Nemo sighed. “Please, kitty cat, will you check the fucking harness?”
Out of the corner of her eye, Daleyza saw the infinitesimal shake of Ildefanso’s head and the hint of a smirk.
“All good,” Gem assured him. She turned her attention to the dog and gave her a scratch behind the ears. “Remember our bargain, Zade. Every time he’s rude, you bite his ass.”
The dog appeared to grin, her tongue flopping out of her mouth.
“There is way too much estrogen in my life,” Nemo lamented.
“And you love it. Quit complaining.”
“Yup.” The handler’s and dog’s eyes met when she tilted her head to lick the underside of his chin. “Zade, werk,” he commanded in Afrikaans. Instantly, the dog lost her goofy demeanor and went on alert.
Medusa steered the boat as close to the cliff as she could so Nemo and Gem could lash it to the pitons Demon had set for them minutes earlier. From his place alongside the boat, he prepped them. “I had a bitch of a time getting those in there. Rock is hard, but at least it’s not brittle. It’s going to take muscle, and pulling them out as you go is probably not an option.”
“Piece of cake,” Gem assured him.
The two thieves began to hammer in their first set of pitons, the clanking of hammers sounding loud in Daleyza’s ears. When the first set had been placed, they set two more pairs each.
“Won’t the men hear the hammering?” she asked.
“They tested it with Demon setting the first ones. The wind is carrying the sound out over the lake.”
She shivered. “This looks extremely dangerous.”
“It is,” he replied, “but they’re experts at this, Gem in particular. They’re quick and efficient.”
They certainly were. By the time the brief exchange was over, they were already ten meters above them on a cliff that was easily fifty meters high. A fall would likely mean instant death.
“Are you ready?” Steel murmured to her.
An unkindness of ravens pecked at her insides, but there was no way she would back out now. “Yes,” she replied.
“Ahead, Medusa.”
Demon stayed in the water below the climbers, and Medusa pushed forward on the throttle to take them as close to shore as possible.
When the nose of the boat beached slightly, Steel hopped out and reached back for Daleyza’s hand. Once she had her feet solid beneath her, they took off for the cave in the far corner of the cove.
Inside the cave entrance, they did a quick weapons check.
“Steel online,” he murmured into his comm.
“Copy, Steel,” Midas said over the line.
“Daleyza online,” she said.
“Copy, Daleyza,” he confirmed. “All team members are live. Each sub-team is on its own channel, but I can connect you all at any time, and I can hear all sides at all times. Good luck, everyone.”
Ildefanso had a small flashlight on his screwdriver tool, which Gem had given to all of them, but it didn’t light very far. To help guide her, Daleyza ran her hand along the wall. About ten feet in, she said, “The texture of the walls has changed. It’s smooth, not merely cut stone.” Her hand hit a square piece of metal that had nubs sticking out of it. “I found a light switch.”
“Hang on. Don’t move,” Steel said. She heard a rustle of his clothing and his pack, then a click. “Thermal imaging shows no signs or heat signatures, human or cameras.”
Midas clicked on. “Doesn’t mean there aren’t any cameras as they could be digital, but we’ll have to chance it. I’m in their security system. Let me check. If there are any for that hallway, I’ll put them on a loop for dark mode.” Keys clacked in the background. Finally, he said, “You should be masked now. Go ahead and hit the switches, Daleyza. If there’s no one down there, they won’t spot you, and you’ll be able to move faster. Plus, you’ll have a better sense of distance and where you might be under the compound.”
She pulled down the first switch, and fluorescent lights flicked on approximately twenty feet in front of them.
“I don’t see further switches,” she said.
