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Soren straightened, losing his bored façade, and offered her a bow of his head. “Lady Zsuska, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Mn,” she grunted. She wasn’t swayed by Soren’s politeness. “We’re grateful for the care you’ve shown the Egyptologist. It’s imperative that we get the information out of his head before it is lost. We will factor in the cost of his medical care into the offer. When does he believe he will have the location?”
Soren shrugged. “In the next day or two, if he hasn’t uncovered it already.”
“Five million euros.” Each word was sharp and quick as if she’d fired them from a gun.
Soren didn’t blink, and Ed bit down on the inside of his mouth. That was some lowball bullshit right there. Sure, every new dig faced the possibility of it being a complete dud. Grave robbers could have hit the spot decades or even centuries prior to discovery. Max might get the location wrong completely. Or a collapse of the tomb after centuries of shifts could have destroyed the goods inside the tomb.
But there was also the chance that Max was right and the tomb was completely intact. Whatever was discovered in the tomb would be worth hundreds of times more than what they were offering.
Not that they were considering handing Max over for even a second.
Still. It was fucking insulting. Max’s expertise, hard work, and what he suffered were worth way more than five million euros.
The former spy next to him grunted. “Interesting. I’ll have to take your offer back to my companions so we can discuss it. I’ll be in contact.” Soren shifted on the balls of his feet, turning toward the entrance of the gazebo.
“You misunderstand, Mr. Pretol,” Katona called out. Soren stopped and glanced over his shoulder at her. Ed tensed, one hand resting near the gun hidden on his hip. The air was completely still. Not even a breeze stirred the leaves on the trees. The distant rush of cars and the laughter of the children at the playground sounded even farther away. He held his breath, waiting, reminding himself that Charlie and West had their eyes on the meeting as well.
“This offer is good for just this meeting,” she continued. “This is me being generous. If you don’t accept my offer and leave, then I will be forced to take Sutton from you.” She held up her hands and gave a crooked grin. “If I take him, all you get is death.”
Soren turned so that he was standing perpendicular to her and nodded his head. “Interesting. Interesting. But you’re not the only game in town right now. You’re technically the second group to show an interest in Dr. Sutton. If your competition comes up with a better offer than you, I give the Egyptologist to them, collect my money, and you become her problem. Not mine.”
“Who?” she snapped.
A slow smile spread across Soren’s lips as he said, “Rive.”
A torrent of grumbled swears fell from Katona’s thin lips. Ed couldn’t place which language it was, but he didn’t need to. The microphones he and Soren were wearing were strong enough to pick up Katona’s words, and Kairo had translation software constantly running in the background, so they never missed a word.
“Fuck,” Kairo whispered. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
Every muscle in Ed’s body froze as he waited for Kairo to explain what the hell was going on.
“K! What’s happening?” Charlie barked.
“Katona is Max’s mom,” Kairo gasped.
Soren suddenly coughed. He raised his fist in front of his mouth and cleared his throat, likely to cover his slipup, while Ed froze. No.
No. No. This was bad. No. This couldn’t be Max’s mom.
“The computer spit out that she’s speaking Hungarian, and she said something along the lines that she should have drowned both her kids when they were little, like kittens in a bag,” Kairo explained.
They needed to get out of there now. Kairo had a name to go off to continue his research. And knowing this was Max’s mother, he could provide more information on what he remembered of both his blood relatives.
Soren cleared his throat and pushed on, sounding as if nothing had happened. “So, I take it you’ve heard of her?”
“Mn. I know of her. Don’t make the mistake of believing that we’re the same. We’re not. I have no problem killing you both today and tracking down Sutton at my leisure.” She waved her fan in front of her face a few times and shrugged one shoulder. “He’s tripped into our grasp more than once. It shouldn’t be too difficult to lay our hands on him again.”
Yeah, but did Max know that his own mother had captured him? That she’d been the one to order his torture so she could wring the information out of him?
“Of course, this is just a courtesy,” Soren replied tightly. “We appreciate it, but as I said earlier, we won’t be agreeing to anything so hastily. I’ll take your offer back to my partners and we’ll discuss it. With any luck, you’ll be hearing from us in a day or two. No more than three, I’m sure.”
