The elephant keeper apologized and continued along his morning walk. The children sounded heartbroken, but Serena merely waved goodbye with her slobber-covered hand, then rounded immediately on Kai. “Can I pet your dog?”
“Sure. She doesn’t trumpet, though.”
Amy rolled obligingly onto her back, tongue lolling, and Serena began administering affection. Kai handed her his water bottle, to pour into Amy’s mouth if she wanted to. The girl’s mother watched, seeming more comfortable around Amy than she had Cleo. Some people still felt weird about genetic pets; Kai wasn’t bothered. An animal was an animal. Occasionally the mother glanced at Kai, and their eyes would meet, and they’d both smile stupidly. It made Kai oddly aware of the fact that he had a Beretta tucked into his waistband.
“She’s beautiful,” the woman said, motioning vaguely to Amy.
“Cleo smelled better.” They both laughed.
Rick cleared his voice in Kai’s ear. “Hey. So, sorry to interrupt, but you haven’t seen any lingering murderers, have you? Only it’s kind of been on my mind all morning…”
Kai felt his smile fall slightly. “Sorry, kiddo. Amy and I need to mosy.”
“Awww!” Serena leapt to her feet, looking sulky.
“Oh, let the man go,” her mother told her. Did she look disappointed as well?
“We’ll be around,” Kai said. “Amy’s got a few favorite pee spots around here.”
Serena beamed, then ran off to play in the dancing fountains nearby. Her mother looked after her in exasperation. “She has one speed, it’s amazing. Anyway…” She turned back to Kai and smiled. “Thanks.”
He held out a hand. “Kai.”
“Gwen. See you around.”
Kai watched her catch up with her daughter, feeling a warmth that had nothing to do with the sun blazing down overhead.
“Oh, she likes you,” Rick said in his ear. “I can tell from up here.”
Kai glanced up towards the sky, periwinkle mottled with fluffy clouds, where a small black X marked the hovering drone. It was just one of several buzzing about in the summer sky. “Because you’re the expert.”
“Please. It was sooo obvious.”
“Uh huh. How’s Agent Michaels?”
The truculent silence was what Kai had been looking for. He whistled to Amy, calling her to his side, and continued the circuit he had been making around the park before being interrupted by Cleo and the children.
Gateway Plaza was the perfect spot for a dead-drop, and they’d used it as such several times before. Sitting at the southern end of a strip of green that ran the length of Lincoln Memorial Drive, it had been designed as a sort of hub for Milwaukee’s downtown lakefront. From here, one could see some of the city’s most iconic features. To the north, the Calatrava-designed Art Museum hovered on pylons that plunged beneath the surface of the lake, looking like a titanic bird or a giant origami sculpture. To the south was the Discovery Aquatic Center, its kinetic wind sculptures shimmering silver in the sun and giving off the sound of metallic rain. Sandwiched between the two, Gateway Plaza had a bit of both in its DNA. The flowing snow-white architecture and the elevated “land bridge” that crossed the busy thoroughfare was an extension of the Art Museum’s stark, bone-like aesthetic, while the science and innovation of the Discovery center was reflected in the interactive light sculpture, artificial river, multiple ponds, dancing fountains, and towering wind turbines that populated the plaza. All of it came together to form a public space that was a popular locale for families, MSOE students, and employees from the nearby Radical Dynamics building, and was in many ways a statement of what the city endeavored to be: a center of innovation and beauty, where technology and art alike were drawn from the ecology of the Great Lakes.
It was the Plaza’s popularity that had inspired them to choose it for their dead-drop today. It would be easy to tuck a package beneath a bench or in a garbage bin without being noticed, and the crowded, open space soothed Rick’s concerns about what he’d read on Club Nabonidus last night.
More or less.
While Kai scoped out the park on foot, Rick, from inside the food court of the Radical Dynamics tower, was piloting the drone. It was a solid strategy, if unnecessary. He knew about the crew disappearances, the murders, but he sincerely doubted anyone would try anything here, in broad daylight. You had to be pretty ballsy to pull off a hit in a crowd like this, where kids with sticky fingers played under the watchful gaze of their parents and a squad car drove by every fifteen minutes or so. That didn’t mean it was impossible – Kai could think of a dozen ways he’d do it, off the top of his head. It just wouldn’t be easy, or clean. No sense in the risk.
