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“We’d better hide”

Mapplethorpe followed his commando team down the hall

He had eroup of men many times in the past, a mercenary team that included former British SAS and the South Africa’s Recces They were histhat was asked of thes, torture, rape Whatever clandestine operation he needed run, these et it done Best of all, afterward they would sihosts

It was hard men such as these who kept the country secure Where others feared to tread, these soldiers did not balk

The point n read LOCKER ROOM The soldier held up a fist In his other hand, he clutched an electronic tracker

Earlier, Trent McBride had reported that the child’sThere was no place she could hide They’d picked up her signal on this level

The commando waited upon his order to proceed

Mapplethorpe waved hih the door He checked his watch The fail-safe was set for another three minutes In case Painter Crowe decided not to abort the firestorirl nabbed and evacuated If they were quick enough, it should not be a probleency exit lay at the other end of the hallway and led off to an underground garage

Ahead, the soldiers burst through the door and ran low and fast into the next roo the door behind hiroup as they spread through the rows of lockers

Mapplethorpe followed the commando with the tracker, flanked by twothe lockers, his arnal, dropped his arm, and pointed

In the silence, Mapplethorpe heard a faint whi from inside the locker

At last

A padlock secured the door, but another soldier whipped out a small set of bolt cutters and snapped the lock off

Mapplethorpe waved They were running out of time “Hurry!”

The head coed the locker’s handle and yanked the door open Mapplethorpe caught a gliital tape recorder, a radio transmitter—and a Taser pistol wired to the door

A trap

Mapplethorpe turned and ran

Behind him, the pistol fired with a pop and a crackle of electricity

Mapplethorpe screa like the firing of a gas grill A flash of heat, and a fireball bleard It picked him off his feet and carried him down the row His clothes roasted to his back He breathed flaer huony

He rolled and burned for a stretch of eternity—until darkness snuffed him away

A floor below in the gy down from the medical locker roo Mapplethorpe would conal He had planted one of the Cobra radio transceivers used to draw off the helicopters back at the safe house Like before, he set the device to nal

As a boy, Painter had often gone hunting with his father on the Mashantucket Reservation, his people’s tribal ho a trap and luring prey Today was no different

His false trail had drawn the others like moths to a flame