A rush of conflicting emotions broke over Lucian, too complicated for the time and the place.
“Don’t any of you know how to count, for fuck’s sake? Five belts. Five hostages.” The ringleader screamed at his men. “Why drag this old man up here?”
Up till now everything had been brilliantly executed, but here was a snafu. An innocuous mistake for sure, but maybe, Lucian thought, there was a way to take advantage of the momentary distraction. Thinking, planning, he looked from each of the hooded men to each of the women who’d been transformed into a human bomb. From Marie Grimshaw, to Nina Keyes, to Veronica and to Deborah Mitchell, all he saw in their eyes was terror.
Emeline alone looked strong. She was looking at him, and in her eyes he saw determination and faith-faith in him.
“Now-” Talbot turned to Weil “-you’re going to help us take what we came for out of here. Or else we’ll step outside-” he pointed to the exit doors “-and before you can say boo or unbuckle a single belt, we’ll detonate the explosives…” He pointed at the women and the child. “One lovely lady at a time.”
SIXTY-FIVE
Lucian stepped forward and spoke directly to the ringleader. “No hostages,” he said with an air of authority. “We’ll help you but only after you get those belts off all these women, now.”
The blue-jeaned man laughed, turned his back on Lucian, motioned to his men and carved a slash mark in the air. One of the team stayed with the group of captive women. The other three marauders approached the exhibition.
So they were going to steal the paintings. The thought infuriated Lucian. So many people had worked so hard and risked so much to bring them here, only to have them taken, now, like this.
But none of them touched the paintings. The men surrounded Hypnos and were manipulating the sculpture onto a ready dolly.
Hypnos? Was it possible? Who was behind this? Malachai? Wouldn’t Elgin Barindra have picked up on something about this? Wasn’t it too fast for Malachai to have planned it? The answers mattered but not now, not as much as the more crucial issue: how to get the suicide belts off the hostages and get all these people out of here before anything went wrong. Because things always did go wrong, even when no one wanted them to. Situations like this escalated. The police wouldn’t wait on the perimeter for long. Someone would get anxious and push too far, too fast. And it was going to happen any second. He had to do something now.
“There’s a problem,” Lucian said, trying not to taunt the leader as much as engage him.
“Your only problem is that you need to shut the fuck up.”
“How do you know that’s the sculpture you want?” Lucian asked.
Marie Grimshaw held back a gasp. Deborah Mitchell looked up, startled. Tyler Weil clenched his fists.
“What the fuck?” Talbot asked, his mouth twisted into a mean, angry snarl.
“There are two identical pieces of that sculpture in the museum. One is the original. The other is an almost perfect copy. And there’s no guarantee which one this is. How do you know the museum didn’t put the copy on display, since it was the copy that was instrumental in recapturing the paintings?”
“This is the sculpture I want, and you know it.”
“I don’t, and you can’t. And no one is going tell you which is which unless you take the explosives off those women and get these people out of here.” He gestured to the crowd behind him.
Talbot looked at Weil. “Is this sculpture the real deal?”
“It is.”
“Can you be sure he’s not lying to you?” Lucian asked earnestly. “Don’t you think the director of the museum would lie to you if he could so that you’d take the wrong piece? His priority isn’t these people. He only wants to protect his art,” Lucian said derisively. “I can prove which is the real Hypnos.”
Weil cursed under his breath.
Lucian ignored him and continued. “Think about what your boss will do to you if you bring them the wrong sculpture.”
The terrorist was fully engaged now-angry, confused and focused on Lucian, which was just how the agent wanted it. “Take off the belts.” Lucian gestured at Emeline and the others. “And I’ll tell you if this is the right piece or not.”
“I’m not bargaining with you,” Talbot said. “I’ll take all of you out if I want to.”
“It’s a known fact the original has ivory hands and feet. The copy doesn’t, because it’s now illegal to buy ivory.”
“Is this ivory?” The ringleader reached out and touched the god’s left hand.
“I don’t know but there’s a simple test we can do to see if it is.”
“Do it, and fast.”
“Take off the belts.”
“I told you, no bargaining.”
Lucian knew the man was feeling the stress; he could see a flicker of worry in his eyes.
“To find out if the ivory is real…” Lucian pulled out the lighter that he still carried to prove his willpower was stronger than his desire, and flicked it on. “Take off the belts and I’ll show you how you can tell if this is the original or the fake.”
SIXTY-SIX
Marie Grimshaw’s jaw hurt where her captor had slapped her, and her hip throbbed where he’d kicked her. Her heart was beating so hard and so fast she didn’t think it could keep going for much longer. She watched as the FBI agent flicked his lighter and wasn’t sure she could tolerate the flood of tension that rose in her. When the blue-orange flame flared, Nina felt Veronica’s whole body spasm as if the fire had reached out and burned her.
“What is it, baby?” Nina asked, bending over, whispering in her granddaughter’s ear.
“What is taking them so long? Where are they?” Veronica groaned.
“Who, darling? Who?”
“Hosh. Our sons! The people from the shtetl?”
Nina shook her head in frustration and looked back at the FBI agent.
Beside them, Andre Jacobs hung on to Emeline’s arm and she struggled to support him and keep him upright. “I won’t let anything happen to you,” he muttered, a fool’s promise, a drunk’s ranting, even as his knees buckled for the third time.
Samimi’s panic was escalating as he watched the scene play out. Everything had been timed. He needed the men to move Hypnos out of there and get it down to the warehouse before Taghinia met them there. All of Samimi’s plans depended on that small window of time he’d built into the schedule, but they were fast using up every one of those extra seconds, and the way things were going he was going to lose his opportunity. There was nothing to do now but go take over, even though he was supposed to stay in the background. Samimi allowed himself a glance at Deborah. He didn’t want her to see this. Wished there was some way to avoid it. But he knew there wasn’t.
Her eyes met his. Her terror was so intense it pained him. But he had only minutes to spare. If everything went all right, it wouldn’t matter that he’d exposed himself, and if it didn’t…well, Taghinia would take it out on him anyway, and nothing he did now would make that punishment any more merciful.
“Where is the other sculpture?” Samimi shouted. “Get it down here immediately. As soon as we see it, we’ll remove the belts.”
Lucian shouted at Weil. “Do it. Now.”
Weil looked at Olshling and nodded.
“I can get it here in ten minutes,” Olshling said.
“You have three,” Samimi said. He nodded to two of his men. “Go with him.”
As soon as the men were gone he pulled out his cell phone and punched in a number. “Stand by,” Samimi said to the man on the other end of the phone. “We’ll be ready to move out in five to six minutes.”
Across the room he felt Deborah’s eyes still on him, but this time he didn’t look.
SIXTY-SEVEN
Olshling returned in four minutes and ten seconds wheeling a second sculpture that looked identical to the Hypnos already standing in the center of the room.