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My rubber-soled shoesnoises on the pavement as I covered the quarter-mile distance in short order I was dressed to blend in with the neighborhood and the night with dark pants, shirt, no tie, and an old pea jacket borrowed frouise closet A cloth cap was pulled low over my forehead and I&039;d wrapped a wool muffler several times around my face and neck
Since winter had set in I&039;d found it a necessary ite Most people probably wouldn&039;t notice as on&039;s puff of vapor, but why take chances?
This kind of worry co from a man about to walk into a lion&039;s den
Correction: snake pit Kyler was anything but warot within a block ofworth notice
One car went by, but I avoided it by slipping into a deep doorway until it was long gone At the cross street I cut to the left, away froht at the next corner Opposite the IFT warehouse was yet another large building and I was noalking behind it The place had a back entrance for the heavy trucks; I hopped up on the loading platforht for the nearest door
It was locked, but I vanished and went inside anyway My eyes adjusted quickly to the large dim interior once I re-forood clean se stacks of lu as none of it avalanched down on
I crossed all the way to the front of the place but stood well back frorimy, view of the IFT
warehouse across the street
It looked empty No cars were parked anywhere near the place and even the outside light over the office door was off I could just lint of a new hasp and padlock, probably installed by the cops to keep people away froht&039;s crie in the street
Sorowled behind , I i balefully in the faint light from the s They were spaced very far apart Below them was an endless row of shark&039;s teeth, and froe diesel engine That&039;s about all I really noticed about the dog in the half second that passed before it charged
I suppose I could have handled it, could have used ical, friendly ideas like that are for people with the time to think them up When a mastiff the size of a calf with adown on you, the first thing you really want to do is try to get out of its way My abrupt disappearance was more of a knee-jerk reaction than a planned escape, but whatever works
The thing bored through the space where I had once been solid and I heard a muffled crash as it slammed into the front wall The sound it made was more irritation than pain as it recovered from the shock and turned It yelped in sudden confusion when it butted intoto pinat the e up chunks of it for all I could tell; the da lover, but knohen I&039;ue with it, I floated up until I bu about ten feet overhead, and sieved through It was the floor to an upper office I&039;d noticed ona locked door betweenbelow as I becarees and in absolute silence
By cautiously craning htly different angle, and could see more of the street The as more uncomfortable since I didn&039;t want to ot a clue to my location it would certainly follow I didn&039;t trust the door all that h to get to ht, I stood very still, indeed, and usedsomewhat, but soo River supported some slow boat traffic, and thanks to my new perch I was able to see soed lazily past and I did not envy their crews having to work on a cold night and at such a late hour They reht even use it for his transportation, so I divided ht I saw, but did not hear, Kyler&039;s two Cadillacs pull up before the warehouse The motors were very finely tuned; a cat&039;s purr would have been loud by cohts and I counted ten ed and crowded by the door The cars blocked a lot of roup There was a brief pause as they did so to the padlock, then the door opened and they filed inside So ht came on, then an inside one Silhouettes buh the office into the warehouse proper I hadn&039;t noticed any weapons, but all their lethal hardould be easily concealed by their long, heavy coats Kyler wasn&039;t going to take any chances with me if he could help it Maybe I should have felt flattered by all the preparations, but it was an honor I&039;d just as soon skip
I pulled on a pair of gloves and checked the velvet bag again The bracelet glinted, not evil in itself, but certainly an inspiration and a focus for the darkness in all of us I polished it a little and hoped that it would be enough to buy h the floor, I sailed past the dog, as stubbornly on guard at the spot where it had last seen me It whined once in puzzleht course between the stacks of luain It was just on ed onto the street
No one see around outside, which struck me as odd since Kyler was the cautious type They were probably hiding soht
