I studied the monitor for a few more seconds. I didn’t have Owen’s elemental talent for metal, so I didn’t know how long it would take him to get through the silverstone. Forty-five minutes, maybe an hour, given what I’d heard Clementine tell Opal and Dixon earlier. It depended on how slowly he decided to work, and he would probably drag things out as long as possible, in hopes of figuring out some way to turn the tables on Clementine and her men.

But Owen didn’t have to worry about that—because I was going to do it for him.

Clementine might claim that Mab’s gold was stored inside the Briartop vault, but I didn’t necessarily believe her. Maybe it was gold, maybe it was diamonds, maybe it was something else entirely. But whatever it was, Clementine wanted it.

And I was going to take it from her.

Clementine would just as soon kill me as look at me. She’d proven that already tonight. She wouldn’t be threatened, scared, or intimidated in the slightest by me. And if she realized that I was still alive—that the Spider was still alive—sneaking through the museum and killing her men, she’d grab Finn or one of my other friends and hold a gun to their heads until I agreed to surrender. Once I did that, she’d put a couple of bullets in my skull, and that would be the end things for me and everyone else in the rotunda.

No, whatever was in that vault was the only bit of leverage I would be able to get here. If I swiped it first, Clementine would have no choice but to deal with me to get what she wanted, and I’d force her to trade my friends and the rest of the hostages for the treasure in the vault. Of course, Clementine would no doubt try to double-cross and murder me, but that was nothing new.

Still, to steal whatever was in the vault and rescue Owen, I needed supplies, and I needed help—and I knew exactly where I could get them both.

Chapter 12

12

I turned away from the monitors and went over and looked at the giant I’d killed earlier, still careful not to touch her. She seemed to have the same gear that the first guard had: leather belt, gun, ammo, baton, pepper spray. I wouldn’t have minded another gun and some more ammo, but I didn’t want to electrocute myself to get them.

So I pulled out the metal baton I already had and used it to smash the rest of the security camera monitors. I’d seen what I’d needed to, and I didn’t want Clementine and her crew using them to try to find me when I finally made my presence known.