There Should Have Been a Warning Sign at the Very Least
Technically there had been a sign. Just not one indicating explosive devices and booby traps. The sign said do not enter, but that had never stopped Kaz before. That was like a red rag to a bull.
It was almost as though the sign was egging him on. Especially when a huge payday would be a result on stealing what was on the other side of the fence. Although Kaz would deny it if asked, this job meant some of the girls from the Menagerie who had come to work for him, would get their freedom. He knew at least one of them kept in touch with Inej.
The artwork and statues in the building were protected by alarms triggered by lasers. His buyer wanted several pieces of art and a couple of the statues. Then there were the blue prints to the Little Palace. Basically, the buyer had given Kaz a shopping list.
He would have no trouble getting the blue prints. If he could get Inej's assistance then the artwork would be no problem. It was Wylan who had noticed something was off. This should have been a simple job. Wylan knew his way around explosives but what else didn't they know about this building? He wasn't willing to put Inej in danger, but there was also Jesper, Wylan and Nina to consider. The jury was still out on Matthias.
There needed to be more investigation done before he took his crew in. They were the closest thing he had to family. Their safety had become of the upmost importance to him. It had somehow crept up on him once he had obtained his vengeance on Pekka Rollins for Jordie's death. He hadn't been looking for it, but it found him all the same.
Due to some unspoken rule that everyone needed an escape plan, there had to be a set of blueprints somewhere that detailed every booby trap and security measure. He just had to find it. He doubted it would be where other blueprints would be kept. That would be too obvious. So first he needed to find out who owned the building.
Whoever owned the building had covered their tracks well. One umbrella company led to another and then another. There wasn't a common owner, but Kaz suspected the names weren't real anyway. There was one person behind this and he knew a cover up when he saw one. That someone was building themselves quite the nest egg.
It was possible that Pekka Rollins was running everything from behind the bars of Hellgate. Dreesen was still operating as well. Truthfully he would be happy to take their wealth and property from both of them. However if they were behind the job offer it also meant it was a bigger trap than he originally thought.
Now this became a bigger game of finding out who was so eager to have him break in. As far as he knew, nobody else had been approached for the job. There was no one to race to get there first, which took some of the fun out of it. Someone definitely wanted him to be caught in the trap. So all he had to do was make it look as though he had been caught in the trap and see who turned up to admire their handy work.
He sensed her presence without her making a sound. "Hello Inej."
"Still looking for a bigger payday Kaz." Inej moved up to stand beside him.
"What have you heard?" Even having just gotten off a ship, Inej would have listened out for any information of note.
"You need to look beneath the surface." She nodded to the building.
Kaz chuckled. "Of course. We need to go in through the sewers." The traps and explosives were there to stop anyone from breaking in through the front or the rear not from underneath. "Any word on who the money is on this job?"
"Word is its Dreesen, but despite what he tells everyone, he's just the front man." Inej could see Kaz's brain ticking over. "Someone else is the puppet master."
It wouldn't be the first time. Nicolai had used Dreesen as a front man before, but this wasn't Nicolai. "Who has this amount of money to throw around?"
"How were you supposed to be paid for this job?" Inej looked up to the rooftops. That would be the next option of entry after the front and rear entrances. So it was probably booby trapped as well.
"Cash on delivery." The more he thought about it, the less it seemed likely that there would be a payment, even if they pulled it off. "I think we will need a sizable sum up front." He grinned at Inej.
"You think Pekka Rollins is behind this." Inej knew that look on Kaz's face well. "How would he be able to get the cash together?"
"He'd have to sell anything that wasn't seized when he ended up in Hellgate. My guess is that he would claim the insurance for the destruction of the building and its contents when whoever breaks in sets off the traps. No one would know that the building is full of fakes." All the pieces suddenly fell into place. The explosives and booby traps were just a smoke screen to make it look as though everything inside was valuable.
"Pekka would know the difference between an original and a fake." Inej had to admit that it explained why nobody else appeared to be vying for the job. Pekka wanted Kaz in the building when it came crashing down around him. "What are you going to do?"
"Find the originals, get an upfront payment for doing the job, trigger the explosives and grab the insurance payout." Kaz could always get Rotty to find buyers for the originals and end up with an even bigger payout.
"How much money do you really need Kaz?" Inej knew there had to be more to this than just stripping Pekka of every cent he owned. Even though that certainly held a great amount of appeal to him. Kaz had a big heart which he kept well hidden from everyone else behind that cold gaze of his.
"Enough to buy some freedom." Even though Inej had her freedom, she spent most of her time freeing others from the fate she had escaped. Every indenture he brought out, felt as though he was getting some of Inej's lost freedom back to her. When Pekka finally got out of Hellgate, he would only have the empty shell of his empty existence to look back on. His son though had a bank account earning interest that he had no idea about. Wylan had been strangely insistent about that. Although Albie wouldn't be able to get access to it until he was eighteen.
Inej searched his face for the punch line but found none. "Where do we start?" If the originals weren't in this building, then Pekka had to have them in storage somewhere.
"Wherever he has the boy safely hidden is where we will find the art and I suspect everything else which is supposed to be stolen from here." He glanced at his watch. "Have you eaten?" It wasn't surprising when she shook her head. "Come on. We'll get dinner and then work out what Pekka still has control of that is big enough to house his son and priceless works of art." He started to limp towards Inej's favourite place to eat in Ketterdam, knowing that she would disappear and only re-appear when he reached their destination. This was the closest thing they did to going on a date.
A week later that building came crashing down in the middle of the night when the basement blew up. No one saw how the explosives were triggered or if anyone had gotten trapped in the building. Kaz hadn't been seen since although Jesper, Wylan and Nina swore they had just seen him every time they were asked. Word was that Pekka Rollins was in good spirits despite being in Hellgate.
Not long after that his mood took an abrupt turn for the worst. Word was that a number of pieces of art had been stolen from his remaining property. The insurance company had paid out the claim but Pekka had not received the money. The cheque had been cashed and the funds transferred multiple times making it difficult to track. Especially when it was broken up and re-distributed.
To make matters worse for Pekka, Kaz Brekker turned up alive and well and a number of the indentures he had brought out were cleared. All in all, Pekka's empire was crashing down around him. Even if the insurance money for the fakes destroyed in the rigged building had been paid out, he couldn't claim for the same items twice. Whoever had stolen the originals, knew what he was claiming was in the building that he had tried to trap Breakker in.
Kaz Brekker on the other hand was thriving. He was going from strength to strength. His crew also seemed to be doing well although they were careful not to be flashy about it. Which was difficult for Jesper, but somehow probably with Wylan's help he still managed.
Life was good for the Crows. But each of them had learned a few life lessons to keep them on the line of cautiously optimistic. After all, life had a habit of throwing curve balls at you.