Colby Agency: Colby Justice Part 10

"Well, well, what do we have here?"

Penny wheeled around and her gaze collided with a narrow one pointed directly at her, along with the muzzle of a very large weapon.

Feigning terror, which was hardly any stretch at all, she lifted her hands surrender style. "Don't shoot, mister. I'm just doing my job."

"Who the h.e.l.l are you?" He moved, taking one cautious step in her direction.

Penny braced. She wasn't armed. She had no communications link with backup.

She was on her own.

The cold, hard reality of her predicament abruptly slammed into her gut.

This was...the end of the line.

The science girl who knew no kung fu moves and had never fired a weapon at anything living, would just have to make it up as she went.

"I'm-" think, think, think "-Penny Alexander." No point giving an alias when technically Penny Alexander wasn't on the Colby Agency payroll yet. At least not officially. This guy wouldn't be able to connect her to Victoria.

That slitted gaze narrowed a tad more as he glanced first at the finger with the Band-Aid, then straight in to her eyes. "Who the h.e.l.l you working for?"

It would have been nice to have a name. She didn't have that, but she knew the s.e.x of the person who'd a.s.sisted this dimwit. "He changed his mind."

Movement on the other side of the room momentarily distracted her. Another man decked out in the same SWAT-type attire, stormed up next to his buddy. "Why haven't you killed her yet?"

Penny trembled, didn't have to fake it at all. Dying wasn't exactly part of her plan. G.o.d Almighty, what had she gotten herself into? Stay cool.

"We can't reactivate the transfers without her," the first guy growled. He swung his furious attention back on her. "You want me to kill her before she undoes whatever the h.e.l.l she did?"

Thank G.o.d she'd had the presence of mind to make that little change.

"I want to know," the second guy said as he strode right up to Penny, "who the h.e.l.l sent her." He glanced at his partner. "No one knew. It had to be him."

Penny told herself to breathe. This guy, the second one who'd shown up, wasn't much taller than her, putting them nose to nose. He was ready to kill for what he wanted. If she'd had any lingering doubts, one glance into those furious eyes obliterated them.

The muzzle of the weapon poked her in the chest. "Doesn't matter now," the taller of the two argued. "We can deal with him later. Right now we just need the job done. We need her."

That was what she was hoping for. Time. She just needed to buy time for Steele to do his part.

"You check her out?" the shorter guy asked.

His friend looked Penny up and down. He s.n.a.t.c.hed the backpack off her shoulders and pilfered through it. "Climbing gear and snacks." He sneered at her. "Not much else left to the imagination," he said, surveying her from head to toe once more.

"Better to be safe than sorry." The one standing closest to her moved his head. "Turn around."

Jerks. It wasn't like she could be carrying anything beneath this skintight suit. She turned around and endured a lingering pat down.

She resisted the urge to ask the guy if he was sure he'd covered every inch of her. The c.o.c.kiness had to stay in check. As long as they thought she was alone and terrified, her chances of not getting shot right away were far better.

Then again, she had no true experience upon which to base that conclusion.

"Come on." The short guy grabbed a handful of her hair and ushered her toward the door. "You keep your mouth shut and do as you're told and this will be a lot less painful."

"Whatever you say," Penny a.s.sured him, her voice shaky all on its own.

Despite the fact that she knew help was right across the street and Steele was somewhere in the building, she fully understood that none of those resources were available to a.s.sist her just now.

Maybe, just maybe, if she could buy enough time, Steele could accomplish his goal and the others would storm the building.

The first guy, the one who'd greeted her when she arrived in the bas.e.m.e.nt, moved up the stairs ahead of her, while the other, the shorter one, kept a grip on her hair and dragged her alongside him.

When they reached the first floor, the door opened into the side corridor where the main bank of elevators waited.

Too lazy or too worried about running into trouble, the two opted for the elevators over the stairs to reach the second floor.

The doors closed and Penny forgot to breathe again.

Not now. Definitely not now.

Granted, she took the stairs most of the time, but she had been on dozens of elevators. They were only going up one floor. She would be fine. All she had to do was breathe. These guys didn't need any ammunition.

Close your eyes, she ordered. Count to ten slowly and draw in a deep breath. Hold it. Hold it. Let it go...slowly.

Even as the elevator car b.u.mped to a stop on the second floor, her muscles tightened. Her body shook. Focus. Fight it.

The doors glided apart and Penny's eyes opened as relief washed over her.

"Move." The guy yanked her hair hard. "What's wrong with you? We don't have all night."

She stumbled forward. Caught her balance and adjusted her stride to his hurried one.

Apparently these guys had a schedule to keep. Their job, as best she could surmise, was to monitor the three lower floors, checking in with the boss at designated times. Which meant, they weren't doing their job right now and hadn't on at least one other occasion. She hoped like h.e.l.l that would give Steele the opportunity he needed to get his job done.

"Cates. Hardin. What's your status?"

Penny stiffened at the demand that floated out from the taller of the two's communications link. No earpieces. Definitely not the high-tech stuff her team had. These guys sported the old fas.h.i.+oned pin-on-metal discs. At least now she knew their names.

"This is Cates," the taller guy said. "Bas.e.m.e.nt and first floor are clean. Going through the second level now."

"I need Hardin back up here," the voice ordered. "We have a situation."

Hardin, the shorter guy, swore.

Penny's blood ran cold. Was Steele the situation? Her heart thumped hard behind her sternum.

"Go," Cates said to his pal. "I can handle this."

Hardin grumbled, reminded Cates not to screw this up, then released Penny and headed off to obey the instructions given by his superior.

