The Job (16 page)

Two more men appeared on either side of Tattoo from the cross street. They were the other thugs from the fight. They each had a butcher knife taped in their right hands.

Kate thought taping the butcher knives to their hands wouldn’t do them much good when she broke their wrists with her baton. Then it would be just her and Nick against a guy with
a broken jaw and two hatchets. So Kate felt pretty good about her odds.

She heard a shuffle of feet behind her and knew more men had joined the party.

“What have we got behind us?” she asked Nick, while she kept her eyes on the hatchet guy.

“A big ugly guy with an ice pick, and a moron with a steak knife.”

Kate flicked her baton open.

“I suppose you’re unarmed?” she said to Nick.

“You suppose correct.”

Someone gave a shrill whistle from the vicinity of the tunnel, capturing everyone’s attention, and Jake O’Hare emerged from the darkness with one hand behind his back.

“I think you should leave this nice couple alone,” he said to the thugs. “Or you’ll have to deal with me.”

Icepick laughed. “What are you going to do about it, old man?”

Jake brought his hand out from behind his back. “I’ll shoot you with this flare gun, and then I’ll kill the guy next to you while he’s still wiping your brains out of his eyes.”

Billy Dee Snipes stepped out of the shadows behind Tattoo, swung his machete at Tattoo’s head, and sliced off the knot that held the scarf in place. Tattoo’s broken jaw dropped, he screamed in agony, and reached for his face. Unfortunately, with two hatchets taped to his hands, he chopped off half his right ear before he realized his mistake.

Whoosh!
Billy Dee sliced the air in front of him with his machete. “The next swing takes off somebody’s head. Do you still want to play?”

The four thugs ran off like cockroaches exposed to the light, leaving Tattoo behind in his sad and painful predicament.

Jake watched as Tattoo staggered past him and went whimpering toward the tunnel. “What kind of idiot tapes hatchets to both his hands?”

“Someone who thinks a tattoo of a dead goat on his head is stylish,” Nick said. “Did you two follow us here?”

“No,” Jake said. “We were just out looking for a drink.”

“In this neighborhood?” Kate asked.

Jake looked around. “What’s wrong with it?”

Kate gestured to the tunnel with her baton. “Guys like that.”

“So we met some of the colorful locals. It’s what gives a place charm.”

“Charm?” Kate said. “They had knives and axes.”

Jake shrugged. “Billy Dee has a machete, and he is very charming.”

“This is true,” Billy Dee said.

“I think you guessed that we were here to see Diogo Alves and you wanted to make sure we came out alive,” Kate said.

“You can handle yourself just fine,” Jake said and shifted his gaze to Nick. “You, I am not so sure about.”

“I’m more dangerous than I look,” Nick said. “But I appreciate you both showing up, regardless of why it happened.”

“Me, too.” Kate bent down, closed her baton against the
pavement, and returned it to her pocket. “And now I’m going back to my luxurious suite. I have big plans for the rest of the evening.”

“That sounds promising,” Nick said. “What did you have in mind?”

“Room service,” Kate said.

Nick tossed his keys onto the sideboard in the small foyer, then locked and bolted the door to the suite.

“Honey, I’m home,” he yelled.

It was nine at night and Kate was on the couch with her iPad. She was barefoot, wearing a too-big T-shirt and gray sweatpants. “Why do you always yell when you come in?”

“I don’t want to surprise you and get shot or garroted or whacked with your baton because you think I’m an intruder.”

“You
are
an intruder,” Kate said. “You’re intruding on my peace and quiet. When is something going to happen? I’m going goofy sitting here with nothing to do. It’s been three days.”

“You could be a tourist.”

“I did that.”

“You could get some exercise.”

“I did that, too,” Kate said.

“We could pretend we’re actually married,” Nick said.

“I don’t think so.”

“What have you got against marriage?”

“It’s not marriage. It’s
you
! You have no respect for the law.”

“I respect some laws.”

“You’re on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. What kind of a future would we have? What would I tell the children?”

Nick went to the refreshment center and poured himself a whiskey. “We’re talking about a
pretend
marriage, right?”

“Of course.”

“With a pretend future and pretend kids?”

“I might have gotten carried away.”

Nick took his drink to the couch and sat next to Kate. He took a sip of the whiskey and smiled.

“What’s with the smile?” Kate asked.

“I’m enjoying myself. Good whiskey. Nice room. My pretend wife snuggled next to me.”

“I’m not snuggled.”

Nick slid his arm around her and cuddled her into him. “Now you are.”

“Don’t get any ideas,” Kate said.

“Too late. I have lots of ideas. Would you like to hear some of them?”

“No!”

“Where’s your sense of adventure? What about bravery?”

“What about reckless stupidity?”

Nick gave her a squeeze and took another sip of the whiskey. “I heard back from my contacts in Berlin and Paris today. They had names of potential buyers, but none of the names were on the chocolate list.”

“So we’re left with Alves.”

“I have some other lines out there, but Alves is the most likely to help us.” He glanced down at her iPad. “What are you looking at?”

“Rodney Smoot sent us some stills taken from the underwater footage of the golden table and piles of coins. They’re peeking out from the silt and are totally convincing. There’s nothing about them that would indicate they’re digital creations.”

The shipping container that held the render farm computers was delivered on the afternoon of the fourth day Nick and Kate were in Lisbon. An hour later Nick got a message that Diogo Alves wanted to meet at the University of Lisbon’s Institute of Anatomy.

The institute was in an old building that smelled of age and medicine, of dust, rubbing alcohol, and formaldehyde. Nick and Kate walked down a long, empty hall to the last room on the floor.

