Archie hands it over and Bill examines the bull-clip with a look of reverence I never thought to see on his face.
“Can it unlock the prison cells?” I ask.
“It unlocks everything.”
Archie stops snuffling around the grass for stray gems. “Everything?”
“Safes. Parker’s other homes…everything.”
Bill’s voice is shaking, and I feel a stab of nerves. “I don’t want everything. I just want to get the guys and—”
A loud shout from the distance. The sound of a door slamming open.
Archie grabs me, pulling me to the ground.
“Fuck,” Bill whispers as we lie in the grass. “They know someone’s here.”
“What do we do?” I ask, a fresh spike of adrenaline rushing through me.
“Split up.” Bill holds up the scanner. “I’m fastest. I’ll get the boys. You two head for the garage, get a car, and wait.”
I’ve barely processed what he’s said before Bill’s sprinting into the darkness.
“C’mon,” Archie mutters, dragging me back to my feet. We move across the grass. No crawling this time, we go in a crouching run.
There are noises, voices, and shouting coming from everywhere, my only relief is that I can’t actually see anyone. Archie leads me to a huge white patio, pulling me across the deck and shoving me through an unlocked door. Inside is some kind of gold and white bar fitted with red velvet sofas, as tacky as the fake Versailles Garden.
“This isn’t an underground passageway,” I hiss at Archie. “This isinside Mr. Parker’s house.”
Archie is already opening another inner door. “No choice, Kitten. The security team’ll be using the underground. We’ve gotta go through the house.”
I hesitate, looking back at the dark lawn and seeing, for the first time, shapes moving across the lawn. “Shit.”
I run after Archie, creeping behind him as we go from room to room. We pass grand pianos and polished wooden cellos, pool tables, and wall-to-ceiling wine fridges. Oil paintings of tigers and ostriches next to Simpsons pinball machines and statues of Lara Croft. It’s the weirdest house I’ve ever been in and that includes Velvet House. But it’s quiet. No one seems to know we’re in here.
I imagine Bill heading back into the underground, releasing my men from their cages, and giving them guns. I pray they’re still there. That they’re still alive.
Archie throws open another door and then draws to a halt. “What the fuck?”
I feel the heat before I see the room, a wave of warm wetness, like being near an indoor swimming pool. Then I see what appears to be a jungle in the middle of the house. Tropical plants are practically bursting through the doorframe, and I can hear running water.
“Should we go back?” I ask.
“Naw, this is real close to the garage,” Archie says, and cautiously steps inside.
The room is huge—as big as a stadium, but it doesn’t open to the sky, there’s a glass ceiling beyond the tropical plants.
“It’s like a greenhouse,” I whisper.
“Some fuckin’ greenhouse,” Archie mutters. “Where’s the water coming from?”
As we push our way through the leafy plants, we see it. An actual proper waterfall. But it’s not real. It can’t be. The rocks around it are purple and the water is pouring in from somewhere on the roof. The sound is crazy loud, and as we draw closer, I see the waterfall leads to a huge purple pool.
“I’ve never seen an ugly water feature before,” I tell Archie. “But this one is…”
“Disgustin’.” Archie finishes.
We stare at it for a moment, transfixed by its ugliness, then Archie points to the other side of the glasshouse. “I think we need to go through—”
