Defeat like suffocation crushed down on Jeth as he let go of Aileen and set the gun on the floor. She grabbed it at once, wasting no time before pointing it at him again.
“Finish the job,” she said.
Gritting his teeth, Jeth turned and reentered the bathroom. He picked up the now sopping-wet pillowcase with the ruby still wrapped inside it. A whirlwind of desperate ideas tore through his mind, but none of them stood any chance of coalescing into an escape plan.
Jeth turned toward the exposed pipe on the floor where the toilet had been. The dark hole seemed to leer at him as he leaned toward it. He carefully unfolded the pillowcase and then dropped the ruby down the hole. It made no noise as it fell, making the long trek through the pipes and down into the sewer system beneath the palace—the only way to get it out without alerting security.
“It’s done,” Aileen said from where she stood in the doorway, no doubt talking to Danforth. “We’ll meet you at the rendezvous point.”
“Farewell, Jeth,” Danforth said a moment later. “I’m quite certain our paths will never cross again.”
Jeth tossed the pillowcase on the floor. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Hammer will find you no matter where you go.”
“True.” Danforth sighed. “But just because he knows where I am doesn’t mean he’ll be able to get to me. Soleil will see to that.”
“Shut up, Danforth,” Aileen hissed.
“Soleil Marcel?” Jeth laughed at the absurdity. Soleil was one of Hammer’s biggest competitors, a crime lord with territorial claims to the Antares System. She was powerful, no doubt, but also ruthless and cruel, as vicious as a starving snake. “If you think Soleil will keep you in her employ after this, you’re even more of an idiot than I thought. She’s liable to turn you over to Hammer herself rather than risk trusting you with her business. You’re just a pawn, Danforth. A walking dead man.”
“That’s enough,” Aileen said. “Come on out of there.”
Jeth shrugged, judging by Danforth’s silence that his words had struck hard. As he stepped out of the bathroom, Aileen ordered him into the vault, where her partner had already put Celeste.
So they’re going to leave us alive, Jeth thought, not daring to believe it. It was the opposite of what they should do, that cold part of him knew. Death was cleaner, but he wasn’t about to point that out. He stepped inside the vault, then turned to face Aileen.
She beamed at him with that devilish glint back in her eyes. He wanted to gouge them out. “It’s been a pleasure, my little Peacock. Maybe if we’re lucky, we’ll get to play again sometime.”
“If we do, I promise it won’t turn out like this.”
Aileen laughed. “Let’s hope not.” She pressed a button on the control panel and the door slid closed, locking Jeth and Celeste inside.
As Aileen and her partner made for the exit, Jeth pounded on the glass with his fists. He kicked it, slammed against it with his entire body. Beside him, Celeste did the same. But it was no use.
Sagging in defeat, Jeth ceased his futile attempts to break out. He walked to the back of the vault and sat down, resting his head against the glass. Then he closed his eyes and waited for his doom.
CHAPTER 06
MINUTES PASSED LIKE HOURS. JETH AND CELESTE TALKED only long enough to relay their stories. Hers was as Jeth had guessed: Aileen’s mountainous partner had ambushed her while she stood watch down in the hallway below.
They fell into silence afterward. Jeth wondered how long it would take before someone discovered them, and what was happening with Lizzie and Shady and Flynn. Maybe Danforth’s new crew would leave them alive, too. He clung to that hope. Alive, they had a chance of being rescued. The Malleus Shades were valuable to Hammer. He might spring them from whatever jail or prison they ended up in.
That is, if we don’t get executed first.
Jeth closed his eyes, swallowing down his fear. Of all the jobs he’d worked, none of them had gone this bad. There was no telling what Hammer would do when he found out.
Celeste nudged him hard in the ribs with her elbow.
Jeth opened his eyes and glared at her. “What?”
She pointed at the door, scrambling to her feet. He glanced that direction and saw a blond woman standing in the doorway. She wore an elegant red dress, the color marking her as a member of the Grakkian royal family. They’d been discovered at last.
