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To Ned’s surprise, Roy knelt, then crossed himself, then got back up and headed over to read a plaque.
Tourists moved in and out of the area, mostly the tour groups and children, but a few Americans. A woman with a day pack holding onto her husband’s hand. Another man—a big guy with dark-blond hair and a chiseled face. He came in wearing a black parka, his hands in his pockets.
Felt a little out of place, maybe, and Ned kept his gaze on him as the big guy moved around the circle, heading for the plaque at the front.
Bingo.
He stepped out from behind the coffin, moving to the next room, closer to Roy.
Roy moved away from the plaque, heading into the adjoining room—another coffin, probably one of Napoleon’s generals.
But the man didn’t follow him. Instead, he went to stand before the altar, not unlike Roy.
But a woman stepped up behind him. She wore a raincoat, her hood up, dark glasses, and also held her hands in her pockets.
And she followed Roy.
And then, as Ned watched, she came right up to Roy and spoke to him.
They were a little hidden behind the coffin, so Ned hoped Fraser had a good look at them, but it was the man who had Ned’s hackles up. He couldn’t be sure the duo had come in together or if…yes, he was definitely watching them.
And then he turned, his gaze directly on the hand-off.
Maybe it wouldn’t have gone south had the man not taken his hands out of his pockets. Had he not moved forward.
Had the guy not seen Ned and decided that maybe Ned was a threat, because in two big strides, the man had crossed the room and slammed into him.
“Excuse me,” he said.
Ned had sort of been knocked into the wall, but he bounced back, aware that the guy stood five inches taller, but unfazed.
And then it all went down, because Fraser grabbed the man in a tackle, bringing him down onto the travertine. People screamed, and Ned jumped back and suddenly—
“Fraser, what are youdoing?”
Ned froze. Fraser too, which allowed the big guy to get an elbow in his ribs that caused Fraser to send out a grunt, and then Big Guy rolled and pushed Fraser right off him, as if he might be a child.
Fraser scrambled to his feet and rounded, his eyes on—
Well, Iris.
Iris?
What was his sister doing here?—and click, click, the Red Slicker, the hand-off—wait.
“Iris?” Ned said, then cut his voice low. “Are you—”
“Let’s get out of here,” Roy said, and gestured to the sudden camera action they had from the tourists.
Oops.
Roy held up a hand and headed out of the building in a half run, Iris behind him. Ned caught up fast, especially when Fraser tapped his shoulder, and in a moment, they were out in the sunlight, quick-walking out of the building and around toward the military section of the compound.
Big and Angry came up behind them, looking as confused as Ned felt.
They stopped in an alcove around the side of the building, and Roy pulled them into a room that housed military armor in a glass case. A bronze horse stood, a monument in the center of the room.
Roy put a hand on the horse’s flank and just stood there, breathing. Then he rounded, staring at Ned, then Fraser, then Iris and her bodyguard. “Seriously?”
