Decker looked around. "Should we have the city cut power to the house?"

The lead operator conferred with the other two, then looked up to Decker. "The computer forensics team will want to keep the power on-otherwise they might lose computer memory evidence."

Decker nodded vigorously. "Of course…I knew that." He spoke softly with agents Straub and Knowles. After a moment he looked up again and announced, "Okay, we go to plan B. The bomb squad goes in with fiber optics. Guerner, get your crew ready."

Three heavily padded men with high Kevlar collars, bulletproof helmets, and plastic toolboxes moved through the crowd. The officers made way for them.

Decker motioned with both arms. "Let's move it back behind the vehicles, people!"

The crowd of officers moved back through the parked cars and gathered on the far side. Decker followed them.

Sebeck gave a look to Chief Eichhorn, then approached Decker. "Agent Decker, I've got important information from the canyon scene."

"Let me resolve this first, Sergeant." Decker tried his radio again and then conferred with the bomb squad.

Sebeck leaned on a nearby car hood and looked to Ross. "If Sobol is behind the murders, we should find some evidence of it here."

Ross looked around. "Look, the FBI knows where to reach me, Sergeant. I really just want to get back to my hotel and salvage my client list."

"Not until I get you in front of Decker."

Agent Andrew Guerner was proud of his team. Rick Limon and Frank Chapman had served with him in the FBI Explosives Unit through four years and scores of bomb calls in the U.S. and abroad-real ones and hoaxes. Among them they had thirty-five years of experience. As a demining expert with the 101st Airborne, Guerner had extensive field experience in demolitions, booby traps, improvised explosive devices, and cell phone detonators. He'd cleared mines from Bosnia to Iraq and spent two years as an explosives instructor at Quantico. His companions had military experience with Special Forces and Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. It was a top-notch crew.

Decker's briefing laid out the details of the two earlier killings-and that this Sobol guy was some kind of genius. Guerner clucked his tongue inside his helmet. He'd seen a lot of clever devices in his day. They were all sitting in his lab, defused.

He turned to his partners and nodded. Limon and Chapman nodded back. Far behind them, the gathered officers gave the thumbs-up sign. Guerner started by taking the fiber optic snake out and flipping up his visor. He looked for a gap wide enough to slip it under the mansion's front door. It was a tight seal. Looked like an authentic Spanish mission door. Too bad.

He motioned to Limon, who leaned forward and drove a hole through it with a battery-powered drill.

Guerner fed the snake through the hole and put his eye to the lens. He turned the snake this way and that, examining every angle of the room beyond the door.

Christ, that's a nice floor.

Probably Venetian marble. He'd just laid ceramic tile in his downstairs bathroom at home, and he had a greater appreciation of these things now. He examined the twin staircases curving down from a single landing above the foyer. There were three ground-floor doorways, not including the front door. The foyer was probably twenty feet deep and thirty feet wide. The millwork was nicely done. Right down to the baseboards.

He moved back and gave a hand signal to Limon, who stepped forward with a frequency detector.

Limon moved the detector along the doorjamb and the face of the door itself. He watched the LCD readout intently. "This thing's going nuts." He pulled it away from the door and just held it there. "It's still going nuts. I'm getting signals on all frequencies."

Interesting. For a moment Guerner considered using an explosive sheet to blast an opening through the door, but the antique oak was reinforced with black iron bands and was probably several inches thick. Power saws would also be tricky. Sparks from cutting the iron might set off fire detection systems. "Got the caretaker's key?"

Chapman leaned forward and placed it in Guerner's heavily gloved hand. He was surprised by the key's weight. You could break a window with it. He examined it closely: a straight brass rod with a crystal embedded on its end. Or was that a diamond? He looked at the lock. Custom. The mechanism was most likely attuned to the precise vibrating frequency of the crystal when subjected to an electrical current. Some sophisticated shit.

He looked to his partners. "Window."

They moved down to the nearest large window. It was off to the right about fifteen feet. Guerner peered through the glass. Beyond lay a living room with a high, beamed ceiling, stucco walls, and a large fireplace. Tall bookshelves lined the walls. A sofa and authentic-looking mission furniture were placed tastefully about the room. He spotted at least two motion sensors in the upper corners near the ceiling. Sprinkler caps dotted the ceiling as well. It made sense, this far from the road. It also meant there was an emergency fire pump or a fire department hookup outside. He didn't remember seeing that in the blueprints.

He kept looking through the window. "Limon. Are there sprinkler heads shown on the blueprints?"

Guerner heard his partners flipping through the plans.

"Not shown."

"Damnit. The plans aren't accurate." He looked closely at the edges of the window frame. He shined a Maglite into the corners. No visible sensors, but he knew it was alarmed. Decker had ordered Guerner to treat the place as a potential death trap. In light of the electrocution at CyberStorm, Guerner intended to. He considered the front door key again, then led his team back to the front door.

"The caretaker deactivated the alarm and used her front door key just this morning without incident. I say we do the same." He looked to the other two.

Limon and Chapman nodded.

Limon handed him a short pole with a gripping claw on the end. Guerner took it and fitted the key onto its end. He extended his arm and, using a steady hand, inserted the key into the lock. There was no need to turn it; it emitted a loud click. He let go of the key and used the pole to depress the lever doorknob. He took a deep breath, then nudged it inward. It opened very smoothly for such a large door.

They peered inside. Limon tried to get a frequency reading again, while Chapman pulled an aerosol can from his toolbox. Chapman looked to Guerner, who nodded. Chapman sprayed a smoky mist evenly into the foyer doorway.

All three men scanned the smoke-filled air for laser beams. Nothing.

Guerner gave the hand signal to advance.

He was first through the door, prodding ahead with the pole. He slowly skirted the edge of the foyer and looked around the room. It was gorgeous. His partners followed him inside. Limon slipped a plastic wedge underneath the front door to keep it open.

Guerner checked his radio. "Blue Team Leader, this is Unit B, do you copy? Over." There was nothing but static.

Limon looked at him. "This whole place is a storm of radio signals."

Suddenly they heard a noise of movement upstairs. Like someone walking around. Footsteps echoing on hardwood. They looked at each other. Guerner grabbed his radio. "Blue Team Leader, we've got someone in here. Do you read?" Still static.

Just then a voice called out clearly from the end of the hallway upstairs. "Who's there?" The voice echoed in the marble foyer.

Guerner unsnapped his holster cover and raised his visor. "This is the FBI! Show yourself with your hands on your head!"

No reply. But they heard walking again. The footsteps came down the marble stairs to their right, some distance away from them. They could clearly see the staircase, but no one was there. They could hear the sound of a hand sliding down the metal railing.