Dantalion was under the same bridge on the same beach, but the family with the crabby kid had long gone. The sun was a bloody slash on the western horizon. Out to the east, the first stars were twinkling in the purple evening. Above him the sky was a brown-yellow colour where day fought night, but was rapidly losing ground. Dantalion wished that night would get on with it, sucker-punch day, and then stamp it into surrender. He needed the darkness. It was his greatest ally.
He was sitting on a hummock of grass, his feet sunk in sand. Around him lay the flotsam cast up by the sea, sun-bleached twigs and the cast-off shells of crustaceans. There was also the ubiquitous plastic bag, dropped by someone careless. A soda can, ferrous-red around its lip, was buried to the shoulders in the sand. Between Dantalion's splayed feet was the backpack delivered to him by Gabe Wellborn.
From the bag he pulled out the sound suppressor. The one he had used last night was useless now. Suppressors didn't have an infinite lifespan, each successive shot robbing them of their effectiveness. He screwed this fresh one into place on his specially adapted Beretta. He disengaged the magazine from his gun, inserted a new one, slid the loading mechanism to place a round into the firing chamber. He then fed a round into the magazine so that he had the full seventeen-round load ready to go.
Placing the gun across his left thigh, he reached back into the bag and took out a second gun. This wasn't nearly as effective a man-killer as the Beretta, but as he'd said to his associate, ' Don't worry, Gabe, I won't be using it on humans.' The gun looked like something patched together from a plumber's offcuts. A pipe and valve and a canister. A simple trigger mechanism was the only item that looked as though it had been gleaned from a genuine firearm. It was a dart gun powered by compressed gas and could deliver the ketamine cartridges over a space of fifty yards.
Next came the night-vision goggles. They were advanced Generation Three goggles, military grade with image intensifier capacity, bright source protection and wide exit pupil design. They came with a fully adjustable, padded head rig to allow hands-free operation. With these in place he would have the ability to move through the darkness as though it was high noon. His enemies would be blind to his presence even when he was standing in front of them.
Last out of the bag was the EMF meter, a device for measuring electrical and magnetic fields. This particular device was distinct in its very wide frequency response and sensitivity. Any pressure pads or trip wires hidden in the grounds of the compound would set off an audio sounder not unlike the Geiger counter, increasing in intensity the closer he approached the hidden alarms.
The sun was almost down now. Under the bridge the shadows had thickened and swarmed around him like furtive confederates. He slipped out of his coat, bundled it and placed it into the backpack. In went his hat and sunglasses and he strapped the goggles on to his head, flipping up the dual-tubular-optics so that he could still use his own vision for now. He was dressed in close-fitting sweatshirt and cargo pants — the type with numerous deep pockets — tucked into laced-up boots. In the daytime Dantalion dressed in white or cream clothing, but his current garb was as black as the night folding around him. He holstered the Beretta on his hip; the wound in his thigh made it too uncomfortable to carry the gun in its normal position. Extra magazines were fed into the deep pockets on his left thigh. The EMF meter had a clip and he fixed it to his belt. He swung the backpack across his shoulders and cinched the straps tight. Lastly he picked up the compressed-gas gun and inserted a ketamine-charged dart into it, then thumbed the canister control.
He straightened, took a couple of steps so he could peer from under the bridge towards the gate he'd reconnoitred earlier. He couldn't make it out in the dark, not until he slipped the goggles in place. Twinkling green light played on the interior of the goggles. Now he could clearly see the dark bulk of the boundary wall on the horizon to his left.
Ready now, he set off, keeping low so that he was nothing but an amorphous shape against the swaying grasses. Earlier he'd picked his way painfully through the tall grass, but now he went more swiftly. The sunlight on his delicate skin was no longer an issue, and the cargo pants staved off the prickling edges of the grass stems.
Cars moved along the coastal highway, their lights streaking across the elevated bridge like a flight of UFOs. The sound was hushed by the fall of night; even the Atlantic made only the faintest of whispers where it caressed the shoreline.
