But this wasn’t a childhood prank, and now I was trapped in the basement of the parliament building in Budapest with every law enforcement officer in the entire city converging on my location. As soon as they discovered that someone had breached their precious parliament building for the second time in a matter of weeks and they still didn’t have the crown back, all hell was going to break even more loose.
And Falcon is going to hate me.
The padlock finally popped open, and I ignored my stupid internal dialogue in favor of getting myself the hell out of there. Once through the hatch, I crawled forward about ten meters before hanging a right and continuing crawling for twenty meters more. Finally I came to a metal grate that was also padlocked closed as well as wired up with all kinds of alarm sensors. I pulled out the picks again and got to work. I could smell the water of the Danube even though it was too dark to see much of it through the openings in the grate.
Once the lock was popped, I went to work splicing the wires to trick the alarm into thinking everything was fine. As long as I could change over the connection faster than the disconnect blip could register, my exit location would hopefully remain a mystery, at least for a while. I wouldn’t know either way since it was a silent alarm, so I moved as fast as I could, opening the hatch when ready and falling from the opening to the water ten meters below.
It was a long drop, and it felt even longer as I twisted through empty air. The night was dark, so I couldn’t tell how close I was to the river’s surface until I hit it. Frigid water crashed over me, threatening to steal the air from my lungs. I kicked out my arms and legs to keep from sinking too deep. The river was probably only two meters deep, and I didn’t want to risk ramming my body into the bottom at top speed.
Once I made it back to the surface, I silently tread water for a moment, catching my breath and listening for any evidence I’d been followed. I could still hear the police sirens and the cops shouting orders, but it all felt far away. Here, down in the river, everything was calmer.
I was safe. For now. I pulled off the thin black face mask I’d been wearing to conceal my identity and reached into a cargo pocket to retrieve the little foldable snorkel I’d stashed there.
I shoved the thick rubber mouthpiece between my teeth and stuck the end just outside the surface, blowing hard to empty it of water before I could begin breathing through it. I didn’t have anything as elaborate as a mask, but this would be enough to help me stay under the dark, murky water until I could get some distance between myself and the parliament building.
Since I couldn’t see, I stuck my left hand out to feel for the stone wall in hopes it would keep me oriented southward and help push my cold, waterlogged self through the water. I tried not to think about what was in the water. None of the world’s big-city rivers were exactly pristine, but the Danube was at least better than it had been in the past.
Since it was December, the water was fucking freezing. I’d estimated it to be around forty degrees Fahrenheit which meant I could stay in it about ten to fifteen minutes before hypothermia would cause some serious problems. I kept my eyes closed and arms out while I thought about the thick duvet and pile of my favorite blankets waiting for me back at my apartment. As soon as I thought about my apartment, I realized I had a long way to go before getting back there.
First I had to get my hands on one of my stashed go bags so I could move on to the next phase of the plan. While I made my way to the nearest bridge so I could climb out of the water without people seeing me, I thought of Falcon and what he must be thinking right now.
Did he hate me? Was he in big trouble with his boss? Or was there any chance he was worried about me? That was too much to wish for.
Would he understand why I did what I did?
I pulled my cold, heavy body from the frigid water and thought of the man who’d shown me time and time again just how much he was willing to trust me. At the scene of the Van Gogh theft when I’d played the victim. At the vineyard when I’d said I just needed to collect my things. In Greece when I’d insisted on attending the gala with him. And when he’d allowed himself to show some vulnerability to me in the bedroom.