The Buried (35 page)

First the motorcyclist and then The Wolf appeared around the crates near the tunnel entrance. Every few seconds they glanced back the way they’d come, as if expecting someone else to join them. Their appearance was unexpected, but Nate was even more surprised when The Wolf handed the other woman a gun. They should have been unarmed.

Behind him, the elevator came to life again. The women heard it, too, and ducked behind a stack, out of sight.

Nate frowned.
Just when I thought it was going to be easy.

__________

“I
TOLD YOU
not to call me that,” Ananke yelled at Orbits.

“Don’t rile him up,” Quinn whispered. “Just get him in the open.”

“What are you doing over there, kitten? I, um, mean Annie,” Orbits said.

“Annie’s not my name, either,” she yelled. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”

“I’m sorry,” he replied defensively.

“Ricky, if you don’t want to get hurt, get out here!”

“Oh, yeah? Well, I’m not the one who’s going to get hurt!”

“All right, then. Prove to us you have an M16. Fire off a round.” She paused. “Go ahead. Any time now.” Another pause. “We’re waiting.” Still nothing.

As Quinn had suspected—and apparently Ananke had, too—Orbits had lied about the rifle.

“If I come out there, you’ll shoot me,” Orbits said.

“If I was going to shoot you, I’d have done it years ago. God knows I probably should have. But you know why I won’t?”

“Why?”

“Because you can’t help that you’re an idiot.”

“Hey, that’s not—”

“Ricky!”

“Fine, maybe you won’t shoot me, but your friend will.”

With a roll of her eyes, she said loudly enough for Ricky to hear, “Quinn, are you going to shoot him?”

“Not if he cooperates,” Quinn replied, his volume matching hers.

“See, no one’s going to shoot you. Now, last chance or I’m coming over there myself and putting you out of our misery!”

“Fine, fine. I’m coming out. But I swear, if you shoot me…”

“What?” Ananke asked. “If we shoot you, what are you going to do, Ricky?”

“Why are you so pissed off at me?”

Quinn edged around the crate, pointing his gun toward Orbits’s voice, while Ananke positioned herself beside him so she could see, too. “Any time now,” Quinn said.

“I’m coming, all right? Calm down.”

Orbits appeared from behind the boxes, his hands shoulder high. In his right was his gun.

“Toss the weapon this way,” Quinn ordered.

“Now why would I—”

Ananke fired a bullet past his head.

“Okay,” Orbits said. “It’s all yours.”

He lobbed the gun into the aisle with enough force that when it hit the concrete, it skidded past Quinn and Ananke’s position with no sign of stopping.

“Happy?” Orbits asked.

Quinn and Ananke stepped out from their hiding place.

“Where are the women?” Quinn asked.

“I don’t know anything about any
women
,” Orbits said. “Wait, that didn’t come out right.”

“Where are Dani and Orlando?”

“If by Dani you mean Danielle, that little…”

Quinn raised his gun a few inches.

Orbits said, “…
princess
ran off right before you two started chasing me.”

“She’s not with you?” Ananke asked.

“Not anymore.”

“Where did she go?” Quinn said.

“Well, you should know. You were the ones shooting at me while she got away.”

“We weren’t the ones shooting at you.”

Orbits looked confused. “You weren’t?”

“Orlando,” Ananke said to Quinn.

“Who’s this Orlando?”

Quinn motioned toward the elevator. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?” Orbits asked.

“Out.”

“I’m not go—”

“Ricky, move!” Ananke ordered.

They started down the aisle, Ricky in front with Quinn and Ananke right behind him.

“Just so we’re clear,” Orbits said, “I’ve got dibs on this place.”

__________

N
ATE SNEAKED OVER
to the wall and slipped sideways through the gap at the end of the row. He repeated the move at the next two stacks, stopping when he reached the crates that separated him from where he’d last seen the women.

He heard the elevator stop at the top for a few seconds and then descend again. Wanting to neutralize the problem before Quinn and the others arrived, he slid into the final gap and inched forward, pausing just short of the corner.

No sounds. Had they moved on?

He inched forward again, easing his head out of the stack for a quick look.

“Hi, there.”

