d just as well take the biggest one?”
Joe shook his head. “Won’t fit out the window. Even if it would, we wouldn’t be able to get it in the car. Even the medium one’s gonna be tight.”
I shoulda thought of that, Richter thought irritatedly. “Okay, let’s do it.” He stepped over to the medium-sized one and tried to pick it up. Even though it had a bumpy surface, he had a hard time getting a grip. It slipped loose and fell on the floor. Dumbass! he thought to himself when he saw the handles.
Joe took the handle on the other side. They carried it over to the window and set it down. Joe said, “I’ll climb out the window and you hand it to me…”
~~~
Nothing had happened. Kaem glanced at his watch. Should’ve checked my watch when I set the timer, I have no idea when the three minutes are going to be up. Well, other than the fact that it seems like it’s already been three minutes. He sighed, I’ll just relax and wait another two minutes by my watch.
He kept checking and finding that not as much time had passed as he’d thought, but eventually another two minutes had passed. He sighed again, lifting the lid. I must’ve screwed up the program that initiates the stazing, he thought.
As he sat up and lowered the side of the stazer to get out, he noticed a man in dark clothing over by the window. The guy bent over, picked up one of their stazers by the handles, and shuffled to the window. What the hell?! Kaem wondered, pivoting out of the stazer’s cavity and landing in his stocking feet. How’d they break open the window, climb in, and haul a stazer over to the window in three minutes—or, he realized, maybe a minute or two more?!
As Kaem ran quietly across the room, he thought, This is crazy! I should let these guys go and call 911! The stazer’s useless to them! What if they’re armed? Feeling completely irrational, he reached out for the handle of the stazer as it was about to disappear out the window. As he grabbed the handle, he shouted at his phone to call 911…
~~~
With one hand on the handle and the other splayed over the stazer’s bumpy-slippery surface, trying to guide it, Richter didn’t have great control. He couldn’t hold it up so it’d started sliding over the cut glass at the bottom of the window. He expected it to grind and scrape, but it slid easily over the sharp edge. Frictionless! he thought. He quietly asked, “You about got it, Joe?”
Then someone shouted behind his right shoulder and the stazer came ripping back in through the window, banging into Richter’s hip and knocking him down.
What the hell?! He realized the guy was shouting at his phone to call 911. We’re blown, Richter thought, trying to scramble to his feet and reaching for the pistol hidden under the back of his coat. As the gun cleared its holster and started to swing up, there was a hard thump on his wrist and the gun flew free.
By then Richter’s eyes had risen enough to show him Seba, the black guy from the video Bob had shown them. He’s not very big, Richter thought, reaching out to grab the front
