The gunfire grew louder, pounding against the doors and walls of the house outside. Bullets smashed through the windows, scattering glass in every direction.
Ben flinched as the bullets whistled past them and penetrated the walls next to them.
"Get down!" He yelled for Jorja to overturn her chair.
The two armed men exploded from their room and lunged toward the door behind Jorja and Ben, releasing rapid fire in retaliation against the unseen enemy.
"Hey! Untie us!" Jorja yelled after them, but her words were spoken in vain when first one captor, then the other collapsed dead onto the floor.
"We need to find a way out of here, Jorja!" Ben shouted as more bullets rained onto the house.
Their bodies strained against the ropes, desperate to break free. Glass and splintered pieces of wood and fabric exploded all around them as if the devil had unleashed his demons in a ruthless attack on all who no longer worshipped him. Jorja prayed that God protected them, prayed that she would get the chance to get to know him better, prayed for a way out.
At the far end of the room, a loud crashing noise erupted into flames that danced on the floor behind them. The attackers had thrown a firebomb through the window, which exploded the moment it hit the floor. Almost instantly, it climbed the heavy drapes and set the room on fire. Smoke filled their lungs as Jorja and Ben wrestled to untie each other's hands—they had managed to turn their chairs' backs toward each other.
"It's too tight!" Jorja announced when her fingers could not untie Ben's ropes.
Their eyes searched the smoke-filled room for any pieces of glass nearby, but all they found were shards too small to cut through the ropes.
Through the thick black smoke that threatened to unleash its power upon them, Gustav's face suddenly appeared.
Angst gripped Jorja as she spotted him first. In his hand, a large carving knife came toward them.
"Watch out!" she warned Ben, simultaneously attempting to turn herself around to kick Gustav in the shin.
But he was already on top of them, driving the knife in their direction. The blade sliced through the fibered strands, instantly setting them both free.
"Follow me!" he yelled and hastily moved toward the only wall on the far end of an adjacent room that the flames had not yet reached. Now visible only by the soft folds in the wallpaper, a hidden alcove revealed an elevator behind it and he hurried them inside.
Left with no other way of escaping the unceasing attack on them, they complied and followed him inside.
"Not that I am ungrateful to you for saving our lives but care to tell us what on earth is going on out there?" Ben demanded answers as the elevator started its descent.
"It's Artem Sokolov. We walked straight into an ambush. My entire property is crawling with his men."
"Where are you taking us?" Jorja asked.
"I told you, I'm not done with you yet. I need you and you are no good to me dead."
"You should have left us to die, Gustav. I don't know what you are planning but we don't want any part of it. We are done pulling jobs for you or anyone else." Jorja's voice was surprisingly calm, her words cut short when the doors opened to an underground tunnel.
"Trust me, Georgina, once you hear what we're after you are going to have a hard time standing up to your seemingly unwavering resolve, I assure you."
"No, I won't, and my name isn't Georgina anymore, it's Jorja."
"You don't need to tell me that Ms. Rose." He emphasized her last name, intentionally letting her know that he already knew the information she’d just shared. "Now stop doubting my good intentions and get moving before they discover our escape route.”
"What is this anyway?" Ben asked, taking in the narrow underground tunnel's amber stone walls.
"It's your one ticket to freedom, that's what this is, but don't fear, you are perfectly safe down here. These tunnels have withstood time for over a century," Gustav said.
"We're not. We just don't want to be in the same confined space as you. Like I said, we're not interested," Jorja replied.
Gustav stopped dead to turn and face her, his intense eyes doing what he did so well; lure people into his deceitful ways.
"You will, and you want to know why I am so sure of it? Because you have never been able to back away from a challenge, especially one said to be impossible."
Jorja's heart skipped several beats, once again taunted by the prospect of returning to what she’d once lived and breathed.
"Give it up, Jorja. It's written all over your face, in glorious artful strokes. Admit it. You miss the thrill. That exhilarating rush you get when breaking in, the challenge of the escape, the money. You want this as much as I do. Stop fighting it." Gustav's penetrating gaze probed her, luring her into confessing what she knew deep down was the truth.
"You heard her, Züber, now give it a rest," Ben said to break the spell he’d cast on her.
But Gustav Züber was a man who always got his way and in the confines of the underground getaway tunnel, took a few steps back and drew on the only thing he had left in his arsenal of tricks to strong-arm them. When he aimed the small pearl-grip revolver at them, his voice was cold and threatening.
