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"Of course"

"Then help ot proof, you say?"

Taccone held his drink to the light as if toasting Kat and her courage "Of course"

Kat smiled, but her expression held no cheer "Then shohat you’ve got"

There would coh Kat didn’t know it yet-- when her conversation with Taccone that evening would be told and retold around Uncle Eddie’s kitchen table a thousand tie would involve not rain but bullets; when the tale of her asking Arturo Taccone for his help would include threats and s and so pistols (which, according to legend, Kat would also steal)

But Kat herself never told the story Hale and Gabrielle lay in the darkness, staring down at the grounds when the drawbridge lowered and Kat left of her own free will, taking her sweet tih the rain and darkness, Hale and Gabrielle didn’t notice the way she kept the small disk from Arturo Taccone tucked under her arm But, of course, they would see it eventually

And, of course, eventually, it would change everything

Chapter 10

The hotel suite was nice Hale (or, more specifically, Marcus) didn’t kno to reserve any other kind The couch was plush, and the television was large, but as Kat settled in to watch the disk Taccone had given her, she was anything but comfortable

"There should be popcorn," Gabrielle’s voice cut through the suite "Am I the only one who thinks there should be popcorn?"

Kat pulled her dry sweater around her and tried to tell herself it was the rain and her damp hair that had chilled her

"Milk Duds," Hale said as he sank to the end of the sofa "I, personally, am a fan of the Dud" And Kat suddenly realized where the chill was co from

Hale hadn’t spoken to her in the car or looked at her in the elevator Kat pulled a notebook fro if Hale would ever forgive her for walking away froain

She reached for the remote control and pushed PLAY The television flickered Ghostly black-and-white i entryway that she had walked down only an hour before, a professional-grade kitchen, a wine cellar, a billiards parlor, Arturo Taccone’s private study And finally

"Stop"

Gabrielle hit the PAUSE button, and the ie froze on a room that Kat hadn’t seen--a room Kat could only assume very few people ever saw

A bench was the only piece of furniture The floors were solid stone instead ofwas the five paintings that hung on the far wall

"Blueprints," she said, but Hale was already rolling the spare set of documents onto the coffee table between the sofa and the TV

"Here" Kat pointed to a room on the plans that had the same dimensions as the one on the screen "Looks like it’s located underground, probably only accessible here" She tapped the blueprints "A hidden elevator in Taccone’s office"

"How do you know that?" Gabrielle asked

Kat thought about the dark wooden paneling behind Taccone’s desk "Because I’ht"

Hale tensed beside her, but he didn’t speak as he touched the rees played like an old silent movie without a star, until the video flickered back to Taccone’s office

Floor-to-ceiling s do that flashed through the sky on the screen in front of theine the villa going dark, so and a dislike of storms

But in the suite, all Kat heard was the deep sighs of her companions and their simultaneous excla done it herself on ine the thief scouting the old villa and for a roo that catered to tourists, perhaps A place where he could be just another visitor to the countryside, while he watched and waited for a storht

When the tape resuenerators kicked on?"

"Forty-five seconds," Gabrielle answered

"Not bad," Hale said

"For Taccone’s systeed as if to say it was a toss-up

"Everything else went black, but this room" Kat pointed to the vaultlike space that filled the screen "This room must be on a separate feed frolanced from the screen to the blueprints "Looks like it’s directly under"

But her voice trailed off as, on screen, water began dripping fro

"The moat," they all finished in unison

"Cool" Hale’s voice was pure awe "Benjamin Franklin with a side of Loch Ness Monster"

"E!" Gabrielle exclaio near it"

"From what I could see, there were at least five Old Masters in that rooo near it"

"Maybe," Gabrielle ad of a room under a moat, then why isn’t it flooded?"