A Deadly Web Read Online Free PDF Page B

no one had slept there during the night.
    If I were them, I’d check underneath the duvet for warmth, though.
    They? Who on earth
were
“they”?
    All her instincts were screaming at her to leave now and think about the why and who later. But she still paused an instant in the doorway of her bedroom, looking back to make sure it appeared undisturbed.
    It did.
    The pajamas she wore were of the boxer shorts and tank top variety, so she was decently covered, and she didn’t stop to grab a robe or take the time to change or even find her shoes. Instead, she moved quickly through the apartment, grabbing her purse and keys from the entry hall table, to the door.
    She looked through the spyhole, not surprised to see an empty hallway.
    But they’re close. They’re nearly here.
    She slipped out of the condo quietly, making sure the door locked behind her, hesitated for only an instant inthe hallway, then headed for one of the two stairwells each floor allowed access to.
    They’re coming up in the other stairwell.
    Tasha had no idea how she knew that, but what she felt was certain. As was the absolute certainty that even though hallways and stairwells were covered with security cameras, somehow they had been tampered with or interfered with. And that access codes to all the security doors had also somehow been breached.
    Security is an illusion. You know that.
    For the first time, Tasha wasn’t entirely certain that voice in her head belonged to her own mind.
    Chilled, she used the security keypad beside the stairwell door and punched in the code, then opened the stairwell door as quietly as possible and passed through, closing it just as quietly behind her. There was a small, high window, heavy-gauge wire between two pieces of shatterproof glass discouraging anyone who might have made it this far from an attempt to reach through, even if they could pop the glass out, and open the door from the hallway; it was high enough that Tasha, a tall woman, had to stand on tiptoe in order to see through it.
    The stairwell was well lit, but the lights dimmed at night; the computer controlling security for the building controlled that and would, in an emergency situation, turn all the lighting up to full wattage and, in case of a fire or other official need to evacuate the building, disarm all the security doors so that residents and staff could exit quickly and safely without having to remember security cards or codes.
    It was one reason the system had to be monitored 24/7by experienced security personnel, and one of the major reasons Tasha had chosen the building. Because it was the most up-to-date and security-conscious of any she’d looked at.
    And security is an illusion. Got it.
    She kept back at an angle, making herself as unseeable as possible as she fixed her eyes on the far end of the hallway and that other stairwell.
    In less than a minute, three men entered from that stairwell.
    Tasha was somehow surprised that they seemed . . . ordinary. Like anyone she might pass on the street without a glance. They wore casual clothing rather than being in all-black as she imagined an ordinary burglar would wear.
    Then again . . . these men were not burglars. She didn’t know much, but she knew that,
felt
that. Not burglars. And stalkers, as far as she knew, were always singular, one person stalking another.
    Kidnappers?
    Assassins?
    Neither possibility made sense, but Tasha pushed that aside to be considered later. She studied them, baffled. They moved with evident quiet, yet didn’t seem to worry about cameras or being observed any other way. They were all curiously interchangeable, nothing about any of their faces especially memorable.
    Just ordinary men, perhaps in their thirties, well built but not imposing, all with brown hair and regular features.
    Expressionless.
    That last gave her another chill, for though they movedwith ease and without, seemingly, undue care, there was something . . . implacable about them. Something