Page 132 of A Breath of Life
Joshua puzzled over the drawing before tapping a section. “There’s one down this hallway. The bathrooms are here, and I remember an exit at the far end. I don’t know if there are others. I imagine only spades have access to these doors.”
“For exiting as well?” Costa asked.
“Probably not.” Joshua waffled his head from side to side. “Anyone can probably leave through them.”
“It would be a fire hazard otherwise,” I added. Not that these people would likely care.
“Are the other doors monitored? Do they position guards around the building?” Costa never once looked up from his task as he questioned Joshua.
“No guards that I’m aware of. My uncle said they have cameras everywhere. They probably have someone watching them. He warned me there were always eyes on me, no matter where I went, so to be mindful.”
“Cameras can be disabled,” Kitty said.
“Or corrupted,” Costa added.
Joshua stared at Kitty for a long time. Based on the extensive evaluation, the poor guy still hadn’t figured out how she fit with us. Under his breath, he mumbled, “Who are you people?”
“Just regular citizens preparing to infiltrate an overlord’s top secret underground cave and rescue the princess from Bowser, and you’ve become the Luigi to my Mario. Aren’t you glad we met?”
Costa snorted. “Better not let Krause hear you call him a princess.”
“He’d love it.”
I earned a skeptically raised brow. Okay, maybe he wouldn’t.
Joshua stared like I had six heads before returning to his map, muttering, “I didn’t have this on my Bingo card.”
“Not many people do.”
After another twenty minutes, we learned that the casino floor, along with the other private entertainment rooms, occupied much of the main level. The basement was out of bounds, and Joshua couldn’t describe it since he’d never been down there.
By the time Costa was ready to release us into the wild, I had an encrypted bank card that, in theory, would give me the same admittance to rooms as Joshua’s father’s jack of diamonds, an inconspicuous microphone attached to the top button of my shirt—so I could relay our progress to Kitty and Costa who would be listening in—and the vague floor plan of the interior of a building I’d never seen before burned into my memory.
Our instructions were clear. What frightened me was how the whole plan relied on perfect timing, gadgets that hadn’t been tested, and people reacting the way they were supposed to react.
The outcome would depend on how fast backup arrived because, despite Costa’s disinclination to make this official, four people couldn’t pull this off without police intervention. If things went according to plan, Costa and Kitty would fly under the radar, and intelligence might be able to infiltrate one of the Royal Aces’ hubs.
***
It was nearing one in the morning when Costa dropped Joshua and me off down the street from the supposed location of the RoyalWhispering Ace. My inexperienced partner in crime looked like he’d accumulated enough regret to last a lifetime.
Under the glow of the streetlights, his skin shone sickly green, and I suspected it wasn’t a trick of the light but a true indication of his state of being. He’d said more than once that we were going to get ourselves killed.
If he didn’t shed his funk, we probably would because the guilt written all over his face was a dead giveaway. It was my job to help Joshua get into character. Maybe Memphis’s jeweler friend wasn’t an actor, but he’d picked up enough guys at the clubs that pretending I was just another fling should have been second nature.
As Costa pulled away from the curb, I took Joshua’s face between my hands and forced him to look at me. “Breathe, Luigi. All you have to do is get us inside. The rest is up to Mario. Are you ready to infiltrate the castle?”
“No. I’m not ready, and stop acting like this is some kind of joke.”
“I’m trying to cut the tension.”
“It’s not working.”
Joshua’s skin felt cold and clammy under my touch. His eyes held a haunted expression. We wouldn’t get past security at this rate. I had to calm him down. Reassure him.
“So, what’s your deal with Memphis? He told me you’ve hooked up a few times.” I wiggled my brows. “Is it serious?” I knew it wasn’t, but I didn’t have a lot of conversation options in my arsenal.
Joshua wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Not anymore. The asshole sold me out.”