The front of the warehouse was a blank, giving no clue to as going on inside Like the bracelet, it could be innocent or sinister In my present mood I knehich one to pick I walked slowly to the door and opened it The mechanism sounded unnaturally loud to ood, again Two hard-looking men I did not know stared back at me One stood up from his seat on the desk, the other continued to lean a little too casually against a file cabinet I kept the , the better
Neither of them moved It was like a zoo when you walk past the exhibit with the big cats You know the bars will keep them in place, but there&039;s always that shiver of uncertainty in the back of your ht not be up to the job The only restraints here were the invisible ones of Kyler&039;s word
I went through the inner door into the warehouse The lights were on, but I was very aware of all theout there a the stacks of crates One of the as I
The line of crates ended, leaving free an open space, or it would have been free except for the ropes the police had left behind Off to one side an abstract chalk design sprawled at the base of a crate In the middle, near a closed trapdoor that led down to a river landing, was another The latter was nizably the outline of a host Next to the head was a spray of dark stain In my mind I could still smell the cordite and blood
I tore my eyes fro in the center of it all Vaughn Kyler regarded me with equal amounts of tension and expectation
He was in better shape than when I&039;d last seen him The cut on his forehead had been neatly patched over, and either the vicuna coat had been cleaned or he earing a new one
Chaven stood next to hi froy His forced retreat earlier had left hiainst me
The next few steps were difficult The warehouse was partially built out over the river and the force of the free-running water below made an invisible but effective barrier to so
Kyler had warned hisunusual when they&039;d searched the house I wondered if he had chosen this spot because he&039;d sensed this weakness in ainst the opposing press of the water and hoped that it wasn&039;t too obvious Once past the first yard or so, it wasn&039;t so bad, except for allat attention
Kyler, Chaven, and the guy next to me-nohere were the other five? Two of them closed ranks about twenty feet behind us Another stood off to the left, partially hidden by soht, concealed by crates
I kept going until only a few feet separated iven ated that reaction He looked ordinary, just another businessinning to realize that it was the absolute stillness of the man&039;s manner that madeeyes
"You bring it?" His voice matched his eyes, cold
I nodded My mouth was dry He waited forfroht deal?" I whispered, hardly able to work up enough spit to talk
"Let&039;s see it first"
Right Any pro delivery of the thing, and ere both very aware of it I opened the bag and turned it over The bracelet flowed and twined aroundthem into silver and red sparks
It was his turn to nod and he held out his hand to take it If anything was to happen to uarantee, war or peace, when I turned it over; anything except what did happen The only warning I got was Chaven&039;sinto a nervous twitch of a smile as the bracelet finally slithered into Kyler&039;s possession
A blinding explosion of white light froze everything in place for that instant It ca equipruous, yet horribly faround My eyes seee to recover, but I didn&039;t have to see to know that he was slotting in another film plate for a second photo He knocked the spent bulb free of the flash
As if in slow lass slivers as it sainst the scarred wood The pop it nal for everyone to close in The ht me flat-footed with this one My instinct to vanish nearly tookI had to ice that for theon The two behind us crowded in and the other two on the right finally e The mediule over his dandy handsome face
His unexpected presence here only added to my shock
The deal was off, but then it had never really been on It was a trap Not Kyler&039;s, though the cops&039;
Thetoward me was Lieutenant Blair
"C&039; me "Let&039;s have a look at him"
Oh, shit
The nizedto stay that way if I could help it I savagely shook off the guy&039;s grip and bolted to the left The photographer was encuh to hold for his pals I bowled past hiht, and my best hope was to circle around to the stacks
They ise to that one Blair and anothera feint for a side door on the other end The photographer left his caht hi hi Blair&039;s rush for a few precious seconds I took the opening only to face twobetween the too fast to stop, anyway A gun went off, probably by accident I felt nothing and reain I punched an elbow in his direction and got free Blair shouted so between two long lines of crates I was suddenly free of the uncomfortable pressure of the water below us
At the far end and couys froun and level it Behind me, Blair and the others paused as well, abruptly aware that they were in each other&039;s line of fire
