Page 54 of Cross & Crown

something on this case, man.”

“Is it contagious? ’Cause I’d rather not do . . . this,” Hagan

said as he waved his hand at Nick.

“No. Okay so, we have the books they went after in

the shop, right? But why take books you can’t hope to sell?

Discounting the highly unlikely scenario that they had a buyer

for those specific rare books, which could be true I guess—”

“O.”

“I mean they could just be front men for someone with

money, but still, it had to be the books themselves they were

after and those books specifically.”

“Dude, can you feel your tongue?”

Nick picked up the book he’d been examining and turned

it so Hagan could see it. “Look. This one has a complete

surveyor’s map of Boston from 1819, and a copy of an earlier

reproduction from 1779.”

54

Hagan raised an eyebrow. “What happened in 1819?”

“Nothing. I don’t know. But that’s what all four have in

common.”

“1819?”

“No. They’re all contemporary reports from Boston in

the years after the Revolution.”

“Vive la révolution. So . . . a crew of highly trained thieves

broke into a rare bookstore, stole four books and two as yet

unknown objects, and thenkil eda man, all because they’re planning a heist of Revolutionary War era Boston?”

Nick glanced up at his partner, nodding.

“Where are they hitting next to get their time machine

parts? We should put a few unis on that shit.”

Nick glared at him for several seconds, then his eyes

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