Dantalion made his way through the grasslands, coming to the wall slightly east of the gate. Using the magnifying capacity of the goggles, he studied the CCTV camera mounted over the gate. It was angled away from him. Seemingly static, as though the controller within the grounds was taking a nap. The likelihood was that with a system of a large number of cameras, the controller rarely used this one. Wasn't much to look at during the dark hours. He'd probably be concentrating on the traffic outside the estate, or taking voyeuristic peeks into the bedchambers of the Jorgenson women.
Dantalion decided against shooting out the camera. Whereas a malfunctioning camera along the wall near to the road wouldn't be of immediate concern, a broken camera at this remote corner of the grounds could call for immediate investigation. He scanned to the right towards the beach end of the wall, saw that the wall ended in a right angle, but that a tall fence extended out across the sand and disappeared into the Atlantic. The gate remained his best choice for entry unless he wanted to swim a couple hundred yards.
He tested the rusty chain and lock, found that they were still very strong in spite of the corrosion. Taking out his Beretta, he aimed at the lock. Fired once. Fired again. The lock shattered, but it was a task to twist it out of the links and unwind the chain from the metal bars. All the while he kept a discreet eye on the CCTV camera, anticipating it swinging his way. It never did.
Hauling one side of the gate towards him, he slipped through the gap. Then he tugged the gate shut. Immediately he took out the EMF meter and switched it on. Lights danced across the top of the device as it ran through a calibration sequence. He cupped a hand over it to smother the lights. It made a soft beep! Then a green pinpoint held steady. Ready to go.
Beretta back in its holster, he held the dart gun in his right hand, the EMF meter in his left, sweeping the ground as he advanced. Through the enhanced lenses of his night-vision goggles the nearest houses were black- green hulks, but lights from within the rooms were exaggerated, causing flare that looked like cold flames. The heavens above were afire with twinkling stars. Mist off the Atlantic swirled like translucent phantoms.
'Planning on a ghost hunt?'
Gabe Wellborn's attempt at humour came back to him. Dantalion smiled. It was as if he was traversing a haunted landscape. He recalled his own words: 'There might be a few ghosts around after I'm done.' Everything going to plan, his lists would be corrected, and there'd be further numbers to add.
Keeping close to the beach where the tall grass was left to nature, he continued past the first few structures. He needed to walk the best part of a mile to reach his destination. He had plenty of time, so he wasn't frustrated by his slow pace. Just because he hadn't yet come across hidden security devices didn't mean that they weren't there. He was vigilant with the EMF meter, and scanned with the goggles in continuous arcs of vision.
Almost twenty minutes later he ducked down among the reeds. A motor launch was creeping through the shallow water, a searchlight sweeping the beach for interlopers. The boat continued to the south, and Dantalion came out of his crouch, moving inland now. The long grass gave way to a low wall, behind which was a manicured lawn, and beyond that a statue-dotted garden.
The EMF meter finally warranted the effort of bringing it. The clicking started the moment he approached the low wall. Dantalion searched for the source of electrical disturbance: a motion detector mounted on the wall itself. Further along would be a second motion detector. A laser beam was fired between both contraptions, and anything breaking the beam would set off an alarm inside the house. It was a sneaky alarm, designed to catch out anyone stepping over the wall. Wouldn't stop him if he vaulted over the top of it. Which was exactly what he did.
If the security-conscious Jorgensons were clever they'd have placed pressure pads just inside the wall where a person jumping over the motion detector beam would be caught out by the secondary appliance. But Dantalion knew that dogs roamed the grounds after dark, so any pressure pads weren't practical. Being pragmatic though, he swept the lawn in front of him. The EMF meter remained silent. He moved forwards, looking for cameras. The house in front of him was huge. Cameras stood out from the roof line, but the two he could see scanned the areas at the sides of the building. Other cameras were mounted above the grand entrance door, but these were trained on the threshold itself, and he wouldn't be going in that way.
Staying out of the visual arcs of the cameras, he moved close to the building; its left wing extended out from the entrance portal. He crept up to it, keeping below the line of the windows, and then used the angle of the building to move directly beneath the CCTV camera. It would have a wide lens, but he doubted that he'd be visible
