Shatterproof by Roland Smith Read Free Book Online

check into a hotel and get a few hours’ sleep.”
    “Room service!” Dan and Atticus shouted in unison.

    They checked into connecting suites at the Brandenburger Hof, not far from the Pergamon Museum. Each suite had two bedrooms with canopied king-sized beds. The bedrooms had attached master bathrooms equipped with steam and sauna rooms, and flat-screen televisions everywhere. There was even one you could see from the toilet.
    “It’s a perfect design,” Dan said as they toured the rooms.
    “A little over the top,” Amy said.
    Atticus opened the well-stocked minibar and started liberating chips, soda pop, mixed nuts, and candy. Jake picked up the television remote and began channel surfing for news about the Pergamon.
    “I’m going to call Evan and then take a shower,” Amy said, handing Dan the Vesper satellite phone and her own cell phone. “Erasmus should be calling back. Tell him what’s going on. And charge both phones. When we get to Timbuktu we’ll have to hit the ground running. We’ll need all of our batteries topped up.”
    “What about your laptop?”
    “I’ll charge it in the other room.”
    Dan grinned. “Give Evan a virtual kiss from me.”
    Amy glanced at Jake and felt her face redden. He was still flipping through the channels and didn’t appear to be paying attention.
Why do I care?
She closed the door to the second suite.
    After the door clicked shut, Jake turned to Dan. “How serious is it between Amy and Evan?”
    Dan started humming Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March,” then put his index finger into his mouth like he was gagging.
    Room service finally answered. “I need . . . uh . . . do you speak English? Hang on.” He waved Atticus over to the phone. “Can you order everything on the menu?”
    “Everything?”
    “You can skip any kind of vegetable matter.”
    Atticus took the phone and started going down the menu from the top.

    Amy broke into a broad grin when Evan appeared on the screen.
    “I wasn’t sure you’d be there,” she said.
    “Kind of hard to head home when your girlfriend is robbing a museum. Are you okay?”
    Amy managed a wobbly smile. “I’m fine, but we didn’t get the Jubilee.” She went on to explain what had happened in the Pergamon, leaving out her SUV fit.
    As she spoke Evan typed notes into the comm center database. When she finished, he read over what he had written and asked her questions to make sure he had it right.
    “Sorry about that,” he said. “But the only way to identify Vesper One and figure out where the hostages are is to sluice information until something pops to the surface. Erasmus is double-checking the data. Vesper One will make a mistake. Data mining always works.”
    “I hope so,” Amy said.
    “E-mail me a photo of that velvet bag,” Evan said. “Maybe we can find out who manufactured it. It shouldn’t be too hard to run it down with the metallic lining. Why would it even
have
metallic lining?”
    “I have no idea,” Amy said. “But I wish I’d taken the fake diamond out of it.”
    “By what you said about the security, and Vanek showing up, it sounds like the heist wouldn’t have worked anyway. You were lucky to get out of there.”
    Amy shuddered. “Without Jake they would have had us.”
    Evan frowned.
    “What’s the matter?”
    “I’m just tired. I’ve been trying to figure out if someone’s feeding information to Vesper One.”
    Amy felt her stomach twist. “Do you still think it’s Ian?” she asked quietly, praying that Evan would tell her it’d all been a mistake. She couldn’t believe that Ian would betray them. That he’d betray
her
.
    Evan pressed his lips together, then spoke slowly. “Ian is still our number one suspect, but there’s no proof that he’s working for Vesper One other than his odd behavior. It would be unfair to openly accuse him at this point, and maybe even damaging. When he’s here he’s been a big help. We need him.”
    “Do you still think our data is