CHAPTER 58

D ottie’s phone came alive with a “Ride of the Valkyries” ringtone exactly at two PM, or fourteen hundred in Max speak. It was on the console next to her keyboard and mouse and she looked at it like I had looked at the snake in my oven. She did not want to deal with it. But she didn’t scream or run away.

“Dottie?” Lionel said. “You have to answer.”

She picked up the phone. “Yes?” She listened for a moment. “Yes, sir. It will be on station as requested.” She put the phone down.

“Herc?” I asked, not that I doubted it.

She nodded.

“Showtime,” I said.

“If he catches on to what we’re doing,” Dottie said, “he’s going to come here and kill all of us.”

“It wouldn’t be that easy,” I said. “He’d be fighting Max and Luke and Pike.” I paused. “And us.”

“Damn right,” Lionel said.

Dottie nodded to Lionel. “Run it.”

He hit the execute key and the show began. One of the monitors showed what Herc and his people were watching: Max and the others loading the treasure and then getting in the vehicles and heading deeper into the forest toward Pike’s place.