“Excuse me?” said Vayl.
I looked at my watch. “Wow, three a.m. Where has the time gone? Are we squared away on the dognapping?”
Dave nodded. “Just what I was going to ask. I understand our cover. But not how we’re supposed to get this mutt’s attention.”
“Bergman has provided us with the tools we need,” said Vayl. He turned to me. “Jasmine?”
Since I’d packed the goodies, it came to me to run into the bedroom and unearth the plain silver aerosol cans that contained Bergman’s invention. Barely resisting the urge to cover my brother in doggy-sniff mist, I tossed him one can and gave the other to Vayl. As I resumed my seat I said, “When I told Bergman we needed to take temporary custody of a large canine, he sent me these. He said to treat them like bug spray.”
“You mean, they’re a repellent?” asked Dave.
“Just the opposite. As soon as he gets a whiff of us, he’ll want to be friends for life. He’ll go anywhere with us, no problem. By the way, the dog’s name is Ziel.”
“What’re we going to smell like to him?” Dave asked. “Steak?”
“That’s what I asked. No, Bergman says he won’t think we’re dinner. It’s more a let’s-play kind of scent. Like we’re just a couple of other malamutes.”
“Is this a prototype?”
“Nope. He invented it about five years ago. Tried and true.”
“So we are set,” Vayl pronounced. “You two will use Bergman’s spray to aid in your mission tomorrow. Samos is staying at a hotel called the Olympia. David already has the address because he is going to place cameras outside the entrances at his earliest convenience.” He rubbed his hands together like he was about to dig into a big old piece of apple pie. But I knew better. He just didn’t know what else to do with them. Which was when I realized what had been missing from the overall picture.
“What happened to your cane?” I asked.
He opened his empty hands, stared at them as if he’d just seen them for the first time today. When his eyes rose to meet mine, they were nearly black with fury. “I cannot remember. But I can imagine.”
“Disa,” we both said at the same time. We looked at Dave.
“Exactly what happened in that meeting?” I demanded. “Describe everything. Any detail could make the difference.”
“What are you saying?” asked Dave. “What’s the cane got to do with the meeting?”
“Maybe nothing,” I told him, shooting Vayl a comforting look. “Maybe you just left it under your chair when it was time to go.”
“But I have never forgotten it,” Vayl said, rubbing the heel of his hand across his forehead. “It has been my constant companion for over two hundred years.”
I nodded. “Which means it’s become a part of you. Objects like that can be dangerous when they fall into the wrong hands. So”—I turned back to my brother—“details.”
Dave scratched his cheeks, the sandpaper scrape of his nails against the new growth of his beard the only sound in the room. “We went to Disa’s private quarters. There’s a stone balcony built off her bedroom with a wall that curves out and a stairway that leads to the ground floor. That’s where the talk happened. There weren’t many chairs, so most of us stood. In fact, I think the only people who sat were Vayl and Disa.”
“Who else was there?”
“Sibley and Marcon. Those two gigantic guards were there too.”
“What happened when you came onto the balcony?”
“Sibley handed us copies of the contract. I remember being surprised she’d found it so easily after all that bullshit about not even knowing we were coming.” Dave glanced at Vayl. “What did you think about that?”
My boss had gone stiff and wary, as if he suspected an imminent ambush. “I . . .” His hand went to his forehead, triggering an overall tightening of his facial muscles that aged him by at least a decade. “Something distracted me almost from the moment the meeting began. I found it hard to concentrate. I kept looking at the guards, thinking they were being rude speaking so loudly during an important meeting. But they were not talking at all.”
“Did you have your cane when you stepped onto Disa’s balcony?” I asked.
He nodded. “Of that I am sure.”
“What else?” I directed the question to Dave.
He shrugged. “Pretty straightforward stuff until the end. They went over the details while the guards and I made sure everybody behaved.”
“But in the end Disa didn’t toe the line. In fact, she drew an entirely new one.” I tried, really I did, but I couldn’t keep the accusation out of my tone. Dave faced it squarely, as he’d been trained to, though the toll must’ve made his shoulders creak, considering the load he was already carrying. “I’m sorry,” I said immediately. “Your job is just to watch Vayl’s back. And you did exactly that. She didn’t stab him. She trapped him. There’s no way you could’ve prevented that.”
“Maybe if I’d have known what to look for,” Dave said with a regretful shrug. “But after the contract discussion was over, all she did was lean sideways, pick this two-handled cup off the floor, and say, ‘With this blood I bind you for the next half century.’ Then she poured the contents over his hand.”
As Vayl studied his pale, empty fingers, I said, “Wait a second. You didn’t mention a cup before. Was it big?”
