Chapter 16 #4
“Borrow,” Liam corrected, “a whole lot of heavy-duty nylon fabric, like what you find on the bottom of a raft, some epoxy, a shit-ton of pumps, and some of that clear fiberglass piping that’s stacked over by the ice cutter on the industrial dock, and—”
“A cofferdam,” Hunter said shortly. “You really think we could build a cofferdam? Like an airlock? And then what? Have the victims escape down a hatch we cut into the bottom of the ship?”
“Do we have anybody who can do that?” Liam asked, and Hunter snorted.
“Chuck and Michael can both weld underwater. Michael took a course this spring, and Chuck took the refresher with him. Do you know how much those two assholes could make on that skill alone?”
“More than me, mate,” Liam said, not even batting an eyelash. He’d seen the requirements for that sort of work, and he lacked the self-control and the hand strength and the willingness to stay underwater for longer than five minutes if he wasn’t scuba diving in the Caribbean.
“We’d have to ask them,” Liam said.
“Hey, we could ask them,” Hunter mimicked. “It’s a big job—we’d need most of the crew here for three days, while maybe a skeleton crew preps for the museum job.”
Liam glanced at the boat again and thought about a hole opening up above the airlock a cofferdam would provide.
Somebody would need to guide the victims to the hole and reassure them they weren’t jumping to their deaths—and somebody would need to comb the cabins for their passports, somebody licensed to defend him or herself with force.
“We’d need to slip Molly in through the front,” he murmured. “And she’d need to let me in through the service portal at the waterline.”
“I’m sure Molly will be thrilled to ditch the museum job to wander a yacht full of minions and help people jump through a hole in the bottom of a boat,” Hunter said, and Liam scowled at him.
“What?” Hunter asked.
“With you people, I can’t tell if you mean that or not,” Liam told him frankly.
“Oh no, seriously—she’ll be thrilled,” Hunter told him. “The worst part is Grace will wish he was part of it. He’ll be mad that he can’t do both jobs.” After a pause, Hunter added, “As long as they say they can do it.”
Liam nodded. “We should look for alternatives today before we meet. It’s… you know… just an idea….”
“A WONDERFUL, AWFUL idea,” Chuck said, his face lighting up with excitement as they indulged in Prague’s version of Thai food in the big suite. “Do you know what that would take?”
“We’d need to borrow equipment to make the tunnel,” Michael said, “and we’d need to work the pump for at least twenty-four hours before we could seal the cofferdam to the hull—”
“And we’d need to figure out a way to sneak Molly into the boat―” Hunter began.
“And then for her to let me in through the bottom port—” Liam said, but Molly glared at both of them and shook her head.
“I sneak in through the port the morning before the heist,” she said. “I hide with the victims and spread the word. Liam, you don’t need to come in. I can find their passports.”
“I don’t want you there without backup,” Danny said unequivocally, and there was universal assent.
“But Danny,” she said patiently, “we’re going to be stretched thin. Who’ve we got on the museum job anyway?”
“Grace, Josh, Tor, Carl, and Tienne,” Danny said. “Since the port job just commandeered the rest of our muscle and Leon.”
“I can be muscle,” Leon said, miffed.
“You have muscle,” Danny said, “but you’re like Fox—nobody’s going to believe you’re pit crew, Leon. We need you there with a handy rental yacht to take those girls to Hamburg with their passports and get them home.”
“No machine guns for Leon,” Felix intoned.
Leon humphed. “You know, my father made both me and Matteo work on the docks for years when we were younger.”
“You were probably the belles of the ball,” Danny retorted dryly. “When I met Fox, he was pickpocketing tourists in Rome, but every street kid for miles knew he was a rich man’s son, which is why he’s going to be bidding for the Renoir at the museum.”
“I am not,” Felix said. “I’ll be at the docks with you. Tor can buy the bloody Renoir.”
“He’ll probably get a better deal on it,” Danny snapped, which meant Felix would be at the docks.
“And there goes any cachet as a thief I’ve ever had,” Felix said, scowling.
Danny snorted. “Because all that praise for your ‘business acumen’ isn’t enough cachet for you?”
Felix’s chuckle rolled richly. “Those six units of junior college weren’t for naught,” he said, referring to the forged credentials he and Danny had established so Felix could run the network he and Julia had inherited/stolen from her father.
