Douglas stopped.
He tilted his head slightly.
The line of his jaw conveyed unmistakable contempt.
"Trying to kill me with someone else's knife?"
"You're making your schemes a little too obvious."
"Unfortunately."
"Those little tricks only work on fools. And I'm a distant relative of the Lestrange family!"
Douglas raised a hand and straightened his cuff.
He strode straight into the dim vault.
The thunderous grinding of gears came from behind him.
The great bronze door slammed shut not far behind his heels.
All prying eyes outside were completely shut out.
The pungent smell of sulfur vanished as well.
There were no torches or ever-burning lamps in the vault.
Only heaps of Galleons and gold and silver vessels gave off a faint, cold gleam.
Douglas raised his left hand.
His slender fingers pressed the Tactical Communication Earring on his earlobe.
"Signal connected."
"I'm in."
A long exhalation came from the other end of the communicator.
Bill Weasley's slightly raspy voice came through clearly.
"Thank goodness."
"Old Dao."
"You finally shook off those dwarfs."
"The rock layers deep inside Gringotts block signals extremely well."
"I nearly lost my signal."
"Quick, describe the layout inside the vault."
Douglas surveyed his surroundings in the faint light.
Wealth lay piled in mountains.
They towered to the ceiling.
"Typical pure-blood family hoarding."
His tone was full of undisguised sarcasm.
"Gold coins."
"Jewels."
"Armor covered in verdigris."
"And a heap of junk reeking of dark magic."
"Don't touch anything."
Bill issued a stern warning over the communication channel.
"Listen."
"Lestrange must have placed lethal traps in the core area. Pure-blood families are all like that."
"They would never let outsiders touch the family assets. Not even members of their own cadet branches."
Douglas did not rush to act.
He took the Magic Radar from his pocket.