Mercy (The Night Man Chronicles Book 3), Brett Battles [best books to read in your 20s TXT] 📗

at it for that to be true. I do think, however, the pandemic has allowed them to accelerate their activities.

Which, ultimately, is what helped Jar and me identify who they are.

“Three blocks away,” Jar says over the comm in my ear. She’s been watching for their arrival via the camera on our drone, which is flying high above the banquet hall building.

“Copy,” I say.

The time for waiting is over.

I exit the storage room and walk down to El Palacio’s main lobby. Normally, the place has a few security lights that are always on, but I’ve killed the power to them so the only light in the entire facility is the little amount wandering in through the windows. Thanks to my night vision goggles, I have no problem seeing.

The banquet building has multiple entrances, but I know exactly which one Marco and Blaine will use. They’ve tipped their hand. It’s a door in back. I could meet them there when they arrive, but I want them to get a little comfortable first.

My gut tells me that before they start their reign of destruction, they’ll come to the lobby and scope everything out first. That suits me fine. I trade the large storage room for a maintenance closet at the edge of the lobby, just large enough for a bucket and a mop and a few shelves filled with cleaning supplies. And me.

What I like about the closet is that its door is painted to look like the rest of the wall, so it’s all but invisible to the casual glance. It doesn’t even have a doorknob. A push on it pops it open.

Once I’m closed inside, I lift my goggles from my eyes, turn on my phone, and activate the app that will allow me to view the video feeds, not only from the drone but also from the cameras I’ve placed throughout El Palacio.

Thanks to my day job, I have access to a wide array of…let’s just say items not available to the average citizen. I’m not saying you wouldn’t be able to buy cameras and drones, but I doubt they’d be the same ones I can get. Then there are some of the other items I have with me that you could never lay your hands on.

Working in the world of intelligence and secrets has its advantages.

Being inside El Palacio—or, in Jar’s case, just outside—has nothing to do with how we make our living, however.

This is what we do between jobs. A hobby, if you will.

“Here they come,” Jar says.

On the drone shot, a dark gray Dodge Durango is coming down the street that runs behind the complex. It’s the latest in a series of vehicles Marco and Blaine have stolen. This is the third job in a row they’ve used it, which means, if they’re sticking to their pattern, they’d be dumping it for something new before the night is over. But they will not be sticking to pattern.

The Durango turns down the side of the property, then across the front, and finally down the other side before turning onto the back road again, the two vandals checking for potential problems. The only vehicles in the parking lot that surrounds the building are five identical delivery vans with the El Palacio Banquet Experience logo on the side. This, I’m sure, is exactly what the men were hoping to find.

They park the SUV on the street, directly across from the door they intend to use. They have no need to worry about being seen by neighbors. This is a business district, and all the shops and restaurants in the area have also been closed for a few months.

The reason we know which door they’ll use has to do with a visit Marco and Blaine paid El Palacio three days ago. The complex is surrounded by cameras outside. Technically, no one should be able to approach any of the businesses without being recorded. When Marco and Blaine showed up previously, they were dressed in the uniform—stolen from a former job—of a heating and AC repair company. Using the industrial ladder they’d brought, they climbed onto the roof, where they readjusted the cameras to create an uncovered corridor to their selected door. Since the cameras are not actively monitored, no one caught the change.

Well, we did. But we’ve left the cameras as they are, because their current positions serve our purposes, too. We have placed our own camera in a spot that allows us to see the door and the area that runs from it to the street.

I switch to that feed in time to see Marco and Blaine climb out of the Durango. They are dressed in dark clothing and each is carrying a bag that I’m sure contains the tools and cans of spray paint they plan on using inside. They are both wearing face masks, which, in the current climate, makes them look like pretty much everyone else.

Blaine’s head swivels from side to side as they approach the building, while Marco’s gaze stays fixed on their destination. When they reach the door, Marco crouches down to pick the lock.

I’m looking forward to seeing how they deal with the alarm. While all the other places they hit had security systems, no alarms have ever been triggered. Jar and I have a pretty good theory as to what’s going on, but this will be the first time we see Marco and Blaine in action.

It takes Marco an excruciating two minutes to get both locks undone. I had them open in about twenty seconds. Of course, picking locks was part of my training. Whenever it took me longer to open a lock than the time limit my mentor had given me, he was fond of saying, “You’re dead. Do it again.”

Marco rises back to his feet and the two men talk for a moment, the door still closed. The moment Marco pulls it open, I switch to the camera I put in the back hallway. A beep-beep-beep emits from the alarm