‘I come here unarmed, friends,’ he said. ‘I would appreciate it if you could extend me the same courtesy.’
‘How do I know I can trust you?’ Lightning Bird asked coolly.
Maksim shrugged.
‘You don’t, I guess, but do you have any other option right now? From what William told me, it’s me or the Huntsmen. He’s promised me a generous sum for helping you out, but hey, I got plenty other ways to make money, you know? Your choice, man; you can come with me, or I’ll walk outta here and go do something else. But if you want my help, you gotta trust me, okay? I can’t work with people who don’t trust me.’
Lightning Bird opened his coat and holstered his pistol, and nodded to Daekwon and Jun, who lowered their firearms too. He then looked up at Maksim and nodded.
‘All right, Maksim. I trust you; I have to.’
Maksim’s insubstantial lips parted, revealing a shimmering mouth full of gold-capped teeth, and he clasped his hands together in front of his ponderous stomach.
‘Good, good. Okay, we won’t waste any more time. So, William tells me you need to move a, how you say, a handicapped woman who’s in a heavy wheelchair. This is her, yes?’
He pointed one of his stubby fingers at Parvati, who was still asleep in the chair.
‘That’s her, yes. Listen, she’s very frail. We need to take great care in moving her.’
Maksim smiled sympathetically.
‘Don’t worry, my friend. You know, one of my hobbies is collecting antique violins. I love classical music, I just love it! I cannot play very well myself, but nonetheless, I just want to assure you that I know all about the care needed for handling delicate items. Now, I got a question for you: The lady, she is okay to be out of the chair, yes? For transport.’
‘If she is handled carefully, then, yes.’
‘Inside a piano?’
Lightning Bird raised a single eyebrow.
‘I beg your pardon, did you say inside a piano?’
A smile lifted the ends of Maksim’s lips, and a sparkle of boyish mischief twinkled in his eyes.
‘I did. I have a piano moving company. It’s good cover for, how you say, other things that I move. You know, stuff I don’t want Mr Sam finding out about.’
‘Uncle Sam.’
Maksim laughed loudly and abruptly.
‘Hahaha, yes, yes, Uncle Sam, Uncle. Anyway listen, my boys have the van downstairs. We can bring up an empty piano shell, put the lady inside, carry it out and load it up. Nobody sees anything, nobody knows anything. And the chair, we can take it apart quick. One of my boys is a mechanic, real smart. He can take any motor apart and put it back together better than it was before. We’ll take the chair apart and put it in the piano too. Nobody will know anything. What do you think?’
Lightning Bird had to agree, for there was no other option really, but he could not completely erase the frown of consternation from his face.
‘It seems like a safe enough plan,’ he muttered, ‘considering the desperate nature of our circumstances, and I suppose don’t really have any other options right now anyway. Fine, bring your men up.’
Maksim reached inside his jacket to retrieve his phone, but as he pulled it out Lightning Bird dashed forward and darted out his hand, clamping it shut around Maksim’s wrist.
‘Wait!’ the shaman hissed, his dark eyes suddenly aglow. ‘Are you sure that every one of your men can be trusted?! Are you sure, beyond any shadow of a doubt?!’
‘These boys of mine, they were street urchins, orphans with no families, starving on the streets of Kiev in the eighties and nineties. I rescued them, every one. I am like a father to them; they would never betray me, ever. I assure you of this.’
Lightning Bird relinquished his grip.
‘I hope and pray that is the truth, Maksim, because I cannot begin to explain how terrible the consequences would be if this woman falls into the hands of the enemy.’
The grin on Maksim’s face was not only excessively broad with confidence, it was almost cavalier.
‘Relax, my friend, relax. You are in good hands here, no, the best! Nobody will see us, nobody will find us. And if they do, well, let me say this: we got enough weapons in that piano truck to outfit a small army.’
Lightning Bird’s face was still awash with consternation, but he had no choice but to cooperate.
‘Very well,’ he conceded.
Maksim nodded sympathetically and then made the call. An hour later the piano, with Parvati and her wheelchair hidden inside, was loaded up into the van on the street, with Lightning Bird, Jun and Daekwon looking on as they shot suspicious glances at every passerby.
‘Come my friends,’ Maksim said after his men had loaded up the van, ‘it is time to go. You must relax; you are in good hands now. There is nothing to worry about.’
‘My sixth sense tells me otherwise,’ Lightning Bird murmured, ‘but there is nothing I can do about that.’
He, Jun and Daekwon followed Maksim to the front of the van and climbed in. As they drove off, a homeless man huddled under a pile of rags and dirty newspapers across the road reached into the pocket of his ragged jacket and pulled out a brand-new phone. He dialled a number and put the phone to his ear, his bloodshot eyes darting from side to side as he waited impatiently for the other party to pick up. They did, eventually.
‘Hey, I got ‘em,’ the homeless man whispered. ‘Both of ‘em. They in a big van, white with red an’ blue trim. It says Boris’s Piano Movers in big letters on each side, an’ on the back doors.’
He then rattled off the licence plate number and
