Heidi slowed as a new area unfolded around them, the outskirts of a town, replete with the usual outlying shopping centers and retail estates. The satnav guided them past a large supermarket and then a cinema, after which it took a right and led them to the front of a busy gym.
Behind the gym, fenced off, stood a nondescript, low, brown building. Something so innocuous and forgettable, you might not even notice it. The fortunate part was the gym itself, which offered a decent-sized parking area and let them sit, unhampered, for as long as they wanted.
Two hours passed. Heidi decided it was her turn to fetch food and drinks, and found a takeaway Caffè Nero inside the gym. On settling back into the car, she found Pang was already coming up with a plan.
“We go in,” he said, sipping an americano. “We’re running out of time. Bodie and pals have been gone for days and, despite our best efforts, we’re struggling to crack open this particular pie.” Pang stared into the middle distance as if imagining the rest of his life as an unceasing Bodie-hunt. “I’ve seen no activity, not even a single person, in the last two hours so I say we go in.”
“Can I finish my damn donut first?” Heidi was angry because she tended to agree with him, and agreeing with Pang was the first step to Hell in her book.
Pang didn’t answer, just opened the glovebox, took out his gun, and checked the mag. After that, he cracked open the door and, without looking at Heidi, marched toward the nondescript building.
“Asshole.” Heidi threw her donut at the windshield where it left crumbs and sugar on the glass, picked up her own gun from the center console well, and turned to Butcher. “Stay here,” she growled, opening her door and running after Pang. “Follow us in five.”
The CIA man was already nearing the fence that protected the building. With a powerful bound he leapt three-quarters of the way up, put his fingers through the chain-link and held on. Then, using his strength, he rolled across the top and eased his way down the other side. Heidi cursed because, despite her feelings of contempt for him, she couldn’t match that.
“Wait,” she hissed. “You’ll need backup.”
He glared at her. “This is what I do.”
Turning away, Pang ran at the building. Heidi had a moment of total exasperation when the words “this is what I do” jabbed at her mind like serrated spikes but then took matters into her own hands. If the idiot wasn’t going to let her back him up, she’d give him no choice. She didn’t like Pang, but she wouldn’t see him die for his own stupidity on her watch. She ran to the fence and smashed at the padlock with the butt of her gun. Three strikes, then the lock bent and snapped. Heidi pushed the gate open.
Pang was climbing the wall. Heidi gave a grunt of disapproval. “What the hell?”
“Skylight,” he said. “Easiest way in.”
“You’d make an excellent thief,” she said, grabbing hold of a downpipe and waiting for him to clear it before adding her own weight.
“Didn’t you know? The CIA is an agency of super thieves at the top of their game.”
Heidi thought of her daughter, thousands of miles away, and wondered what the hell she was doing following this crazy spook into a potential deathtrap instead of trying to repair that relationship.
Pang looked down at her. “Climb.”
She shook off her distraction and joined him a moment later. Pang was studying the opaque skylight with interest, but then just raised his gun and shot it. If she hadn’t been so shocked, Heidi’s mouth might have fallen open in imitation of a cartoon character. The skylight shattered and fell inside the building, crashing across the floor. Pang grabbed hold of the metal sides of the frame and lowered himself inside, dropping the last six feet and landing amid broken glass.
Heidi cursed as he opened fire.
With no option, she too lowered herself inside and jumped to the floor, ducking on landing. A bullet smashed the screen of a computer to her right. Heidi went lower, knees grinding in broken glass.
Pang kept up a constant barrage of fire, changing a mag in lightning quick time and then firing again, keeping the enemy pinned. Heidi raised her head to see three guards, hiding behind file cabinets.
“We don’t have time for this,” Pang said. He grabbed a computer, ripped it away from its desk and hurled it at the nearest cabinet. It struck loudly, the man behind jumping clear only to be shot in the chest by Pang.
Heidi backed him up, keeping the other guards pinned down as he threw a water cooler in their direction, drenching them in the process. He then leapt feet first at the nearest file cabinet, striking it so hard it toppled over into the next and then the next, creating a domino effect. One man was trapped underneath, another crawled out, bleeding from a blow to the head.
Pang shot them both without mercy as he stalked past.
Heidi cringed, but fanned out, checking the rest of the area. It was clear, but this wasn’t the server room. And Butcher would be on his way to the front door.
Running, she caught up to Pang and shoved him toward the stairs. They rushed down. A guard was rushing up.
Pang leapt, feet out, using his momentum to travel forward and down and collide with the man’s chest, sending him head over heels all the way to the bottom. Heidi was about to urge Pang not to