They found Diogo Alves sitting on a stool in the center of the small room, surrounded by thousands of jars of human organs and body parts floating in liquid. The jars filled glass cabinets and covered all the tables and counters. There were even some on the floors. Shafts of sunshine from the barely open shutters
refracted through the prisms of the glass jars and liquids to make the organs glow with an eerie supernatural vibrancy.

“What is this place?” Kate asked.

“For centuries, scientists have been saving human body parts to study,” Alves said to Nick and Kate. “This is a collection that showcases the many different methods of anatomical preservation. What the scientists chose to save, and how they did it, is even more interesting than the organs.” Alves sat back and held his hand out to the jar directly in front of him. “Allow me to introduce my great-great-great-great-grandfather and namesake, Diogo Alves.”

The jar contained a perfectly preserved human head, its face pressed up so close to the glass that it appeared to be kissing it. The resemblance between the living Alves and the head in the jar was uncanny. The living Alves might as well have been looking at his own reflection in a mirror instead of at a head in a jar.

“How often do you come here?” Nick asked Alves.

“At least once or twice a week, usually more. How many men do you know who can visit with one of their forefathers?”

The disembodied head was wide-eyed with a look of surprise.

“He looks like he wasn’t expecting to die,” Kate said.

“I like to think he was seeing beyond,” Alves said. “I cherish this opportunity to spend time with him. I come here to get Diogo’s advice on things. He’s a very wise man.”

“He talks to you,” Kate said.

“Diogo doesn’t speak to me directly, of course. But yes, I hear him, the way some people I suppose hear God speaking to
them. Sometimes I could swear he’s actually looking at me, that his eyes follow me as I move around the room.”

Kate was sure if she stared at the head long enough, she’d think the eyes were following her, too. And then she’d get sick and throw up.

“You should be honored that I invited you here to share this intimacy with me,” Alves said.

“I certainly am,” Nick said. “I know that allowing us to be here with you means that you take us, and our business relationship, very seriously.”

“Thank you, Nick. The people I contacted on your behalf entertained your proposal because they have personal relationships with me. If you have misled me, and cheat these people in any way, they will blame me for it. And then I will seek Diogo’s advice on how to deal with you.” Alves gestured to the jar. “My ancestor is not a forgiving or merciful man. Some of these jars contain recent donations to the collection from people who have disappointed me.”

Kate couldn’t help but glance at the nearest jar. A big floating eyeball stared back at her. She knew the chance to deliver this threat was the real reason Alves had summoned them here.

“Don’t worry,” Kate said. “We’re all going to get very rich from this. Nobody is going to be disappointed.”

“I hope so.” Alves reached into his breast pocket and handed Nick a slip of paper. “Here are three names. If you wish to contact them, I will make the arrangements. My commission will be deducted before you receive any funds.”

“Works for me,” Nick said.

“Let me and Diogo give you a piece of advice. Think very carefully before you take the next step,” Alves said. “These are not men who suffer fools. But they do enjoy making fools suffer.”

Nick and Kate returned to the ship, booted up Kate’s MacBook at a table in the mess hall, and ran the three names that Alves had given them against Ryerson’s list of chocolate customers. One name was common to both lists. Demetrio Violante.

“I’m not surprised,” Nick said, sitting across the table from her.

“You know him?”

“I know
about
him. The same is true for every person who was suggested to us. I’ve sized them all up for fleecing at one time or another.”

“I didn’t know it was such a small world.”

“The kind of person who has tens of millions of dollars to play with and is still greedy enough to take outrageous risks to acquire even more money is also the perfect mark for me.”

“Was,”
Kate said. “You aren’t swindling people anymore. What kind of hustle were you thinking about running on Violante?”

“A real estate scam,” Nick said. “I considered selling him a resort development that’s a ghost town now near Puerto Banús. The financing collapsed and it was abandoned when it was half-completed.”

“But you don’t own the land.”

“I don’t let insignificant details like that concern me.”

“What made you think Violante would be interested in the property?”

“He showed up in Marbella a few years ago with lots of cash, ambition, and good luck. Within a few days of his arrival, he managed to buy one of the biggest and most successful construction companies in the Costa del Sol for next to nothing.”

“How did he manage that?”

“The founding partner of the firm accidentally set himself on fire at a Marbella gas station and blew the place up.”

“That’s an unusual accident.”

“The police say he lit a cigar while filling up the tank on his Bentley, which was odd, because he didn’t smoke. The gas station, which was completely destroyed in the massive explosion, happened to be on a key piece of property that the construction company needed to build a condo complex. But the owner’s stubborn refusal to sell had forced them to scuttle the project.”

“Let me guess. After the ‘accident,’ the remaining partners in the construction company suddenly decided to retire and the gas station owner sold the property.”

Nick nodded. “And the detective who investigated the death and determined that it was a tragic accident later moved into one of the new condos. It’s funny how things just manage to work out for some people.”

“Hilarious,” Kate said. “Let’s see what Lester Menendez looks like now that he’s Demetrio Violante.”

“You won’t find any photos. Violante doesn’t allow his picture to be taken. He’s very concerned about his privacy.”

“I’m sure he is,” Kate said. “Even with a new face and body. Where does he live?”

“On a peak outside of Marbella. It’s like a fortress. The only way to access it is from a private road or by air. He has a completely unobstructed 360-degree view from his property. He can see all the way to Africa. There’s no way to reach his place without him seeing you coming.”

“Which means he’s probably got a secret escape tunnel.”

“Who doesn’t?”

“If you knew so much about Violante, how come you weren’t aware of his passion for chocolate?”

“There were a lot of things I didn’t know about him. For instance, I wasn’t aware that he was actually one of the most powerful and sadistic drug lords on earth.”