Stone cold series boxset.., p.25
Stone Cold Series Boxset 3, page 25
part #7 of Stone Cold Series
"The doors," said Melody. "Your insecurities merely amuse me."
Melody could hear Reg's fingers tapping away at his keyboard. She had every confidence in his abilities.
"I'm glad I get to amuse you one last time," said Reg. "The rear door is open, and the cargo area is free of guards for one full minute. You are good to go."
Melody darted the twenty yards to the building and edged along the wall to the small door. It sat inset into the brickwork to one side of the giant rolling shutters. She glanced up at the keypad; no LEDs were blinking. A small set of eight concrete stairs led up to the door, which opened easily and silently. Within a few seconds, she was inside, standing on a raised concrete walkway the exact height as the rear of the four trucks that were parked up below. Presumably, so the workers could easily push trolleys of fragile goods out of the truck cargo areas and wheel them inside the museum.
A goods lift stood open, full of dark shadows with a set of double doors to one side. A narrow pane of reinforced glass set into both doors showed Melody the empty corridor beyond.
"I'm inside. Is the corridor free?" she asked.
"For the next thirty seconds, you need to be in that corridor. Then move into the first turning on the right in under forty-five seconds," said Reg. "I've been watching the guards' movements. They seem to have a pattern. But from here on in I need to kill the CCTV until you're in position. Otherwise, you're going to have a dozen guards rush you from all angles."
"That's fine, Reg," replied Melody. "Once I'm in the service corridors, I should be okay. I'll hear them coming."
She pushed through the double doors and let them close behind her, just in time to hear another door open in the loading bay. A few cautious moments passed as she listened for any signs of movement. Then, once she was happy the coast was clear, she sprinted to the first junction in the corridor.
There was a smell of disinfectant. The long walls that trailed off in various directions were painted cream up top and green on the lower half. The concrete floor had been painted dark grey. Melody thought that the place was immaculate like a hospital but with a distinctly industrial feel.
The smaller corridor led to another set of double doors, beyond which was a staircase.
"Up the stairs?" asked Melody.
"You got it," said Reg. "Up to the first floor. The corridor up there leads left and right. You'll need to head right."
"Copy," said Melody, and pushed the doors open. Immediately, she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She darted into the dark space beneath the stairwell and edged into the shadows.
A deep voice echoed from the stairwell walls, and the footsteps stopped.
"Yeah, I'm here. What's up?"
His radio crackled into life.
"Just had a call from control two, Stevey. They're saying the cameras are down. Be advised, mate."
"Again?" said the man apparently called Stevey. "They went down last week too."
"Just be on your toes, mate. That's all."
"Yep, will do."
The footsteps continued. Stevey's loud breathing disappeared when the double doors closed behind him. Melody made her move up the stairs.
"Sounds like they're onto the cameras being down, Reg."
"Get yourself in position and I'll turn them back on. They'll think it was just a glitch."
"I'm in the first-floor corridor. I turned right."
"Great. You should see that the corridor turns to the left about a hundred yards in front of you. The room with the diamond is the last door on the left-hand side before the bend. Get to the door but don't open it," said Reg. "I need to kill the alarm system first."
"Okay, sit tight." Melody ran the hundred yards as quietly as she could. "I'm outside the door," she whispered.
"I'm working on it," replied Reg. "Give me twenty seconds."
Voices approached from around the bend in the corridor. It was two guards discussing how antiquated the security was in the museum. Their voices grew louder.
"You need to hurry," whispered Melody.
"I'm trying Melody," replied Reg. "But I just found a bypass. The alarm sensors are well-protected."
"I have about ten seconds until I'm discovered and I have nowhere to hide," said Melody.
The two men's voices were so close now that Melody could hear their breathing. Their footsteps were slow and casual, not the footsteps of two guards who were on the lookout for trouble.
"Reg," said Melody, "come on."
"Okay, how about this?" said Reg. The lights in the corridor flicked off, leaving the long chamber in pitch darkness.
"What the bloody hell now?" said the first guard as he rounded the corner. "I can't see a bloody thing."
Melody pinned herself to the wall, making herself as thin as she could to let the two guards pass.
"Here, hold on," said the second guard, who sounded a lot younger than the first. A flashlight flicked on, illuminating the corridor in front of them as they moved past.
Melody stood motionless as the beam of light danced across the floor in front of the two men. It wasn't until they disappeared into the stairwell that Melody dared to breathe out.
"Nick of time, Reg," she said, as her heart began to calm down.
"Nothing to it," replied Reg. "You want some light in there?"
"It'd be nice," said Melody, just as the corridor lights burst on again. The hum of electricity she hadn't heard before became very apparent in the otherwise silent space.
"Try the door," said Reg.
"Are we good to go?"
"Only one way to find out."
Melody pushed the lever on the door handle and stepped into the live side of London's Natural History Museum.
Standing in the shadows, silent and still, Harvey watched his ex-fiancé edge along the outside museum wall. Had he not known it was Melody beforehand, he'd have recognised her now from the grace and style with which she moved.