The motorcyclist stood four feet away, her gun pointed between his eyes.

__________

Q
UINN MADE RICKY
open the elevator door when they reached the first level. Stepping out, he expected to find Nate waiting for them, but his partner wasn’t there.

“Nate?” he said. When no response came, he flicked on his mic and repeated his friend’s name.

Ananke looked at him, alarmed.

“What’s going on?” Orbits asked.

“Shut up,” she whispered.

Quinn cautiously approached the central aisle, but before he could reach it Nate came around the corner, the motorcyclist holding a gun to the back of his head. As Quinn and Ananke jerked their weapons up, The Wolf stepped out behind the motorcyclist, also armed.

“Well, isn’t this convenient?” The Wolf said. “All the people I’ve been…” She stopped. “Hold on. Where’s Danielle?”

“Drop your weapons,” Quinn said.

The Wolf laughed. “I don’t think so. You drop yours.”

“Not going to happen.”

“Then we have a problem,” she said. “But one we can easily solve. I want to know what happened to the girl. Did you kill her now that you found this place? It’s what I would have done.”

“Let my friend go,” Quinn said.

“Or do you have her tied up somewhere? I hope so. I’ve so been looking forward to reminiscing with her about her father.”

“I said, let him go.”

“Answer my question and maybe we will. If you don’t, I
will
have Bianca kill him.”

Quinn drew in a breath. “We both know that won’t happen. If she kills him, then we kill you.”

“Well, isn’t this exciting?” Orbits said. “Four guns, two on each side. I kind of feel left out. I probably should just—”

“Don’t move,” Ananke said, her eyes not leaving The Wolf. “Or you will be the first one hit.”

Orbits froze.

“Let him go now,” Quinn said to The Wolf, “and we’ll leave this place to you.”

“It’s that easy, is it? Why do I have the feeling that when we finally leave, the police and FBI would be waiting for us up top?”

“I promise, there won’t be any police.”

“That’s comforting. How about we do this?”

__________

A
FTER PAUSING TWICE
more so Orlando could rest, she and Dani finally reached the door at the end of the emergency tunnel.

“What’s on the other side?” Orlando asked.

“Level one.”

“And what’s there?”

“Storage.”

“Storing what?”

Dani was silent for a moment, and then seemed to come to some kind of decision. “Weapons.”

“What kinds of weapons?”

“Military grade, mostly. Rifles, guns, ammunition, explosives, different things like that.”

“Why?”

Another pause. “Do you know who Charles Hayes was?”

Orlando stared at her. “The arms dealer?”

Dani nodded. “This was his secret hoard.”

Hayes had been the kind of man who sold weapons to both sides of a conflict to keep the flow of cash coming. No wonder The Wolf was involved. She’d been his partner and had been crippled when their business collapsed after his death.

“How do you know about this place?” Orlando asked.

“He was my father.”

That was even more stunning.

“Please tell me you’re not here to lay claim to all of it.”

“God, no. I’ve been trying to keep it secret so no one would ever find it.”

Orlando believed her. There was so much more she wanted to ask, but that could wait until they were safe.

“Switch places with me,” she said.

It took some coordination to squeeze past each other, but soon Orlando was at the door with Dani behind her. She pulled down on the lever and was relieved when it didn’t stick.

Of course, just when she cracked the door open, another contraction hit. She leaned against the wall as the pain shot through her.

“Are you all right?” Dani whispered.

No, she wasn’t all right, but even if Orlando had wanted to admit it, she couldn’t at that moment because she’d temporarily lost her command of words. She held up a finger, hoping that would be enough to answer Dani.

She couldn’t deny it anymore. The contractions hadn’t been false at all. She was officially in labor. She tried to remember how long it had been since the last contraction. Fifteen minutes ago? Less?

Finally, her muscles started to relax again. She took a deep but quiet breath. As soon as she could manage it, she smiled at Dani. “I’m fine,” she whispered.

“Are you about to have—”

“Don’t,” Orlando said. “Don’t even say it.”

She turned back to the door. When she’d cracked it a few minutes earlier, she hadn’t remembered hearing any voices, but she could definitely hear them now. Quinn’s voice, and a woman’s. She opened the door farther, saw she wasn’t in direct sight of anyone, and crawled out.

