The door leaned inward, half off its hinges. Butcher squeezed inside. Heidi followed, seeing a wall of white hard drives stretching away to her right and another to her left.
Butcher pushed further into the room, looking for the master computer. Pang stayed at the door.
Butcher found what he was looking for at the far end of the room and rushed forward, pulling a data stick from his pocket and brandishing it like a sword. Heidi stayed close, just in case there was another guard lurking, but there were none.
Butcher inserted the stick, tapped a few keys, then stood looking down at the screen. “Thirty seconds.”
“Thirty seconds,” Heidi relayed the information back to Pang.
“We don’t have twenty,” was Pang’s annoyed reply. “And they have guns.”
Heidi cursed and ran to help him. Together, they manhandled the heavy door off its final hinge and threw it out into the corridor, wedging it as best they could. Guards shouted at them, not yet ready to use lethal force. Pang hadn’t shown any sign that he carried a gun, but the black masks they wore weren’t going to help their defense.
“Hurry!” Heidi yelled at Butcher.
“Done!” the young man cried and then came running. “Go right. There’s a side door.”
Heidi already knew it since she’d studied the map. Pang looked pleased.
Together they gave the door a last kick, wedging it further into place across the corridor, and ran. The guards hit the door hard. The thick wedge of wood held for less than ten seconds, but it gave them a lead.
“Right at the branch, then a short left and another right,” Butcher yelled.
The corridors were relatively short. As she ran, Heidi saw office after office, full of desks with banks of computers atop them, all running. This place was like an autonomous data farm, unspecified, secret and productive, enabling the world’s criminals to communicate, make deals and arrange meetings in complete privacy and with confidence.
Heidi wondered how many of these buildings there were across the world. Hundreds? More? Each one a frenzied hive of criminal activity.
But the CIA, and other agencies, were clearly aware of them. Heidi shrugged it off, not wanting to imagine why government agencies would allow known criminal hubs like this to continue operating.
Pang, following Butcher’s directions, came up against the side door and pushed hard at the metal bar. An alarm sounded, but was muted, something that would travel only inside the building and most definitely wouldn’t be connected to the police. It worked in the thieves’ favor and it was that thought that almost pulled Heidi up short.
Thieves...
Here they were, imitating the relic hunters whilst trying to catch the relic hunters. It was something to throw at Pang later.
They were outside. The guards were thirty feet behind. Heidi slammed the door closed, looked for something to wedge against it, but found nothing. Pang and Butcher dashed for the side of the building.
Men appeared, shouting, guns drawn. Pang kept running, hands up, then dove and rolled; he extracted his own gun and fired. The bullets took two men down; the others fired back.
Pang grabbed Butcher by the jacket and hurled him against the wall. Heidi withdrew her own gun and, instead of shooting for central mass as she’d been taught, aimed for their shoulders, winging two so they dropped their guns. They were still on their feet, holding their arms. Pang ran at them, and kicked until they collapsed into a heap.
The way to their car was clear. Pang grabbed Butcher and ran with him, Heidi protecting their rear.
The guards who’d chased them through the building emerged into the night, saw their downed colleagues, and pulled out their guns. Two fired without warning. Heidi turned a corner as bullets slammed into the blockwork above her head, showering her with gray dust.
Pang went ahead of Butcher. The CIA field operative was in his element. He reached the car first, fired it into life, and shot forward, the passenger doors already open. Butcher climbed ungainly into the back seat, leaving the door ajar and then cursed, realizing he should have closed it behind him.
The guards appeared, one of them spotting the car and shooting. A bullet flew high overhead.
Heidi whirled and fired, squeezing off five quick shots that scattered their pursuers. Running forward, looking backward, she tripped over a curb and staggered. Pang had the car beside her in seconds.
The passenger door was open,
Heidi fell into it headlong, banging her forehead first against the gear selector then against Pang’s knee. She pulled her feet inside as Pang trod on the gas pedal. The tires squealed and the engine roared in response. The car slewed around, gripped and then took off, accelerating hard. Bullets thudded into the trunk.
Heidi turned to Butcher. “You okay?”
“Apart from needing a change of underwear, I think so.”
“Good work, Pang.” She had no problem handing out credit where it was due.
“Any time.” The CIA man looked happy for once, probably delighted at the chance of a firefight and a close getaway. Heidi raised her head to look in the rearview. The building was dwindling fast, the guards milling around the road. They had come close. She just hoped tonight was worth it.
“Best not go back to the hotel,” she told Pang. “We’ve just upset some of the biggest criminals in the world.”
“Yeah, we’ll disappear.” Pang pulled his black mask off. “Just need to ditch this and then find something else.”
Butcher was already opening up his laptop and entering a password. “Let’s see what we’ve got.”
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
Leaving Bologna, wrapped in darkness, and in an anonymous silver-gray saloon, the trio were only interested in one thing: What Butcher had downloaded from that computer.
“I tried just one search,” he said. “Knowing we only had
