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Kendra took a moment to calm her frayed nerves.
She allowed her breaths to level out.
I’m either real lucky or real paranoid.
She didn’t know which was which.
Duck-walking, she peered around the corner ahead. She scanned the long oval driveway, the baroque fountain, the front gates at the far end.
Everything was quiet.
Still.
Too fucking still.
Kendra backtracked, wiping sweat from her chin.
At this point, she would have expected her intrusion into the compound to provoke more of a response, especially after she had taken out multiple cameras. But, so far, there were no boots on the ground. No potshots. Zero pushback.
Maybe nobody’s watching. Or... maybe nobody’s around.
Kendra groaned and shook her head.
She didn’t want to settle on unfounded assumptions.
Holstering her pistol, she reached into a vest pocket. She got out the infiltration kit and unpacked it.
She extended a scanner wand and ran it along the periphery of the garage’s side door, and it vibrated when she reached the top right-hand corner, its LED light flashing green.
That meant that the door was fitted with an alarm, but it wasn’t active.
Kendra hesitated.
She felt that familiar dash of unease.
Why would the security system be disabled?
Chewing the inside of her cheek, Kendra got out the fibrescope. She snaked the lens under the door and peered through the eyepiece.
The interior of the garage was cloaked in semi-darkness, like a cave.
She panned left and right, up and down. She saw nothing more threatening than a Porsche and a Ferrari, parked side by side. But her angle was limited. She couldn’t see beyond those two vehicles.
There was a chance that a shooter could be lying in wait for her.
It was unlikely, but she couldn’t rule it out.
Kendra put away the fibrescope and got out the Peterson universal key. She slid it into the keyhole, and with a bump and a jiggle, she got the door unlocked.
Kendra reassembled the infiltration kit and pocketed it. She got out the night-vision goggles, mounted its harness over her head and tightened it. Then, drawing her pistol, she snapped on a laser-aiming module.
It felt strange to be doing this right in the middle of the day, but if all the windows in the mansion were shuttered, then she had to assume that visibility would be patchy. In that case, equipping herself with the goggles would be a win-win.
It would automatically adjust for differentials in light levels, amplifying the contrast when it was gloomy, dimming it when the environment was brighter.
This would allow her to maintain consistent and uninterrupted vision.
Better to be paranoid than sorry.
Kendra positioned herself beside the door and flipped the goggles down over her eyes. She knew she had to be decisive with making the breach because the doorway was a fatal funnel. This was where a shooter could take a crack at her while she was silhouetted against the daylight.
Kendra rolled and stretched her neck.
She swallowed.
And... here we go.
She pushed the door open and slipped through in a button-hook manoeuvre.
She was quick and fluid, and once she was inside, she shut the door behind her, maximising the darkness, maximising her advantage.
Sidestepping, she activated the infrared laser on her gun, visible only to her night-vision, and she performed a slow orbit of the garage.
Her senses were alive, and she picked up on the smallest of details. The faint scent of exhaust and motor oil. The motes of dust shimmering in the air. The slow, careful padding of her footsteps.
Kendra skirted around the Porsche and the Ferrari. She moved past two more vehicles – a Lamborghini and a Mercedes SUV.
And that’s when she saw something else in the corner.
A motorcycle.