The Zero Game

30

“They’re on a plane,” Janos said into his phone as he stormed out of the Hotel George, signaling the doorman for a cab.

“How do you know?” Sauls asked on the other line.

“Believe me — I know.”

“Who told you?”

“Does it matter?”

“Actually, it does.”

Janos paused, refusing to answer. “Just be content with the fact that I know.”

“Don’t treat me like a schmuck,” Sauls warned. “Suddenly, the magician can’t reveal his tricks?”

“Not when the assholes backstage are always opening their mouths.”

“What’re you talking about?”

“Sell any good Renoirs lately?” Janos asked.

Sauls stopped. “That was a year and a half ago. And it was a Morisot.”

“I’m well aware what it was — especially when it almost got me killed,” Janos pointed out. This wasn’t the first time he and Sauls had worked together. But as Janos knew, if they couldn’t get back in control soon, it easily could be their last.

“Just tell me how you-”

“Redial on Harris’s phone said he was talking to the mayor.”

“Aw, piss,” Sauls moaned. “You think he’s going to Dakota?”

As a cab stopped in front of him and the doorman opened the door, Janos didn’t answer.

“I don’t believe it,” Sauls added. “I got an embassy dinner tonight, and they’re fuckin’-” He cut himself off. “Where’re you now?”

“In transit,” Janos said as he tossed his leather duffel into the backseat.

“Well, you better get your ass to South Dakota before they-”

Janos hit the End button and slapped his phone shut. After his run-in with the Capitol Police, he already had one headache. He didn’t need another. Sliding inside the cab and slamming the door, he pulled a copy of MG World magazine from his duffel, flipped to a feature story on a restored 1964 MGB roadster, and lost himself in the details of adding a smaller steering wheel to complement the car’s diminutive size. It was the one thing that brought calm to Janos’s day. Unlike people, machines could be controlled.

“Where to?” the cabbie asked.

Janos glanced up from the magazine for barely a moment. “National Airport,” he replied. “And do me a favor — try to avoid the potholes…”