Choke Point (39 page)
Authors: Jay MacLarty
She sighed and cracked an eyelid. “How do you know?”
“Besides you, Lara’s the only one with the number. If I don’t answer, she’ll call your mother.”
“At this hour!”
“That’s my sister, Ms. Determined. And then your mother will call you, asking if you know—”
“Say no more.” She released her death grip and rolled over, stretching her lean body like a cat across the bed. “Let’s keep this between us for a while.”
“Good idea.” At least until they knew if it was going to work. He rolled over, snatched the phone off the bedside table, and growled into the receiver. “Simon says, leave me alone. It’s two o’clock in the morning.”
“And may I,” Lara snapped back, “be the first to wish you a wonderful day.”
“Give me a break, Sissie. What is it that couldn’t wait till morning?” As if he couldn’t guess.
“I’ve just taken receipt of a very large air-priority shipment.”
“Oh?”
“Don’t play Simple Simon with me, Boris. What the hell am I supposed to do with this thing?”
“I thought you might like it for your new office.”
A slight pause, then a hopeful “You’re kidding, right?”
“You don’t like it?”
“That’s an understatement. What the hell did you pay for this thing?”
“Ninety-six thousand
pataca.
”
“And what’s that in real money?” she demanded.
“About twelve thousand dollars.”
“Twelve thousand dollars!”
“Give or take. A real bargain.”
“Bargain! This thing is absolutely Orwellian.”
“It’s a bit depressing,” he admitted.
“So what am I supposed to do with it? Really?”
“Donate it to the charity of your choice.”
“What? You paid twelve grand and shipped it air priority halfway around the world just to give it away?”
“Take it home if you want.”
“Yeah, right.”
“One thing, Sissie, before you give it away…”
“I’m listening.”
“You see that third smokestack from the right?”
“Yeah.” Her voice changed as she moved closer. “What about it?”
“Get a good grip on the thing, then give it a jerk. Straight up.”
There was a momentary pause, then a determined grunt, followed by the metallic scrape of metal against metal. “The missing gun!”
“That’s the one. Ask your friend Mr. Rapp to dispose of it, will you? The sooner the better.”
“Sure. Okay. He’s coming by for lunch, I’ll give it to him then.”
“Good.” It was an admission, he realized, to her blossoming relationship with Bill Rapp. “Very good.” And now, he had his own blossoming relationship to worry about. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to go back to bed.”
“When are you coming home?”
Home,
where exactly was that? He glanced over at the alluring form stretched out across the sheets. “Kyra’s flying back tomorrow. I’m hoping to catch a ride.”
“Sounds good, Boris. Get some sleep. I won’t bother you again.”
“Great.” But it wasn’t sleep he was thinking about. “Talk to you tomorrow.”
Kyra pushed herself up on one elbow. “Hoping to catch a ride, were you?”
Among other things.
“What was that all about? A smokestack?”
“Madame Chiang had this futuristic cityscape of black tubular steel in her panic room. I managed to buy it before—”
“Ah-ha!” She bounced into a sitting position. “So that’s where you hid the gun!”
“At the time, it seemed like a decent idea. But, sooner or later, someone was going to find the thing, so I made arrangements to buy it prior to the estate auction.”
“At a price they couldn’t refuse.”
“Something like that.”
“You’re a clever man, Leonidovich.”
“Lucky too.” But he wasn’t thinking about the gun, and he couldn’t stop himself from smiling.
She cocked an eyebrow, her green eyes suddenly suspicious. “Okay, what’s going on in that devious male processor?”
“Actually…I was thinking I wouldn’t mind trying that twisty thing again.”
She grinned and swung a leg across his midsection. “I have to do everything.”
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