Jeth braced for the scream that must surely be coming, but the woman only stared at them for several seconds, her expression more evaluative than alarmed. She looked familiar, but he couldn’t quite place her. A moment later she hurried forward, the long trail of her dress fanning out behind her like a red banner. She stopped in front of the vault’s control panel and opened the door, keying the passcode with such quick efficiency that Jeth knew she had done it before.
“Come on,” the woman said, waving them out. “You must not get caught in here.”
“Who are you?” Jeth followed her to the door, with Celeste staying in step beside him. He was thrilled about this unexpected turn of good fortune, but he knew better than to trust it without question.
“That’s none of your concern.” She glowered at him over one slender shoulder.
He couldn’t pinpoint her age. Certainly a lot older than he was, but definitely not old. She wore her hair in an elegant coiffure that exposed a long stretch of pale, thin neck.
She turned back, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides as if she was struggling not to panic. “This couldn’t be worse. If the emperor finds out you work for Hammer, he might trace this back to me. What went wrong?”
Jeth winced at the alarm in her tone, guessing at once that she had been Hammer’s inside source. He wondered who she was. Someone very important to have such casual access to the emperor’s bedchamber.
His mistress, he realized, as he finally placed her face. The briefing he’d been given by Hammer’s research team before coming on the job had included a summary of the familial landscape of the royal family, just in case he bumped into one of them, but he hadn’t applied himself very hard to memorizing faces. The only reason he remembered her now with such certainty was because the emperor’s mistress had been a more interesting part of the briefing. The researchers seemed to think her place among the family had caused quite the scandal.
“We were betrayed by someone on our crew,” Celeste said as they reached the elevator and stepped in.
Jeth scowled. “He was never part of our crew.”
Celeste ignored the comment, still focused on their savior in red. “He’s working for Soleil Marcel.”
The woman paled, even beyond her natural fairness.
“How did you know we were trapped up here?” Jeth asked as the elevator began to move downward. He leaned against the back rail, feeling the need to steady himself.
“I didn’t. I received a message from one of Hammer’s men a few minutes ago that something was going wrong with the mission.”
Jeth blinked. How had Hammer known?
“This person who betrayed you—does he have the stone?” the woman asked, her gaze shifting from Jeth to Celeste, then back again.
“We don’t know.” Jeth glanced at his watch. More than twenty minutes had passed since he’d dropped the ruby down the pipe. That might’ve been enough time for Flynn to find it down in the sewer, but there were a lot of environmental variables at play.
“You have to get it back.” A tremor echoed in the woman’s tone.
“No we don’t,” Jeth said. “It was a fake.”
Her eyes seemed to flash as she glared at him. “Foolish boy. It’s not a fake. It’s just not a ruby. There is no name for what it is.”
Jeth frowned, unsure if this was good news or bad. Bad, he decided, because if she knew the stone wasn’t really a ruby, Hammer likely did, too. Which meant he would still want it. “We’ll do our best to find it.”
The woman exhaled, and her hands shook as she smoothed the front of her gown. Jeth tried
to feel sorry for her but couldn’t quite manage it. She was a traitor, after all, same as Danforth.
The elevator arrived at the ground floor, and she led the way out, taking them down several hallways before stopping in front of a closed door. “This will lead you out to the eastern wing. Can you find the rest of the way on your own?”
Celeste nodded, adjusting the front of her uniform in an attempt to disguise the damage.
“Good luck.” The woman turned and headed back the way they had come.
Celeste opened the door and stepped out into a large hallway bursting with activity. A chaotic parade of servants swept past them, most carrying trays lined with desserts. Celeste dove through them, not caring about the dirty looks and curses tossed at her. Jeth followed, wincing at how much attention they were drawing. Any one of these people might get suspicious about what they were up to. Still, they didn’t have time for the usual charade they would’ve employed in this situation.
