To Snatch a Thief

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE



By craning her neck, she could see the dark outline of trees on the other side of the curving perimeter wall. Beyond them, a long lawn of open, snow-covered grass stretched to the side of the building where, she thought, there were bound to be security cameras. During the short time, she’d been watching, Skye hadn’t seen any guards patrolling the gardens, but she knew that didn’t mean they weren’t there. In the distance, off to the left, floodlights lit the activity in the depot with a yellow glow. To the rear of the building was a smaller, fuzzier glow. Traffic in the sky over the city was heavy. But here, all was quiet, except for King’s muffled cursing under her feet.

‘Christ, Skye. For someone who looks so skinny, you weigh a ton.’

She dropped off his shoulders. ‘Haven’t see any patrols. Bunk me over, then you can go.’

‘Can’t,’ he said as he rolled his neck, rubbing at his shoulders with a pained look on his face.

She snorted. ‘Oh, come on, mini-muscles. I’m not that heavy.’

‘Well of course I can do it,’ he snapped back, tetchy. She’d obviously insulted his manhood. ‘But I’m not helping you get caught. You’ll never get in there undetected. There’s camera’s everywhere and they have seriously mega security inside.’

‘Snatcher’s didn’t find everything when I was arrested.’ She opened her palm where she’d been hiding her jammer. When his jaw dropped open, she smiled.

‘Where did you get that?’

‘I have friends in low places. It’s home-made but it works.’

‘You reckon it’ll jam their cameras?’

‘I know it will. It’s jamming that one over there right now.’ Although it appeared to be working normally, the street CCTV had remained lifeless for some time, not swivelling towards their movements as it should have done, and its normally pulsing red dot was static. When the chip was removed, there would be no record of them being there.

‘How come you were ever arrested?’ King was looking at her with something like awe.

‘Word of advice, King. Don’t choose a mark who’s an off-duty snatcher.’

He smothered a laugh. ‘You’re kidding.’

‘Yeah, I am. Now get me over that wall and you can scoot.’

‘Aw, shoot. I have a feeling I’m going to live to regret this.’ King cupped his hands to form a stirrup. ‘I can’t let you do it on your own; I’m coming with you.’

‘Ever watch any of those old Dracula movies?’ Skye asked, straddling the top of the wall and stupidly glad of King’s company.

‘Yeah?’ King pulled himself up. ‘So?’

‘And you know the first victim’s about to be zapped, because they were in the first scene and the one early on in the movie always ends up dead.’

‘I’m freezing my balls off sitting up here. Is there a point to this?’

‘Yes.’ She gave him a shove off the wall. ‘You go first.’

Neither of them spoke as, crouching low, they ran over the lawns towards the side of the main building. Skye’s main concern was dogs. If Royalty employed a dog patrol, they were in trouble, but they reached the relative safety of some trees bordering a long sweep of driveway, without any problems.

Groundsmen had shovelled snow from the tarmac, piling it along the edge of the road. It had frozen solid as the night temperature dropped below freezing.

After waiting a minute, to scan the open space, during which time Skye’s heart rate kicked up a pace, she whispered, ‘Ready?’ King answered with one quick nod. From his fixed expression he was as scared as she was. Taking a deep breath she crossed her gloved fingers. ‘Let’s go then.’ Hand in hand they ran, scrambled over the packed snow and raced towards the building, flattening themselves against the darkest part of the walls.

Because her hands trembled uncontrollably, she shoved them with the jammer in her pockets.

‘What radius does that thing cover?’ King was breathing like a marathon runner so his words came out in whispered jerks.

‘No idea. Guess, we’ll find out. Where’s the secured area?’

King led the way, taking them towards the back of the building. Halfway along, the stone wall was replaced by floor to ceiling glass. Dimly lit from the inside, they saw a plush conference room the size of a small theatre, then a lounge with classy-looking furniture and, for all Skye knew, priceless pieces of art hanging on the walls. Both had patio doors which opened onto paved areas overlooking the grounds. To anyone who happened to be inside looking out, they were sitting ducks. Therefore it was a relief when stonework once again replaced glass. Towards the end of the wall they heard muted voices.

