Hunter, who had been listening with Liam, scowled.“I know my kleptomaniac boyfriend had a moment of nerves,” he said into the shared mic, and Tor made a wheezing sound in his throat.
“You mean… you mean I helped with anactual art theft?”
Tor had always been their front man—reporting the good they’d done and leaving their methods to them.
“You okay there, boy?”Liam asked kindly.Well, he’d learned long ago that sometimes a thief’s measure was greater than the sum of a man’s conscience.
“No,” Tor said.“I mean…yes!I’m a thief too!”
Liam and Hunter both chuckled, and for a moment, Liam felt a burst of hope, but it was Hunter who came up with the big idea.
“Hey, since you’re, you know, resting on your laurels and all,” Hunter said, “we’re currently heading up into the Greater Bohemian Mountains.We think Kadjic’s place is there, now that we know a general direction.Do you think you could….”
“Make computer magic,” Liam said.“Stirling seemed to think I’d do what he did on comms, but with him and Josh out of action, we need a real hacker.”
“It is a perk of the job,” Tor conceded smoothly.Then in complete seriousness, “I’ll try to have you plans and a deed of some sort in the next half hour.”
Liam grunted.“Youarea miracle worker,” he said frankly, and then, in case Chuck drove them off a cliff between now and then, “I’m sending you my lieutenant’s email—and my clearance code.Once you have the details, please send them to him.Tell them I told you he’d want the information.”He paused.“Is that okay with everybody?”
“God yes,” Chuck said from the front.
“Wasn’t that our endgame?”Michael asked.
Hunter sighed.“If you insist.”
“I don’t,” Liam told him sincerely.“You lot have done a lot of good in the last two months.There’s no shame in wanting to finish this.”
“Well, how soon will your goons, I mean guys, get there?”Hunter asked.“Because, you know, if things come up….”
“The nearest office is in Prague,” Liam said frankly.“But they’ve got helicopters.”
“Maybe give us a margin, Tor?”Hunter said.“We want to get our boys out of there without entanglements, right?”
“I hear you,” Tor said seriously.“Let me get your destination, and I’ll tip them off after you get there.”
That decided, they signed off, and after a question to see if Chuck was okay—and some fumbling of ibuprofen so he would be—they settled into watching the mountain road unwind.
“JOSH,” GRACEwhispered.“Man, you’ve got to wake up.We’re here.”
Josh groaned and shivered and then stretched, part of him registering that he was much warmer than he had been, and another part gratefully acknowledging that the movement had stopped.
“Where are they?”he mumbled.
“Kadjic hauled Danny into the house.The driver just closed down the garage.We’re clear.”
“Good,” Josh said.“You’re going to need to haul me out of here and let me get my legs under me.”
His blood had started to move sluggishly through his veins again, and while still exhausted, he could feel his adrenaline, finally, propelling him forward.Kadjic had Danny.They needed to find him.It was really that simple.
It took some doing—and they weren’t as quiet as they should have been—but Grace finally had him out of the trunk, his limbs stinging enough to steal his breath.
“What now?”Grace asked, shivering.The garage was warmer than outside, but not by much.
“Stirling?”Josh muttered, tapping his comm.“Stirling, did we lose you?”
Stirling’s reply was broken but still reassuring.“Ten min… here… out… getting… wait for us….”
“Finding Danny,” Josh replied tersely, not sure Stirling could hear him any better than he’d heard Stirling.“Find us.”