Still, he did his due diligence. If living in Houston had taught him anything, it was that it paid to be overprepared.
He wandered, observing everything with a feigned casual eye. A group of kids, including Serena, were shrieking as they played between the dancing fountains, while the adults mingled and kept close watch nearby. A few people lounged on the green terraces left of the plaza and beneath the trees to the right. A man and his ice cream cart remained mostly ignored for the moment. At the far end of the plaza, amidst a thicket of ghostly white Yoshino cherry trees, the sails of the wind turbines spun with an audible hum. Kai couldn’t make out how many people were sitting beneath the trees, but it didn’t look like more than a handful.
That’s where it’ll happen, he decided. Drop the package in a bush, where it was less likely to be stumbled upon by the wrong person.
While Amy sniffed about the grass and trees and sought out the attention of the college kids, Kai took stock of every person in the plaza. Nobody looked like an obvious threat, and most people paid him no mind. That could have been suspicious in its own right – Kai was used to drawing attention wherever he went. He decided that most of them were simply being polite, but he kept tabs on the ones who seemed to be actively avoiding his gaze.
A particularly large jet of water exploded from the central fountain, drawing shrieks and laughter from the children. Such displays always fascinated Kai. That an entire city could have enough water to spend on aesthetics was still an alien concept to him, even after all this time. Houston had never lacked for liquid water, but the potable kind had always been in short supply and high demand. Local gangs went to war over water as often as they did over weapons or territory. The same went for large swaths of the continental U.S., the Southwest Crisis Zone and the North American Fire Band, where wildfires raged summer-long from the Great Plains to British Columbia.
And meanwhile places like this continued to exist, where water could be shot into the sky for no good reason and children could play in it without wearing garlands of cloudy plastic bottles around their necks to collect and bring home as much as they could. And then, of course, there was the lake. It lapped at the supporting pylons of the Art Museum and stretched beyond Gateway Plaza, all the way to the horizon: steel-grey and cold, large enough to be a land-locked sea. And it was one of five, all of them now servicing the majority of the continental United States. While others contended with dehydration and dust storms, the people around here had to worry about rising water levels, floods and the mold brought on by the annual damp. It was a freedom Kai would never fully understand. Even now, he got after Rick any time he let the shower run too long, the waste grating against old instincts. They were lucky to be here; lucky to have made it out. He could still appreciate that.
“Hey,” Rick said, and Kai realized he’d been speaking in his ear for a few seconds. “You listening?”
“Yeah.” He blinked, shaking off the cobwebs of reverie. “Go ahead.”
“I was asking how it looked. Ready to make the drop?”
Kai glanced up at the sky. Thicker clouds were rolling in from the lake, and a few warm raindrops had begun to patter sporadically. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Cool.” Rick drew a sharp breath. “Ooh, sweet -- there’s a male bobolink in that tree --”
“Rick, focu
s.”
“Sorry, he’s just got some really nice plumage. Ok, I’ll be right down.”
In another few minutes the misting rain had become a steady drizzle. Thunder rolled over the plaza and bounced off the skyscrapers like a bowling ball. When Rick arrived five minutes later, satchel over his shoulder, the storm was hitting its stride and the plaza had emptied completely.
Amy gave a sharp bark in greeting. Rick scratched her ears and chugged from a bottle of water. Kai accepted gratefully when he offered it, drinking and then pouring some into the portable dish Amy wore on her collar. She lapped away noisily as they talked.
“Alright, catch me up,” Rick said. “What’s the plan?”
Kai nodded towards the far end of the plaza. “Figured we’d do it under the trees, near the turbines.”
“Good cover. Secluded, or near enough. Makes sense. And there was no sign of, ah, serial killers with a fetish for freelance thieves?”
