Read Online Hot Ice by Cherry Adair - Free Book Online

security people patrolling the walled grounds of his estate, but that same thief had breached the inside security and violated his home. Then, with a house full of party guests, had opened an impenetrable safe and absconded with the contents, undetected. Impossible. But fact.
    " 'But know this,' "José quoted out loud," 'that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.' "
    He hadn't stopped begging God for answers since the theft. He was doing His work. Surely God wouldn't allow some criminal, no matter how clever, to steal his life's work?
    God had come to him in a vision when he was twelve years old. He had told him of a rise in religious belief. Prophets and saints would appear and lead the faithful to safety. God had decreed that his debt was to cleanse the Earth of the unworthy and wicked. In this way he could avoid Purgatory.
    God had chosen Friday, October 13th, as the day. His day. Throat dry, José picked up the glass and drained the last few inches of water. If not punishment, a test, then. God was asking him to prove himself.
    José knew. In fifty-nine days, five years of careful, meticulous planning would change the world for the better.
    "Matthew 24:35-36." José quoted by rote: " ' Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone ." But God had shared the day and hour with José. José was to act as God's hands.
    On Friday, October 13th, he was going to rip the evil out of this world. The antichrist was alive and living in Las Vegas. And God had instructed him to kill the antichrist and all his followers.
    The plan was assiduously thought out to the last minute detail. But to perform this mission, he had to have what was buried impossibly deep in the earth. And to access it, he needed the codes.
    The codes on the disks that had been stolen.
    The elaborate codes, on five tiny minidisks, held the means to fulfill his promise to God.
    And God helped those who helped themselves.
    Waiting for José on the other side of the ten-foot-high carved mahogany doors were his top six lieutenants, called in from their posts all over the world. It was dangerous to have them all here together in London. Dangerous, but the most expedient way to handle the situation.
    He stabbed the intercom button with a well-manicured finger. "Send them in."
    His people trooped in. Men who, to a causal observer, would appear to be nothing more than prosperous businessmen in their expensive hand-tailored suits and custom shirts and shoes.
    They didn't know why they were here, and they all looked slightly discomforted, but hid it well. He trusted these six men as much as he trusted anyone. But nobody was completely trustworthy. Everyone had a price.
    He nodded to each man as they seated themselves in the waiting semicircle of chairs before his desk. "The safe in my San Cristóbal home was robbed last night," he told them baldly. "In it were the codes to gain access to the… items housed in South Africa. Without the proper codes, the multilevel security system will prevent us from retrieving the merchandise. Any attempts to circumvent the system without the codes will result in immediate detonation of the facility and the contents."
    He waited a beat for the ramifications of this information to sink in. He was the only one with knowledge and access to the complex codes. He'd been to the location many, many times. But even with his brilliant mind, he couldn't remember all those numbers and formulas. And his darling Maria, the love of his life, and one of his greatest rewards, could not be expected to memorize such things.
    All his lieutenants knew was that the location was somewhere in southern Africa. Anyone and everyone who had ever worked on the ten-year construction project was dead. It was enough.
    None of the men