Page 16

16

Will

T he worst part of every mission was the waiting.

Waiting for orders.

Waiting for darkness.

Waiting for something— anything —to happen.

I was sure the table filled with Soviet minders felt the same boredom mixed with anticipation topped with anxiety. It was a frustrating part of the game we played.

The restaurant was dimly lit, sparsely populated, and smelled of dill, wine, and burned butter. A quartet played slow, forgettable, unrecognizable music in the corner, their notes soft enough to blur conversation without drowning it. It was the kind of place no one would remember being in, which, for a pack of spies, was perfect.

We sat near the back, far from the front window and the coatrack where someone might linger too long.

Thomas and I arrived first. Egret and Sparrow joined us five minutes later, still flushed from the cold, Egret’s eyes already sweeping the room before they even reached the table. They were professionals, even now. Always now.

We didn’t toast. We didn’t clink glasses. That kind of celebration was for people whose lives weren’t pinned together with false names and untold risks. We ordered wine—local and dry—and dinner we might not finish. We spoke softly, but not too softly.

Too quiet might draw attention.

After our waitress left, I leaned forward and set my elbows on the table. My voice was light, but my eyes found each of our little family in turn.

“He took it.”

Sparrow exhaled. Egret arched a brow but said nothing, his fingers drumming against the rim of his glass.

“Reaction?” Sparrow asked.

I shook my head. “Nothing obvious. Like any good Hungarian, he was annoyed at the sudden interruption to his routine. He didn’t want to talk, but he took the folder.”

“And the Soviets?” Egret asked.

“They stood a little straighter, watched a little closer, when I approached him. One touched his rifle, while the other looked like he wanted to break character. They didn’t stop me, but they saw everything.”

“We won’t be able to use you for anything visible now. Every Red within fifty miles will have your description by dawn,” Thomas said.

I cleared my throat, slow and quiet. The weight of it all shifted to me now.

“They saw the brochure. What they didn’t see was what was inside it.”

Sparrow tilted her head. I glanced sideways—I’d handled the folder, but I hadn’t yet asked what it contained. I took a sip of wine, let it settle the air.

“Tucked between the pages,” Thomas said, reading my mind, “was a strip of rice paper, wax-coated, folded so flat it looked like a wrinkle in the binding. We used the embassy press system to get it thin enough.”

“What did it say?” I asked, my voice even lower than before.

Thomas met my eyes. “We told him we knew what he was building, that we know why he might be hesitant—and that we can help him. Him— and his daughter.”

Sparrow’s expression tightened. Egret stopped drumming.

“You mentioned the girl?” Sparrow asked.

“Not directly. Just enough to let him know we see the pressure points.”

“And what’s the ask?” Egret said. “What do we want from him?”

“Contact,” Thomas said. “A signal that he’s ready. If he tears the top-left corner of the Liszt Academy flyer on the Váci utca notice board, we’ll know. Nothing else. Just the tear. If we see it, we proceed.”

“And if we don’t?” Will asked.

“Then we wait. One week. No signal, and we turn to the backup plan.”

“Backup plan?” Sparrow asked.

Thomas thought a moment, then shook his head once. “Let’s not go there now. Focus on making this part work, and we won’t have to . . . Let’s just make this work.”

The table went quiet.

Somewhere behind us, a glass clinked.

The violinist drew out a long, mournful note like a sigh in the dark.

Egret finally spoke. “He’s being watched—even more than we expected. He won’t signal unless he’s desperate.”

“Then we hope he’s desperate,” Thomas said. “But careful.”

I leaned back, my voice softer now. “And if he gives us the signal? What then?”

“Then we leave him another message to include a specific location and time. We choose the site. We control the flow.”

“A church?” Sparrow suggested.

“Bathhouse,” Egret replied. “Think about it. There’s steam and noise. Inside, there’s no direct line of sight for tailing and enough movement to create chaos if needed.”

He was seriously suggesting this, not being his usual irreverent self. I was stunned into silence.

Thomas and Sparrow nodded.

Our food arrived—goulash for Egret, cabbage and dumplings for Sparrow, something unpronounceable for Thomas, and stew for me. We ate, more for rhythm than sustenance. No one said it, but we were already imagining the poster, already walking past it in our minds, already seeing the corner torn.

“How do we check the drop site?” Egret asked.

Thomas finished chewing a particularly tough piece of meat, then replied, “The guards saw Emu approach our target. You and I were on site. We can’t risk them recognizing any of us. Sparrow will need to visit the noticeboard to check for the flyer. She can do one run tonight when we leave here, then every few hours tomorrow.”

Egret crossed his arms, a scowl forming on his face.

Sparrow ignored him. “And in the meantime? What kind of trouble will you three get into?”

“We play our roles.” Thomas shrugged. “We have secondary sites we can visit. Emu could even visit the local city hall to discuss management and shit.”

I snorted. “Management and shit? That might be the most elegant description I’ve ever heard from you.”

Sparrow chuckled. “Sounds more like something my guy might say.”

My guy.

Egret’s eyes snapped to hers, and a most un-Egret-like smile curled his lips. For a moment, I thought I was staring at some character from a romance novel by how bright his eyes sparkled in the table’s candlelight.

Sparrow beamed beneath his gaze, finally reaching over and rubbing his arm.

“God, I think I might be sick,” Thomas said.

“Please.” Egret rolled his eyes. “After all the times we had to pretend to not notice you two mooning over each other.”

“Mooning?” I protested. “I never mooned—”

“Fawning is more like it,” Sparrow added through a smirk. “If you two stared any harder, your clothes might fall off.”

Egret barked a laugh.

Thomas snorted and shook his head.

I blushed and shrank down in my seat.