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They were a pair Tall young white ht leather jackets, heads shaved by blunt razors that had left nicks and scabs More Russians, probably Operators, no question Connected, no doubt Probably not the best the world has ever seen, but probably not the worst, either They were sitting far apart froirl alone at the table They were tense, deterns Many tio into action

So two B-grade oligarchs had a beef, and one was protecting his kid with drivers and bodyguards, and the other was sending guys around the world to snatch her Then would come ransoe hands, or uraniuas

Business, Moscow-style

But not usually successful business Kidnappings have a thousand different dyna a thousand different ways In e life expectancy for a kidnap victiht away, in the initial panic

The girl’s pile of twenties was attracting waitresses like wasps at a picnic And she wasn’t shooing any of the one fresh bottle after another And beer is beer She was going to have to visit the restroo and dark, and it had a street exit at the end of it

I watched her in the gaudy, reflected light, with the uys watched her Her bodyguard watched her She watched the guitarist He was concentrating hard, key changes and choruses, but from tilory of being up on the stage, but twice directly at the girl The first of those smiles was shy, and the second was a little wider

The girl stood up She butted the lip of her table with her thighs and shuffled out froot there first The sound froh it The ladies’ room was halfway down The men’s room was all the way at the end I leaned on the wall and watched the girl walk toward ht pants and her steps were short and precise Not drunk yet She was Russian She put a pale palm on the restroom door and pushed She went inside

Less than 10 seconds later the two guys stepped into the corridor I guessed they would wait there for her But they didn’t They glanced at me like I was a part of the architecture and shouldered in through the ladies’ room door One after the other The door slammed behind them The music played on

I went in after the new I had never b

een in a woht, sinks on the left Bright light and the s near the back wall The two guys were facing her Their backs were to me I said, “Hey,” but they didn’t hear Too ht them by the elbows, one in each hand They spun around, ready to fight, but then they stopped I a about back home They stood still for a second and then pushed past me and pulled the door and headed out

The girl looked at me for a moment with an emotion I couldn’t read, and then I left her to do what she needed to do I went back to uard was i up The girl was still in the bathroom

The ot up and headed back toward the corridor The roo I went over to the bodyguard and tapped him on the shoulder and pointed He took no notice He didn’taway off the stage Then he got up, the two otten it all wrong

Not an indulged daughter An indulged son Daddy had bought the guitar and the amp and hired backup e His driver at the curb, his bodyguard watching all the way Not a tearoupie The boy’s dream A classic honey trap A last-minute tactical conference in the bathroom, and then action

I shoved ot to the street well ahead of the bodyguard, just as the girl was hugging the boy and turning hiuys I hit the first one hard and the second one harder and got blood frouys went down and the girl fled and then the bodyguard showed up I ive me his T-shirt Bloodstains attract attention Then I left through the front

The obvious ot the 6 train at Bleecker and Lafayette, heading north, the last-but-one car I settled in and checked the faces Old habits die hard