Once inside, the place was abuzz with forensic technicians whom Carter had brought in from the Las Vegas FBI field office. The techs wore Tyvek jumpsuits and operated a wide array of data gathering equipment. Nic recognized a few of the devices—such as ground-penetrating radar and thermal imaging—but others appeared even more sophisticated. They were checking for false walls, trap doors, and hidden escape routes. Nic doubted that they’d find anything. If Loria or Yoshida thought they would, then they’d already be shut down.

Burke ignored all of the techs and moved straight to the vault room. He cut a direct path to the back wall, the one covered floor-to-ceiling in black and white tile. At first, Nic thought Burke was heading for the control panel that sat beside the conveyor belt. Instead, Burke held his iPad up to the wall, which held nothing but tile.

For a moment, Nic thought a secret door would open or the wall would rotate on a platform like some Indiana Jones movie. But nothing happened. Burke merely stood there, his nose stuck in the room’s corner, tapping his screen. One minute stretched to two, and Nic’s mind started wandering.

Seeing the ground-penetrating radar and other scanning tools reminded Nic of the days following his grandfather’s funeral. Angelo Juliano, known in certain circles as the “Grand Executioner” owned a two-acre estate across the Hudson in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The thirty-four room mansion had been passed down to Nic’s father, Thomas, and the rumors were that Grandpa Angelo had hidden millions in gold inside the house, but not even Angelo’s closest advisors knew where.

Tommy had brought in experts with ground-penetrating radar, sonic-imaging scanners, and cutting-edge metal detectors, but in his typical fashion, Tommy grew impatient and then angry. He set to work with a jackhammer in the basement and gave Nic and his older brother sledgehammers to tear into the walls. Nic’s mother had watched the destruction with tears in her eyes, but she knew better than to question Tommy Jewels.

It was one of Nic’s fondest memories from his childhood. They made a game of the destruction. But after a week, Tommy had finally given up on finding the gold.

Nic could still hear his father standing in the yard, screaming at the heavens, “You think this is funny, you old bastard? I wish I could bring you back and stick another ice pick in your eye!”

Checking his watch and his phone for messages, Nic was about to ask Burke what he was doing, but one of the two technicians in the room spoke first.

Nic could see Asian features behind the mask of her jumpsuit. “We already checked the signals coming from over there,” she said. “There’s no hidden wall. The blueprints show that it’s most likely just the wiring for the main terminals.”

Burke laughed, and without looking up from the iPad, he said, “That’s what they want you to think. Just like the government isn’t suppressing knowledge of extraterrestrials.”