“None that I could see. Everyone’s left. Of course, that could just mean they’re really good at the whole stalk-and-murder business.”
“Great. Thanks for that.” Rick’s head was on a swivel, constantly scanning Gateway Plaza like the beacon of a lighthouse. “Dammit. I hate being paranoid like this.”
“It kind of comes with the territory.”
“During the job, yeah. Not like this, when we should be in the clear. That’s the worst part, y’know? The sanctity of it all has been violated. Client-crew trust broken. The whole dynamic has been ruined. I feel like I’ve got ants under my skin.”
“Honestly? You could stand to be a little more paranoid. Paranoid people stay alive longer.”
“That why you fill your head with all those shit documentaries?”
“Nope,” Kai said calmly. “I just like an alternative perspective on the world. You know there was a Special Access Program, Deacon, had the government working to control the weather? Bounce back storms and stuff? Documents got leaked a year after Houston, and there’s some pretty convincing --”
Rick spoke over him. “I checked the news feeds. The Chicago crew that fell off the map? They hit the Field Museum.”
Kai arched an eyebrow. “That’s big. What was the haul?”
“The Mitchell-Hedges skull.”
This was one of those moments where Rick said a thing and acted like Kai was supposed to know what the hell he was talking about. Sometimes Kai could get away with simply nodding along, but today Rick saw through it.
He rolled his eyes. “It’s a crystal skull, a famous hoax. But that’s what makes it so weird. Why kill over it? Why even bother stealing it?”
“We’ve grabbed weirder things. We work for weird people.”
“Guess so.” Rick sighed, sounding utterly unsatisfied. “Alright, let’s get this over with.”
Kai stood, stretching and twisting his neck to elicit some satisfying pops. At a word Amy was on her feet and ready to move.
It wasn’t that he didn’t share Rick’s concerns. Crews had been dropping for more than a year now, and always around this juncture, it seemed. He’d be a fool not to be cautious. It was just that it took a lot for him to reach such heights of anxiety these days, after all they’d been through. Plus, you really couldn’t beat a pit bull, even one as friendly as Amy, when it came to deterrent.
* * *
The copse of Yoshinos offered some shelter from the rain, but not much. The turbines towered above the treetops, spinning like mad as the storm kicked up the wind. There were five, arranged in an arrow pointing towards Lake Michigan. Kai led the way towards the middle turbine, furthest from the plaza.
Rick searched the trees as they walked. “Damn it. The bobolink is gone.”
“What the hell’s a bobolink?”
“They’re black with yellow -- nevermind, you’ll just make fun of me.”
“For being a bird nerd? Absolutely I will.”
“I’m nervous, ok? I get all birdy when I’m nervous.”
They reached the turbine. Rick unshouldered his satchel, kneeling as he opened it. While Kai kept watch, Rick carefully extracted the insulated case containing the Mughal flask and placed it amid the branches of a bush at the base of the turbine’s towering shaft. He fiddled with it for a moment, making certain it was properly concealed and sheltered from the rain.
Ibis had responded to their messages almost immediately. He hadn’t seemed the least bit upset by the fact that the flask had been broken -- but neither did he express any interest in the Myrtle wreath. That alone was enough to get Rick’s back up. It just didn’t feel right.
He stood, examining his handiwork for a moment. The case was invisible if you didn’t know what to look for. He nodded, satisfied. “Alright. Send the message and let’s go.”
“No need to cut and run, boys.”
Kai whirled towards the voice, muscles visibly going taught as steel cords. At the same time he moved to put himself between Rick and whoever owned the voice. Amy began to growl as the pistol appeared in Kai’s hand.
The man standing beside the tree to their left had not been there moments ago. Of that Rick was certain. There was no place for him to hide, even the trees doing little to facilitate skulking. Which meant he must have been standing there, in plain sight – and somehow they had missed him. Somehow Kai had missed him. Amy had missed him.
Rick finally drew his Beretta from its holster hidden inside his satchel. “Who the hell are you?”
