Page 60 of Billion-Dollar Ransom

“We have to leave because I just received a tip that the police are on their way.”

“Here?” she asked. “To this address?”

“Yeah,” Two said.

“You didn’t have to tell me that,” Boo said. “You could have just said it was all part of the plan.”

“I know I could have. But I thought you deserved the truth.”

Boo considered this. “Either you’re the world’s worst kidnapper or you’re actually a decent human being.”

Two shrugged. “Both can be true.”

“Did you call your boss Mr. One?”

“I called him One,” Two admitted. “We all have code names, like in theTaking of Pelham One Two Three.”

“I was thinking about the code names fromReservoir Dogs.”

“Pretty sure Tarantino got that idea fromPelham.”

Boo laughed. “Well, then, Mr. Number Two, my fate is in your hands.”

“Forget all that. Call me Tim.”

Boo smiled as if her captor had just shared his deepest, darkest secret. “Is that your real name? Tim?”

“Yes,” Two said. “That’s my real name.”

“Tim what?”

Why not?Two thought.I might as well tell her everything. And maybe she’ll be smart enough to get us out of this place alive.

“Tim Dowd.”

“Well, then, let’s go, Tim Dowd.”

CHAPTER 65

Thursday, 7:07 p.m.

THE SANDBOX AT FBI headquarters displayed multiple angles on the house in Culver City, some from the sky and some on the ground. A twelve-man SWAT strike force was in position; a strict neighborhood perimeter had been established. If anyone was still in the house, they’d have no way out, barring some unknown drug-cartel-style tunnel running beneath the property. This tip could be nothing—or everything.

“Go,” Nicky said.

On the other end of the phone, Jeff Penney gave his team the signal.

There was almost too much action to follow. Team leaders had helmet-mounted cameras transmitting in real time. Nicky tried to keep up with the video feeds and get a sense of thelayout of the house, but it felt like playing a dozen first-person-shooter games at once.

Bam!The front door was knocked open. Pistols up, officers fanned out in every direction.

Bam!The back door rocked off its hinges, affording her a glimpse of more strike force members coming in through the side windows.

“Clear!” A two-man team checked every corner of the ground floor; another pair cautiously made their way up the single flight of stairs to do the same on the second.

“Clear!”

“Clear!”