Chapter 8
"Wanna join me for dinner?"
Andie looked up from her laptop screen to find her father staring at her questioningly. She glanced at her screen once more and yawned, suddenly feeling tired. "What do you have in mind?"
Danny shrugged. "Probably something Danish."
She could use some food and some fresh air. "Sure. Just let me get my coat."
Dinner was at a modest Danish restaurant that also, for some strange reason, also served Chinese and Indian food. Father and daughter ate silently, suddenly there was nothing important to discuss. Not even the subject of the heist that they were going to pull off made it to their minds.
Andie chewed on her grilled chicken slowly as she watched her father wolf down on an odd-looking dish. Her lips itched to say something, anything, but couldn't bring herself to say something.
Suddenly, Danny looked up and noticed her edginess. "Are you okay, Andie? The food making you sick?"
Jolted, she shook her head a little too quickly. "No, Dad. The food's just fine." And to prove it, she ferociously ripped apart a huge chunk of grilled chicken and shoved it into her mouth. Danny laughed at her antics. 'Oh come on, Andie. I'm your father. I've known you long enough to know that you're not exactly at peace of mind."
Now it was Andie's turn to laugh. "How can I be at peace of mind when I know that I'm helping to rob the Gabanski Diamond?"
"Gabanski's dead. He wouldn't mind anyway."
"I hope so."
She found her tongue tied again, and her appetite cut off, so she set her fork and knife down and concentrated on finishing her glass of white wine. Danny noticed it, but the Andie sitting in front of him right then was not his little girl anymore. He remembered the indignant eight-year-old Andie, who refused to give up playtime even when dinner was already served on the table and he threatened to spank her if she didn't sit and eat. He smiled at the memory of it. When Andie was eight, he didn't do ripoffs for a living. He ran a pretty successful cigar business, and he lived on the right side of the law.
"Mom would throw a fit if she knew what we're up to now," Andie commented wryly, shaking him out of his reminiscing.
"What? Oh yeah," he laughed, poking again at his food, "She'd throw a terrible hissy, that's for sure."
Andie grinned. 'And exactly who's idea is this, by the way?"
"Okay, okay, so I'm just looking for some illicit thrill. So sue me."
She laughed. "If we ever end up in jail, I really will."
Danny put a mock shocked look on his face. "What, my own daughter? Sue me in court? You youngsters are getting more extreme by the day."
"Aww, don't worry about it, Dad. By the time I get out of jail, I would have lost the urge."
Danny laughed. "I hope so."
Andie suddenly remembered the Europol threat. Hopefully, just hopefully, they weren't in on her completely yet.
By the time the taxi driver pulled up at the curb of Rejdna Hotel, Isabel was dead beat. Forget dinner, she would rather hit the pillow first. She got out of the taxi and druggedly shoved some bills onto the driver's outstretched hand. Then she waited and folded her arms, giving the sleazy man a grudging look. "Are you not going to take my luggage out for me?"
The driver shrugged and bent down to pull a small lever underneath the driver seat. The boot lid opened, and he jerked his finger irritably at it. "Yourself."
Outraged, but hopelessly helpless, Isabel kept her curses to herself and plodded all the way to back of the taxi and dragged her suitcase out, slamming the boot lid shut with ferocious vengeance.
Instantly, the taxi sped off.
Isabel sighed tiredly and made her way slowly towards the hotel entrance. When she neared the glass doors, she thought she saw a recognizable Chinese face moving with a group of laughing men out from the elevators. She slowed down, trying to put a name to the face as he approached the front doors, towards her. Then suddenly, he noticed her, and his face contorted with panic. Before she could stop him, he had already turned and fled towards the elevators.
Alarmed and now fully awake, Isabel shoved with all her might at the glass doors and ran as fast as she could while trying to lug her suitcase with her. But the small figure of the Chinese man was more agile and frustatingly too quick for her to keep track of. By the time she had dragged her suitcase up a wide two-steps that separated the lobby from the reception area, he was already in an elevator and the doors slid shut.
