Page 142 of Smoke Screen
“Oooff!” he said.
Cruz pointed the gun at Louis Three while extending his free hand to Maddy. “Don’t move,” he told Louis. “I’m done fucking around.”
28
“Ash is on his way,”Zeke said, tucking his phone into the front pocket of his jeans.
Phin stood in the conference room, staring down at Louis Junior and Three, both on the floor, backs to the wall and hands zip-tied behind them.
“Security is on their way up,” Maddy said from her spot near the door.
President Thompson sat in his spot at the end of the table, still guarded by the two Secret Service agents.
“Please unlock the suite,” Thompson said.
A few taps later, Maddy held up her phone. “Done.”
After what Thompson had put her through? That whole administrative leave thing? Phin would have told him to shove it.
But he supposed that’s why he enjoyed Maddy. She didn’t hold grudges.
A minute later, two security guards entered, both of them stopping short at the sight of the president’s brother and nephew zip-tied.
President Thompson stood, approaching the guards. “Gentlemen, the FBI is en route. We need to keep my brother and nephew secure until they arrive.” Thompson peered at Phin, then at Zeke. “A word, please?”
Whatever this was, Thompson didn’t want an audience. Zeke and Phin followed him and the two agents to the closest office—ironically, Maddy’s. The agents remained in the hallway when Thompson closed the door, ensuring complete privacy from the cameras.
Thompson didn’t bother sitting. He stood behind the door, leaning against it with his normally gelled-into-submission hair falling across his forehead. This might be as close to disheveled as Phin had ever seen him.
He held out his hands. “Do you know where the jewels are?”
Phin nodded. “Yes. But, sir, the clock is clicking. When the FBI gets here, everything hits the fan. The jewels will disappear again. We have to act quickly.”
“Meaning, you need to get a jump on the FBI?”
“Precisely,” Zeke said.
They gave Thompson a second, maybe two. This was a man accustomed to deciding on missile strikes and collateral damage. Human carnage.
Thisdecision shouldn’t take long.
“Go,” he said. “If there’s fallout with the FBI, I’ll deal with it. I promise you that. Just get the jewels back.”
Phin nodded. “You got it, sir.”
“Here’sthe map Bob drew for us,” Phin said. “He just texted it to me along with photos of the interior of the warehouse and the location of the jewels.”
He stood at the end of the Annex’s conference table, his brothers beside him. Two images—one an interior rendition, one an exterior—of their target location filled the wall screen.
Phin pointed to an X that Bob had marked at the rear exterior of the building. “There’s a guard stationed at this gate. Delivery bay is behind it. Once we get in the gate, we drive straight ahead to the bay. We have photos of where the jewels are. There’s so much stuff in there, the Veras took to marking the rows and subsections of those rows.”
Stepping closer to the screen, Zeke shook his head. “The feds’ll go crazy cataloguing all that evidence.”
Based on what Bob had described, Phin couldn’t guess how long it might take. He was just glad he didn’t have to do that tedious work.
“We’re looking for an office behind row one.” Phin pointed to another X at the top of the screen. “It’s on the front, east side of the building. The jewels are locked in a safe. We have the combination.”
“Assuming the stuff is still there and the combination’s not changed.”
