“Agreed.” Varok spoke with a finality that surprised me. Then he surprised me again.
I didn’t even see him move, just felt the sudden sting in my fingers as he swatted the pistol from my grip. His other hand was at my neck before I could react, and my back slammed into the wall, his silver face inches from mine.
You might call his smile predatory. I wouldn’t argue. From this distance, I saw how sharp his teeth were, felt his warm breath on my cheek. My heart raced, my chest heaved as I struggled to catch my breath, and a tremor ran through my body.
I tried to speak, to say something, but I found no words. Frozen in place, helpless, I stared into Varok’s eyes with no idea what I hoped would happen next.
“I will steal your precious Night’s Watch,” he said, voice a low growl that sent shivers down my spine. “Notbecause of your threats.”
Yeah, no shit.Holding him at gunpoint seemed like a laughable idea now. I did my best to nod. With Varok’s hand on my neck, I could barely lower my chin.
“Nor is it because of the challenge. That’s not enough on its own.”
Leaning in even closer, his breath hot on my skin, he whispered, “I will steal it foryou, Penelope Halford.”
With that, he released me, turning away in a sudden move that left me stumbling. My cheeks burning red, I gulped down air and tried to think of something to say.
Nothing occurred to me other than the embarrassing ‘what?’ that I refused to say.Does he genuinely expect me to believe he’s ditching his own heist for mine?
Was it a trick? It had to be. I wanted to trust Varok, but my inner cynic had seen me burned too many times before. A man promising me everything I wanted? Thatneverended well.
If I couldn’t see Varok’s trick right now, that just meant he was hiding it well. The wonderful, rose-tinted idea that he meant it was too good to be true. That didn’t mean I could refuse.
I had no options left. No backup plan aside from abandoning the mission altogether.I’ll keep an eye out for his inevitable treachery and backstab him before he can backstab me.
“Fine. Yes. Let’s do it.”
Packing The Night Watch was a fraught process. In its frame, the painting was too big and unwieldy to move, so we braced a pair of Varok’s anti-grav lifters under it. I still winced as we lowered it to the ground again as we dismantled the frame and had to swallow my fear that we’d damage the priceless canvas. In a few hours, morning would arrive, and with it, General Attrobi and a gaggle of bloodthirsty nobles.
So we rolled it up like a carpet, careful of the centuries-old paint. To his credit, Varok was every bit as careful as I was, never rushing.It won’t be worth as much to him damaged,I told myself, working hard to ignore the possibility that he was doing this for me.
Fortunately, the Collectors had been efficient with storage. I found the case Attrobi used to transport The Night Watch hidden in a niche behind the painting and breathed a sigh of relief. Climate controlled and shielded, it would keep the painting safe during its rescue.
Once we finished loading the massive painting into its container, Varok slid it back onto his anti-grav lifters and floated the canvas up to waist height. He guided it to the sarcophagus, looked from the painting to the open stasis chamber, and frowned.
“Well? What’s the next bit of your foolproof plan then?” I asked, hands on hips.
“I was afraid of this. Your painting’s too big to fit.”
I groaned. “Your plan, your solution to my problem, was to stuff it into a coffin? What, just walk out with it and hope no one notices the missing art and melting statue?”
“No. I’d fake a containment failure, rush the sarcophagus back to my ship and get it off-planet. No one would stop me while I’m moving an unstable antimatter bomb away from them.”
I looked at him wide-eyed. He looked back, his aggravating smile and annoying confidence daring me to say something. I didn’t disappoint him.
“That is the stupidest plan in the history of stupid plans. It’s like…like…I have no idea what it’s like.”
“It beats yours.”
“How? Neither plan works!”
He didn’t respond, just looked at the sarcophagus and grimaced. A long moment stretched between us before he sighed and pulled a datachip out of his comm bracelet. Weighing it in his hand, he thought for a moment longer before speaking.
“My backup plan still works, but it might be a little risky for your taste.”
“I’ll try anything.” I don’t know if he’d intended to needle me with that remark, and it didn’t matter. Perhaps I was more risk-averse than Varok, but I’d be damned if I’d let him paint me as a coward.
He nodded but didn’t elaborate. Instead, he returned to the eerie sculpture, carefully disconnecting it from its pedestal and lifting it into the stasis chamber. The door swung shut with a loud click, and the stasis field engaged with an almost inaudible hum.
