Codename: Kryptonite

Chapter Thirty-four

Agent Mission Log Entry:

There are times in my line of work when all you can do is ...guess.

On the street, Gabby had stalked up and down the alley and gone around behind both the buildings to see that it was a dead end. The alley led into a fenced in area that was to be a small park to be shared by both apartment buildings once it was completed.

"Now what?" Richie asked of no one in particular, looking around as if he expected an answer to fall from the sky.

Standing in the middle of the alley, with a door way into each building on either side of her, Gabby scoffed and shook her head. "Eeny meenie," she grinned at Richie's stunned expression.

The clank of a can skittering across the pavement echoed through the alley, making Gabby spin toward the noise, raising her arm to aim her gun. The noise made Richie quickly jump back against the wall of the building undergoing remodeling, and a small gray cat ran across the end of the alley.

Richie stepped away from the wall, trying to look as if he hadn't just been scared by something small enough to sleep in one of his Stetsons. "What's your gut telling you?" he sounded far more serious than the grin on his face said he was.

"In there," she answered, pointing at the construction site. "There's no one around to notice what Nate's up to, and no one to hear if Jon was calling for help. It's where I'd take him."

Richie tried the door and found it unlocked. A small hand on his arm stopped him from throwing it open and charging into the building. "Are you sure I can't talk you into waiting down here?" she had to ask just one more time.

"Not on your life, sweetheart," he answered with a cocky grin.

"Then at least let me go first," she cautioned, taking the lead and quietly opening the door.

Bending slightly at the waist, Richie waved a hand toward the door. "By all means - ladies first."

Gabby smiled at his mischievous grin and the game show hostess imitation. There were times when this man's humorous moments rivaled even Broadway's. He was the perfect combination for Jon's sometimes all too serious demeanor.

Gun ready, Gabby stepped into the building. For a brief moment, she stood just inside the door where the sunshine poured in, lighting the small area around the entrance, letting her eyes adjust to the darker interior of the building. With a finger across her lips, she cautioned Richie to be quiet.

The small area they stepped into could barely be called an entryway. Directly in front of them was another door that presumably opened into the first floor of the building; to their right was a set of stairs leading upwards to the other floors. On the left was a freight elevator.

Now Richie walked over to the elevator. "Are we taking this?" he whispered.

Gabby shook her head negatively. "Too much noise."

Gabriella knew Nate; he would've set up on the uppermost floor, with some sort of booby trap alarm to warn him of any intruders, and he most certainly had another exit besides these stairs.

Hardly making any sound at all, Richie followed Gabby up the stairs. Her left hand wrapped around the butt of her gun, the index finger resting lightly on the trigger; her right hand cupped under her left as she moved stealthily up the stairs inspired confidence in him. She obviously knew what she was doing.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

On the fifth floor of the building, Nate glared at Jon. "An idiot?" he snarled, "I'm not the one tied to a chair."