Free of the tunnel’s confines, she could now hear every word being spoken. She motioned for Dani to stay where she was, and then worked her way along a row of crates until she could have a visual on the situation.

__________

“I
’M SURE THERE’S
a room here we can lock you all in,” The Wolf said. “You can spend your last few days starving to death. No messy bullets. It’s a good offer.”

“Some might say generous,” Quinn said.

The Wolf smiled. “Very true.”

“I’m not one of them.”

She sighed. “I’m afraid it’s the best I can do.”

“You’re not getting out of this,” he said. “Drop your weapons and we’ll—”

With a suddenness that surprised everyone, Orlando slipped out from the stack directly behind the women and whipped the barrel of her gun into Bianca’s head. As the hunter staggered, Orlando yanked the woman’s gun from her hand. She then pointed one of her weapons at The Wolf and the other at Bianca.

“What was the plan here, folks?” she asked. “Were you all going to talk each other to death?”

As The Wolf started to move her gun around, Orlando took a quick sidestep and shoved the muzzle of her gun into the woman’s ear.

“Go ahead and test me,” she said. “I am
not
in a good mood.”

The woman lowered her gun hand.

“Drop it.”

The Wolf let the pistol clatter to the floor.

Orbits, apparently seeing an opportunity, ran past Orlando and down the central aisle toward the exit.

“Please tell me I’m supposed to shoot him,” Orlando said.

“I’ll get him,” Ananke said.

As the assassin ran off, Quinn and Nate took over watching The Wolf and Bianca.

“Where were you?” Quinn asked Orlando.

“Service tunnel.” She made a vague gesture across the room.

“Have you seen Dani?”

“How do you think I found the damn thing?” Raising her voice, she said, “Dani, it’s okay. Come on out.”

After a moment, Dani stepped into the aisle.

__________

A
NANKE RACED AFTER
Orbits.

“Ricky! Stop!” she yelled to no avail.

He turned down the short aisle to the exit and disappeared into the tunnel. She entered just in time to see him go around the bend. She then heard a cry of surprise and a thud.

She slowed as she came to the corner and raised her gun before moving around it.

“I think I may have hit him too hard,” Daeng said.

He was kneeling next to Orbits, who lay on the floor, unconscious.

Ananke lowered her weapon. “I doubt it.”

CHAPTER
42

T
HEY PUT THE
Wolf and Bianca in an empty maintenance closet and tied them up.

“You know I’ll be free again in no time,” The Wolf said. “I know people in very important positions. I’ll never see the inside of a prison.”

“Perhaps not a typical prison,” Quinn said. “But I’m sure Helen will find someplace nice to put you.”

“Helen? Do you mean Helen Cho? I hate to break it to you but Helen won’t be doing anything anymore.”

“And why is that?” Orlando asked.

“Let’s just say I never worry about the dead.”

“Oh, right,” Orlando said. “You’re under the impression your people killed her at the Imperial Theater.” She shook her head sympathetically. “Sorry, but she got out yesterday, very much alive. And I know she’s going to be pleased to learn that you’re our guest.”

For the first time, The Wolf looked uncertain. Her eyes flicked past Quinn and Orlando to Dani standing just outside the room. “You’re not going to let them do this to me, are you? I was your father’s friend. I used to play with you when you were a baby. We’re practically family.”

Dani stared at her, and then stepped into the doorway. Without taking her eyes off The Wolf, she swung around the hand she’d been holding behind her back. In it was a gun, pointed at The Wolf.

“Hold on, Dani,” Quinn said. “Think about what you’re doing.”

“My father?” Dani said to The Wolf. “You think I care about your relationship to him? I hate him for who he was, for the harm he did. My real family—my mother and sister—are dead because of him. You were his partner so you are just as responsible.” She pushed the muzzle against The Wolf’s cheek.

“Dani,” Orlando whispered calmly.

“How many hundreds of thousands of lives are you responsible for taking already?” Dani asked as if no one else but The Wolf was there. With her free hand, she gestured behind her. “And how many more would you be responsible for after you took everything my father had stashed here?” She pressed the gun deeper into The Wolf’s skin.