Page 47 of The Diamond Thief

“I seriously doubt that. He has a stake in the swords.”

“That may well be true,” she says. “But he’s been instructed not to allow me around the top level of the Den unsupervised.”

“Why is that?” Now she has my interest.

She shrugs. “I’m not supposed to learn too much.”

Interesting. “You don’t seem like a threat to me.”

Her expression is pure disbelief. “Really? I defeated your home security, got your tiara, then broke into your secret bunker, defeated that system, and not only stole the Romanov crown, but as a silly side job, took those swords.”

“That ‘silly side job’ is a major heist by any measure. Did you know what they were?”

“I figured it out.”

“Do you plan to return them?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re condescending to women.”

I rub my chin. I suddenly feel tired. “So you set out to rob me of one hundred and forty million dollars because I’m not nice to girls.”

“See, there you go again. And you robbed somebody else. You don’t think they’ll be looking for their swords? Your buyers will be spooked.”

“The owner is the prince of a horrid despot family that murders its own countrymen. Nobody is going to help them.”

“How did they get the swords?”

“Murder, pillage, I don’t know. I don’t ask these questions.”

“You should.” She sits up and moves closer to me. The bars are a mere foot from my chair.

“I’m not Robin Hood. I don’t steal from the rich and give to the poor.”

“You steal from the bad guys and make yourself rich.”

“Something like that.”

“Are you going to let me out now?”

I turn to a console next to my chair and tap in a code. The door at the base of the slide pops open.

She waits a moment, as if fearing another booby trap.

“It’s fine,” I say with a small laugh. “Nothing will get you coming out.”

Jade gets to her feet and timidly steps out of the cage. “This is quite a room. You spared no expense. What sort of job got you that much cash?”

“Several,” I say. “I invested my early jobs, and that has been almost as lucrative as the heists.”

“Other than this one,” Jade says. “The swords, I mean.”

“It was a big job. Easy pickings, really. Private museum, some illegal dealings that mean they can’t involve law enforcement. For something like that, it’s the buyers that are the hard part. They have to be seriously interested and willing to take on the risk.”

“And you have several.” She stands next to me, looking over at my console.