Andy nodded.

Abrams sat back. “Where are they?”

Andy pointed to the black double doors. “They went in there…about an hour-twenty ago.”

Abrams turned and said something to Hartogg, who immediately grabbed up a bag with something heavy in it.

“We’re goin in…and you’re comin.”

Andy nodded – he had wanted to go in anyway. At least now, he figured, he had two professional bodyguards.

*

Abrams led Andy and Hartogg up the few short steps to the door. He lifted an electronic lock pick to the door, inserted the pins and pressed the trigger. The pins vibrated a second or two, and then Abrams turned the gun – the door opened. He looked back at Hartogg, who had the ammunition bag over his shoulder and his rifle hanging loose at his side. The big man nodded, his eyes shining and intense – he was ready. Abrams then looked to Andy, who also nodded, but looked scared shitless.

“Stay behind us, okay?”

The geologist nodded again. Abrams eased open the door, and went through the gap quickly, followed by Hartogg and Andy. He shut the door silently, bringing down a veil of darkness.

Abrams switched on a small flashlight and Hartogg flicked on his barrel-mounted beam, and they snaked their way down the corridor. Abrams held up a hand flat and then stayed still and silent. Hartogg and Andy froze, listening to the sounds of the tomb-quiet house.

The major sniffed – dust, mold, the ocean maybe – Weird, he thought…and so silent, like it was soundproofed – he couldn’t hear the ticking of a clock, the soft whirring of a refrigerator or even the sound of wood settling in the old beams or dry wall. It was as if they had stepped into a vacuum. If Adira and Matt were close by, they must be concealed.

Abrams waved them on, and together they went quickly from room to room, finally coming to a door set into a wall – thick, strong, and ajar. He pushed it half open; there were steps leading down. He turned and raised his eyebrows. “Basement?” he whispered, and turned back to the door and pushed it wider. A blast of warm air, carrying an odor of mold and something disgusting like bloated bodies covered in fungus rushed up at him.

“Jesus Christ – stinks – dead fish…or whale?” Andy grimaced and put hand over his face.

Abrams shrugged, and then pulled his sidearm. “Ready?”

Hartogg nodded.

“No,” Andy said.

Abrams went in first.

Chapter 23

Matt followed so close behind Adira he had to keep a hand out so he wouldn’t keep bumping into her every time she stopped or slowed. He wished she’d let him use his flashlight more; just because she had the vision of a cat, he did not.

After passing down into and through the empty basement, they had then entered something far more complex than whatever underground storage facility one might expect beneath an old brownstone apartment block. Already, they had descended for what Matt felt must have been many stories below the earth, and the temperature rose with every step.