Night Games Pt. 14

Feeling like a thief in a cartoon, Morris poked his head out and looked both ways. The room appeared to be clear, so he motioned for Gordon to follow and walked over to the safe.

"Made it in." He muttered over comms while Gordon went to the door and took out the things Alice had given them. He opened the small caulking gun and started applying the substance into the crack between the two large oak doors that entered the study.

* * *

On the other side of the wall, Helen watched the two ski-masked men enter the room. One went toward the safe, so she presumed that was Sinclair. The other moved out of the camera's field of view, toward the door.

"You don't have another camera on the door?" Mander whispered, watching over her shoulder.

"Only had time to set up the one nanny-cam from the Nursery." Helen explained. "It was either watch the secret entrances and the safe or the door."

They watched while Sinclair opened the safe and began shoveling the money into a bag.

"He didn't even try to crack it." Troy observed, watching from his position. "He knew the combo. He must've been in there to see you open it."

"And it's not the thing we think they want." Julie agreed. "But hey, it's three hundred grand sitting right there."

Sinclair finished emptying the safe and Walker returned into view.

"Wait to see where they go next, everyone." Helen informed them all. She and Mander stood up and drew their guns. "When they try to leave the room, we move."

* * *

Gordon finished his business with the doors and walked back to Morris. He'd scooped everything out of the safe and zipped the bag.

"Cleaned out the safe." Morris told the comms. "Wasn't in it. Going for that other passage."

"Wait!" Tracy's voice replied. "Things are going too smoothly. She's had time to put a camera in the room, so she's watching you now. She must be waiting for you to try to get out. Get ready for her now."

The two men produced the items they'd need from their bags and walked over to the wall that Morris had seen the maid emerge from and return to. On the other side of the door, Helen saw what they were doing.

"NOW!" A woman's shouting voice came muffled through the stone of the wall. Their comms went out. Gordon drew his weapon.

The secret door they'd been looking for slid open and Contessa Helena de San Finzione and Nigel Mander stood on the other side with their guns drawn. La Contessa wearing the very pendant they'd come after.

Something thudded loudly against the two oak doors. The Ultimados on the other side of it attempted to burst into the room and found that the doors had been glued shut by a fast-acting epoxy.

"Don't..." Helen started to say, when Gordon Walker fired his gun and shot her squarely in the chest. His second shot struck Mander.