Hunter’s stomach went cold. “What were you—”
Josh was standing next to him, and his sharp elbow drove all the air out of Hunter’s lungs.
“So,” Josh said brightly, like he hadn’t just bruised Hunter’s ribs through his specially lined coat, “don’t you want to know what makes this stone really special?”
“It’s cut like a flower!” Hunter blurted. “Is that… can we do… does that even work?”
“No, that’s not it,” Josh said, cupping his elbow and gnawing on his thumb like his Uncle Danny.
“It’s not it?” Hunter said blankly.
“What?” From Molly.
“Are you kidding me?” Grace demanded.
Josh scowled at them. “You guys, carved gems are a thing. It’s just that a lot of jewelers don’t have the skill—or sometimes the imagination—to do this to a piece of gemstone. No, the carving is brilliant. The fact that it’s shaped like a magnolia is… well, it’s damned pretty, and probably laser cut, and it needs a lot of skill. But that’s not the super special prize in the bottom of the box. Stirling, do you want to tell them all what we’ve won?”
Stirling chuckled and fiddled with the zoom on his computer monitor. The long shot of the gem cupped in Grace’s hand changed to the gem sitting face up on a piece of black velvet. There was something odd about those petals, a striation that changed the color intensity. What in the fuck…?
Everybody squinted at the picture, leaning forward as though they could will those inconsistencies and flaws to come into focus.
The zoom intensified until it was down to microscopic, and Hunter sucked in a breath.
Then Molly and Grace did too.
“And that is what I’m talking about,” Josh said.
“Is that… is that a microchip? Or… that’s computer mapping on the tourmaline, isn’t it?” Hunter gasped. “Like, those are—”
“Danny was right,” Josh confirmed. “This isn’t just a rock, and it’s not just a thumb drive. It’s an information bomb,” Josh confirmed. He held his phone up. “I texted Danny the pictures and he told Stirling what to look for. It’s got files alluding to Lucius—”
Broadstone, who had been sitting silently in the darkest corner of the room, nodded appreciatively.
“—but it’s got more secrets here. Tourmaline’s a fairly common material, even when it’s fancy cut like this. But guys, the information on this rock? Depending on what else it holds, that could be worth billions.”
“So what are we going to do about it?” Hunter asked, and Josh pursed his lips.
“I need to have a conference call with Felix and Dan—”
And at that moment, his phone rang.
“Hey, Dad, you’re on speaker.”
“Are Julia and Artur with you?” Felix Salinger had that air of command that made good soldiers like Hunter automatically square up their shoulders.
“No, they’re out,” Josh replied. “But Broadstone’s with us.”
Felix grunted. “Still?”
“Yes, still,” Broadstone spoke up, annoyed. “You may remember, whoever these people are, they’ve stolen my tech.”
“You don’t even know which tech yet, though,” Felix said suspiciously. “You won’t know until someone shows up next quarter with your neat and spiffy new product in their catalog. Did I get that right?”
“Shut up,” Broadstone muttered sheepishly, and everyone in the room smirked. Handsome enough—besides the arctic hazel eyes and dark-brown almost black hair, Broadstone had a patrician nose and high forehead, like a young Gavin Newsom but with less crazy. Apparently, besides having full responsibility for his company, he also had a sense of humor, and Hunter had to admit, he seemed to fit in.
“Yes, sir,” Felix responded acidly from the phone. “Shutting up now, sir. Here’s the thing, children. We went looking for ripples—what sorts of things happened after Artur’s packages were delivered—and we didn’t find any for the delivery sites. No ripples. Artur dropped his package off, his trip went flawlessly, and that was the end of it.”
“I sense a ‘but’ coming,” Josh said.
“That’s ’cause you top,” Grace quipped, and Josh casually shot him the bird without even looking up. “Sometimes,” Grace murmured to Molly.
Hunter sent him a look, and he subsided, but Hunter got it. The world wasn’t paying attention to Grace, and he’d needed to know he hadn’t been forgotten. Hunter saw Molly pat his knee, and his shoulders relaxed. It wasn’t only Hunter, then, who was starting to understand the care and feeding of the exotic creature they called Grace.
They all heard Felix breathe patiently through his nose and out his mouth, and then he continued on. “The thing is, using Broadstone’s company—and some of the tech he told us had been stolen, we started looking for other ripples. And it turns out that there are consequences to the drop-off, but they’re usually about three weeks afterward. In a city far away.”
“Oh my God,” Josh muttered, gnawing on his thumb. “Dad, how are we going to—”
“We can always steal it again,” Grace said, sounding excited.
“So you can say you stole the same gem twice in a night?” Stirling taunted.
“Or,” Josh said patiently, “we can use the tracker Grace put on the box in the first place. Grace, you said the seal on the box was broken, but they were still keeping the gem inside, right?”
“Yes,” Grace said. “Box had been opened, but gem was back inside. I would bet they were told to check to make sure the right thing was in the bag. I’d do that.”
“So,” Hunter said, remembering how Tazo and his companion—Piotr—hadn’t objected too strongly to Hunter leaving because they themselves had an early night. “So….” He kept his arms crossed in front of him but drummed his fingertips along his ribs. “So they are going to have to deliver the gem to their employer, either tonight or tomorrow. Stirling, is it still in the Times Square?”
“Box hasn’t moved,” Stirling confirmed. “Grace, where was the box when you grabbed the gem to take pictures?”
“In someone’s duffel bag,” Grace said. “In the bottom.” He sniffed. “Thank God for gloves. Someone needed to wash his underwear.”
“That’s Tazo,” Hunter said with a grunt and then realized everybody was looking at him with speculation in their eyes. Oh. “No!” he snapped. “No, I didn’t sleep with him.” He let out a huff. “I ran into his ex-girlfriend on an elevator.” He shuddered. “People, the things she told me…. Some things you can’t rinse from your inner eye.”
There was sort of a collective grimace, and Felix said dryly, “And moving on…. So we can safely assume we can track the gem wherever it goes. Stirling, how long will the tracker last, and what’s its range?”
“A week,” Stirling said. “And pretty much the continental US. Anything outside—”
Danny spoke up. “And we can assume it’s from a Kadjic stronghold in Armenia or the Ukraine. Or Monaco. Either way, out of our purview.”