Steal by James Patterson

Author:James Patterson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2022-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 59

There were cameras everywhere. We couldn’t just be riding the elevator up and down, roaming around the consulate.

Nor could we simply leave and say screw the damn transmitter. Elizabeth and I had to find it before someone else did. This wasn’t a gizmo we could explain away or deny. The trail would lead back to Eszter’s Pastries and, more important, Elizabeth. I could never let her take the fall for me. Not ever.

“Is everything all right over there?” the receptionist called out.

Her voice was a bit nasally but it was music to my ears. A good idea has a melody all its own.

I spun around on my heels, heading straight for the reception desk. Elizabeth had no choice but to fall in line behind me.

“What are we doing?” she whispered. “Where are we going?”

The answer was right in front of us.

“Hi, there. I’m Dylan,” I said, giving the young woman with a blunt bob my very best Midwestern smile. Never mind that I was neither born nor raised in the Midwest. “I didn’t catch your name when we first arrived.”

“I’m Cynthia,” she answered.

“No kidding. My favorite niece is a Cynthia.” I turned to Elizabeth. “Isn’t that right? I’m always telling you how much I adore Cynthia.”

“Yes, all the time,” said Elizabeth, nodding with some quickly manufactured enthusiasm. “Definitely all the time.”

“So, Cynthia, I was hoping you could help me out. I’m on this antibiotic that I’m not supposed to take on an empty stomach, but I haven’t eaten anything yet this morning. Do you know where I can get a muffin or pastry of some kind? The closest deli or bakery near the consulate?”

Psychologists have long debated whether kindness is a learned behavior or an inherent human trait. What I’ve come to realize is that it’s actually both. We all have the capacity for kindness, but that doesn’t mean we always show it. Sometimes it requires the power of suggestion.

Elizabeth and I watched as Cynthia thought for a moment, trying to make up her mind. C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, you can do it…

“I’m probably not supposed to do this,” she said, glancing left and right before leaning in, “but the ambassador has pastries brought in every morning to the conference room. Follow me.”

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