Blood Money (25 page)

Kelton negotiated the chaos, knowing he
didn’t have much time before everything got straightened out and
hoping the NDC had momentarily lost track of them in the
confusion.

They snaked their way through the slot
machines, bobbing and weaving between people, until they reached
the door. Kelton slammed his hands into the emergency bar and the
door crashed open. Another alarm started to go off, but it was
drowned out by all the other noise inside the casino and nobody
seemed to notice.

Kelton had just started to close the door
behind them when somebody crashed into it from the casino side. The
door slammed open and a man stumbled through, soaking wet and
off-balance. Kelton recognized him as the man sitting next to
Jessica at the blackjack table, the one who had given her the time.
He had a pistol in his hand. It was pointed at the ground.

Before the man had a chance to raise the
pistol, Jessica snapped off a kick, her shin connecting with his
groin. The man fell to his knees, wheezing like a deflated bagpipe.
The gun fell out of his hand, dropped to the floor.

Kelton picked it up, checked to see that the
safety was engaged—it was—then cracked the man in the back of the
head with the butt of the pistol, knocking him out. He stuffed the
gun into his waistband, closed the door, and dragged the
unconscious man over so his body was blocking the doorway.

Kelton turned towards Jessica and together
they started down the stairs. Their footsteps echoed loudly in the
narrow stairwell, making it impossible to tell if anyone was
following them.

“I don’t think this was part of their plan,”
Jessica said as they turned a corner and started down another set
of metal steps.

“Screw them,” Kelton said. “I’ve got plans
of my own.”

They negotiated two more sets of switchbacks
before the stairs ended. Painted on the wall in front of them, in
big, black letters, were the words: FLOOR ONE. To their left was a
door with a glowing green exit sign above it. Jessica started for
it.

Kelton grabbed her arm. “Not that way.
They’ll have that exit covered by now.”

She spun towards him. “What?”

“We’re taking another way out. Follow me.”
He moved past the exit, towards a door set on the opposite wall,
and gave it a push. A long, straight hallway opened up behind it.
He started jogging down it.

“Where the hell does this go?” Jessica said,
her breath slightly ragged.

“The parking garage.”

“And what makes you think we’ll be able to
get out through the parking garage?”

“You’ll see.”

At the end of the hall was a pair of
elevators, and next to them, a door leading to another stairwell.
Kelton opened the door and started down. Soon enough, they reached
the bottom floor. This time there was only one exit to choose from.
Kelton stopped in front of the door and turned towards Jessica.

“If they’re waiting for us out there, we’re
done for,” he said, talking quickly. “But if not, as soon as we
exit this stairwell, take an immediate left turn. Stick to the wall
as best you can, keeping the cars to your right. Once we pass the
last row of cars, there will be an eight-foot high fence with NO
TRESPASSING signs on it. We’re going to climb over the fence and
keep going.”

“Where?”

“Into the storm drains,” Kelton said. He
opened the door and ushered Jessica through before she could ask
any more questions.

The garage was devoid of people. There were
a few cars parked this far down, but the vast majority of the
spaces were empty.

Kelton reached the fence first. He
interlocked his hands and held them near the fence, at thigh level.
After only a moment’s hesitation, Jessica slipped her foot into the
makeshift platform and he gave her a boost. She scrambled to the
top of the fence with ease, swung her body over, and jumped down.
Kelton was right behind her.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
she said as Kelton landed on the pavement next to her.

“Positive,” he said, grabbing her hand. “Now
come on. It’s time to disappear.”

They turned and took off in a jog down the
slightly declining floor of the tunnel.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

The light filtering in from the parking
structure was fading with every stride they took deeper into the
tunnel and soon it would be but a memory.

“We’re going to be blind here in a minute,”
Jessica said, her voice echoing in the enclosed area.

“That’s all right,” Kelton said. “I know the
way.”

Jessica stopped short, pulled her hand from
his grip. “Wait a minute, are you telling me we’re going to make
this whole trip in the dark?”

