Ellis removed the phone, tapping the screen then touching the keypad. Colt held his breath when it asked her to step closer—open her eye. Shit, this was impossible. How the hell could she fool a damn retinal scanner?
But she was already shifting. Holding up the burner cell—covering the lens with the screen. A soft whirling noise sounded from inside the panel, one of the red lights blinking green.
“Retinal scan verified. Initiate voice-activated prompt.”
Ellis touched the phone, accessed another screen then hit a play button.
Roger McCormick. Passcode Charlie Delta.
Four minutes left.
Jesus. She had his voice passcodes recorded? Colt didn’t know much about McCormick other than what they’d googled. And he definitely didn’t know if that’s what the asshole sounded like. But the machine whirled, again, the second red light blinking green.
“Voice pattern matched. Enter security code to access main menu.”
Ellis tapped in eight numbers. A loud beep sounded followed by a flicker of the screen, before it requested the verification code, again.
“Shit.” She scrolled through the list, inputted another number.
The damn machine beeped, again, the steady red light now flashing.
“Ellis?”
“It’s okay. I’ll get it.”
“How many tries do we get?”
She stiffened then sighed. “Three.”
“It’s been three minutes.”
“I’m working on it.” She switched to another screen, trailing her finger over a few lines before touching the pad—trying another set.
The panel went blank. The light still flashing red. Ellis reached for his hand, eyes wide when the last button winked out then turned green.
She exhaled, closing her eyes for a moment then glancing at him. “Phase one, done. Now, comes the hard part.”
Colt coughed. “That was the easy part?”
She shrugged, accessing a series of menus on the panel. More codes scrolled across the screen, a flashing cursor waiting at the end of each section. Ellis worked through them, occasionally glancing at a file on the phone.
One minute left.
They were nearly out of time, and the damn door hadn’t budged. Which didn’t bode well. Especially with them standing out in the open, exposed. If she was wrong and McCormick had started having armed patrols checking the exterior…
He glanced at his watch, cursed, then tapped her shoulder. “We’re at our time limit here, sweetheart. Get us inside, or we need to run.”
“I’m almost there. Thirty more seconds.”
He clenched his jaw, expecting to have to bolt at any second. That a black Suburban would fishtail around one of the corners, spraying the side of the building with bullets. Or maybe panels would just slide open—turn automatic weapons toward them.
“Ellis…”
“Two more seconds.”
“We don’t have?—”
“We’re in.”