But all hope was, hopefully, not lost. Isabel dashed anyway towards the elevator, trying to at least get the floor he got off at, or, even better, stop the elevator.
She thumbed the UP button ferociously but the elevator ignored the command to stop. Frustrated, she watched the number on the electronic dial but realized that it would not matter anyway, since he wasn't the only one in the elevator.
The next elevator ting-ed and the doors slid open. She watched the stream of people leaving the elevator box anyway just in case the Chinese man happened to be in it. A man was about to leave the elevator as well, but his eyes locked with hers, and he shrank back into the elevator, furiously pressing the CLOSE button. Isabel could not comprehend his face, he was too far away, but, just as the doors slid close, she realized that the face was Rusty's.
Oh shit.
Rusty breathed a sigh of relief as the elevator doors closed, blocking her from view. Oh God, what the hell was she doing here, in Rejdna? What had she come here for? Surely she hadn't tracked him down. Surely she felt the need to give him a little space just as she had needed the space when she went on assignments for Europol. Surely . . . surely she hadn't come for Andromeda Ocean?
That's it. The e-mail from Europol. Andie's cover was blown. Big time. He had to call Danny. They had to get the hell out of Rejdna. Fast.
He fished out his cellphone and dialed Danny's number, silently chanting in his head so that he would pick it up.
"H'lo?"
"Danny! Bad news."
"What's happened?"
"She's here."
Silence. Then, "Tess? Tess is here?"
Rusty sighed exasperatedly. "No, it's not Tess. If it were Tess, I would have liked not to call you."
"You prick. Which she?"
"Isabel," he hissed.
Silence again, but a heavier one. "Oh shit."
"Oh yeah."
"She found out about us?"
Rusty hesitated. Should he tell him about Andie's run-in with Europol? To tell or not to tell?
"Urm, I guess so, yeah." Neat lie, Ryan. But he didn't have a choice. He couldn't risk giving Andie away.
"Oh shit," Danny said again. This time both men fell silent.
"So what're we going to do, Danny?"
The few seconds of silence was almost unbearable. And in that few seconds, Isabel might have already recognized more members from the team.
"Okay, tell you what, Rust. Get everybody out. Now."
"To where?"
"I dunno, somewhere, anywhere! You're the smartass here! I'm in a restaurant with Andie. We should be able to make a clean escape."
"Oh? Were you having you a nice meal?"
"Yeah, you should have come with us."
The elevator stopped and the doors slid open. Rusty jerked up in fear, expecting to see Isabel, but thank goodness, he saw Turk and Virgil instead.
"Oh, Rusty, we were just - "
"No time to talk, come on in!" Rusty urged them in. Puzzled, they stepped in anyway, and Rusty pressed the CLOSE button. As the elevator moved upwards, he resumed his conversation with Danny.
"What's going on?"
"I've got Turk and Virgil with me."
He heard Danny sigh with relief. "Good. That's great."
"So where are we going to meet up?" He swore he could feel Danny's heart beat as furiously as his.
"Hey, Rusty, what's going on?" Turk asked, sensing the panic in the situation. Rusty held a hand up, a signal to be silent.
"I'm not sure. Okay, here's what you do. You scatter, okay, everyone scatter. You gather as many of us as possible and check out."
"What about our stuff? The model? The harness? The ropes? Andie's laptop?"
"Oh shit." Danny sounded as flabbergasted as he was. This was it. This was the end.
Rusty drew a deep breath and said as calmly as he could. "Danny, you get Andie out first. Turk, Virgil and I will handle this."
"What? Rusty, why?"
"Trust me on this, okay, buddy? I'll get us out of this mess. I'll call you."
Danny was silent. "Are you sure?"
"Trust me. Just get us another safe place."
"Okay. I'll call you?"
"I'll call you. See ya."
"Good luck."
"I'll take care."
Rusty tucked his phone back in his coat and turned around to face the Malloy brothers.
"So, mind telling us what's going on?" Virgil asked tentatively.
Rusty drew a deep breath again. "Isabel Lahiri is here. And we've got to work to do."