by Rob Jones
“Doubtful,” Jodie said.
“Damn it!”
“Let’s make a bet,” Hunter said. “I’ll buy drinks after the raid if the pizzas get here first.”
A groan went up around the table. Quinn was first to speak, looking over her screen at the Englishman. “You’re betting against me?”
“Why not?”
“Dangerous,” Jodie said.
“Just trying to make things interesting.”
Lewis was still watching the action in the kitchen. “Turns out watching fresh pizzas being made is not good if you’re hungry. I’m about ready to eat one of the table legs.”
Blanco’s broad chest moved up and down as he chuckled. “Without any sauce?”
“You watch me.”
“Any progress, Quinn?” Amy asked.
“It’s password protected, as I thought it would be. I’m just getting hold of that now.”
“That takes time?” Hunter asked with a smirk.
“A little,” Quinn said, the corner of her mouth turning up slightly. “When you’re buying drinks tonight, I want something expensive.”
“You haven’t won yet.”
Quinn was still tapping away. “Anyone know the most expensive drink a girl can buy?”
Jodie said, “I read about a vodka cocktail that comes with a real eighteen-karat diamond. Cost like twenty thousand bucks.”
Quinn stopped tapping. “Ooh, really? You think they serve those around here?”
Hunter shifted in his seat. “Steady on…”
“Sadly no,” Jodie said. “It was in Tokyo.”
“This offer is not transferrable,” Hunter said. “And it ends at midnight.”
“Here they come!” Lewis said. “Two golden beauties of pure cheese delight.”
Across the room, one of the waiters was sliding the freshly baked pizzas onto a serving board and lifting the counter flap.
“That’s too bad,” Quinn said, “because I just brought down their security.” She snapped the computer shut and slid it into her pocket. “Sorry.”
Hunter’s mouth fell open. “Bloody hell…”
The waiter delivered the pizzas to the table. “Enjoy!”
Quinn took a slice and bit off a big chunk. “Yummy – and I just sent you a copy of the palazzo’s schematics from city hall’s archives. You’re welcome.”
“Then we’re going,” Amy said. “Quinn stay here and keep an eye on the street for any trouble.”
“Will do. I’ll save you some pizza, Ben. Promise.”
“Thanks,” he said with a sad, lingering glance at the delicious food.
“We’re all good to go?” Blanco said, looking at the goth.
“Sure. I used a technique called active-cracking, which is much harder to detect. After that I located and disabled the alarms. You’re good to go. Man, this pizza is the best I ever ate in my entire life.”
“Stop, please,” Lewis said.
“C’mon, Ben,” Amy said. “You already had pizza on this mission. It’s time to take this party right through the night.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
With the sun down and darkness slowly gathering around them, the team made their way up the fire escape at the rear of the building. Some of the diners below looked up and commented, but there was no trouble. It was just a slow, warm evening in Rome and everyone was just starting to enjoy themselves.
Jodie led the way up, casually walking to the top floor. “This is the riskiest part,” she said. “Any of those guys down there get suspicious, and it’s game over.”
“I’m more worried about what happens if someone’s in,” Amy said. “What are we going to say?”
“You never broke into a place before?’ Jodie asked, almost disappointed in her mentor.
“No!” Amy said. “Of course not. I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“You start by knocking.” Jodie raised her hand and knocked three times. “Then I have a little secret.”
Amy crossed her arms. “And what if someone answers?”
“You ask them if they’ve seen your dog and then leave.”
“On the third floor?” Hunter said.
Jodie shrugged. “Improvise.”
Amy sighed. “And how does that help us in this case?”
“In this case,” Jodie replied sassily, “we’re not going to do that.”
“You’re not in one of your uncooperative moods are you?” Hunter asked.
Jodie didn’t take the bait. “In this case, Sal and Ben are going to push past whoever’s inside. After that we’ll close the door and take it from there.”
“Doesn’t look like that’s gonna be necessary,” Blanco said. “Knock again just to be sure, Jo.”
“No,” she said flatly. “There’s no one in here. Let’s go.”
“You want me to break the door down?” Hunter said.
“Remember that little secret I said I had?” she said.
“Sure.”
Sorry to burst your ego bubble, Hunter, but it wasn’t my secret love for you.” She fished around in her pocket and pulled out a small metal key. “It was this.”
“A skeleton key?”
“I’m going to say passkey, but yeah.”
“And you know how to use it?”
“I’ve been using passkeys since I was a kid, Hunter,” she said, gently wiggling the small key inside the lock. When it popped open, she pushed down the handle and opened the door. Then she turned and winked at him. “See?”
Carefully, they stepped inside, but Blanco was still outside when one of the diners called up to him in Italian. He called back in the same language and gave the man a cheery wave before stepping inside the room and closing the door.
“What did he want?” Amy asked.
“He asked how Sergio was doing.”
“And what did you say back?”
He shrugged. “I said I owed him a hundred euros, so he was doing okay.”
“I guess from his laugh we got away with it.”
“I guess we did.”