King pointed forwards. ‘Secure area’s around this corner,’ he whispered. ‘I don’t know how many guards there are.’

Skye took the jammer out of her pocket, studied it. ‘Three, no four,’ she murmured, grinning when King whirled round.

‘How d’you… Blimey, is that thing doing what I think it’s doing?’

‘Shh. Yes, it’s locating heat sources. We’ve got four round the end of this wall. There could be more but the result’s blurry. It’s only got a short range.’

‘So what’s the plan?’

‘I don’t have one,’ she whispered back. ‘Yet.’

King gave her one of those looks which said, ‘So what the hell are we doing here?’ Skye widened her eyes and shrugged. There was nothing else for it. ‘I’ll take a look,’ she offered. ‘Watch my back, but keep close.’ She indicated the jammer and jerked her eyes to the forest of cameras above their heads.

Keeping low, hugging the wall, they crept forward, careful not to step on anything that might alert anyone to them being there. Skye wouldn’t admit it to King, but privately worried there may be newer security devices installed than her jammer could over-ride. None of the cameras moved however, but she held her breath until she could just peer around the edge of the wall.

Thirty metres away, like a gaping mouth in the long line of stonework that was the west wing of the palace, a wide door stood open revealing a downward sloping ramp. There were no floodlights around the opening, but the fuzzy glow they’d seen earlier came from the passage itself, or at least the portion visible, which was lit by a series of panels set into the ceiling. She was close enough to see the square boxes on either side of the opening which housed the mechanism for the blaster beams. She’d come across these devices before. Most had three coloured lights: yellow for inactive, orange for low power, red for high power - enough to jolt but no more than that. You must have been adjusted up several notches to kill the Royalty bloke who got too close, Skye mused. Highly illegal, but at least you’re on yellow now.

Two guys in dark uniforms stood near the opening. A couple more, dressed the same as the others, wandered a short distance away, stamping their feet and blowing on gloved hands with steaming breath. From the way they kept checking their wrists, and scanning the sky, it was obvious something significant was about to happen.

Skye stayed on her knees, feeling the damp and cold seep through her jeans. After ten minutes she was shivering so badly her teeth were chattering like castanets.

In the shadows behind, King tugged at her coat. She held up one finger indicating she needed another minute. She’d been trying to figure out a symbol that all the guards had printed on their jackets, but they were too far away to get a good view. It didn’t look like Royalty’s normal logo. She needed to get closer.

Architecturally, the old building offered several nooks and crannies. In theory a person could advance a further ten metres with some degree of cover, she decided, but two would create too much movement. King needed to stay behind and Skye wouldn’t risk leaving him without the jammer. Problem.

She moved back a few inches, calculating distance. She’d never tested the device in these circumstances; most domestic houses had the standard street camera and then security on doors and windows which were easily bypassed. This was way, way out of her league.

King put his mouth to her ear. ‘What you thinking?’

‘That I wish I’d checked my horoscope this morning. It might have told me if I was going to be arrested for trespass, or take an unwanted swim in the Thames.’ She smiled at his baffled expression. ‘Take this. Stay here. If I get caught, beat it.’

Before he could start the argument showing in his eyes, Skye pushed away and crawled on her belly to the corner, slid around it and waited for the siren. The alarm might be silent of course, activated in some central security room. Guards could be scrambling right now.

No immediate reaction.

She glanced up. A camera was directly overhead. It didn’t move. She shuffled forward.

Still no movement. So far so good.

There were two more cameras set about five metres apart. Skye realised she would need to get to the last one at least, to have any chance of reading those logos.