In moments they were through another door and stepping out into a courtyard. Celeste headed right down a narrow walkway that dumped them out on an open lawn, the manicured grass more dark blue than green in the moonlight.
Jeth was so turned around he had little sense of where they were or if they were heading in the right direction, but Celeste grabbed his hand and pulled him forward, confident of their path. He fell into place beside her, wishing they could make a run for it. But that might draw more attention, this time from security. As it was, he wasn’t sure if the cursory handholding would be enough to convince an observer that they were just two teenagers looking for a cozy make-out spot. Jeth tried to put a little swagger into his gait, playing it up. He was the noble in this situation, after all, and Celeste the lowly servant.
The ruse must’ve worked, since no one had sounded the alarm by the time they arrived at a copse of trees growing up along one wall of the palace. Jeth knew the sewer entrance was hidden just beyond. He blinked as he stepped into the shadows of the trees, struggling to see in the darkness. He spotted Shady and Flynn lying motionless side by side in the grass next to the sewer entrance. Danforth and his band of traitors had come and gone.
Jeth knelt beside Shady, determining at once that he wasn’t dead, just unconscious. Relief rushed through him as Celeste confirmed the same about Flynn.
“Wake up, Shady.” Jeth shook him so hard his head bobbed back and forth. He kept at it for several minutes while Celeste worked on reviving Flynn. Once stunned, a person could remain unconscious for an hour or more if left alone. But increasing the flow of blood to the brain could speed up the recovery process.
Finally, Shady let out a groan and opened his eyes. He spotted Jeth and made a face. “What happened?”
“Think you can stand?” Jeth rose to his feet and held out a hand.
Shady pulled himself up, limbs shaking. He clutched his temple and moaned. Waking up early from a stunner left one groggy and with a wicked headache. “Somebody hit me from behind.”
“That would be Danforth.”
Shady gaped. “You’re kidding.” His look of disbelief turned murderous as he realized that Danforth must have made off with the Heart of the Universe. “I’m going to kill him.”
“Take a number.” Jeth turned to help Celeste with Flynn. He’d probably been stunned after Shady, and with his lower body weight, the effects would last longer. Jeth wrinkled his nose at the stench coming off Flynn’s bio-suit. He’d been down in the sewer, all right.
They kept at it, while Jeth filled Shady in about what had happened with Danforth.
“So, what do we do now, Boss?” Shady asked. Flynn was still unconscious, but he’d made a couple of noises, a sign he was coming around.
“We’ve got to get back to the truck, see if Lizzie’s there. Then we’ve got to figure out where Danforth’s headed.” Jeth fixed his gaze on Shady. “Think you can get Flynn awake while Celeste and I move out?”
Shady shrugged. “If not, I’ll just drag his scrawny ass.”
“I think security would notice.” Celeste stood up and motioned for Shady to take her place. He did so, rocking Flynn hard enough that his teeth clanked together.
Jeth peered through the trees, getting his bearings on their path. He and Celeste had to leave first in case someone had seen them come in. If they were lucky, nobody had been paying attention.
He looked back at Shady. “We’re leaving now. Head to the truck as soon as he can stand.”
“We’ll be right behind you, Boss.”
Jeth took Celeste by the hand, and together they stepped out from the cover of the trees. They continued on from their original path, taking a shortcut down another narrow walkway that dumped them out on the far side of the loading docks. The Wellforth truck was parked in the same place. Not letting his relief get the best of him, Jeth swept his gaze over the scene, checking for onlookers.
Once he had determined the place was empty, he hurried forward, yanked the truck door open, and climbed inside, with Celeste right behind him. The cab was empty too, the only sign of Danforth his discarded Wellforth uniform lying strewn across the passenger’s seat. Jeth raced into the cargo hold, and together he and Celeste began yanking the lids off the decoy barrels. The first one Jeth opened was empty, but not the second. Lizzie peered up at him, her eyes wide and wet with tears and her face swollen with a splotchy bruise.