“As I said, you will, one way or another. Now walk!"
He ushered them to move in front of him, poking the gun in their backs in turn to propel them forward.
"What could possibly be so important to you that you need us for it, huh? I am sure you have acquainted yourself with plenty of lowlife scum like you who would be more than willing to do your dirty work for you, " Jorja spat back.
Gustav let out a victorious squeal.
"See, I told you! You cannot resist, Georgina, Jorja, or whoever you think you need to be. We were born to do this, it's in our blood, pumping, surging through every cell in our bodies. I already have a buyer lined up for it too, and it's a big fish. The biggest you have ever seen. It will be the last job we ever need to do. Putting me behind bars was the biggest mistake you could ever make. It cost me valuable time in securing my retirement resources, Jorja, and you are solely to blame for it. So now, you have to earn your freedom, and that freedom comes at a hefty price. Such a hefty price that it can only be ransomed against one exquisite piece of art. I want Da Vinci's Salvator Mundi. And you two are going to get it for me, willingly or not, your choice. Now walk!"
He shoved the gun between her shoulder blades, thrusting her forward. She winced at the agony it shot through her bad arm that was now throbbing painfully after the events of the past few hours.
"Hey, take it easy!" Ben yelled.
"Then shut your mouths and keep walking."
"It's impossible to get the painting, Gustav, and you know it." Jorja pulled the conversation back to the heist, desperate to talk their way out of the task he was forcing upon them.
"Well, isn't that why I’ve got you?"
"Not even I can find it. That piece disappeared off the face of the earth a long time ago, and you know it. The entire world has been looking for it and no one’s been able to pick up even the slightest trace.
"Au contraire, my dear. I told you. Prison might have kept me in one place but I didn’t let that stop me. I have already found the trail of breadcrumbs it has left behind, done the heavy lifting for you. All you have to do is exert your special skills and bring it home to me. And since you have your sidekick to hand, well, I guess it will be even easier than I had planned. And wait until you find out where the painting is. Go on, take a guess," he nudged her excitedly when she didn't bite.
"I'm not going to play this silly game of yours just to feed your narcissistic ego, Gustav."
"Fine, killjoy, I'll give in and tell you. It's in one of the world's most sprawling metropolises. Abu Dhabi." His voice was drenched in exhilaration and teasing with adventure.
"Well, good luck with that, mate.” Ben spoiled his fun.
"No one asked you, sidekick. I am guessing you will do anything Jorja asks you anyway, so shut it and walk. We're almost there."
"And where might that be exactly? It's a dead end up ahead." Jorja had already spotted the wall at the end of the narrow tunnel.
"Patience is a virtue, my dear. Have you already forgotten that vital skill? You had best be dusting off your toolkit. I’m not having you mess this up for me. Age isn’t on my side anymore, another thing I have you to thank for."
She didn't give him the satisfaction of challenging him any further. She understood patience all too well. His days were numbered. By the time the sun came up, McGuthrey would find the biggest story of his small-town career right there on his computer when he switched it on. Knowing him, he would be taking it straight to the Daily Mail before teatime came round and it would be game over for Gustav Züber, forever.
She stood aside to see Gustav reveal a retina scanner behind an imitation stone in the wall. When the scan detected the programmed match, the concealed door sprang open.
"After you," he insisted, waggling his gun for them to get into another elevator before he stepped inside next to them.
As the elevator ascended, he made a final plea to win Jorja's cooperation in his plot.
"Get me the Da Vinci and I promise you will never hear from me again."
"Not going to happen, Gustav. I'm not the same person I was back then and I'm not going back to that life either. Like I said earlier, you should have saved yourself the trouble of rescuing us. Our paths diverge here."
His guard was down and she thought of plowing him to the ground, but her body was not up to it—she had been through too much over the past few days to withstand another blow to her body. She had said what she needed to and knew what was to come.
The elevator doors opened before he could answer and he stepped out into another house every bit as homely as the one they had just left behind.
But it seemed they had all underestimated one of their biggest threats as they set eyes upon five men who instantly pushed them to the ground.
Caught entirely off guard by the surprise attack that awaited them, the men held them down, pinning their bodies to the floor. Jorja wrestled as much as her injured body would allow, Ben too, but their attempt to ward off the ambush proved futile as they instantly felt sharp needles pierce the soft flesh on the side of their necks.
Moments later the room spun in unsteady circles around them before everything went black.