Page 118 of One Minute Out

But it’s eight forty-five p.m.; I’m back in the room and it will be full-on dark soon, which means it’s almost time for me to leave.

Before I set out I call Talyssa, who should be on the ground in Amsterdam, en route to the home of black-hat hacker Maarten Meyer. She answers on the second ring, which I take as a promising sign.

“Hello?”

“It’s Harry. You made it there?”

“I’m outside his house. I don’t think he’s home.”

“That’s okay. You knew you might have to wait.”

“I don’t know if I can do this.”

“You can, and you can call me if you need help. Remember, you have your Europol credentials and a lot of information about his crimes and the investigation under way. Come at him hard, threatening even, but then show him a way through the door. You have to make him want to work with you so he doesn’t end up in prison.”

“But... what if he says no? What if your plan doesn’t work?”

This isn’t going to work, I tell myself. Then I tell Talyssa, “It’s going to work. Trust me.”

After a moment she replies softly, and with no obvious confidence. “All right. I will call you when I have him.” Then she says, “While I’m doing this... what will you be doing?”

“I’ll be doing what I do best.”

“Which is?”

“What do you think?”

Talyssa heaves a long sigh. “You are going to try to catch someone and beat information out of them.”

“You know me too well.”

I am worried about her, just like I was back in Dubrovnik when she had been rolled up by the Albanians. But now I can’t do anything to help her. She’s on her own.

“Listen,” I say. “If it’s not working out, if you feel like you might be in any danger, then you need to just pull out of there. I can try later.”

“Later all the girls will be gone.”

“I know. I just don’t want you getting hurt.”

She sniffs into the phone. “Thank you, Harry. You be careful, too.”

Thirty minutes later I am out on the street, walking east through the artificial lights towards the Casino of Venice.

I begin focusing my attention on my mission this evening. I need to be gray, to blend in with my surroundings, more so with each step as I near my target location.

Talyssa can pull this off, I tell myself. I can pull this off, too.

It’s an affirmation borne not out of real conviction but rather out of desperation.

We have to pull this off.

•••

Ken Cage stepped out of the bathroom off the foyer of the Mala del Brenta safe house with a long, labored sniff, then he rubbed his eyes and nose.

He grabbed his black suit coat off a leather wingback chair, slipped it on, looked to his bodyguard, and gave him an energetic nod.

Cage knew Sean Hall would understand that this meant he was ready to leave for the auction.

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