The crates stacked on either side were about four feet square, graduating to s blocks I latched onto a narrow edge and heaved upith desperation-inspired agility Blair and hismy foot as I lurched up to the next tier Blair ordered someone to run around to the other side of the stack to head me off
I wasn&039;t quite sure how, but I made it to the top of the wooden mountain about twenty-five dizzy feet up A little belatedly, I rehts as I teetered onot hurt He stopped a ; evidently they were all cops except for Chaven and Kyler
They were standing well back fro a look of expectation on his norood, and now I knehy
Blair&039;s voice cut throughFine, except that I was now limited to two directions, unless you wanted to count a sudden drop as a third Cops were now on both sides of the stack, ready to nail as left if that happened
Fortunately, the boxes up here were sh to be useful, as I discovered when I tipped one over and sent it crashing Thetumbled down Metal parts, shards of wood, and excelsior hit the floor like a boun went off-I couldn&039;t tell froet a second shot, I dropped two ht, and then plastered ured they&039;d be too busy to notice ht of the intervening crates would help block Kyler&039;s view of the stunt
Two more random shots went off before Blair called for a stop, followed by a long, confused pause as they tried to locatetheave way to frustration, and a man was boosted up on the stacks for a look around I floell away froet on with the search After a time I eased my way down to the floor and tried toaround
"Where the hell is he?" was the most frequently repeated phrase No one had an answer to it, either Blair sent men to cover all the exits and to check the street
The rest circled and recircled the place After several an to realize they&039;d been skunked
Blair shouted a question at Kyler Between the distorting echoes and the naturalcaused by my unnatural state I could hardly make it out, and neither could Kyler
"What?" he called back
I zeroed in on Blair&039;s voice "I said, did he get past you?" He was striding toward Kyler I froze onto hi With his unknowing help I was able to ain Despite the heavy leather coat, he began to shiver
"We didn&039;t see anything," Kyler answered I hoped that he was telling the truth
"If you&039;re trying a double cross, youot the bracelet back for you and I understand that it is a crucial piece of evidence in the case you are working on This lunatic has killed twice, one of them a close friend and associate ofthisyour depart proves my sincerity"
"And were you able to identify hi out and I ret to say that I did not recognize the man," was his bland reply
Nohat the hell was he up to?
"You&039;re certain of that?"
"Yes, Lieutenant He rapped up in that muffler, but I am positive that if I&039;d had any previous contact with hiood head for na to say to that and called for a report froative He walked off to join the back to eavesdrop on Kyler
"Where do you think he went?" Chaven asked hiht still be here"
"This is crazy, Vaughn"
"But you sahat happened"
"I saw a guy go up who hasn&039;t come down yet What&039;s with hi that out Are the boys in place?"
"Probably Tinny was on his way just as the cops arrived for us His girl&039;s practically-"
"Shut up," said Kyler, not raising his voice, but still ency
As Escott sometimes said, bloody hell I whipped away from the my way toward the front
It was like blindinto people
I found the office almost by accident when I picked up half of a phone conversation Blair was calling for reinforce out a description of ht right and had noticed the clothes in detail, right down to the brown-and-blue stripe pattern on the otten a look at h the front door and bore left,the curb as a guide Whenever it curved sharply, it meant a corner, and I&039;d have to strike out for the other side and hope to hold a straight line A car roared toward the warehouse; the buffet of wind froe threw ave s and some ht and I was running out of time Escott wouldn&039;t wait forever and sooner or later a patrolht pull up to ask hiover the pavement
The next time I went solid, I ithin yards of his corner Escott stood in a doorway covering the street and saw me melt out of nowhere
"We&039;re up shit creek," I said, slowing only a little "Get the car in gear We have to get to the Top Hat right away"
"Good lord, they&039;re after Miss Smythe?" He darted around to the driver&039;s side and threw hier door and chafed at the pause needed to start the ht she&039;d be safe from all this"
"No doubt Kyler has some excellent sources of infor an opponent&039;s vulnerable points," he said as he shifted and hit the gas