Page 116 of The Prize

Jade descended to go back for him.

I watched with horror as Tobias snapped a hand signal for Jade to stop and then disappeared from view. Voices trailed below and I froze, staring down with my heart beating frantically. One glance up and they’d see our drone.

The way was clear again and Tobias gestured for Jade to lower to him. She reached him and he gripped her from beneath, rising in what felt like a painstaking slowness until he was standing beside me on the roof.

“Jade led you to me?” he asked.

“I tracked your watch.” I pointed to my rucksack. “It’s in here.”

“I’m sorry, Zara. The plan fell apart. I let you down.”

“No. Eli has ourMona Lisa.”

“How did you get it out of the case?” He waved that off. “Let’s just get out of here and talk about it later.”

“Car’s over there.” I pointed in that direction.

Jade’s green light was out.

Tobias knelt beside her. “Her power’s dead.”

“We have to bring her with us. She’s part of the team.”

“Yes, I don’t want them to reverse engineer her.”

“And no man left behind and all that.”

He gave a smile and gestured to my climbing gear. “The old-fashioned way, then.”

Tobias secured the end of the climbing rope to the window frame and I used the carabiner and rope to abseil down. With my feet firmly planted on the ground, I sent the gear back up to Tobias, with him pulling on the rope it was attached to. He clutched Jade to his chest on his smooth descent.

We ran toward the car.

Within minutes we were in the Aston Martin and speeding along the road, with frequent glances in the rearview mirror for any sign we were being followed.

I watched Tobias connect a wire to Jade and it looked like he was recharging her and then he set her down on the mat between his feet.

He turned the air-conditioning panel on himself. “How did you crack the code to the chrome case?”

“I used the most logical letters.”

“Our names?” He shook his head in disbelief. “Hopefully that serves as something, right?”

Yes, using our names as the code to get into the painting had meant so much. I’d not had time to wallow in his romantic gesture.

“It was nothing.” I threw in a wave as though it really had been that easy.

“I believe it.” He squeezed his eyes shut for a second. “I’ve put you through this—”

“You can make it up to me. But it’s going to have to be better than a new phone this time.”

Tobias laughed weakly and jolted when the pain hit him. “Looks like we’re all clear.”

“If you say that was fun, I’ll hit you.”

“It was everything it should have been.”

I glanced his way. “How do you mean?”