"Give me any trouble," Cates said, waving the business end of the gun in her face to emphasize his point, "and you're dead. Got it?"

"I understand." She blinked as if she might cry. "Look, I just did what I was told. There wasn't supposed to be any trouble. I was supposed to cancel your transfers and lay low until you were all gone."

Cates shook his head. "You can't trust anybody these days. We had a deal." He motioned for her to get moving. "You know the way."

He poked her with the muzzle of the weapon from time to time when he thought she wasn't moving quickly enough. When they reached the office of the savings and loan president, he waited for her to open the door then he followed her inside.

"Sit." He nodded to the chair behind the big wood desk. "Unlock the keyboard and reactivate the transfers and I might let you live another five minutes or so."

The wheels in her head were turning as she skirted the desk. She needed more time.

There had to be a way to delay making the transfers. Think, Penny!

When she'd unlocked the keyboard, she looked up at him and went for the only option that came to mind. "I need the codes. I can't do it without them. My a.s.signment was to cancel the transfers and lock the keyboard once you'd walked away. I was never given any activation codes." Please, G.o.d, let that work.

His gaze narrowed again. "So you were in here somewhere listening...waiting until we'd done what we came to do and left."

She nodded. "I was hiding in the return duct. Been there since you guys got here. What the h.e.l.l took you so long to get around to this?"

"None of your d.a.m.ned business!" Suspicion mounted in his eyes. "Is that what the suit is about? Hiding? Blending in with the shadows?"

"Yes." She nodded adamantly. "I was told when you would arrive. I stayed overnight in the building." Good! Keep going. "About an hour before you and your friends showed up, I hid in the office next door."

"We searched that office," he countered. "You couldn't have been in there."

She pushed a weak smile into place. "I was on the ceiling. You never saw me."

Disbelief overshadowed the suspicion in his eyes, the only part of his face she could see besides his lips. "On the ceiling? What are you, some kind of freaky spider woman?"

"That's why I was hired for the job. I can get in and out of most anywhere." She shrugged. "They didn't tell me about the guns."

He seemed to mull over what she'd said for a long moment. "So you weren't supposed to transfer the funds to some other account?"

Penny shook her head. "No codes, remember?"

"Then how was this little exercise supposed to benefit the idiot who double crossed me?"

G.o.d, she wished he would say the name already. "He's probably using the deactivation sequence to trace your account. Maybe you've got something he wants already on deposit." Excellent save! Was that even possible? She had no idea but it sounded good.

A long line of colorful phrases rent the air. "That b.a.s.t.a.r.d is dead."

Think! Think! Think! "We could check to make sure he wasn't successful or didn't attempt that strategy." That would take a few minutes. Could buy some more of that precious time. If only he went for the bait...

"Do it." He waved his gun at the computer, then spouted off the IP address, user ID and pa.s.sword for accessing his secret account.

What an idiot!

Penny took her time. Her pulse rate wouldn't slow. Didn't help that a gun was aimed at her head. When the account summary opened it showed a balance of nearly three hundred thousand. Wow. She imagined that was his pay for taking part in this operation.

The man blew out a heavy breath. "Let's transfer that balance to another account."

"O...kay." She'd hoped for some extra time, but she hadn't once considered that this guy would go above and beyond to give her what she needed.

More numbers were called out to her, all of which she entered appropriately. Three minutes later his hefty balance was transferred to a different account at the same banking inst.i.tution.

"Now, reactivate the transfers, only use the new account as the destination."

"How is your partner going to feel about that?" Hardin wasn't back yet. Please, please don't let it be about Steele.

"Don't worry about him. Just do like I said."

That was the thing about crooks, even their own partners couldn't trust them.

Cates dug out the codes and gave her what she needed. Then she understood how the man inside, the VP or whoever, was getting his cut. The transfers were made to two different accounts. The two men here, evidently, had one account they would share. An equal sum went into a second account at a different banking inst.i.tution.

Two million dollars. One in each account.

"So this other guy, the one who hired me to undo what you'd done," she inquired without looking up at Cates, "he's getting a mil, but you and Hardin have to share a mil? Doesn't seem all that fair to me. You're doing all the work."

"You're right. Transfer another million into that account." He tapped the screen where his account number was displayed.

She shrugged, did as he ordered. "What about me?" With her foot, she turned her chair so that she could look more directly at the guy. "You know he's not going to pay me after this. Shouldn't I get something for helping you out?"

Cates grinned. "Most definitely. Stand up."

That he motioned with the gun had her reluctant to do as he asked. She had a bad feeling about this.

"Now!"

She stood, her legs a little wobbly.

"What do you feel your services are worth?" he queried, his tone mocking.

"Well..." She forced back the rising panic. "If I hadn't let you catch me-"

"Let me catch you," he tossed back with a laugh. "Baby, you were making a run for it when I trapped you in the bas.e.m.e.nt."

"If you hadn't figured out I had deactivated the transfers," she argued her case, "they would have all gone into his account eventually. Now he can't make that happen. Surely that's worth something."

"When did he decide to double-cross us?" Cates wanted to know. His ego wouldn't allow him to let it go completely.

"It was a last-minute decision." She had no idea how to answer that question any more than she knew the guy's name who worked here. "He called me two days ago."

"One he'll regret," Cates said. "That much I can promise you."

"Look." She poured all the sincerity she could into her tone as well as her expression. "Forget the payday. Just let me walk away and we'll pretend this never happened. I'll just say I couldn't access this office and he'll never know."

"Except that you deactivated the transfers," Cates reminded her. "There will be an electronic record of that. He'll know you were in."