Page 26 of Maximus

He shook his head. “No, day to day, I’m with people who know what I can do. My parents were the ones who encouraged me to develop my interests. The people I work for know who and what I am. I’ll take on a protégé when I get back, so there’ll be someone else to talk with. I have to connect with a person not to tune them out. That sounds strange, but if someone bores me, my mind will flip to something interesting. I’m still attending the conversation, to a degree, but only enough to make it seem likeI’m not blowing someone off. That took a long time to learn how to do.”

She stepped back and waved to the spare desk in the office. “You can use this desk.” She glanced down at the suitcase in his hand. “I’m sorry, put that anywhere.”

“Thank you.” He moved to the desk and put the suitcase behind it. Taking off his suit jacket, he rolled up his sleeves and loosened his tie. “What did Sokolov want?”

Elena’s attention turned from his muscled forearms to his gorgeous face. How did she get so lucky? He stopped and cocked his head to the left. What had he asked? She couldn’t recall it for the life of her. “I’m sorry, what?”

“What did Sokolov want?”

“Oh, he said you were cleared to go into the vault.” She rolled her eyes heavenward. “I have a few more calls to make, then we can look at the paintings if you’d like.”

He opened his suitcase and withdrew what looked like a computer from the Stone Age. “I’d like to look at the paintings in the storeroom.”

She frowned as she sat down in her chair. “Why? They’re atrocious. What’s that?”

“And yet there has to be a reason he’s shipping them to you and instructing you to keep them in the most secure vault in the city. This is my computer.”

Elena pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and chewed on it as she silently agreed. But that computer … “I thought you knew a lot about computers?”

Max stopped what he was doing and answered her, “I know everything there is to know about systems, programs, computer languages, algorithms, engineering, and applications. I’m learning artificial intelligence as it evolves. Why?”

She pointed to the block now sitting on his desk. “Then why don’t you upgrade?”

He glanced down and then laughed. “If you had a choice between my computer or the one on your desk, which would you take?”

“Mine, of course.” She wasn’t a fool.

“That’s why this computer looks like it does. It’s rarely out of my possession, so the chance of someone taking it is almost nonexistent. Suppose a person was so desperate to take my ugly computer. In that case, it’s safeguarded by bio-registries, additional fail-safes that would wipe its contents before someone could click a key, and a program that would spike any system connected to it.”

“Spike?”

“Decimate it. Destroy it,” he clarified.

“Oh.” She turned back to her work. “That’s pretty smart. Camouflaging a priceless computer in an ugly shell.”

Max’s head cocked to the left, and quick smile passed across his face. “Exactly.”

CHAPTER 12

Max’s mind shifted into overdrive as Elena worked. The painting he’d put into the storage room … The specifications of the painting, approximate weight, canvas dimensions, and the frame ripped through his mind. The weight was off, and the frame was too thick, as were all the frames on the art that sat in that room. Whatever Abrasha was shipping into Russia was hidden in the frames or protected by the large frames … He’d read cases of artwork being covered with newer paintings. It was necessary in the early ages when canvas for work was costly, and artists were among the poorest of the population.

“Max?”

He snapped his attention to Elena. “Yes?”

“Are you ready? I’ve finished what I can do today and sent emails to all parties pushing the showing back. I’ll make calls to follow up with the guests who haven’t RSVP’d to the date change, but it wasn’t difficult to make the modifications. I think a lot of that cooperation has to do with Abrasha. Knowing what I know now, I can see why people bend for him.”

Max nodded as he stood. “Does Sokolov have access to the office?”

“Yes, and the delivery area, but Abrasha and I are the only ones with access to the vault. If he showed up when you were away, I was going to hide in here.” Elena moved toward the vault entrance. He picked up his computer and brought it with him. No sense in tempting fate.

He watched as she opened the small packet holding the alcohol wrap and went through the process of entering the vault and wiping the screen.

They walked through the hall of priceless art, art that should have been exhibited in a museum but was instead locked behind three-foot-thick concrete and biometric locks. He waited for her to open the storage room and headed straight for the frame in the corner without a painting. “What are you looking for?” Elena came over and watched as he kneeled on the floor and examined the back of the frame.

“Remember what you said about hiding something priceless under something ugly?” He glanced up at her.

“Yes.” Her eyes widened. “You think something is hidden in the frame?”

---