Still working, Roarke nodded at McNab. “You’ve got it.”
“Tricky, sticky,” Willowby muttered. “There’s lower, and your six. Servers, looks like.”
“Let’s get a count if we can,” Eve said.
“Another two coming down,” McNab told her. “Eight, lower level.”
“Got your main. And there’s the crowd. Fancy. Count ’em, McCutie. I’m tripling to upstairs.”
“Looks like, jeez, lotta movement. I’m saying eighty-couple in the main—the ballroom place.”
Eve scanned the main, figured eighty-five, and didn’t have any trouble finding Magdelana.
She stood, her hair a cascade, sparkling with tiny diamonds. She wore red, no surprise, that shimmered down her body like scarlet rain. It dipped low in front, left her back bare to the waist.
Diamonds swung like mini chandeliers at her ears, more nestled in her cleavage, sparkled at her wrists, on her fingers.
The dress slit up the left side to expose her leg to the thigh, and a pair of high, high, needle-thin red heels.
Try running in all that, Eve thought. Please try.
See how far you get.
She found the partner, too—slim, glossy brown hair, handsome and tanned in his tux. With a diamond-shaped emerald stickpin.
Eve contacted Whitney. “We’re at the target, preparing to move, circumventing security. You’re a go, sir.”
“Copy that. Take them down, Dallas.”
“First wave complete,” Roarke announced. “Gate clear. Cams will hold steady as they are, no record, for twenty. Feeney?”
“Yeah, yeah, I see where we’re going.”
Officer Carmichael spoke in Eve’s ear. “Shuttle strip in our control, sir.”
“Hold there. Lowenbaum, take the gate. Team one, move in behind SWAT.”
“Second wave complete. Alarms deactivated.”
“Team two, move into position.”
It took minutes more, and muttering from Roarke and Feeney, beforeRoarke told her the third wave was complete. “All exterior cameras on hold.”
Lowenbaum reported three guards taken down, and the exterior clear.
“Teams three and four, into position.”
Feeney punched a fist into his palm. “Got that bitch!”
“So you did.” Roarke kept his eyes on his monitor. “One more…”
“Ladies and gentlemen.” Magdelana’s voice came through the speakers. “I hope you’ve enjoyed the evening so far. If you’d take your seats for the main event, I’d like to give you a brief history of tonight’s star. The Royal Suite!”
“Locks down, surf complete. You’re a go, Lieutenant.”
“Then let’s go. Moving now,” she said to the rest of the teams.
Out of the van, she went through the opening of the gates, stayed low, moved fast. In the mansion, lights gleamed through the windows.