“Not the whole trip,” Kelton said. “Just
part of it. Most of the time, enough light will get in through the
storm drains above us that we’ll be able to see where we’re
going.”

“And what about when there’s not
enough?”

“Why do you think I picked up those
cigarettes earlier?”

“I thought it was because you wanted a
smoke?”

Kelton shook his head. “It was for the
lighter.” He grabbed her hand and started moving forward. “Now
let’s go. We have to keep moving.”

A couple of hundred yards later, they were
in near-total darkness. No storm drains were within view. The
temperature had dropped at least 25 degrees and the air was stale
and reeking of mildew. It was nearly silent; the only noise coming
from the thin sliver of water trickling down the center of the
tunnel.

“Are you going to break out that lighter or
what?” Jessica said.

“Sure,” Kelton replied, noting the terror
creeping into her voice. “No problem.”

He pulled the lighter from his pocket and
flicked the two-inch flame to life. The light it provided was
meager, illuminating no more than a ten-foot wide bubble around
them.

“That’s it?” Jessica said. She laughed
nervously. “I don’t know if I can continue on like this.”

“Relax,” Kelton said. “We don’t have much
further to go.”

“Are you sure, because—”

“I’m positive,” he said, cutting her off.
“Another twenty minutes, tops.”

“Twenty minutes? Are you serious?”

“Maybe fifteen,” Kelton said, hoping her
mind was too occupied to hear the lie in his voice. “But we’ll come
to a storm drain in a minute or two, and then we’ll be able to see
again without the lighter. And not long after that we’ll be out of
this tunnel and free of the NDC. This time for good.”

“You don’t think they’ll figure out we came
down here?”

“Eventually they might,” Kelton said. “But
even if they do, they’ll never be able to track us. The tunnel we
entered connects up with three more up ahead, and each of those
connect up with numerous others. It’s like a spider web down here,
with almost three hundred miles of tunnels and more than fifty
exits scattered throughout the valley. We’ll be fine as long as we
keep moving and keep quiet. At least for a little while. Can you
handle that?”

Jessica took a deep breaths. “Yeah. I think
so.”

“Good,” Kelton said. “Then let’s go.”

They continued to make progress along the
tunnel, moving as quickly as possible without putting themselves in
danger, the light varying depending on where they were in relation
to the storm drains above them but usually just enough to see by.
Occasionally they would run into a narrow stream of runoff,
sometimes even a decent-sized puddle, but for the most part, the
tunnels were dry.

They had come to three different forks in
the path so far, and with at least four more ahead before they
exited, Kelton was confident that there was no chance the NDC could
catch up with them.

“We don’t have to be quiet anymore,” he said
as they came upon another storm drain. The light outside was fading
as the sun made its slow march towards the horizon, but it was
still easily bright enough to see by. On the wall beneath the
drain, in bright red spray paint, someone had written: IN CASE OF
RAIN, SWIM LIKE HELL. The sounds of traffic were louder here, the
smell of gasoline overpowering.

“Do you know where we are?” Jessica said,
her voice much steadier than it had been when they’d first entered
the drainage system.

“This part of the tunnel goes right under
The Strip,” Kelton said. “The last few minutes we were walking
directly beneath some of the largest casinos in the world.”

“Jesus, I bet they don’t like that getting
out.”

“There’s a reason why hardly anyone knows
about these tunnels. The casinos don’t exactly go around bragging
about their existence.”

“I can understand why,” Jessica said. “How’d
you find out about them?”

“Walter.”

Jessica chuckled under her breath. “I should
have known.”

“I did a job for him here in Vegas a couple
years ago, and used this exact same route to make my escape
then.”

“So the whole evening up to this point was
just a set-up, leading to this point?”

“Pretty much,” Kelton said.

“Since when? From the beginning?”

“No. Just since I called Walter from
Baker.”

Jessica narrowed her brow. “But the NDC has
been listening in every time you’ve talked to him since then,
right?”

“That’s right.”

