pistol and pointed it at the door as he turned the knob. He didn’t
really believe that anyone had locked himself in a closet and was about
to jump him, but then again, he had seen stranger things happen.
Someone might be on the other side of this door.
When he saw what was in the closet, a part of him wished the problem
were as simple as someone preparing to ambush him. He swore under his
breath, holstered his pistol and ran.
In the closet the blink of red lights from the stacks of electronic
equipment shone forth now in the open doorway.
Lee raced into the other front room and shone his light around the
walls in even patterns, moving higher and higher. Then he saw it.
There was a camera lens in the wall next to the molding. Probably a
pinhole lens, designed specifically for covert surveillance. It was
impossible to see in the poor lighting, but the beam from the
flashlight was reflecting off it. As he moved the beam around, he hit
a total of four camera lenses.
Holy shit. The sound he had heard earlier. He must have tripped some
device that had triggered the cameras. He raced back to the living
room closet, flashed his light on the front of the video machine.
Eject! Where the hell was eject? He found the button, hit it and
nothing happened. He punched it again and again. He hit the other
buttons. Nothing. Then Lee’s gaze closed on the second small infrared
portal in the front of the machine, and the answer hit him. The
machine was controlled by a special remote, its function buttons
overridden. His blood ran cold with the possibilities this sort of
arrangement suggested. He thought about putting a bullet into the
thing, to make it cough up the precious tape. But for all he knew, the
damn thing was armored and he’d end up eating his own slug off the
ricochet. And what if it had a real-time satellite link and the tape
was only a backup? Was there a camera in here? People could be
looking at him right now. For one ridiculous second, he thought about
giving them the finger.
Lee was about to run again but then had a sudden inspiration. He
fumbled in his knapsack, his usually steady fingers now not quite so
dexterous. His hands closed around the small case. He whipped it out,
fought with the lid for an instant and then managed to pull out the
small but powerful magnet.
Magnets were a popular burglary tool because they were ideal for
locating and popping window pins once you had cut through the glass.
Otherwise, the pins would defeat the most accomplished burglar. Now
the magnet would play the reverse role: not helping him break in, but
rather assisting him in making what he hoped would be an invisible
exit.
He palmed the magnet and then ran it in front of the video machine and
then over the top. He did it as many times as he could in the one
minute he had allowed himself before fleeing for his life. He prayed
that the magnetic field would obliterate the images on the tape. His
images.
He threw the magnet back in his bag, turned and ran for the door.
God only knew who might be on their way here. Lee suddenly stopped.
Should he go back to the closet, rip the VCR out and take it with
him?
The next sound Lee heard drove all thoughts of the VCR from his mind. A
car was coming.
“Sonofabitch!” hissed Lee. Was it Lockhart and her escort? They had
come here every other evening. So much for a pattern. He raced back
down the hall, threw open the back door, burst through and hurdled the
concrete stoop. He landed heavily in the slick grass, his shoeless
feet slipped and he fell hard. The impact knocked the breath out of
him and he felt a sharp pain where his elbow had struck at an odd
angle. But fear was a great painkiller. Within a few seconds he was
up and chugging for the tree line.
He was halfway to the woods when the car pulled into the driveway, its