From the van, Josh’s hackles went up.He didnotlike the edge to Tor’s voice, and in a moment, through Tor’s and his mother’s transceivers, he knew why.
“You look familiar,” came the oily voice of the man they’d been torturing for nearly two months.“Why is that?”
Tor replied, “My boyfriend works as a temporary chef at your hotel, Mr.Kadjic.I’ve seen you there many times.”
There was a stunned silence, as if the truth had been the last thing Kadjic had expected.“His eggs benedict is… unusual,” he said, with the same inflection someone else might have used when saying “full of cockroaches.”
“He uses his own recipe,” Tor said.“If you let me know what you dislike, I’m sure he’ll change it when it’s your order.”
“It is too late,” Kadjic replied, as though Tor and Marco should have been anticipating his every need.“I shall be leaving Prague in the morning and dining on the road.”
“Well, that’s a shame,” Tor told him.“I’ll certainly neglect to pass on your lack of regard.”
Josh had to cover his mouth to avoid barking laughter into his microphone before he caught the gist of what Kadjic had been saying.They’d known they might have to plant bugs on Kadjic’s vehicle, but this new information only made that more urgent.
With the press of a button, he was talking to Grace and Tienne.
“Kadjic’s with my mother and Tor—you guys need to get out to the parking lot, stat, and bug his vehicle before somebody spots the painting and goes apeshit.”
“Hear you, Anemia Boy,” Grace murmured.“Let me just slip out the side door—”
“No!”Josh cried.“Not the west entrance, you moron—it’s alarmed!”
There was a sudden shrill electronic wail, and Grace’s muttered, “Fuck.”Then, louder, “Oh no!I thought this was how I got to the U-Bahnhof!”
Grace could domanythings with amazing skill.Speak German was not one of them.But as Josh peered through the hacked CCTV feed and saw all the people gathering around him, trying to make him feel better as he—utilizing years of theater experience and getting away with everything sans murder—played the innocent fuckup, he thought perhaps with a face as beautiful as Grace’s, nobody cared how dumb he made himself look.
Unfortunately that left only one of them to bug the car, which was half the reason they were there anyway.
“Tienne?”Josh asked.“Can you surrender your pass and go out the front?”
“Oui, oui,” Tienne murmured.“Yes, I wish to leave a bit early.Too many cocktails—I am not so good with wine.”
Josh fought the temptation to bang his head against his keyboard.
“I mean coffee,” Tienne supplied apologetically.“Yes.I have been drinking Viennese coffee.It is not sitting well in my stomach.Apologies.”
Josh checked out the feed and saw that no, nobody suspected Tienne, but he too was stuck in a social situation that he was unable to escape quickly.Well, hell—it was bound to happen.Too many jobs, too short a time—improvisation was the name of the game.
“Mom,” Josh murmured, securing his earbud and grabbing the last two tracers from the drawer of tracking equipment.“Can you make nice with Kadjic for another five minutes?”
“Sure,” his mother murmured.“Cobras aren’t dangerous as long as you keep making eye contact.”
Oh God.
“Five minutes,” he repeated.“Then get the fuck out of there.”
With that, he slid out of the back of the van and made a slow spin of the valet parking area.Carl had actually driven the van and given the keys to the valet while the rest of the party had arrived via public transport or on foot, but theyallhad a set of these keys, including Josh.
Okay, then.He spotted Kadjic’s giant gas-guzzling American import in the corner and then scoped out the valets, who were running to and fro, and plotted a course that would get him to the town car while keeping him in the shadows.
It was slow going, and he was frustrated to find himself winded halfway through.Goddammit,he was tired of this shit.
It wasn’t until he got about three-quarters of the way there that he saw a valet heading directly for the back quarter and heardeverybodyshouting in his ear.
“Josh, he’s leaving!”his mother said, while Grace said, “His goon just gave his ticket to the valet stand,” and then, most concerning, was Tor.
“Shit, Josh—he spotted the forgery.He’s yelling something at Carl’s art docent now, and I think he’s made Carl too.”