Inching her gloved hand along the snow, she watched the first camera closely until her arm was stretched as far as it would go. Nothing happened. Taking a steadying breath, she moved, like a caterpillar, stretching, crawling, checking, stretching, crawling, checking, until a camera was again directly overhead.

Then she froze.

Fixed to the wall, not a metre away, was a square box with a glowing red dot.

The invisible beam would either turn her to toast, or at best zap the hell out of her and she’d yell. As she wasn’t prepared to risk either, Skye stayed where she was. Suddenly, the guard’s mood changed. The wanderers snapped to attention as a pair of headlights swooped over the Palace roof and a fancy vehicle, every bit as posh as Hunter’s, came into land.

One of the men spoke to the driver through the open window. Skye was too far away to hear what he said, but the driver handed him something, waited while the first guy scanned it, then took it back. An interior courtesy light went on. A passenger in the back seat leaned forward to speak briefly with the guard. The man saluted and waved them on. The car disappeared through the door, its headlights shining on the walls of a narrow passage. Then there were just the taillights as it turned sharply to the right and descended.

One after another two more vehicles followed, each landing and vanishing into the bowels of the building.

Skye drew a sharp breath. She’d seen all she needed. It was time to get out of there.

They’d almost made it to their exit point when her back hit the wall as King swung her round. ‘Kiss me,’ he demanded as a wide torch beam panned over them.

‘Ouch! Wha…’

Skye’s mouth was suddenly very busy as King’s crushed down on hers and his body pinned her against the brickwork. ‘This is as unpleasant for me as it is for you,’ he murmured changing the angle of the kiss.’

‘Yeah, I’m pretty revolted.’

She felt him smile against her lips. ‘How many are there?’

Over his shoulder she watched two flashlights heading towards them, two pairs of legs under the beam.

‘Rough estimate… Hey, no tongue! Two heavies. Will they be carrying?’

King came up for air, took her face in his hands, dived in again. He wasn’t a half bad kisser, she decided.

‘You talk like a snatcher. I’ve no idea.’

‘Hey, you two kids!’

They broke apart. ‘Just act dumb,’ King muttered, turning to face the guards.

‘Easier for you than me.’ Skye stood still, letting her arms hang loosely by her sides, head down, eyes studying the floor. For effect, she scuffed at a puddle of ice with one foot, pretended to chew gum. King however looked them in the eye, one eyebrow raised as if challenging them to some dare. Folding his arms across his chest he grinned.

‘Ten dollars each to watch, mister. I can guarantee she’s a goer.’

If she could, she would have stamped on his foot, as it was she kept chewing her tongue.

One of the heavies peered closer, shone his torch into King’s face. ‘Here, I know you, you work in Packing. This area’s out of bounds. What you doing here?’

King cocked his head in Skye’s direction. ‘Her, hopefully.’

The man glanced at his friend. ‘What d’you wanna do with them?’

The second man chuckled. Skye didn’t like the sound of it one little bit. ‘Give the boy a good hiding, while we take turns letting the girl warm us up.’ He swaggered closer, playing his torch over her. ‘Might as well get a preview. Take your coat off, darling.’

King shifted onto the balls of his feet at the same time as she rolled onto hers. ‘Mine’s the gorilla on the left,’ he whispered out of the corner of his mouth. ‘Game on.’

They had surprise on their side. Together they ran at them. She heard King’s man grunt, and a torch clattered to the ground, before her shoulder rammed into steel and a searing pain shot down her arm. The man was built like a cyber man. He grabbed both her arms and lifted her off the ground so their faces were level. She stared into the ugliest mug she’d ever seen. It looked like the puffy white dough she’d seen chefs make real bread out of on screen, but pocked like the craters on the moon. In the middle of the mass, God had remembered to squash a potato-shaped nose and stick two currant eyes on either side. Skye bet even a mother couldn’t love a face like that. Her shoulder was screaming, her hands going numb. His grip on her arms tightened as the rubber lips parted in a sneer.

