Sauda tapped the side of the glass case, careful to press her fingerprint flat against its surface. The glass panels folded back like a blooming flower to reveal the jewelry within.
“Go ahead,” she said, nodding at him. “They’re for you.”
Winter gingerly picked up one of the earrings. It felt similar to his pair, although he could tell that it was very slightly heavier than his own.
“Your jewelry is, of course, some of the most extraordinary in the world,” Sauda continued, “but I think our version is just a bit… fancier.”
Winter scowled down at the earrings. “If I wanted fancier jewelry, I would’ve just called my stylist.”
Sauda pulled out her phone and tapped on the screen. Immediately, it replayed Winter’s words, his voice clear and unmistakable on it.“If I wanted fancier jewelry, I would’ve just called my stylist.”
Sydney grinned at Winter’s expression, and for a moment, her hostile, sarcastic demeanor gave way to something that looked like delight. He noticed her hands were still restless, her thumbs pressing against the joints of her fingers as if she didn’t know what to do with them otherwise. “Nice sound quality, isn’t it?” she said.
Winter found himself staring at her deep blue eyes with a mix ofwariness and awe. He hadn’t quite believed she was a secret agent until now. She stared knowingly back at him, head slightly tilted, so that her blond hair curtained softly in front of one cheek. Somehow, he couldn’t imagine her looking as shocked as he did when she first began working for Panacea.
Sauda nodded. “Embedded within the silver of these earrings are the tiniest voice recorders in the world. They can pick up most conversations around them in crystal clear definition.”
Winter tore his gaze away from Sydney’s dark blue eyes and back to Sauda. “You’re telling me you have eavesdropping tools like this,” he said, “but you’ve still never been able to gather the incriminating evidence that you need to nab Eli Morrison?”
“Talking yourself out of the job already?” Sauda replied.
“It’s one thing to have an elaborate listening device,” Niall said. “Quite another to get close enough to make it useful. Eli is careful with whom he hangs around and what he says. We’re always trying to get one step ahead.”
“And with that,” Sauda said, walking to the second case in the cubicle, “here is your new ring.”
Winter found himself staring down at one of the most beautiful rings he’d ever seen in his life. It was a coil of what looked like black diamonds ending in a length of beautiful black rock, all studded with crystals to look like a snake.
He let out a breath. It was exactly the kind of thing that he liked to wear, something that would match his collection of jewelry. “I don’t have a ring like this,” he said.
“Of course not,” Sauda replied. “We designed this ourselves.”
Winter looked up skeptically at her, then pulled his sleeve up to reveal the snake tattoo that coiled around his left wrist. “You’ve been custom-making stuff for me months ahead of time?” he asked.
“Do you think we’re amateurs?” Sauda replied. “Of course we have.”She looked at Niall, and a tone of admiration entered her voice. “You and the design team went all out. It even matches the angle of his tattoo.”
At Sauda’s praise, Niall’s cheeks turned slightly pink. The big man coughed, thick eyebrows furrowing lower. “Didn’t take long to make,” he rumbled.
“A symbol of some significance to you, I presume?” Sauda asked Winter.
“Just my zodiac,” Winter replied, turning his arm this way and that. “On the Chinese calendar, snakes are loyal, crafty, and good luck.”
Sauda seemed to sense there was more to his reason than that, but she just nodded. “Well,” she said with a shrug. “Hopefully that good luck extends to all of us.” Beside her, Sydney’s gaze flitted curiously across his face.
Winter rubbed the tattoo out of instinct. He didn’t mention that when he was six, months after Artie had first left for college, he’d drawn a snake around his arm with a Sharpie after overhearing his parents screaming at each other during one of his father’s rare visits, his mother saying that everything they’d done together had been a mistake:the engagement, the marriage, the baby.His father had snorted and replied coldly,I never asked for a son.Winter had drawn the snake on himself after his father stormed out of the house, adding intricate details onto the scales, as if covering himself with a symbol of good luck could fix everything. He’d shown his mother his work, and she’d smiled sadly at him with those vacant, baggy eyes she always got after his father’s visits. Then she’d left the house without warning for two days and Winter had spent them alone, as he usually did, watching old concerts online and foraging in the freezer for nuggets.
The memory vanished. He tugged his sleeve back down before returning Sydney’s gaze. “Guess I got pretty lucky,” he decided to say. She just gave him a flat smile and looked away, and he wondered how much Panacea might know about his past.
“This snake ring is a recording device and infrared camera,” Niall said as he nodded down at it. “And that rock you see studding the top of thering is a genuine chunk from the four-point-five-billion-year-old Hierapolis pallasite meteorite, one of the most expensive meteorites in the world.”
“So don’t lose it,” Sauda said.
Winter stared closer at the stone. Scattered throughout the dark rock were shimmering bits of a green-gold mineral that caught the light.
“Olivine,” Niall said, noting Winter’s interest. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely stunning,” he said honestly.
“We’ve tracked Connor’s buying habits and noticed how he bids at auctions,” Niall went on. “A man with exquisite taste in fashion. A big fan of rare jewels. An especially big fan of rare meteorites. He’s a collector and a patron of many museums. He’ll recognize this stone immediately—that is, if you’re given access to him. That’s where your work with Penelope will open doors for you.”
