Chapter Eighteen No Plan Is Without a Little Hiccup
West
It takes Joseph a whole week to secure the location, but the hangar is honestly perfect.
I never had any doubt that he’d pull through.
There’s no one in all of France—maybe even all of Europe—with as impressive a network.
He once landed a last-minute table at The Lunchbox, some impressive Michelin-starred restaurant in Seattle, despite a three-month waitlist, simply because he had an old schoolmate whose wife’s best friend’s daughter happened to know one of the chefs.
As Michael always used to tell me, getting through life isn’t about what you know but who you know.
We’ve spent the better part of the morning setting up the labyrinth of metal box trusses, which Joseph (once again) procured for us through his great-aunt’s gardener’s brother.
We’ve followed the blueprints to Berruci’s villa to a T, mimicking every doorway, hall, room and window to create a skeletal one-to-one replica.
I should concentrate. Focus on the task at hand. But there’s only one thing on my mind right now.
If you kiss me, I want to see stars.
Well, shit. I didn’t know Adelina had it in her.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted.
I can still feel the impression of her touch against my skin, her thighs impossibly soft and warm when she sat on my lap, but…
she probably wasn’t being serious. This is just a little game we’re playing, needling each other to see who folds under the pressure first. She’s gotten a good couple of hits in—one quite literal—and in a strange way, I’m curious to see where this all leads.
But the answer is obvious: it’s going nowhere.
Adelina said it herself. Once this job is over, that’s it. A clean break. She wants to go home and go back to playing hero.
And maybe that’s why we’re playing this game. It’s harmless, unserious. What’s a little light flirting to pass the time, to ease some of the tension now that we’re entering the next phase of my plan? It’s far better than spending my every waking hour worrying about how it could all go wrong.
“A little to the left,” Adelina instructs from her corner, the sound of her voice snapping me from my thoughts.
“Your other left, Joseph,” Diana clarifies beside her, blueprint in hand.
Adelina’s got a brand-new setup, courtesy of Joseph’s connections and Diana’s wallet.
She’s got three wide monitors, one of which has been oriented vertically to better display her lines of code while she rapidly clicks through all the reconnaissance pictures we took on the other two.
I can tell she’s happy with her new equipment even if she won’t admit it aloud.
There’s a glint in her eyes, a lightness in her posture.
As giddy as a kid on Christmas morning. Despite all the money she’s liberated for the sake of others, it makes me wonder when she last took the occasion to treat herself.
The sound of my phone’s ringtone startles me out of my thoughts. It’s my own device, not the burner squirreled away in my pocket. Thinking that it might be Jack’s babysitter calling with an emergency, I fish it out, only for a cold wave to crash over me.
Berruci’s name fills the screen.
I hastily step as far away from the crew as possible. Only once I’m sure I’m out of earshot do I grumble, “Hello?”
“Have you made any progress?” comes his rough, gravelly response.
I glance at Adelina, barely able to concentrate over the rush of blood past my ears. She’s right here, the voice in the back of my head screams. Tell him and save yourself. Save Jack.
Guilt lances through me. I can’t do that. I can’t turn Adelina in. I refuse to be Berruci’s puppet any longer, and I would never dream of putting someone else in harm’s way just to save my own neck. Besides, she may be the only one capable of getting me out for good.
“Not yet,” I reply evenly. “But I’m getting close. I’ve tracked a person of interest all the way to Australia.”
“Australia?” he echoes.
“I know. Random, right? It’s going to take me a bit longer.”
“How disappointing,” he says, hanging up abruptly.
For a moment, I fear he might be on to me. Did I sound convincing enough? Hackers can work from all over the world, so my story isn’t improbable.
At least I can rest knowing that I’ve got my bases covered.
I’m so paranoid that Berruci might use my phone to keep tabs on me that I never go anywhere without a VPN.
If he checks on me right now, it’ll look like I’m back in California, and the entire time I was taking Jack to a babysitter far from the city, I made sure my GPS signal indicated I hadn’t left home at all.
Even if Berruci dared to make a move behind my back, my niece’s location is a secret that I’ll take to my grave.
“Eh, t’es dans la lune ou quoi?” Joseph grunts, his arms visibly shaking beneath the weight of the truss he’s carrying. Eh, why are you daydreaming? “Help me move this damn thing. I’m about to get a hernia.”
I shove my phone back into my pocket and rush over to help him set it down on top of a makeshift wall we’ve crafted, representing the southernmost wall of Berruci’s villa. “Not bad,” I say as I observe the maze we’ve created. “Should we grab lunch?”
Joseph tuts in exaggerated disapproval. “Not so fast, old friend. What’s got your head in the clouds?”
I make the mistake of glancing in Adelina’s direction. It’s a snap reaction that I correct by sliding into a casual shrug, but Joseph’s much too bright to be fooled. He follows my line of sight and smiles.
“Mixing business and pleasure?” he asks.