“Then how the hell did you plan this little
adventure without them finding out?”

“I didn’t plan anything,” Kelton said. “It
was all Walter. I just went with the flow.”

“So you didn’t know what was going to
happen?”

“I knew Walter would do something that would
give us a chance to lose the NDC, but I didn’t know what.”

“But how did he know that we were still
being watched?” Jessica said. “I thought you told him that we had
lost our tail, that we were alone?”

“I did,” Kelton said, a small grin forming
on his lips. “But I didn’t use the magic words.”

Jessica glared at him, obviously not amused.
“Now is not a good time for your smart-ass routine. Just tell me
what the hell you’re talking about.”

“I didn’t complete our all-clear phrase
correctly,” Kelton said. “You see, before we started this
operation, Walter and I agreed to say a certain thing when we first
started our phone conversations; four lines, said the same way
every time. This little exchange, if done properly, would tell the
other person that the line was safe, that nobody was listening in
to the phone call or forcing the call to be made.”

“But when you called him from Baker, you
greeted Walter differently, which told him that you had been
compromised.”

“Exactly,” Kelton said. “So when I told him
we were alone, he knew we really weren’t. And then, when I called
him from Vegas to set up a meeting, he knew he’d have to either
give up on the operation—”

“Or find a way to get us away from our
observers,” Jessica said.

Kelton nodded.

“So he set up the meeting at a place that
you were familiar with, knowing that when he pulled his little
trick, we’d be able to get away clean.”

“That’s right,” Kelton said.

“So you knew those sprinklers were coming
on?”

“Actually, that was all Walter. I was just
as surprised as you were when they started up.”

Jessica smiled, shook her head. “I have to
admit, you guys are pretty clever.”

“I told you before, we’re not clever, just
well-prepared.”

“Don’t be so modest,” Jessica said. “Loki
has got nothing on you.”

Kelton smiled and shook his head, but didn’t
disagree with her. The light from the drain had faded enough that
he was forced to again pull out the lighter to help them negotiate
the way.

“How much longer do we have in here,”
Jessica said.

“Ten, fifteen minutes, tops,” Kelton
said.

“You said that half an hour ago.”

He shot her a sheepish grin. “What can I
say, it was longer than I remember.”

“Yeah, right. You just lied to me to get me
moving.”

“I had to do something, the way you
were—”

He stopped suddenly, held out his hand to
halt her progress, then brought his index finger to his lips.

“What is it?” Jessica whispered.

He leaned in close to her ear. “I heard
something. You stay here while I check it out.”

“No freaking way,” she said. “I’m coming
with you.”

“Fine. But stay behind me at all times, no
matter what. And whatever you do, don’t take off without me.”

“Got it.”

Kelton shifted the lighter to his left hand
and pulled the gun from his waistband with his right. He crept
forward with the lighter in front of him and the gun hidden behind
his back. A few steps later, the outer bubble of light revealed a
withered, grungy-looking man standing near the wall, his shoulders
slumped in a non-aggressive posture.

“I don’t want no trouble,” the man said,
shifting his head so that he wasn’t looking into the light. His
voice was wet and phlegmy, as though he’d spent way too much
time

in these tunnels.

“Don’t worry,” Kelton said, slipping the
pistol back into his waistband without revealing its presence.
“Neither do we.”

The man raised his eyes, spent a couple
seconds sizing them up, and apparently liking what he saw, smiled a
toothless grin. “Visiting the parts of Vegas you don’t see on the
Travel Channel, eh?”

“That’s one way to put it,” Kelton said.
“Now, if you’ll excuse us . . .”

“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have a smoke on
you,” the man said as they started to move past him.

Kelton chuckled. “Actually, you’re in luck.
I’ve got a whole pack.”

“Cool,” the man said.

Kelton pulled the pack of smokes from his
pocket, walked forward, and held them out to the man.

A gray, mottled hand snuck out from beneath
the ratty cuff of the jacket, palm up. Kelton dropped the pack into
it.