“And not that I don’t look forward to being muscle,” he said, grinning wolfishly at Leon in one-upsmanship, “but does that mean I’m not buying a Renoir that evening? ”
“No,” Danny said, sighing in concession and obviously changing plans with Felix’s teasing. “Kadjic and company didn’t spot Tor, and you’re right—he’s perfectly capable of playing the thwarted bidder.”
“Thank you,” Tor said smugly.
“Also,” Danny told him with a sharp look, “since Marco will be working with the catering crew for the museum gala, he’s going to need you to help him keep his cover.”
Marco shrugged. “I make the canapes, I serve the canapes….”
Danny shook his head. “Don’t be complacent,” he said. “If somebody looks at you and says, ‘Hey, haven’t I seen you before? Chicago?’ you say—”
“I say yes, my boyfriend and I have been taking a tasting tour of Europe so I can bring the flavors of Poland and Prague to my hometown,” Marco replied smugly. Then he sobered. “You all have proven it many times,” he said. “Nobody notices the help.”
“Wait,” Felix said. “Why isn’t Lucius at the museum?”
“Because Lucius is helping to load trafficking victims into Leon’s yacht to just get them out of the port to safety,” Lucius replied testily.
“It’s all hands on deck, Felix—quite literally.
Tor is less likely to be connected to Chuck.
Like it or not, we’ve been busy beavers, and we’re trying not to be seen too much.
Tor’s cover as the traveling journalist means it’s fine if he’s recognized. ”
“Way to go, face man,” Grace said to Tor, who gave a smug smile.
“I’d say I’m more than a pretty face,” he said, “but it’s my pretty face that’s getting me into the museum.”
“I still say I could go in as J.D. Morgan,” Josh said. “I was a legit art dealer in Chicago—I have credentials under that name and the whole nine yards. Why can’t I be the negotiator for Tor for one of the lesser-known paintings on sale while Grace and Tienne lift the Klimt?”
“Because it took three weeks for that man’s fingerprints to fade from your shoulder,” Liam snapped. “No.”
“Liam’s right,” Danny said, the pencil making more scratching movements on the legal pad.
“That man had a really unhealthy fixation on you, Josh. And I know I’m probably the least reliable person on this subject, but…
.” Danny shook his head. “I swear I didn’t mention a word of you to him while we were together.
Not Fox, not your mother, and certainly not you.
I was thrilled about throwing my own life down the toilet, but I didn’t want even the breath of you touching him, not then, not ever.
But from the moment he sat up and said hi to us when we were online, I’ve been living in terror that he’d figure out a connection, or that I had a family in the Chicago area.
Whether he was trying to hit on you because you’re his type—and you are—or whether he’s got a suspicion because he’s closer than we ever wanted you to be, I just don’t want him to even know we’re in the same hemisphere, much less the same latitude and longitude. Do we understand?”
“I get it, Uncle Danny,” Josh said, and to his credit, Liam didn’t hear a breath of resentment there.
“In fact,” Danny muttered, “maybe I should do the museum job—”
“No,” Felix said, putting a hand on Danny’s shoulder that Liam could tell was designed to keep Danny from simply lifting up fueled by nervous energy alone and helicoptering around the room.
“We need someone to distract the muscle from our end of the docks. That’s you and me.
I’ve got the businessman’s cachet and the broad shoulders for working the equipment, and you’ve got the thief chops to slip in and doctor the docking records and manifests.
We haven’t had a chance to prep for this job, Danny.
We need someone who can crack their computer or doctor their paperwork as well as charm them silly.
Leon’s needed to help with the victims, and there’s going to be an awful lot of us armed with foil blankets and wearing hip-waders helping those poor kids across the river floor while they try not to freeze to death. All hands means all hands.”
“Fucking gala,” Danny muttered, tilting his head back.
“I mean, it was hard enough we were planning to do this on the same night, but….” He glanced around the full room, where the crew had broken into small groups, everybody planning what they’d have to be doing the next day.
Between Marco’s information and Hunter and Liam’s casing of D??in, they’d realized that the Spelyy Presik was leaving the day after the Prague National Museum gala, which Kadjic was planning to attend.
It made sense. Kadjic would conclude his business with the Gustav Klimt painting and then follow his own boatload of trafficked humans to make sure it arrived safely before the ports in Prague were blocked by snow.
Marco had picked up on enough gossip to know that rumors of the “Kadjic Curse” were beginning to circulate.
“You would be amazed at what we’re being blamed for,” Marco had told them the day before, after arriving at the suite with two giant pastry boxes of heaven. “Apparently police have cracked down on Kadjic’s distributors in the States—”