"Thank you." She picked up both drinks and made her way to the corner table, her pulse pounding so loudly she was sure everyone in the bar could hear it.
Petrov had already settled into the chair across from Dimitri, and both men looked up as she approached, their expressions giving nothing away.
She set the vodka in front of Petrov and sat down with her whiskey sour. "Well? Did Dave show up?"
Petrov picked up his vodka glass and took a long, slow sip. The bastard was enjoying making her wait.
"Konstantin," Dimitri said warningly.
Petrov grinned, his eyes crinkling at the corners with amusement. "Congratulations, Mattie. You are officially assigned the title of lab assistant, and you start your new job immediately."
For a moment, the words didn't register. Lab assistant. New job. Immediately.
Then the meaning sank in, and Mattie felt like she'd won the lottery.
"Really?" Her voice came out as a squawk. "You're serious?"
"I never joke about important things." Petrov raised his glass in a mock toast. "Welcome to the team."
Mattie lunged across the table and threw her arms around him, nearly knocking over her whiskey sour in the process. "Thank you," she breathed against his shoulder. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
She kissed both his cheeks, European-style, before pulling back.
Petrov looked slightly flustered but pleased, his cheeks pink above his graying beard.
"How did you do it?" she asked, sitting back in her chair.
"I'd almost given up and closed up the lab when Dave arrived," Petrov said. "It was after six, and all eight of him looked exhausted. The only time I've seen him so drained was when I first arrived, and we ran out of drugs for him."
"Why? What was he doing?"
Petrov took another sip of vodka before answering. "When I asked what kept him so busy, he said Losham needed his help with damage control. At first, I thought he meant the explosions.You know, the cleanup, the repairs, that sort of thing. But then he said something interesting."
He paused, clearly savoring the moment. Mattie wanted to shake him.
"Dave said the explosions triggered something much worse. Something they had to take care of personally." Petrov shrugged. "They refused to say anything more, and I didn't push. I had more important things to ask about."
"Like my new job," Mattie said.
"Precisely." Petrov smiled. "I told them we needed help in the lab, and that having an assistant to handle some of the routine tasks would make us at least twenty percent more efficient. I may have exaggerated our workload a little, but people like it when you throw percentages of improvement at them."
"What did they say?"
"They said it was obvious we should have you. Didn't even hesitate." Petrov's smile widened. "Dave said he will find your name in the records and update your position to list you as working in the lab."
"Just like that?" Mattie could hardly believe it.
"Just like that. I asked if we needed to notify the head of housekeeping at the hotel, and they said you could handle it yourself."
That was a shame because the head of housekeeping was a scary woman, and Mattie would have preferred for her to get the news through an official channel.
Dimitri reached across the table and took her hand. "This is huge. I'm so happy."
"So am I." Mattie squeezed his hand.
Her eyes were stinging with tears of relief that she refused to let fall.
"A toast," Petrov announced, raising his vodka glass. "To our newest team member. May she bring us luck, efficiency, and fewer headaches than the last assistant we had."
