Page 86 of Hell to Pay

“Let’s go down the checklist,” Pythe said. “Your guy planted the SD card?”

“Yesterday,” Rafe said. “Ghost followed your instructions, so you should have access.”

“Hang on.”

I heard the typing of keys, knew Pythe was trying to access the back door provided by the SD card Ghost had planted when he’d been doing a final security check on the estate outside of Paris.

“Up and running,” Pythe said. “I’m in.”

“Good fucking thing,” Rafe muttered.

We’d had to pay Ghost a fortune for his help, something that normally would have chapped my ass — we’d been brothers in the military — but didn’t this time because we were dealing with some very serious shit.

There were risks all around. Ghost deserved to be compensated, and it had been the only way we’d been able to get him to go the extra mile after our meeting in the 19th arrondissement.

“The malware on the SD card has already infiltrated their system,” Pythe said from his black box on the screen. “I have a back door into their closed network. I’ll take a look around, find the guest list for the party, get your new names on it.”

“How solid are they?” I asked.

“Solid. Real people — a venture capitalist, an arms dealer, a camera-shy crypto mogul — the kind of assholes you’d expect to see at a party like this.”

“How do we know they won’t be at this party?” Lilah asked.

“I confirmed they’re elsewhere this week before I spoofed their IDs. Venture capitalist is at a conference in Geneva, arms dealer is in South Africa, and the crypto bro is holed up in his New Zealand bunker waiting for the world to end.”

“So the IDs are solid,” I said.

“As they can be,” Pythe said. “You load your crypto wallet with the money?”

“The whole million,” Rafe said.

That piece of intel had come from Ghost’s IT source, who told him names were checked off the guest list on the way into the party but no one was allowed entry until they proved they’d loaded a cool million in US dollars into their crypto wallet for use at the party.

Imperium Fratrum wanted buyers, not window-shoppers.

“Good,” Pythe said. “How are you getting out of there if things go south?”

“We’ve got an exit from the roof thanks to Ghost,” Rafe said.

“That motherfucker,” Pythe muttered.

Lilah raised her eyebrows. “From the roof?”

We hadn’t gone into the details about that with her.

Jude grinned. “Don’t worry, boss. It’s all taken care of.”

“You got a place to stage?” Pythe asked. “You’re gonna have to be close to use that drone.”

“Taken care of,” Rafe said.

“Anything else?” Pythe asked.

I looked at Lilah, Rafe, and Jude, but they shook their heads.

“I think we’re good,” I said. “Can you let us know when you find the guest verification system so we know we’re good to go?”

“Affirmative,” Pythe said. “And hey, cover your asses out there. This shit gives me the creeps.”

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