'The card key accesses the parking garage, the elevator, everything.'

I thought about it. 'How long would it take you to get into the files?'

Lucas Worley stared at me about six seconds too long. 'I dunno. It could take a while.'

Ray Depente pushed up from his seat and drew out the and stalked over like he'd just hit the red line on the biggest bunch of bullshit he'd ever heard. 'I'm killin' this fuckwad right goddamned now! Weasely muthuhfuckin' bullshit, take a while my ass!'

Worley threw himself to the side and covered his head, screaming, 'Twominutes! Icandoitintwominutes, swear-tochrist! It'sallondiskandlcangeteverycontractinthegod-damnedoffice!'

Ray stood over him, breathing hard and pointing the big.45. Across the room I could see Pike shake his head as he flipped through a magazine. Modern Living. Ray smirked and went back to his seat.

I said, 'That's better, Luke. I think you and I are going to work this out just fine.'

We had Worley describe the layout of the contracts department, and how we could get in and get out, and then we settled in for the afternoon. Pike left for a time, then returned with a small blue gym bag.

We listened to Lucas Worley's CD collection until five forty-five that evening, and then the four of us wedged into Worley's Porsche and drove to Green's building on Sunset. We bypassed the public parking entrance and used Worley's card key to access tenant parking. It was fourteen minutes after six when we worked our way beneath the building, and Worley said, 'You see all these cars? There're still plenty of people working.'

We found an empty spot as far in the back as possible, pulled in, cut the engine, and waited. Secretaries and office workers and blue-coated security people and attorneys of one stripe or another trickled out of the elevators and, little by little, the offices above us emptied. By seven-forty the trickle had dried and there were only six cars left, every one of which Worley recognized. He said, 'The 420 belongs to Deke Kelly and the white Jag belongs to Sharon Lewis. They both work in Contracts. The little Stanza over there works in Contracts, also, I forget the kid's name. He was new. Sharon's assistant.'

Pike said, 'Contracts is on the third floor.'

'That's right. Just like I said. 'We'd had him describe it five times. He'd even drawn a little map.

I said, 'And Jonathan is on the fourth.'

Worley nodded. 'Yeah, but we won't have to go up there. All we have to do is go to Contracts. They have everything in their computers.'

'What if Jonathan wanted something kept secret?'

Worley shook his head. 'We can still access it from Contracts. The whole office is on the same computer net. Jesus, I should know. I helped design the system.'

I looked at Pike and Pike shrugged. 'Whenever.'

Worley looked worried. 'But what about the people up there?'

'What about them?'

Worley was looking even more worried. 'You aren't going to kill them, are you?'

Ray glared at him. 'That up to you. You get outta line, we be killin' people now till next Tuesday.'

Pike looked at me and I rolled my eyes. Jesus, what a ham.

I pushed Worley out of the car and we walked in a tight group to the elevator, Pike with the gym bag, Ray with a hand on Worley's shoulder. Our footsteps were loud and gritty. 'You said two minutes, and that's all you're going to have, Luke. Don't mess up.'

Lucas Worley didn't answer. His eyes were blinking fast, and he kept wetting and rewetting his lips. Fear.

We got into the elevator and rode up to the third floor. If the doors opened and someone we recognized got on, I planned to say that I had come to see Truly and Jonathan and brazen it out, but when the doors opened on the third floor, the reception area was empty. The cleaning crews wouldn't be in until nine. The door to Contracts was on the left side of reception, opposite a pair of rest rooms. Joe checked the men's room and Ray the women's. They both reappeared, shaking their heads. Clear. Pike opened the gym bag and pulled out a single gray cylinder. Worley said, 'What's that?'

I pushed him toward Ray without answering. 'Okay, Luke. Here we go.' Ray pulled him to the men's room.

I pulled the fire alarm at the same time that Joe Pike used Worley's card key to open the door to Contracts, then yanked the fuse on the smoke canister and tossed it through the door. He held the door long enough to yell, 'We have a fire in the building! Please use the main stairs and go to the street!' The main stairs fed into the ground floor lobby and were off the reception area. There were utility stairs in the rear of the Contracts department that would lead down to parking. That's how we planned to get out.

Joe let the door close, and then he and I followed Ray and Worley into the bathroom and pressed against the door. We heard voices and curses and a woman's nervous laughter, and then I said, 'That's it, Luke. Showtime.'

I dragged Worley out, and we used the card key to open the door again as Pike turned off the alarm. I pushed Worley through white smoke and said, 'That's a minute, forty-five. The clock is running.'

Joe and Ray scrambled in behind us, Joe taking a dousing blanket from the gym bag and pulling on heavy gloves to recover the smoke canister. Leave no evidence. They stayed at the door and Worley led me into an office. He said, 'This used to be mine. Sharon must've taken it.' A Macintosh computer was up and running on the desk, as if she'd been in the middle of something when we pulled the alarm. I said, 'Ninety seconds. They'll be asking each other what happened. They'll be wondering why the alarm stopped and wondering if they should come take a look.'

Worley closed the files that were on-screen and opened others. A case log heading that read MARTIN, THEODORE appeared on the screen along with a list of topics. He grinned and slapped the desk. 'Y'see. Fuckin' magic. It's all right here.' Like we were on the same team, now. Like he'd forgotten that we'd had to put a gun to his head.

'Print it and open Green's personal file.'

Worley frowned. 'Whaddaya mean, personal file?'

'Letters, bills, work product, anything that has his name on it.' I went to the door and looked at Pike. The canister was out, but a heavy mist of white was spreading through the office as the smoke settled. I said, 'C'mon, Luke. Sixty seconds.'

Worley frowned harder. 'Faster if I disk it.' He could tell I didn't know what he was talking about. 'I'll just dupe it onto a disk. It's faster than printing.'

'Do it.'

Ray stepped into the door. 'We've got voices on the other side of the door.'

Worley slapped in a disk. He punched buttons.

I said, 'You'd better not be screwing with me, Luke.'

'Jesus Christ, I'm almost done.' His eyes were big again. 'Okay, now! We've got it! That's everything!'

He ejected the disk, and we hurried through the smoke in the outer office to the rear stairs and took them down to the parking level. I was sweating hard, thinking we might meet a blue coat or a maintenance man taking the back way up, but we didn't. Luck.

We crossed the parking garage and got into the Porsche and drove back to Lucas Worley's condominium. It was dark when we got there. No one had thrown up a road block to stop us, and a phalanx of police cars hadn't chased us in hot pursuit. I'd never seen a phalanx before, but I was happy to avoid the experience. I said, 'You did okay, Luke, but there's one other thing.'

He looked at me. The four of us were still in the Porsche, sitting there in his carport.

I said, 'You're going to keep your mouth shut about this. You're not going to tell your buddies. You're not going to brag to your girlfriend. We clear on that?' I was pretty sure that he would, eventually, but I wanted some time.