Somewhere in the dark she heard the sounds of scuffling, punches connecting, groans and moans, and hoped King was coming out on top.

With her feet dangling somewhere around cyber man’s knees, Skye drew one leg back to get a full arc, then rammed her knee upwards and into his groin and had the satisfaction of seeing those currant eyes pop. He made a funny strangled noise in his throat and went down in a heap.

‘Not made of steel there, are you.’ She smirked, leaning down to hiss in his cauliflower ear, ‘Always watch out for the crotch shot, moron, especially when dealing with women.’ Then, using his own torch, knocked him cold.

‘Nice work.’ Wiping blood from his nose with the back of his hand, King appeared through the darkness. He shot her a grin. ‘Mine’s out for the count too, but I don’t think we should be here when they come round.’

Skye grinned back. ‘One minute.’ Old habits die hard. On a quick search of his pockets she found a palm communicator which she slipped into her pocket. The torch she’d used to knock him out went in the other. His wallet and klip, she left where they were – she wasn’t about to backslide that far. ‘The other one’ll have a communicator,’ she told King. ‘Get it. We’ll get rid of them later.’

‘Skye, c’mon.’ King pulled at her arm as the man groaned and lifted a hand to his head. ‘He’s coming round, let’s go.’

But she’d noticed something. ‘Hang on, help me get that ring off his finger.’

‘What? Skye this isn’t a mark we’re working. We’re in dead shit here, with the emphasis on dead.’

‘It’s important. Help me.’

‘This is the last, the very last thing I do, then I’m…’

‘Yeah, yeah, I got it. You’re gone. Hold his hand steady.’

Still grumbling, King held the guard’s hand while she winkled the slim band up his stubby finger. ‘Forget it, it’s stuck. It’s only a freaking ring.’

‘No, it’s coming.’

‘Gerroff!’ The heavy’s finger curled just as the ring slipped over his top joint.

King booted her over the wall and together they ran.

‘Why did you think a kissing fest would save us?’ Lungs screaming, bent double with her hands on her knees, Skye leant against the overflowing skip in the alleyway they’d thrown themselves into, not even caring how much slime got transferred to her coat, and watched from under her lashes as King, a hand fisted on his side, heaved.

‘Girls hang around the dock area. The blokes smuggle them in. The foreman turns a blind eye. More often than not he’s busy himself. It’s kind of one of the perks I told you about.’ He grinned indecently, straightened.

‘God, King!’

‘Hey, I’m a bloke. You gotta take it where you find it.’

‘But I kissed you!’

‘Yeah, you did, vivid.’

Skye’s mind went back to Willow Frobisher. Had she been smuggled in and then got too curious about what was going on at Royalty? Was it one of the dock workers or tram drivers that had texted her? Possibly.

‘Did anyone talk about a blonde girl, good looking, sexy, who went missing a few months ago?’

He thought for a minute. ‘There’s always plenty of blonde talk. But missing, nah, don’t think so. Why?’

‘Oh, just something I’m working on. Forget I mentioned it, okay?’

‘If you say so. Here, give me that thing you took from the heavy. This is as good a place as any to toss them.’ She handed over the communicator then wiggled her fingers.

‘Um, you still have my jammer, King.’

He gave a lopsided grin. ‘Can’t blame me for trying. There.’

As she slipped it back in her pocket, she fingered the ring she’d lifted. ‘King, I need a ride. Can you get us one?’

His face creased into a wide smile. ‘Now you’re talking my language. Where we going?’

‘Kensington, fast.’

‘Right. I’m thinking two wheels, not four.’

‘Wait. Don’t damage anything, and whatever you… er, borrow its going straight back in the same condition you found it, okay? Hopefully it’ll be back before the owner even misses it.’

‘Gotcha. Why we going?’

‘I have to look for something.’

‘What?’

Skye played with the ring in her pocket again. ‘I won’t know till I find it.’ But hopefully not another one of these, she thought.

