"We've got to figure out a way to confront Paul about this," Sully proclaimed. He was wearing his classic Hawaiian t-shirt and khaki pants. His cigar, as usual, hung slyly from the corner of his mouth.
"Yeah, but how are we gonna do it? We can't barge in at gunpoint. Who knows how many hired guns this man has? And we can't reveal to him that we've conspired together. I still don't understand why we paid two steep prices for only one object," Chloe said.
Drake stared at his journal. Usually, he could act impulsively; even without a plan, he was daring and decisive, with a near perfect success rate. But as always, luck runs out - and he was left with no ideas. "What if, what if he wanted us to meet?" Drake asked. The thought just occurred to him.
"What do you mean? Why would he want us to meet?" Chloe replied.
"Maybe he knew that he lacked half the clues. If he could somehow collide us together, and I don't know how he'd know that we knew each other and would figure the whole deal out, he could squeeze the real information out of us and leave us on the side of the road."
"A play right out of old Flynn's book, huh, Drake?" Sully remarked, teasingly.
Still better about his deceased rival's unexpected and brutal betrayal, Drake chose to ignore the topic for fear of raising his blood pressure. Calming down, he said, "It would make sense. If you're a rich Mafia guy, and you need answers, you don't just hire two treasure hunters to do the same job. Maybe he wanted to just use us. Have us do the work and eliminate us. It's the only plausible explanation. He probably saw us as a threat."
"You're right," Sully said, pulling the cigar out of his mouth. "He was one of Talbot's old associates. He probably heard of us. I mean he is Mafia - he is paranoid all the time. Hiring us and getting us out of the way - makes sense."
"We need to make a plan of attack. If we approached him separately, he'd be suspicious. His plan is banking on us finding each other. We should play along. We go to him. Sully, too. We give him what he wants - but we etch out the violin's message. We don't bring anything. We don't tell him anything. We collect our money, and we walk out-"
"And if things get hairy," Chloe interrupted, "we can always use these." She produced three Para 9 handguns. Drake didn't even bother to ask how she got her hands on those. Sully put the cigar back into his mouth and took a big puff.
"Let's hope we don't need them" Drake pointed out.
Sully advised, "Don't worry, Nate. We always do."
