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“Once we’re done eating, I’ll take an hour out of my day to respond to him and tell him he has to come here if he wants to meet with you,” she said, grinning at Viktor.
We were all surprised that the journalist responded quickly to the demand that he come to the city to meet. He basically told Viktor to name the time and place and he’d be there.
“I expected some pushback on that one,” Ivan said.
“I did too. I wonder if he’s already here then?” Sephie said, thinking aloud. She was sitting at the kitchen island with Misha while the rest of us cleaned up the kitchen.
“Do we know what he looks like?” Misha asked. Sephie nodded, then pulled a picture up from an article on his supposed death that Viktor had found previously.
Misha extended his hand to her, saying, “Let’s see if we can find him.” She grinned at him, taking his hand. The rest of us stopped what we were doing to watch them, waiting to see what they would be able to see.
The process took longer than normal. Usually, Misha would see something right away, but he also usually checked in on people he already knew. It would make sense that it would take longer to find this guy, given that neither Sephie nor Misha knew him.
“Got him,” Misha said quietly.
“I know that area. It’s close to where my uncle used to live,” Sephie said as she squeezed Misha’s hand tighter. They watched the movie that only they could see for a few moments longer, before they looked at each other, then to the rest of us.
“He’s already in the city. I can’t tell how long he’s lived here, but he’s living here now. I can show you on the map the area of the city he’s in,” Misha said.
“From what we saw, he keeps to himself mostly. He only goes out for necessities, doesn’t talk to many people, tries to not be seen,” Sephie said.
“He’ll be easy to watch for a few days before we meet with him, then,” Stephen said. “I love a recluse. They’re the easiest ones to watch. They almost always keep to the exact same routine.”
“I’ll go grab a map,” Viktor said.
“Should he meet with one of you though? He might put it together who you are and who you work for,” Sephie said. “He also appears to prefer to speak Italian, which is going to be problematic.”
“Ask him if he speaks English when you respond. Tell him you’ve been using translator software to respond to him,” Ivan said.
“Even still, your Russian accents are going to give you away,” Sephie said.
Misha turned to look at her. “You’re not meeting with him either, gazelle,” he said, sternly. “If the people of the city heard about you being kidnapped, he’ll just as easily put it together who you are as he will one of us.”
“Dammit, I got scolded twice in one morning,” she said, mostly under her breath.
Viktor returned with the map to see us laughing at the exchange. “I always miss the good stuff,” he said, laying out the map in front of Misha.
“Sephie brought up a good point that if one of us meet with this guy, he’s going to piece together who we work for. But then she said he might only speak Italian, which is going to be problematic, implying that she should be the one to meet with him. Misha shut her down,” Andrei said, still laughing.
“That’s not happening, sestrichka. Not when you’re like this,” Viktor said, looking at her sternly.
“Dammit. Three times,” she said.
“What about Chen? We give him an earpiece. We tell him exactly what to say to this guy. Sephie can still translate if needed. Everybody’s happy,” Stephen said.
“Except Chen. He won’t be happy. He’ll be trying not to have a heart attack that whole time,” Sephie said.
“We can coach him through it,” Andrei said. “He’ll be fine. He can totally do this.”
“We’ll be watching him the whole time. He saw what I did to Smith. He’ll know if this guy makes one wrong move, I’ll take him out,” Stephen said.
Sephie thought about it for a minute. She looked to me to see my opinion on it. It was a reasonable plan. It would keep us anonymous. He would have a hard time tracing Chen back to me and it would still get us whatever information this guy supposedly had.
Sephie sighed, then looked to Viktor. “Can I borrow your phone, Papa Bear? I’ll ask him and see what he says.”
Viktor dialed Chen’s number, put it on speaker, then handed the phone to her. I walked to her, so she wouldn’t have to get up. She leaned against me while she talked to Chen. He was understandably apprehensive when she first laid out the situation.
“You can say no, Chen. No harm. We’re just exploring our options,” I said. I might’ve known he would be less likely to say to no to me.
