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.”His hand came back around his body, holding a pair of handcuffs.He moved in on Zeller, twirled him around and bent him over the probe station.He holstered his weapon and then pulled Zeller’s arms behind his back and started cuffing them.He worked with the professionalism and practice of a man who had done it a thousand times or more.In the process he pushed Zeller’s face into the hard steel cowling of the microscope.“Careful,” Pierce said.“That microscope is very sensitive — and expensive.You might damage it.”“Wouldn’t want to do that,” Renner said.“Not with all these important discoveries you’re making in here.”He then glanced over at Pierce with what probably passed for him as a full–fledged smile.Chapter 39* * *Zeller didn’t say anything as he was being cuffed.He just turned and stared at Pierce, who threw it right back at him.Once Zeller was secured Renner started searching him.When the detective patted down the right leg he came up with something.He lifted the cuff of Zeller’s pants and pulled a small pistol out of an ankle holster.He displayed it to Pierce, then put it down on the table.“That’s for protection,” Zeller protested.“This whole thing is bullshit.It will never stand up.”“Is that right?” Renner asked good–naturedly.He pulled Zeller back off the table and then roughly sat him back down in the seat.“Stay there.”He stepped over to Pierce and nodded toward his chest.“Open up.”Pierce started to unbutton his shirt, revealing the battery pack and transmitter taped across his left ribs.“How did it come through?” he asked.“Perfect.Got every word.”“You motherfucker,” Zeller said with a steel–hard hiss in his voice.Pierce looked at him.“Oh, so I’m the motherfucker for wearing a wire.You set me up for a murder and you get upset that I’m wired.Cody, you can go —”“All right, all right, break it up,” Renner said.“Both of you shut it down.”As if to accentuate the point, he tore the tape securing the audio surveillance equipment off Pierce’s body with one hard tug.Pierce almost let out a scream but was able to reduce it to a “goddamn, that hurt!”“Good.Sit down over there, Mr.Righteous.It will start to feel better in a minute.”He turned back to Zeller.“Before I take you out of here, I’m going to read you your rights.So shut up and listen.”He reached into one of the inside pockets of his bomber jacket and pulled out a stack of cards.He shuffled through them, finding the scramble card Pierce had given him earlier.He reached over and handed it to Pierce.“You lead the way.Open the door.”Pierce took the card but didn’t get up.His side was still burning.Renner found the rights card he was looking for and started reading it to Zeller.“You have the right to —”There was a loud metallic clack as the mantrap door’s lock was sprung.The door swung open and Pierce saw the security guard from the front dais standing there.His eyes looked dulled and his hair was uncombed.He had one hand behind his back as though hiding something.In his peripheral vision Pierce saw Renner tense.He dropped the card he was reading from and his hand started inside his jacket for his holster.“It’s my security guy,” Pierce blurted out.In the same moment he said it he saw the security man suddenly propelled into the lab by an unseen force from behind.The guard, a man named Rudolpho Gonsalves, crashed into the computer station and toppled over it, landing on the floor, with the monitor then falling onto his chest.Then the familiar image of Six–Eight followed through the door, the big man ducking as he crossed the threshold.Billy Wentz stepped in behind him.He held a large black gun in his right hand and his eyes sharpened when he saw the three men on the other side of the lab.“What’s taking so —”“Cops!” Zeller yelled.“He’s a cop!”Renner was already pulling his gun from his holster but Wentz had the advantage.With the utmost economy of movement, the little gangster pointed his weapon across the lab and started firing.He stepped forward as he fired, moving the barrel of the gun in a two–inch–wide back and forth arc.The sound was deafening.Pierce didn’t see it but he knew Renner had started returning fire.He heard the sound of gunfire to his right and instinctively dove to his left.He rolled and turned to see the detective going down, a spray of fat drops of blood hitting the wall behind him.He turned the other way to see Wentz still advancing.He was trapped.Wentz was squarely between him and the mantrap door.“Lights!”The lab dropped into darkness
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