Read Deadly Weakness (Gray Spear Society) for Free Online

inspection, it was working, I think. Drive around to the back."
    Norbert drove the car through the huge parking lot. Heavy construction equipment forced him to maneuver the van through an obstacle course. He also avoided patches of dirt where landscaping would eventually be installed.
    There was a ramp behind the hotel that led to a basement level. Marina directed him through an underground section full of impressively large pipes. Some big pieces of machinery were humming loudly. After taking several turns, he found the maintenance elevator and stopped. The elevator had a steel door ten feet tall and fifteen feet wide.
    Marina got out and pressed a button beside the door. Electric winches lifted it up. The elevator was enormous.
    "Come on, girls," she said. "Get out of the van. Help us move stuff. You're part of the team."
    Bethany and Leanna opened a side door and stepped out. They looked around the cold, dimly lit space with obvious anxiety. They hated unfamiliar places. Leanna stayed behind Bethany.
    Everybody started unloading the large van. It was packed to capacity with suitcases, boxes, and crates. The twins worked closely together, as usual, and they did their part. Still, it took a while to move all the supplies into the elevator.
    Everybody got inside, and Marina closed the door.
    "I'll be pissed if this doesn't work," she said.
    "At least the exercise warmed us up," Norbert said.
    The elevator had buttons for twenty floors. She pressed the two, three, five, and seven simultaneously and held them down.
    "Three... two... one..." she counted softly.
    She released the buttons. The elevator began to rise.
    "Yes," she said cheerfully.
    The ride was smoother and quieter than Norbert had expected. "What kind of security will be installed in this elevator?" he said.
    "All kinds of hidden sensors," Marina said. "You'll get a full body scan every time you ride."
    "We helped Kamal design the system," Bethany said. "It's really cool. It uses gamma-ray radiographic imaging with multiple sources. It can see the bullets inside a gun."
    "Will it give us cancer?"
    "I don't think so, ma'am."
    Norbert raised his eyebrows. He had hoped for a more confident response.
    They passed the twentieth floor and continued upwards. They were now entering the secret section containing the new headquarters.
    The elevator finally stopped. Marina opened the door and everybody got out.
    They walked into a small chamber with concrete walls. There were spaces for a large window and a door, but they were still open.
    "This will be the main entry," Marina said. "You won't be able to get through here until Jack presses a button to open the inner door. The walls are thick enough to stop a bomb blast."
    They proceeded through the open doorway. The vast space beyond spanned almost the entire top of the hotel. There were no interior walls yet, and their footsteps echoed distantly. All the surfaces were covered with some kind of gray metallic tile. Widely spaced work lights on stands created uneven lighting.
    Norbert noticed a large square hole in the floor. He walked over and looked down. It appeared the hole went straight to the ground far below. He stepped back nervously from the deadly drop.
    "What's this?" he said.
    "An escape shaft," Marina said. "There are two others, and they go into bomb shelters under the building. We'll also install automatic rappel lines on the exterior. We need a lot of different ways to escape in an emergency. We don't want to get trapped up here." She looked around and smiled. "This is going to be great when we finally move in, even better than the old headquarters off Wacker. How much of that place did you see?"
    "Just a few rooms. Then I had to run for my life."
    She shrugged. "That's what you get for breaking into Ethel's home."
    He grimaced. "She scares the crap out of me."
    "God's wrath has flowed through her veins for three decades. She probably has more brimstone than blood in her body. The Brotherhood of the Luciferian