“It’s not like that.”
“So she’s available, is what I’m hearing.”
I set my jaw. “Leave her alone.”
A mischievous grin stretches across his lips. “Because you called dibs?”
“Don’t be crass. She’s a woman, not a car seat.”
“Such a gentleman.” Joseph throws his head back and laughs. “I’m only joking. We used to rib each other all the time, remember?”
The tension in my shoulders slowly melts away. Why the hell am I getting so riled up?
“Where did you even find her?” Joseph asks. “We could use her skills on future jobs. I’ve heard whispers that there’s this casino in Monaco that—”
“No,” I say in a rush. “This is a one-time thing. We’re both out for good once Berruci’s dealt with.”
Joseph looks at me as if I’ve suddenly grown a second head. “You’ve really changed. What the hell happened these last six years? You really expect me to believe that you disappeared off the face of the planet and came back as an angel?”
I’m not sure how to respond. If I even want to respond.
Berruci forcing me out of France was as much a blessing as it was a curse.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but cutting out this part of my life was one of the best things that ever happened to me.
It gave me a fresh start. Let me become a new man—a better man.
And if we play our cards right, things can stay that way.
For Jack’s sake.
Hell, maybe even for my own.
“My priorities have shifted,” I reply. “That’s all.”
“Um, West?” Adelina calls from behind her shield of screens. “I think we’ve got a problem.”
My stomach flips. Maybe I spoke too soon.
I make my way over and join her, my eyes scanning over her work. She’s drafted lines upon lines of code for the virus, a complicated language in and of itself, but what Adelina seems most concerned with is a particular picture I snapped of Berruci’s villa yesterday. “What’s wrong?”
Adelina taps the screen. “See this guard?”
The picture quality is decent despite the dim lighting. I can clearly make out one of Berruci’s patrolmen. “What about him?”
She cycles through the next few frames, the patrolman’s movements spliced like a stop-motion animation. The man starts to descend, dropping out of sight behind what I initially believed to be a decorative rock wall, before disappearing altogether.
“I thought it was weird, so I pulled up satellite footage,” Adelina explains.
She clicks to a new window and offers a top-down view of Berruci’s villa.
There’s a noticeable patch of discolored grass near the rock wall in question.
“It’s a hidden door. Some sort of alternate entrance leading beneath the villa. ”
“Beneath?” I repeat in disbelief, picking up the blueprints spread out over her workstation. I scrutinize them carefully. She’s right. “I guess Berruci has been keeping himself busy with a home reno project.”
“How big of a wrench does this throw in our plans?”
“It could be nothing,” Joseph says. “Maybe Berruci put in an indoor pool or a bowling alley or something.”
“Or it could be a huge problem,” I grumble. “There’s no way to tell unless we get a look inside. He could have his ledger tucked away somewhere in the basement behind a bunch of high-powered lasers and moat piranhas for all we know.”
Adelina arches a brow. “Moat piranhas? He’s a crime boss, not a Bond villain.”
“You’re right. Bond villains would be much more imaginative.”
“What are we going to do? We can’t start test runs until we know the precise location of Berruci’s servers.”
“Can’t you hack into his security cameras?” Diana suggests. “That’ll give us a good look at what we’re dealing with.”
Adelina shakes her head. “I already told West that it’s a closed circuit. I’d have to be physically on the premises to tap in.”
A tense silence falls over us. I knew this job wouldn’t be without its challenges, and in a way, I’m glad we’ve come up against a wall early.
It’s better if we eliminate any last-minute surprises.
My mind races while the rest of the crew throw ideas at the wall to see what sticks, though nothing practical comes to mind.
We can’t afford any unnecessary risks. If Berruci catches us, he’ll likely put us through far worse than that gate guard.
“Is it really that big of a deal?” Joseph asks. “We can try to wing it like we did last time.”
Adelina frowns deeply. “Last time? What do you mean last time?”
“We…tried before,” I murmur. “To steal from Berruci.”
“And judging by your enthusiastic tone, I’m assuming it went great?”
Diana crosses her arms, and Joseph shifts his weight uncomfortably from foot to foot. My silence is the cherry on top.
“Fuck,” Adelina mutters.
“Look, just because it didn’t go our way last time—”
“You didn’t think to mention this to me before you had me sign on?” She rises from her seat. “I would have liked to know I was put on a losing team.”
“This time is going to be different. It’s going to work.”
“Why?”
“Because this time we have you,” I say hastily.
Adelina holds me beneath her intense glare. I wish I knew what she was thinking. What if she bails? If that happens, this entire plan of mine is dead in the water.
Diana is the one to break the silence. “Come on, Qwerty.” She says Adelina’s codename with a derisive curl of her nose. “West clearly needs some time to re-evaluate. Let’s get out of here.”
Adelina’s glare turns suspicious when Diana loops her arm through Adelina’s own and steers her toward the door. “Where are we going?”
“To get some air.”