“Then let’s move on,” Amy said. “Jodie?”
Jodie was already way ahead of them, across the other side of the room. She was shifting a chair from the corner and placing it beneath one of the skylights. “We go up this way.”
She popped the skylight up and pushed it open. Taking a Swiss Army knife from her pocket she selected one of the screwdrivers and began to unscrew the frame. “A hand, somebody.”
Lewis was there, underneath her and helping her pull the entire skylight out of the roof. They twisted it at an angle and brought it down through the hole and set it up against the wall.
“Now we can get up there,” Jodie said.
“What about Sal’s tummy?” Hunter said.
“Don’t say mean things about my friend, Hunter,” Jodie said coolly.
“It was just a joke.”
“You don’t know us well enough to make jokes like that.”
Blanco chuckled. “Take it easy, Jodie.”
But she was gone, up through the hole in the ceiling and just two boots disappearing from view. A second later her upside-down head appeared above them. “Are you guys coming or not?”
They joined her on the roof, and Hunter took a second to survey the ancient city by night. Gallo had created a private roof terrace blocked from public view by a neatly trimmed box-hedge running around the top of the building. It wasn’t unique to the city, but it was still pretty special. Safely out of view from the tourists and diners below, he stopped to take in the scene. “That moon really is something else.”
“It sure is,” said Jodie. She had already walked along to the palazzo’s roof and was kicking some of the step flashing away from one of its skylights. Removing a slim metal pry bar from her bag and burying the chisel point between the wood frame and the exterior cladding, she said, “but maybe we could write a poem about it later and get on with the job now, huh?”
“That’s a date.”
Amy had wat
ched Jodie mature and grow since first joining the team and felt a little like the mother she’d never really had when she was a teenager. She didn’t have any kids of her own, but she guessed Jodie was just about at the ready-to-leave-home phase. Sharing a knowing smile with Hunter, she pulled out her phone and made the call. “We still good to go, Quinn?”
“Sure,” she said, her mouth full of pizza. “Security system is still down and there’s nothing going on in the street.”
“Great. How’s the pizza?”
“The best, and the waiter’s pretty damned hot, too.”
Amy’s eyebrows rose up an inch. She wasn't used to hearing Quinn talk like this. Maybe she was growing up and spreading her wings too. “Oh, really?”
“Sure. His name’s Sergio. He’s just finished his shift. Asked me out.”
“Holy crap, that’s bad news.”
“Hey, I’m not that bad!”
“No, you don’t understand,” Amy said. “When we were breaking into the apartment at the top of the building one of the people eating in the outside courtyard asked us how Sergio was. I think we just broke into the apartment of your new hottie.”
“Ah, not good.”
“You have to stop him getting to the apartment, Quinn. If he sees it’s been broken into then he’s going to call the police. From there, it’s downhill all the way. We haven’t even got inside the palazzo yet!”
“Leave it with me, boss.”
Amy slipped the phone into her pocket and explained to the others.
“In that case, we have to work fast,” Hunter said.
“We have to work fast in any case,” said Jodie. “We’re breaking and entering.”
“Sorry, I’m not used to the criminal underworld. I work for UNESCO.”
“You used to,” Amy said. “Now you work for the US Government.”
“Not sure that makes it any easier to break into other people’s property.”
“Get over yourself, Hunter,” Jodie said. “You know what’s riding on us getting hold of the statue inside this building. You want those Russian terrorists getting their hands on some sort of doomsday weapon and starting the apocalypse, or what?”
“Of course not. You’re quite right.”
“I’m always right,” she said, her wild eyes fixed on his. “Now, get your ass inside that skylight and start your life of crime with pride, damn it.”
“I started my life of crime when I stole a car with you in Paris.”
“Then you should be good to go.”
*
Quinn threw her bag over her shoulder and pushed back from the table. Still chewing a mouthful of pizza, she ran out the back and stumbled into the courtyard. Looking up, she saw Sergio slowly climbing the steps to his apartment at the top of the building.
Yeah, not good. Not good at all.
“Sergio!”
He stopped and looked down through the metal mesh steps. “Quinn! I thought we said we would meet later?”
Yeah, that was a lie, she thought. I’m going to be speeding away from the scene of a museum robbery later, not drinking with you in a bar.
“I need to talk.”
“Then come up to my apartment.”
“No… out here. We could walk along the river.”
He shrugged. “Fine, but first I must change my clothes. I’ve been waiting tables all evening.”
“But…”
He turned and started making his way up the steps. “Give me five minutes.”
“Oh shit,” she muttered.
*
Amy lowered herself down through the skylight and touched down on the floorboards with the grace of a cat. Blanco crashed down after her with the grace of a refrigerator. Hunter and Lewis were already down, and Jodie was ahead of all of them, making her way to an internal door.
The HARPA deputy director had never seen anything like the Palazzo Giuseppe Gallo in her whole life. High-ceilings and ornate plaster cornices, silk wallpaper and parquet floors, velvet couches and renaissance frescoes of the crusades were everywhere she looked. As they made their way along the corridor, she peered inside one of the rooms and saw a stunning canopy bed with cream-colored fabric draped over a polished mahogany frame.