He disappeared into the night. Ten minutes later Skye saw a single headlight beam and an air-bike slid to a silent hovering stop outside the alley. King sat astride it, his hood pulled low over his head. She had to hand it to him, the boy had talent.

‘Give me the address, I’ll programme the auto-nav.’ He grinned. ‘This is fun.’

‘Fifteen Gloucester Mews. Um, it’s Hunter’s place.’

‘Holy Mother of God! We’re going to see Hunter on a stolen bike. Are you insane?’

‘Borrowed bike, and I’m counting on him not being there. Drop me a couple of streets away then get this thing back where you found it. I’ll circle the block a couple of times on foot to suss it out.’

‘You’re planning on breaking in? Jeeze. I had you figured all wrong. Welcome back.’

‘Look, it’ll take too long to explain,’ she said, swinging onto the passenger seat and clamping her arms around King’s waist. ‘I’m not actually breaking in. Well, I am, but I’m not going to steal anything, I’m just taking a look.’

As they rose a few centimetres above the ground and shot smoothly away from the curb, King half turned his head. ‘He’ll have security protocols,’ he called back. ‘They’ll take a while to disable.’

Skye put her mouth to his hood where she figured his ear should be. His body was taking the brunt of the cold air rushing past, but her cheeks were soon stinging, her wet knees numbing. ‘Five seconds if it’s a system I know. Ten if I have to fiddle.’

‘Impressive.’

King leaned the bike over as they negotiated a turn. Traffic was light at this time of night, but a few eager beavers were heading out for an evening, others heading home. A huddle of vagrants, bundled in doorways in their makeshift shelters, turned their heads as they whizzed past. ‘What if he’s in there?’ King asked, flooring it on the straight.

‘The sensor will detect any life,’ she gasped as the wind took her breath. ‘I won’t go in unless I’m sure. I’m not stupid.’ No, I’m just an idiot, she mused. I’ve fallen in love with someone who’s never got over his dead girlfriend, and who could be up to his neck in whatever was going on at Royalty Trading.

Whoa! Who said anything about love? Where had that come from? But with blinding clarity, she knew, although it had been coming on so gradually she couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment.

She blew out a breath. Time to fess up, Skye, she thought. You’re falling, no let’s be honest here, have already fallen in love with your boss who you suspect of mass murder.

Now what the hell are you going to do about it?

She was so deep in thought, it was a second before she realised the bike had come to a halt. ‘You can let go of me now, Skye,’ King said. ‘We’re a block away.’

Her teeth were chattering with cold and her numb arms wouldn’t unlock from King’s waist. When she didn’t move, he glanced over his shoulder at her. ‘You okay?’

She forced her frozen lips to move. ‘Y-yes, just as soon as I get the feeling back in my legs, I’ll be fine.’

His shoulders shook with laughter. ‘I’ll get us a roller with a heater next time. Skye.’ He caught her arm as she staggered onto the pavement. ‘Leave it and come with me. We make a good team.’ Something in his eyes said he was asking for more than criminal teamwork.

‘Can’t, King,’ she said. ‘Whatever happens I’ve made my choice. This might not look like it, but I’m not going back to that life.’

In a surprisingly gentle move, he lifted a hand to tuck a wave of hair back under her hat. ‘Pity, I’ve always liked you.’

‘You could give yourself up,’ she suggested. ‘Do your time and go straight.’

He thought about that, then shook his head, grinned. ‘You could leave me the jammer?’

‘I could, but I’m not. Here. Take my klip. If I’m caught they can trace the call you made to me on it. Don’t turn it on, they can track it; keep it for me till this is over one way or another.’

He slipped it into his pocket. ‘Okay.’ Then surprised her by gripping the front of her coat and kissing her hard on the mouth. ‘You take care of yourself, Skye.’

‘Yeah, you too. No detours on the way back.’

‘Nag, nag, nag. See ya.’

He was gone. Skye sucked in a breath, and took a good look at her surroundings.