somehow I took another shuffling side step toward Dobson, my toes dangling over the ledge. I got close enough that I could feel his hot breath bathe my face.
“You’ve got . . . to get . . . the lock-pick kit,” Dobson said, stuttering. “It’s in the front pocket of my pants. Can you reach it?”
I stretched, wishing my fingers were elastic. Keeping my back against the brick, I let my fingers become my eyes, and bit by bit they found the inside of the pocket. Slowly, carefully, I slid my hand in deeper, gripped something leather, and was able to remove a small black zippered case.
“He told me it’s the easiest lock to pick,” Dobson said.
Down below I heard horns blaring. Higgins’s voice crackled up through the bullhorn. People were shouting. Helicopters whirled overhead. But I refused to look down. I kept my gaze locked on Dobson. I brought the case close to my chest, but to unzip it, I would have to let my arms come free of the wall. I would need to become more vulnerable than I already was. Determination overcame my momentary paralysis. I took out the tools, a tension wrench and a pick, and let the case fall from my hands. I didn’t watch it drop, but I heard people cry out, as if I’d just let a baby fall.
“I don’t know how to do this,” I said.
“You can do it, John. I’ll tell you how.”
“You know how?”
“Just trust me. He told me the steps to follow.”
I took a shuffled step toward the window. I couldn’t do this. But then I worried that leaving the ledge would be a violation of the Fiend’s rules.
Boom goes the dynamite.
It had to be done here, and it had to be done now. I swiveled my hips to the right, allowing me to use both hands, while keeping my feet glued to the cement. Dobson spoke clearly, his instructions both precise and methodical. I followed them as best I could.
I blocked out all distractions—the wind, the honking horns, the helicopter chop, the people, Dobson’s erratic breathing. Everything. Getting myself centered and somehow calm, I steadied my hand enough to slip the tension wrench into the lower portion of the keyhole. Turning the wrench clockwise, I applied torque to the cylinder, feeling the give. Dobson’s instructions were clear and easy to follow. They focused me, channeled my energy. Slipping the pick into the upper part of the keyhole, I could feel the tip of the pins with the tip of the pick. My teeth were chattering, and my hands were awkward and clumsy.
I kept working the pick. Some of the pins were harder to push up than others, just as Dobson said, so I applied more tension with the wrench to increase the torque. I did this several times, feeling around with the pick, pushing up on pins, and adjusting the torque, until I heard a satisfying click. My eyes went wide as the lock fell open.
Dobson squealed in delight. It was Dobson who pulled the lock from the hole that allowed the opaque case to pop open.
I searched the inside of the newly opened case, looking for a button, an off switch of some sort, but all I saw was a piece of paper taped to the inside cover. I took the paper in my hands, unfolding it. A note was written in the same handwriting the Fiend had showed me during our soundless chat.
LOOKING FOR SOMETHING? GET BACK INSIDE. WE’RE NOT DONE YET.
CHAPTER 66
I shook my head furiously from side to side, trying to send a signal to Higgins that the mission had failed, but I couldn’t look to see if he understood. If Higgins sent in the cavalry, the Fiend might still detonate the bomb. Something had gone wrong. There wasn’t a switch to deactivate the device, and I had no idea how to shut it off.
“What’s going on? What’s happening?” Dobson shouted at me. “What’s that note?”
His shaking returned. The strength and resolve he’d shown earlier seemed to have abandoned him. His eyes betrayed his state of mind. I’d seen it on the mountain. Brooks had the look. Clegg did, too. “I’m going to die.” That was what his eyes said. “This is it. Sayonara. Arrivederci. This is the end.”
“Come on, Henry. Get inside with me. You can do it.”
I shuffled to my left, one sliding step scraping across the concrete, followed by another. Dobson came along, shuffling in sync with me. I reached the