“Mmmhmm.” Bas turned to look at the painting, his mouth full of noodles, and swallowed. “It’s a copy of a Rembrandt painting calledThe Storm on the Sea of Galilee. It’s s’posed to be inspiring - Jesus does a miracle and calms the storm orsomething.”
“It’s inspiring likeJawswas inspiring,” Drew said. “It inspires me to never go in the wateragain.”
Bas chuckled. “Yeah. My mom did it during some art class, and my dad hung it up, even though it’s seriously gloomy. He was kind of asap.”
“And you’re the sap who keepsit.”
“Hey!”
Drew smirked at his phone, while Bas rolled his eyes and shoveled more food in hismouth.
“What are you playing?” Bas demanded, when several minutes had passed in silence. It wasn’t like Drew to ignore him thisway.
“Hmm? Oh, it’s called DragonPuzzler.”
Bas frowned. “Nojewels?”
“Uh. No, there are jewels,” Drew admitted, rolling his eyes when Bas snorted. “But it’s notjustjewels. There are levels and upgradesand…”
“Dragons?”
Drew shot him a glare. “Yes.”
Ah, there was nothing like provoking Drew. Even after weeks apart, they had resumed their usual banter with the ease of two people who’d been halves of a whole for most of their lives. Bas finished his meal in a much betterhumor.
“Alright,” he said, leaning back in his chair and cracking open his soda. “I’m fed. Would’ve been better if there’d been dessert, but I can’t complain. Is this the point where you give me the blindfold and lastrites?”
“So dramatic. Maybe I came to see if you had made any progress.” Drew waved a hand at the computer set-up.
“Sure you did. Well, as it happens, I managed to get into Alexei’s server yesterday. Oroneof them.” He sighed in frustration. “I hit a deadend.”
“I’m not even going to ask how the hell you accomplished that, because the less I know, the less I have to pretend I don’t know,” Drew said with a long-suffering sigh. “Does that mean we can’t get at themonline?”
“It might mean he has another server, in which case I’d need to find its physical location. Or… I guess there’s the possibility that he’s air-gapped all his sensitivedata.”
“Air-gappedit. Of course. I mean,pfft. Doesn’t everyone?” Drewdrawled.
Bas rolled his eyes. “Air gapping means keeping it on a server that’s not connected to the internet, ever. Even I can’t hack a server that’s not online, believe it ornot.”
Drew frowned. “Is thatlikely?”
“It’s possible.” Bas shrugged and shook his head ruefully. “Actually, it’s good business practice, especially with the completely illegal shit he has to hide. I don’t want to give the asshole credit for being that smart, but maybe he is.” He pulled up the picture of Alexei again and swept a hand at it. “Does this look like a criminal mastermind toyou?”
“This ishim?”
“Yep. Alexei Stornovich,” he said, as Drew came around the desk and leaned over his chair. “I won’t bore you with the laundry list of things he’s been accusedof…”
“Convictions?”
“None,” Bas returned, tapping another key. “Just a list of charges that haven’t stuck. And there’sthis.”
Drew perused the list of names on the screen. “His knownassociates?”
“Former associates. All of these people have gonemissing.”
“Missing doesn’t mean he had anything to do with it,” Drew reasoned. “Correlation versuscausation.”
That smooth, polished lawyer-voice of Drew’s had always been provoking. In the past, it made Bas want to push Drew’s buttons, if only to show that he could rile Drew up. But now, it made his stomach clench uncomfortably with something like… something like…arousal. He wanted to throw the man against the wall and kiss him until his eyescrossed.
