Betrayal in Death

Like the city, the building would never be completely quiet. Business and pleasure were twenty-four-hour activities.

She made an LC in short red satin crossing the lower lobby toward the exit. The woman looked smug and gave her little silver bag a pat. A nice fat tip, Eve assumed, then sharpened her focus as Liza passed the LC on her way in.

Liza glanced lazily around. A bit too lazily. A bit too thoroughly, Eve decided. "Feeney, take a look. I'd say our girl there has a recorder on. She's giving her pals an inside look."

"Enhance and magnify," Feeney ordered. "Sector eighteen through thirty-six." He made grunting noises as the image popped up, then ordered higher magnification on a smaller sector. Eve was treated to a very close view of Liza's cleavage.

"Now, that's beautiful."

"Jesus, Feeney."

He blinked, flushed. "I ain't talking about her, you know. The neck thing she's playing with. The dangle there's a microrecorder. State-of-the-fucking-art, too. She's probably transmitting a three-sixty right now. And full audio. The doorman breaks wind, that baby'll pick it up."

"Can you jam it?"

"Oh yeah. I could jam a transmission from the moon with the equipment Roarke brought in." He looked so delighted by the idea, Eve had to wave him off.

"Not now. Let her do the recon for them. Let them see everything nice and quiet and in order. Goddamn, Feeney, they're going for it after all." She checked her wrist unit. "Forty-five minutes to mark. Keep her monitored," she ordered, then rose to rally her troops.

At mark minus fifteen, Eve moved to the ready station, a meeting room one floor below ballroom level. Liza had already reco

Eve was going to be sorry to miss it.

She fixed on her lapel recorder. "Feeney, you read."

"Gotcha."

She ran through her other team leaders, checking them on audio, and on the monitors. She checked her weapon, rolled her shoulder, and was pleased it had loosened up.

Then she scowled as Roarke slipped into the room.

"Off limits to civilians. Upstairs."

"As it's my hotel, nothing is off limits. I have clearance, from your commander. I'm in on this, Lieutenant."

She didn't doubt he could handle himself, though in his black sweater and trousers, he looked more like the type who'd do the breaking in than the type to frown on such activities.

"Are you armed?"

He glanced meaningfully at her recorder, letting her know he was fully aware everything he said was being transmitted. "Expert consultants, civilian, aren't authorized to carry weapons."

Which meant he was carrying. Since she preferred that to him going naked into a bust, she let it pass.

"When we move, we move fast," she said to the men and women gathered in the room. "We contain quickly and completely. You have your teams. Cover each other's backs. These people will have no place to go and are likely to resist. Our intelligence indicates they'll be armed with tranqs, but we can't be sure they won't carry something more lethal. Restrain and disarm. Be aware that jamming their transmissions will also jam ours from the target area until we have it contained. Let's keep that time frame to a minimum. Lenick, get the civilian some body armor and a recorder."

At mark minus five, she was glued to the monitor, glanced up only when Roarke came up beside her. "Where's your body armor?" she asked.

"Where's yours?"

"I have the option of wearing it."

"And you opt not to because it's bulky and hampers quick movements. Let's not waste time arguing. There's Monroe, moving into position at the delivery entrance. He'll find out shortly how much I disapprove of moonlighting."

"He goes down with the rest of them, but I'll make sure you're given a minute to fire him."

"Appreciate it."

"Here's the maxibus, right on schedule. Switching op to yellow light. Be ready."

She watched the bus swerve, clip the front fender of the oncoming car. It tipped on its six side wheels, shivered, then toppled like a turtle to slide, sparks showering, into the neighboring building.

There was an impressive smashing of glass, a nice little poof of smoke. On cue, cars stopped, and people began to run toward or away from the accident. The shrill scream of the jeweler's alarm system was a muffled buzz over her audio.

On the next monitor, she watched the delivery truck glide smoothly into place at the hotel's rear, and Monroe step out of the shadows.

Like Roarke, the six figures who leaped out of the truck were dressed in black, with the addition of caps that fit snugly over heads and thin gloves that protected the hands and kept the fingers nimble.

"Mick's with them," Roarke murmured. "He's seeing it through. I didn't give him credit for it."

That's for later, Eve thought. "Seven, repeat, seven subjects, entering building from the west, delivery level."

"Wait." Eve laid a hand on his arm, gaze steady on the monitor. "There's three in the lorry," Roarke continued.

"How do you – "

"Mick's telling me. It's an old code. Three in the lorry, all with eyes and ears. Hand lasers, cop-style. One mini-launcher, heat-seeking, fully loaded."

When Mick entered the building, Roarke shifted to the next monitor. He watched as his friend went to work on the first security panel, and listened with half an ear as Eve relayed the incoming data to her teams.

"The men inside are carrying, too. More than the tranqs previously reported. Two added basic police-issue lasers. There's a woman, third back. Hand-to-hand expert. She has a blade in her right boot." Roarke glanced to Eve. "You'll use this for him."

It wasn't a question. He didn't doubt her sense of justice.

"Let's bring it down, then I'll do what I can."

"There, he's through the second level. He's better than he was."

She watched Mick jerk up his thumb, then pound with the others up the service stairs. They moved fast and orderly, telling her they'd drilled well and drilled often.

But so had she. Her mind stayed cool and focused as Mick stopped at the fire door on the ballroom level, took out a handheld unit, and telescoped it out to elbow-length. His fingers were quick and steady, and made her wonder what was in his thoughts. His unit beeped three times, and its lights glowed green.

He went through the doors first, heading for the target at a jog.

"Move out," Eve ordered. "Feeney, prepare to jam on my signal."

"Copy that." His voice spoke in her ear. "They're at the doors, working on outer security. Second from the rear's antsy. He's sweating. Hey, Dallas, I got an ID on him. Looks like Gerade wanted to be in on the kill."

"Beautiful."

"And they're through. E-guy's adjusting his jammer. It's flipping through levels, backtracking. He's keying in another code manually. Must've gotten it from one of the inside men. He's got a thirty-percent clearance."

Eve stepped onto ballroom level, held up her hand. From the other direction, her secondary team leader mirrored her move. At her nod, they moved forward. Fast.

"Jam it!" she ordered and swung through the door. "Police! Hands in the air. Up!" she shouted, then sent out a warning blast that nipped the toes of the woman's boots as she reached down.

Return fire whizzed past her ear. Even as she pivoted, she saw one of the figures in black jerk back from the stun shot out by one of her team.

Someone shoved over a huge glass display. It boomed and shattered like ca