From where he stood, he couldn't hear her talk, but from her actions, she was waiting for something. Somebody would be accessing the museum security for her, clearing a path and guiding her through. There was only one man she knew who could do that.
Reg, thought Harvey.
Melody took the concrete stairs in a few silent steps and opened the small door to the left of the loading bay entrance.
Harvey gave his surroundings a final check then followed. He caught the door before it closed, and watched Melody through the tiny reinforced glass. She disappeared into a corridor.
Keeping his noise to a minimum, Harvey followed on her heels. He was in the corridor in seconds and waited at an intersection. He heard Melody talking on her comms to Reg. Her short, sharp comments over the stealth comms units were familiar to Harvey. It felt good to be so close to her. If it wasn't for the strong scent of disinfectant, he thought he'd be able to smell her familiar fragrance.
Her whisper faded away as she crept through the double doors into the next corridor. But a man's voice, loud and clear, echoed off the flat, hard walls. A few seconds passed as he stopped to talk on his two-way radio, and a loud crackle of a distorted voice announced that the guard had opened the doors and was heading Harvey's way.
The guard's footsteps stopped. Harvey chanced a glance around the corner and saw a heavyset man peering back through the doors.
He was pulling a telescopic cosh from his utility belt.
Harvey saw Melody dart from behind the stairs, and the guard began to re-enter the stairwell after her.
In three long, silent steps, Harvey had a hand over the guard's mouth and his arm bent behind his back. A sharp knee to the man's leg sent him to the floor.
The door closed silently behind Harvey, leaving the two men staring at each other.
"You have a family?" whispered Harvey, as he unclipped the man's radio, turned the volume down and pocketed it.
The guard nodded.
"Are you going to be quiet?" asked Harvey. He took the cosh, closed it and tucked it into his own belt.
The guard nodded once more.
In less than a minute, Harvey had the man's wrists zip-tied behind his back and his ankles bound with the laces of the man's boots. A sock was stuffed into his mouth and secured with a long length of duct tape wrapped around his head.
Harvey dragged him to the dark storage space beneath the stair well.
"If you be good, I'll tell someone you're here when I'm done," said Harvey. "If you make a noise, I won't be so nice."
He slipped away and bounded up the stairs after Melody, just as the lights flicked off, leaving the stairwell dimly lit by the hazy green glow of the emergency exit signs.
The first-floor corridor was pitch dark. Harvey stood in the doorway holding the door open and listened. Two men were talking to his right. Then a flashlight switched on and began to wave a fat beam of light around the corridor. Harvey closed the door and stepped back into the stairwell.
He stood to one side and waited.
The bouncing torch light announced the arrival of the two men and the double doors shoved open revealing one man in his twenties of medium build and an older, more portly man who Harvey placed in his fifties.
Harvey waited for the doors to close then struck the younger of the men hard to the side of his head with the cosh. He went down without a noise, and the torch fell to the floor with a crash.
The older of the men began to voice panicked questions. The white of his eyes shone bright green in the emergency lights.
"Who's that?" he said, clearly unready for an attack. "Jimmy?"
But before he could say anything else, Harvey had whipped the cosh back and slammed it into the man's temple.
Tying the men together using the last of his zip ties took a few minutes. He took their radios, removed the batteries, and dropped their mobile phones over the edge of the stairwell to smash on the concrete floor below.
Two more lengths of duct tape secured their mouths. The two men were still out cold by the time Harvey had finished. He tied them back to back with their wrists joined and a strip of tape wound around their foreheads.
Harvey admired his work for a second, and then pushed through the doors and stepped out into the corridor. The lights in the long empty space had been turned back on.
The corridor to the left was long and empty. To the right a few doors led off, and the corridor bent to the left. Presumably, the walkway ran around the perimeter of the mezzanine feeding the little alcoves Harvey had seen. He turned right and pictured the place where he'd stood earlier that day on the first floor of the gallery. If his judgement was right, the diamond display would be the last door on the left-hand side of the corridor.
With an ear to the door, Harvey listened. He knew he wouldn't hear anything; the doors were thick, and Melody would not be making a noise.
He pushed the door open slowly.
Melody gazed at the perfect sparkles that reflected from the diamond's surface even in the low light.
"Pretty, isn't it?" said a voice behind Melody.
It wasn't just any voice. From the first syllable he spoke, she knew it was Harvey. Her mind recognised his tones and powered into overdrive. Her heart skipped and her chest tightened, then her knees felt weak as if they might give under the weight of his presence.
She froze and felt her gun being lifted from her belt.
"What are-"
"No questions," said Harvey. "You wouldn't like the answers."
"Then you're here to steal the diamond?"
Harvey didn't reply.
"I can't let you take it," said Melody. "You'll be shot dead before you step foot outside."
"I doubt that Melody," said Harvey. "Besides, I won't be carrying the diamond."
"You expect me to walk out of here with it?"
"That's an option."
"No, Harvey. It is not an option," hissed Melody. She turned to face him before he could stop her.
Their eyes met.
He looked gaunt and unshaven.
A silence grew between them that felt harder to break as each silent second ticked by.