“Empty,” Blanco said.
Amy sighed. “Thank heavens for small mercies.”
They walked along a frayed, antique carpet runner stretching down the middle of the hall, occasionally stepping on a squeaky floorboard. On her iPhone, she looked down at the schematics Quinn had got for them from the internet and saw they were nearing their destination.
“It’s through here,” Amy said. “This is where Gallo stores his collection.”
Stopping in front of mirrored double doors decorated in an ornate black and gold pattern of what looked like intertwined dragons, the woman from Connecticut calmed her nerves and took a breath. “Here it is.”
Hunter shrugged. “I don’t hear anyone in there, so I guess the only way to get in is…”
“Wait!” Amy said.
It was too late. Hunter pushed open both doors and revealed an enormous room filled with antique display cases and sculptures. The cabinets stood on acres of polished parquet tiles and high above them a white plaster ceiling boasted three intricate chandeliers.
“You think this is the collection room?” Lewis asked.
Amy turned and saw he was joking. “Ah, yeah.”
“Over here,” Hunter said. “I see it.”
Blanco peered back outside in the corridor and drew his gun. “Are you sure?”
“That’s it,” Hunter said. “That’s the lion statue we’re looking for, without a doubt.”
“I hope you’re right,” Amy said, squinting. “These things all look the same to me.”
Hunter shook his head. “Bureaucrat.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment. Just get the statue and let’s get out of here.”
Behind them, Jodie swept her flashlight over the plaster wall and onto a giant renaissance tapestry hanging on the far wall. “Er, guys…”
Amy was first to look. “What is it, Jodie?”
“I think you should see this.”
“It’s freaky.”
“It’s weird.”
“It’s a chimera,” Hunter sighed. “It’s Creed.”
*
Quinn moved fast, jogging up the steps and entering the apartment. She saw no sign of the young waiter and called out to him. “Sergio!”
No response.
Odd.
“Sergio?”
She took a few more steps inside the apartment and peered down the hall.
“Going somewhere?”
Her skin prickled when she heard the voice, a low, gravelly Russian rumble. Turning on the spot, she saw a man with a shaved head in the hall. He was wearing black combat fatigues like she had seen soldiers wearing in the movies, and was holding a large, nasty-looking submachine gun.
Leaning into a radio on his shoulder, he thumbed a button and spoke in Russian. She didn’t know a word of the language and had no idea what he had just said.
“Don’t you touch me!” she said, taking a step back. She felt strange now, like never before. A fear stronger than any she had experienced before. This is what it felt like to be trapped and threatened when your team was somewhere else, when you were all alone.
“Put your hands up in the air where I can see them, and throw me the bag.”
Not her bag! Her laptop was in there, and the laptop was her life. “I’m not armed,” she said, pathetically stalling for time.
He swung the weapon around off his shoulder and pointed it at her. “Put your bag on the floor and kick it over to me.” He moved something on the side of the gun and it made a metallic clunking noise. She didn’t like that one bit. “Now.”
She dipped her shoulder and let the bag slide off onto the floor. She kicked it gently over to him along the polished wooden floorboards. Then she saw it and was almost struck dumb with terror. The Italian waiter was dead.
Slumped over the chair behind the Russian. Bullet hole in his temple and wild eyes staring at eternity.
“What have you done?”
“Shhh,” he said quietly. More words into the radio. “Hands up.”
“I told you I’m not armed.”
The man had picked up the bag and was rummaging around in it. “These days a computer can be more dangerous than a gun. I will take your computer.”
“No! It’s just personal. There’s nothing on there of any interest to you.”
“I remember you from the Goa Express,” he said. “And now I find you in an apartment next door to the Gallo Museum. I’m guessing there is a lot on your computer of interest to my boss. Your little game to play the lost, innocent lamb will not work with me.”
She stared at the barrel of the submachine gun. He was standing too close to her, and the hole in the weapon’s muzzle seemed ferociously big and dangerous. “So, what now?”
“Now we go see your friends.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Hunter’s words hung in the air like poison gas. All eyes turned to him in the gloom, but Amy spoke first. “You think this confirms that Gallo is Creed?”
He nodded. “Sure, look at that thing! No prizes for working out we were right. The Marquis is in the Creed.”
“You don’t know that,” Jodie said.
“You have a better explanation?”
After a long silence, he said, “I didn’t think so.”
“Hey, just because I don’t say much doesn’t mean what I do have to say is worthless. Better to have the world think you’re an idiot than open your yap and prove it. That advice is for you, Hunter. Take it.”
“It’s Creed,” Hunter said again, more firmly. “I just know it in my heart.”
“Then you should listen to your heart more often.”
Hunter spun around, angling his flashlight over onto the man standing behind them. Tall, thin and tanned and wearing an expensive dinner suit, he was standing with one hand in his tuxedo pocket. He looked like he hadn’t a care in the world.
