Page 39 of Dangerous Rhythm

seventeen

Barcelona, Spain

“We should go,” Lina said to Curtis as he pulled her through an aisle ofLe Mercat de la Boqueria.

“We just got here. Relax. We’re just a couple of tourists, remember?” he argued.

Wearing the fake glasses she’d gotten him and a knit hat over his hair, plus a few days’ worth of stubble around his jaw, Curtis didn’t quite look like his usual self. But people recognized celebrities in disguises all the time.

After their dinner the other night, Curtis had stayed cooped up in the apartment during the day with Lina. But tonight she wasallowing a brief evening excursion: They had agreed to a walk to the market to get some food.

But Lina’s internal radar was pinging. The crowd wasn’t too thick in the market on a Monday night, and from what she could see, nothing was particularly concerning. Besides the vendors and local shoppers, small groups of tourists were still walking about, though it was almost closing time.

As if Marcus had picked up her thoughts, Lina’s phone buzzed. She quickly answered her boss’ call as she kept following Curtis.

“You need to get out of Barcelona.” Marcus’ voice was urgent. “We confirmed the same Stiletto people we led away from Paris to Amsterdam arriving at the Sants station about an hour ago.”

“How did they know where we are? Did you figure out the mole?”

There was an edge to Marcus’ voice. “No. You and our boy have been caught by several fans. The cyber unit discovered a crowdsourcing game by an unknown individual we believe is connected to the Stilettos.”

“A game?” she questioned.

“The individual created a type of ‘Where’s Waldo’ game with a $10K prize to spot Curtis in Barcelona.”

Lina’s blood froze. She looked around with fresh eyes. Anybody with a phone could be as dangerous as a Stiletto henchman.

“He was spotted at a restaurant by Catalina Beach two nights ago. That was the starting point. There were thousands of entries yesterday alone, and just about the same today, but ninety-nine percent of them were wrong.”

“They only needed that one percent to be right,” Lina concluded.

“Are you onLa Rambla?” Marcus asked. His voice was disapproving. “Someone just entered his picture.”

“I gotta go.” Lina ended the call.

She’d rehash the regret over her decisions later. For now, she needed to focus on getting them out of there with no one else snapping their picture.

Lina pulled the oblivious Curtis in a different direction with fewer people.

“Hey, what’s going on?” He looked at her hard face and stopped asking.

“Walk normal,” she ordered as they moved quickly toward the nearest exit without looking rushed.

A group of young people walked through the door leading outside. They were talking among themselves in Catalan. Lina didn’t have to understand them to catch Curtis’ name. Swiftly, she pushed Curtis to the left, where a ham vendor had hung merchandise from the ceiling of their stand, giving her and Curtis a cover from the incoming group.

“Put your hood up,” Lina told Curtis. “And hunch a bit.”

Being tall and fit didn’t help him blend in easily. However nerdy she tried making him look, he was still eye-catching. And someone had already caught a picture of him this evening.

We have to change his looks.

But there was nothing she could do about it in the middle of a food market.

“We need to get out of here,” she said under her breath as she kept them moving away from the group she’d seen earlier.

“Are the Stilettos’ people here?” Curtis asked.

“No.” She hadn’t spotted one, but if they’d seen the last game entry and were nearby, they could be on top of them soon.

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