Donatti looked up. “Take a bow.”

“Jesus!” Decker felt his head go light. “Fuck!”

“Buck up,” Donatti told him. “Surely, you’re not a virgin.”

“Unfortunately no…” He swallowed hard, staring at the face. Not Merrin, but definitely a cop. “Who’s left?”

“Just the two pups guarding Chaim’s office. I don’t know who’s actually in the office, because even I can’t see through walls.”

“Any more of these?”

“These? You mean cops?”

Decker nodded.

“Not that I know.” Donatti smiled. “I knew you’d come back.”

“Gotta keep an eye on you, Chris.”

“That’s bullshit. Your ego refused to allow me to be the one to save your brother-in-law.”

“Can we go?”

With expert precision, Donatti led Decker through the maze of crates, cases, parcels, and boxes. In minutes, they were within fifty feet of the office, light leaking out from under the door. No one was in view.

Where were the guards?

Donatti stepped back and pulled Decker into the shadows, his eyes in constant motion. They were out of sight, in back of a stack of wooden crates. “I don’t like this.”

“Where are the kids?”

“Don’t know.”

“What do you mean—”

“I don’t know. They were here a second ago.”

“They’re not here now. Where did they go? In the office?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“I’m not a fucking mind reader. Shut up!”

“Fuck you!” Decker snapped back. His eyes darted from side to side. He looked through the scope of his gun, sweeping the lens across the area.

First there was nothing; then an eye blink of motion flitted out from the corner of his visual field. Reacting before the thought fully registered, he yanked Donatti down and jerked him hard to the left as bullets ripped through a stack of cardboard boxes containing television sets. It set off an explosion of glass and metal, a cloudburst of thousands of slivers and shards that flew through the air and rained down onto their heads.

Deadly silence followed the eruption.

The moments tapped by, punctuated by the rapping of the rain on the roof and the windowsills. Decker lay facedown on the floor, but Donatti was on his haunches, ready to spring. Both of them remained fixed in position, their eyes locked on one another in tacit communication. Decker saw Chris hold up a finger.

The minutes went by… two… three… four…

With everyone hidden from view, other senses became heightened. Decker saw Chris close his eyes. Both of them were professional enough to know not to make the first move.

When in doubt, wait it out.

Five… six… seven.

It didn’t even take that long. That was the way it was with amateurs: overeager because the pups just had to inspect their handiwork. They had to see the damage, to gloat about it. And with glass crunching beneath their shoes, they might as well have announced their arrival over a PA system. Though Donatti’s eyes remained closed, his lips broke into a smile, widening as the noise increased in volume.