The stranger raised both hands, looking more bemused by their reaction than threatened. He wore a large hooded black poncho that fell to his feet and gloves that might have been protection against the rain, but seemed too bulky for the heat. He was an older man, tall and lanky, with a fringe of thinning grey-blonde over his craggy, wind-worn face. Faded green eyes peered out at them from within the hood with something close to amusement.
“I thought I was your client.” He spoke easily, his smooth voice carrying over the rain, and nodded towards Rick’s gun. “Though I’m starting to reconsider the terms of our contract.”
“We don’t know you,” Kai said. His voice was calm as well, but it had a flat quality that Rick recognized as particularly dangerous.
“Ibis. Glad to finally meet in person.”
The use of the familiar handle didn’t make Rick feel any better about the situation. “This wasn’t supposed to be a face-to-face. In fact – hang on – how the hell did you find us? Dwayne, did you –?”
“Nope,” Kai said, responding to one of the dozen aliases they used in situations like these.
“Yeah, didn’t think so. Neither of us sent the drop message yet. So how the hell did you find us?”
Ibis dropped his hands and shrugged. “You have your precautions, son. I have mine. We can chat, once you get that piece out of my face. Clear the air. There’s a lot of that needs doing. Lots to discuss, and not a whole lot of time to do it.”
Rick snorted. “Yeah, no. We’re out.” Without lowering his gun, he crouched and fished the case from its hiding spot in the bush. “Keep your explanations and your crypto. We’ll find another buyer. Someone more willing to play by the rules.”
“You’ll be violating our contract.” He didn’t sound particularly upset by the idea.
“Oh, I’d say you’ve taken care of that,” Kai said. He moved to followed Rick without taking his eyes off Ibis, Amy close to his side, as they edged around the clearing.
“It’s about a job. A new one.”
“That’s not how this works,” Rick snapped. “Jesus, did you read any of the rules? Is this your first time or something?”
“Not at all. I’ve been doing this sort of thing for a lot longer than either of you could imagine. What we have to discuss is beyond the scope of your Club.” Rick heard the capital C in the word. Ibis nodded to each of them in turn. “Richard Álvarez. Kaipo Villeneuve. You’ll want to hear what I have to say.”
Ah, shit. Now we have to kill him.
Rick stopped moving. He didn’t lower his g
un. “You know some names. We have lots of them.”
“So do I,” Ibis said amicably. He spread his hands, gloved palms up and open. “Can we dispense with the firearms? Do I look like a threat?”
“What a meaningless question,” Kai growled, voice still dangerously flat. “We need to go, Rick.”
“The job in Houston,” Ibis was saying, as if Kai weren’t even there. “That was – oh, let’s call it a trial run, for the real job. The two of you performed admirably, which is why we’re having this talk.”
“Lucky us,” Kai said. But Ibis wasn’t looking at him. He wasn’t even speaking to him, but was addressing Rick instead. Kai moved close and put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey. Remember the part where other crews have been disappearing under mysterious circumstances? This is kind of a mysterious circumstance, wouldn’t you say?”
“He’s right,” Rick said, speaking to Ibis. “You need to turn around and walk away. Out of courtesy, we’ll do the same, rather than putting a bullet in your bony ass.”
“Five minutes. All you need to do is listen. No matter what else happens here, whatever you decide, you’ll walk away with the full payment we agreed upon. Hell, let’s call it double, just for your time. I’ll even let you keep the flask. Didn’t really need it, anyway. And if you do decide to take the job I’m offering –” He smiled, a flash of pearly-whites. “Well. That’s another story entirely.”
Ibis didn’t do anything that Rick could see, but a second later both their wristbands buzzed. Rick glanced down long enough to check. His stomach did a backflip. “We just got paid. Double. It’s verified.”
“Take it in good faith.”
“Great,” Kai said. “We’ll be on our way now.”
“Just answer me one question, before you go.” Ibis paused, letting it stretch for dramatic effect. “What do you know about the Ark of the Covenant?”
“Look, I’m not used to being this wet this early in the day, so – so –” Rick spluttered as the question hit home. “Wait – what?”
A Covenant of Thieves Page 13
