earlier.
“Why is Lung here?” I asked.
“I take it you’re not looking for the obvious answer,” said Cole.
“He’s stolen an invaluable item that, if he can duplicate it, will make his army damn near invincible. So why isn’t he riding a rocket to China?”
Cassandra said, “Don’t you mean why hasn’t Pengfei made herself scarce?”
“Yeah, I guess I do.”
“I’m lost,” said Jericho.
I sat forward in my chair. “Look, tonight Lung will have a full Chinese crew aboard that yacht of his. He’s been biding his time, waiting for them to arrive. What’s that say to you?”
They looked at me, their faces a study in blank.
“It’s his getaway car—er, boat,” I explained. “That’s why he’s still here. He couldn’t do anything because his crew was still traveling here from China.”
“So is he leaving tonight?”
“I think so, but something else is happening first.” I turned to Jericho. “Logistically speaking, this place is primed to blow. It’s going to be packed with people. Security bites, and what people the organizers have hired are largely untrained.”
A thought hit me. “That little drama last night with the burning of our tent might even have been a test run to see how much chaos they could cause and for how long.” Then I remembered Pengfei ripping out Li’s heart. “Or not. At any rate, I would feel a whole helluva lot better if you could have this joint swarming with off-duties tonight. Just make sure if something goes down they all know you’re in charge.”
He’d begun nodding about halfway through my speech. As soon as I finished, he was off his seat and on the phone Bergman had repaired, walking away from us, strolling down the winding path toward the Acrobats’ Arena.
Cassandra watched him go, slumping a little as the distance between them grew. “He was so nice.”
“Yeah.”
“And look at that butt.”
I considered said item. “Definitely superior. But not for Cassandra hands?”
She shook her head sadly. “Another woman stands between us now. He’ll meet her within the month.”
“Is she prettier than you?”
Cassandra started to smile.
“Well?”
“No.”
“Ha!”
“Jaz!”
“Honey, we’ve got to take our victories where we can find them.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT
Jericho returned, but not for long. Duty called. So after making plans to meet up again later in the evening, we said our goodbyes.
“What now?” asked Cole.
The three of us stood in front of the RV under the awning. I was beginning to feel guilty about leaving Bergman so much on his own, but he liked it so much better that way. I’d have to make honing his people skills a priority on our next mission together even if he didn’t think it was necessary. I said, “That’s really up to you, Cassandra. What kinds of things will we need for this disguise spell?”
She held up a finger. “I was studying that last night. Let me get the book.”
She went inside. I waited for the growly, snarly sounds that would signal the snapping off of her head by our resident neurotic, but she emerged unscathed carrying a smelly old tome bound in something that sure looked like —
“Tell me that’s not people skin,” said Cole.
“Not,” she agreed. “I think it might be lamb.”
“Lamb isn’t much better,” I told her. “You know, where I grew up between 1988 and 1990, you couldn’t even buy lamb in the grocery store.”
Cassandra shook her head sadly. “That certainly explains a great deal about you,” she said.
Cole laughed softly until I kicked him in the foot. “So,” he said, “what does the book with the creepy cover say?”
She opened it up to a place she’d marked with—I kid you not—a square of toilet paper. It creaked. Cole and I traded glances. He did a haunted house shudder and I rolled my eyes.
“Would you two stop fooling around?”
“Sorry,” said Cole.