“Lizzie!” Jeth reached for her, hauling her to her feet. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Her voice shook as she spoke, and she began to babble. “I’m so sorry, Jeth. I blew it. I tried to stop him. I sent a message to Hammer, but then Danforth figured out what I was doing and hit me. I tried to fight him off, but he shoved me in here.”
She sobbed as she threw her arms around him. Jeth reeled from the onslaught of emotion—sympathy, disbelief, and most of all rage. Danforth had hit her. Touched her with his slimy, dirty hands. Jeth would cut them off. He squeezed Lizzie in his arms. “Shhhh. It’s all right.”
Jeth let his emotions rule him for only a moment, and then he locked them away in a deep place inside him.
He helped her out of the barrel. “Do you have any idea where Danforth went or where he was heading?”
Lizzie blinked the bleariness from her gaze. “No, but I might be able to find him.”
“How?” Jeth took a step back as Lizzie pushed past him. She headed for the corner, where he spotted the master control computer lying on top of one of the barrels.
“I detected their comm signal,” Lizzie said, her fingers already flying across the touchscreen. Her distress from a moment before was draining away as she fell into the job.
Jeth stepped up behind her, watching. “What are you doing, Liz?”
She chewed on her lower lip as she worked. “Danforth had two comm units running the whole time we’ve been here. He thought he could hide it, but when the relay went down and I had to fix it, I discovered the other signal. I figured he was communicating with someone else on-site, someone we didn’t know about. So I sent a message to Mark Hilty back on the Debonair, telling him to let Hammer know that Danforth was up to something.”
That’s how the emperor’s mistress knew to come find us, Jeth realized. A tremor of fear went through him at the risk Lizzie had taken. Hilty might not have been trustworthy. And alerting Hammer about a job going wrong wasn’t something he would’ve done. In Jeth’s experience, the less Hammer knew, the better. Still, her actions had saved them. He resisted the urge to hug her again.
“If Danforth’s still in close enough proximity,” Lizzie went on, “and if he hasn’t turned off his comm, I should be able to figure out his location.”
Jeth squeezed her shoulders, which was all the encouragement he could manage. They just might be able to salvage this job.
“Shady and Flynn are coming,” Celeste announced a few minutes later from the cab, where she’d been keeping a lookout.
Jeth left Lizzie where she was, still doing her techie thing. She hadn’t picked up a cle
ar signal yet, and he feared it was because Danforth was long gone.
“They’re over there.” Celeste pointed out the side window. Jeth looked and saw Shady and Flynn standing by a hedgerow, the latter visibly swaying on his feet.
A moment later they were climbing inside the truck. Jeth felt something click into place inside him, a rightness like a homecoming after a long absence. His crew was together again. Safe. And that was all that really mattered. Losing the ruby hurt, but he would get over it. As long as Hammer wasn’t too upset, Jeth had time to make up the lost profit. Avalon would be his again someday.
But as Jeth walked back to Lizzie, she pumped her fist in the air. “Found him! He’s just outside the palace grounds, but on the move.”
Unable to resist the prompting of his relief, Jeth bent forward and planted a loud kiss on the top of her head. She giggled and shook him off.
“Right,” he said, marching to the cab. “Let’s go run down that lying son of a bitch.”
CHAPTER 07
MINUTES LATER JETH WAS PILOTING THE TRUCK OVER THE palace grounds to the entrance. He’d put on Danforth’s discarded uniform, swearing to himself that he would bathe in turpentine the first chance he got. Shady sat beside him in the passenger’s seat, while Lizzie, Celeste, and Flynn were in the cargo hold, standing out of sight of the door. They didn’t bother getting back into the barrels. The security measures were focused on incoming vehicles, not outgoing.
Jeth sat up straighter in his seat as he approached the gate. Half a dozen sentries lined each side. He slowed the truck, waiting to be waved through. He was, and as Jeth accelerated, he called for Lizzie.
“Make a left at that next street,” she said, sitting in the passenger’s seat after Shady vacated it.
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