“And now two of you are here,” says Nelson. “So you see my problem, I think? Who do I kill?”
Again, it seems as if Nelson is looking for an answer.
“Both of them would be the obvious answer,” says Rosie. “Wouldn’t you think?”
Steve gives her a questioning glance. Amy doesn’t react.
“I think you are right,” says Nelson. “I’ll only get paid once, but it can’t do any harm, can it?”
“Problem solved,” says Rosie.
Steve assumes that Rosie is going somewhere with this, but he doesn’t yet know her quite well enough to be absolutely certain.
“Ah but…” says Rosie.
Phew, thinks Steve.
“…what would you do with me afterward? You see, you’ve been expressly forbidden from killing me, and yet I will know that you killed my friends, and I will, of course, hunt you down and have you tortured and then murdered. I am fabulously wealthy and I thrive on revenge.”
“Listen,” says Nelson, but then seems to be unable to follow this up.
“Who is asking you to kill one of us?” Steve asks.
“I just get messages,” says Nelson, nodding toward his phone. “From a guy in Dubai.”
“He told you he lived in Dubai?” Amy asks.
“Anyone who lives in Dubai tells you they live in Dubai,” says Nelson.
“I don’t suppose his name is François Loubet?” Amy asks.
Nelson doesn’t react, but Steve can see that he knows the name. He also sees that Nelson is sending a message.
“What happens if you don’t kill any of us?” Amy asks.
“If I don’t kill any of you?” says Nelson, and then takes a moment to think. “Nothing happens to me.”
“It’s just you don’t seem like an assassin?” says Amy. “And I know a lot of assassins.”
“I’m not an assassin,” says Nelson, his tone very reasonable. “I’m just, you know, a regular criminal and politician.”
“Well, then,” says Rosie.
“Seemed like easy money, given you were coming here anyway. All I’m really supposed to do is hide a gun for someone else who’s coming to kill you. One of you.”
“Problem solved, buddy,” says Steve. “Untie us, and we’ll be on our way.”
Nelson nods for a while, thinking this through. “Okay. So I let you go, and we’re cool? This never happened?”
“We’re cool,” says Amy. “Never happened.”
Nelson nods again, happy with that deal, and then his phone buzzes. He looks down, reads, and then smiles.
“On second thought, forgive me. I know who to kill now. Blonde woman, early thirties. That was very good timing for me. And very bad timing for”—he looks at his phone again—“Amy Wheeler.”
“But you’re still not an assassin, Nelson,” says Steve. He needs to keep this conversation going for as long as possible.
“I know,” says Nelson. “But come on. All that money for one little bullet.”
Steve sees that Rosie is so nearly through the cable ties. But she’s not going to make it. He thinks back to his conversation with Ferdy earlier when he gave the driver his tip.
Rosie plays for time too. “You’ll still have the two of us to worry about.”
Nelson bobs his head for a moment, weighing this up.
“I saw you driving up here,” he says. “Very fast, on very dangerous roads. I think we can wait for sundown and see if you don’t drive your car over a cliff. Terrible accident, no trouble for me. No trouble, only money.”
“Nelson,” says Amy. “You recognized the name François Loubet?”
Nelson shakes his head at Amy. He then nods to his young bodyguard. The boy points his gun at Amy, closes one eye, and squints along the barrel. The time has come.
Steve’s nails, often bitten, never softened or filed, never bathed in ewe’s milk or coated in Ecuadorean honey, have done the job that a $500 manicure could never manage. He breaks free of his ties, thrusts his hands inside Rosie’s jumpsuit, pulls out the gun, and fires.
He has never fired a gun before, but after the deafening gunshot the young man in the Coldplay T-shirt is moaning in pain on the ground, a bullet hole through his shoulder. Steve, now in a crouching stance, gun raised, looks at Rosie and Amy. Amy has a look of shock, whereas Rosie’s look is—what—surprise and lust? She breaks free of her ties.
Nelson makes a run for the door. Steve stays in his crouch, shoots, and hits Nelson in the leg. He goes down too.
“Have you ever shot anyone before?” Rosie asks Steve, while snapping through Amy’s cable ties.
