Page 151 of Silent Target

Firm.

I turn my palm until our fingers meet.

He looks down.

Then at me.

For one quiet moment, the battle recedes.

Walter just tried to kill me.

The Chairman murdered our fathers.

We’re trapped beneath a mountain with an unknown number of armed guards.

But Caleb is here.

And when he closes his hand around mine, I believe we may survive long enough to see what waits on the other side of that door.

Rook approaches the vault.

“Fathom?”

“Minimal electronics. No keypad, wireless receiver, or biometric scanner.”

“How does it open?”

“I have no idea.”

Cobra smiles. “Explosives.”

“No,” everyone says at once.

His shoulders drop. “You people are no fun.”

Falcon cradles his wounded arm. “Your idea of fun might bury us beneath forty feet of concrete.”

“It would be memorable.”

Shark sweeps his flashlight across the floor.

“Hold up.”

Three circular plates are embedded in the concrete beneath years of dust.

Caleb crouches and brushes one clean.

“These have been used.”

Mac leans closer. “How can you tell?”

“The metal is worn around the center.”

I study their positions.

“Three plates. Three circles.”

“A three-person security system,” Fathom says. “No single person can open the vault.”