"How have you been?" he asked. His voice had softened.
Melody swallowed what felt like the diamond itself.
"Don't do this," she whispered. "It's not you."
"It's a means to an end."
"An end?"
Harvey remained impassive for a few seconds then spoke quietly.
"Not my end."
Melody stared at the shine of his eyes in the soft light. The room was unlit, but enough light spilt from the main gallery for them to see each other and to bring the diamond's glittering surfaces to life beneath the glass.
"I can't let you take it," said Melody.
"It's not me that's taking it," replied Harvey.
"I miss you, Harvey. Don't do this."
"Take the diamond, Melody."
"You can't make me."
"What if I told you that I know who has the other one? The second diamond."
"It's not you then?" asked Melody, fishing for clues as to his motive.
"I'm not a diamond type of guy, Melody," replied Harvey. "You know that."
"So why then?" she said. "Why do this?"
"What if I told you a girl will die if I don't?"
"Who?" said Melody. "Tell me. We can help."
"You can help by lifting that lid and taking the diamond."
"I could scream. There'll be twenty guards here in a matter of seconds, and the police will be right behind them."
Harvey didn't reply.
"It might take some explaining, but I'd likely be okay. I can't say the same for you though."
"Am I still wanted?" asked Harvey. "Are the police looking for me?"
Melody shook her head and felt her eyes water.
"No, Harvey, no. You were never wanted. You're a free man. But do this, and there's no more I can do to help."
Harvey reached for his belt and pulled a telescopic cosh. He swung a short stabbing swing by his side and it extended with a series of sharp clicks.
"Move aside, Melody."
"Please, don't do this, Harvey. I can't watch you go this way."
"So move aside and get out. Run."
Melody stood her ground.
Harvey reached back with the cosh. Their eyes locked. He tensed and swung the cosh down.
"Okay, okay."
Harvey stopped mid-swing.
"I'll get the diamond," said Melody. "But you need to tell me exactly what's going on."
"I told you," said Harvey. "A girl will die. Help me save the girl, and you can have them both. You'll be a hero."
Melody let her head fall forward. She gave a sigh then looked up at Harvey. His eyes hadn't changed. His cheekbones were a little more pronounced, his hair unkempt and his beard was rough and scraggly.
Footsteps sounded not far away. It was the slow, bored pace of a security guard following the same route he took a hundred times a night.
Harvey stepped away from the display case and dragged Melody with him. The pair stood chest to chest in the shadows to one side of the arch. Melody could smell his scent, familiar, warm. She closed her eyes and breathed him in, then rested her head on his chest.
Two boots stopped at the archway, as if they were afraid to step further.
Melody could feel Harvey's heart against her cheek. She felt his muscles tense as he made himself ready to pounce.
The guard stood a few seconds, then spoke to his radio. "All clear on mezzanine one. No sign of Stevey or the other two."
A short silence was broken by the scratch and crackle of the radio.
"Ah, no problem, Del," the controller replied. "They're probably skiving as usual."
The heavy boots turned away and returned to their slow, bored plod. The pair listened to the guard move off, and then both breathed out slowly.
Melody placed her hands on Harvey's chest. "Just like old times." She smiled.
Harvey matched her gaze. He bent forwards, bringing his lips close to hers. Melody closed her eyes and waited for the soft familiar touch of his mouth. She felt his warm breath, and the way he rubbed her forehead with his own. Their noses touched just briefly.
"Get the diamond, Melody," whispered Harvey. "Then we'll talk."
He pulled away, leaving her hanging with pursed lips.
Melody watched as Harvey approached the arched entrance, being mindful not to step too close to the boundary that the guard had clearly avoided. He gave her a wave as if to tell her the coast was clear.
Melody took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then hit the little button on her ear-piece to talk to Reg.
"Reg, I need a little help here," she said.
11
Waiting Arms
A small tinny speaker crackled into life in the rear of the van.
"Reg, I need a little help here," said a female voice. "Are you there? Talk to me."
Rupert stepped up into the cargo area and glared down at the thin man sat in front of a small bench whose face was lit by a pair of computer screens. He slid the sliding door closed behind him.
"This is not the time to go quiet on me," said the girl, her voice a little more urgent than before.
The man sat motionless, his eyes wide.
"Can I answer her?" he asked.
Rupert nodded and placed a finger over his lips. His other hand held the gun to the man's head.
"I'm here." Then the man released the push to talk button, never removing his eyes from Rupert's.
"Where is she?" asked Rupert.
"The diamond display," replied the man. His voice quavered just a little.
Rupert lowered the gun, leaned on the back of the van's front seats, and nodded at him to continue.
"Reg, I need a little help," said the girl.
"Can I answer her?" asked the man again.
Rupert nodded again. "Do whatever it takes, but do not do anything stupid."
The man at the computer cleared his throat. He hit the push to talk and spoke quietly into the microphone.
"What do you need?"
A long silence followed then the girl replied with an equal tremor in her voice.
"The alarm is on the display," she said. "You still think you can get me a window?"
Rupert's eyes were locked onto the man's.
