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“Will do.”
“Adam, what else have you discovered?” Nicholas asked.
“Gray is running a complete forensics analysis of the Kohaths’ investment portfolios. He’ll have a report ready shortly.” He yawned, mumbled, “Sorry.”
“You need sleep, Adam,” Mike said. “Or a Snickers bar.”
“No, I don’t. We’ve been having heaping plates of carbonara—you know Louisa never stops eating—and expensive bottles of wine and charging it to your suite. Well, okay, one thing I did see that was interesting, the Genesis Group owns an insurance index. You have any relatives at Lloyd’s of London?”
“Sorry, no relatives, but my dad knows one of the directors. What about them?”
“Well, in addition to providing insurance for large-cap stock companies, I discovered the Kohaths are using the markets to trade on other insurance companies. Lloyd’s is one of them. It’s very risky, very speculative stuff, since you never know when a disaster is going to hit and an insurance company is going to go out of business and take your whole investment down with you. Right now, they are making a lot of money on it.”
“Is it illegal?”
“No. Not at all, if you’re playing it straight and assuming the risks. I’ve not seen anything so far that isn’t completely aboveboard, but that doesn’t mean anything. The best Wall Street thieves know how to hide their tracks. Like I said, it’s going to take more than a couple of hours to dig through everything we pulled.”
“Mike and I are going in the tunnels beneath the palazzo to rescue Kitsune and Grant. We’re not notifying the local cops. The Kohaths could have some control there, and no calling the Carabinieri, either, for the same reason.”
Adam said, “One more issue, Nicholas. It might not happen, but if you’re taken, what do we do?”
An excellent question, but he said aloud, “We won’t be. Turn on Kitsune’s tracker, it will help us locate her quickly.”
“I see,” Adam said. “So you and Mike will pop in, grab her, locate Grant, and pop back out.”
“That’s right. On with the tracker, Adam, and thank you. Keep plugged in, all right?”
Mike said when he’d punched off, “You know they’ve very likely doubled their guard count?”
He grinned down at her. “Entirely possible, but I have a plan.” And he dialed up Adam again.
“Adam, one more thing. Agent Caine rightfully pointed out they’ve probably beefed up security, so get together with the folks at Aviano and have them retask whatever satellite is closest. I want you watching every move they make.”
“And how do I convince them to do that?”
“Simply tell them the American FBI is in trouble, remind them about the shootout in Venice, and they’ll move fast, you can count on it.”
“All right, I’m on it. I’ll be watching. Be careful. And find Kitsune.”
Nicholas punched off the cell, arched his brow at Mike. “I find myself wondering if Adam cares more about Kitsune than us.”
Mike said, “Yes, of course he does. She told him if she weren’t married, she’d marry him. Now, we need to get moving.” She pointed to the palazzo. He looked up and saw a flash of curly blond hair in the second-floor window.
“Ajax.”
“Yes. He’s watching. Tell me you were able to plant the bug on one of them.”
“Yes, indeed, I managed to bump into Cassandra, stuck a very tiny mic under her collar.” He turned it on, listened. “Yes, it’s already up and working fine. My, my, in addition to being barking mad, it appears Ms. Kohath is mightily pissed off.”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Nicholas said, “Let’s take a walk, go over to that café, let the locals see how harmless we are, and we’ll listen to our two psychopaths.”
They sat down at a small table outside the café, ordered espresso from a suspicious waiter. Nicholas handed Mike an earwig, watched her discreetly place it. And they listened.
Cassandra: It’s time to move the storm. It’s time to get the FBI agents out of here, and this will do it. You know Drummond didn’t buy for an instant Lilith was behind all of this. It was a good idea, but he looked like he wanted to laugh, didn’t buy it for a minute.
Ajax: You’re right. It’s time to move. I’ll kill the thief and her husband.
