“Bringing you topside now, Loose Lips.” There was laughter behind Midas’ voice. “And I won the bet as to who’d let it slip. Everyone, pay up to my bank app when you’re in the clear.”
“Feckin’ ridiculous,” Demon grumbled.
The elevator began moving upward, and there was no time to discuss it further as they checked their weapons.
32
AUGUST 25–26, 2024
Steel
Steel tookthe cover position at the control panel, with Daleyza behind him, backed tight to the corner, and Demon in cover position opposite her. When the doors opened, no shots rang into the elevator. A quick look around the corner from both men showed no one nearby, but they could hear gunfire in the distance at the mission entrance, as well as missile fire. Cerberus had brought some heavy-duty firecrackers.
Gloriosa. His fucking teammates. He must have said it out loud in the SUV after she’d popped through the roof and shot out their pursuers. One barely breathed slip of the tongue, and they honored her. And she had been glorious, without a doubt. There was no one like her. Never had been. Never would be.
Seeing nothing, Demon signaled that the way was clear. Both men stepped out of the elevator, assuming a shoulder-to-shoulderposition in a V shape to prevent anyone from getting a clear shot at her.
“The way to the church appears clear,” Midas advised.
“Copy that. Run, Daleyza. Get inside. Don’t stop.”
When he raised his shooting arm enough for her to pass underneath, she took off at high speed. He clapped Demon on the shoulder, then took off after her, Demon traveling slightly slower and backward to cover their exit.
Once Demon passed through the doors, Steel and Daleyza pushed the heavy panels shut, then he pulled the heavy bar down into the old-fashioned lock. If someone tried to come in after them, they’d need a battering ram or some C-4. The sturdy oak would withstand bullets for quite a while.
“Where’s the entrance?” Steel asked his wife.
“Through the gates up at the altar and to the left. The font is in an antechamber there.”
He backed up, his gun pointed up into the balcony across the way, with Demon moving forward, covering the balcony above him. Safely through the arch at the rear of the church, they ran down the expanse of the building. Steel vaulted the low wrought-iron fence. Demon slung his rifle over his shoulder, grabbed Daleyza by the waist, and helped her into Steel’s outstretched hands.
“Go!” The medic motioned them to continue.
“What about you?” Daleyza asked.
“I’ve got homework. Go on! I’ll be right behind you.”
“Homework?”
“Insurance policy,” Steel informed her. “Come on.”
When they reached the antechamber, he stopped. “What the hell?”
The font looked more like a water feature you might see in front of an office building. The stone floor had a square cut out of it, approximately three feet wide by four feet tall, and it looked to be two-and-a-half feet deep. The walls and floor of the basin were neatly tiled with bright-blue rectangles and white grout in between.Currently, it had no water in it, so stepping down into it by the three steps built next to a handrail took no effort.
“It’s the only piece of the church they’ve updated. Maybe three or four years before we married, I think. It was built because Rodrigo married a Protestant woman, and they forced her to convert before marriage. There were also several bastard children who were brought to the house whose parents were… liberated from this earthly plane. The children were then brought into the faith.”
“Let me guess. All boys.”
She nodded. “I never thought twice about it, but yes.”
He grunted. “Further proof of their allegiance to the Salieri. However, the remodel does do one other thing.”
“It hides the entrance to the crypts,” she supplied.
She stepped down into the basin. The pool formed a square shape around a monolith that jutted out into the space. There was a thin lip around it, where candles could be placed, and a life-size statue of the Virgin Mary stood on a platform.
At the edge, she climbed up onto the lip with his help. “There’s a maintenance door here, or that’s what they’ve labeled it. It does house some of the cleaning mechanics for the feature, but there’s another door inside that goes to the crypts.”
