The Key (The Magnificent 12 3)

But he would have to try, wouldn’t he?

He lay back down again, snuggled between two wall posters.

Be Mack.

He was doing that as well as he could. He would do that until Mack returned. And then …

Oh, right: then he would return to the mud he had been fashioned from.

Unless of course she called.

* * *

Eighteen

* * *

“So close, eh, Mack?” she asked.

“Close?” he squeaked.

“Already you have assembled five. And more await here in Paris. N’est-ce pas? As the locals would say?”

“Are you going to kill me?”

That got the attention of some of the passengers nearby. One man cast a very suspicious look at Mack.

“Kill you?” Risky echoed. “Wherever did you get that idea?”

“I think maybe it was because you tried to kill me before. Several times.”

“Oh, yes,” she said, and gazed off into space as if she was savoring the memories. “Good times. Good times. By the way, don’t you want to know how I found you?”

“By … supernatural means. You always seem to find me.”

“Paddy had lost track of you after Stonehenge. You were completely off the grid. Then we heard you were in Scotland.”

“How did you hear that?”

Risky shrugged. “Twitter. It was a trending topic. But I found out too late; I don’t check Twitter as often as I should.”

“How many Twitter followers do you have?” Mack asked, aware that the conversation had taken a rather odd turn.

“Four,” Risky admitted.

“You should tweet more. That’s the only way.”

“I should be tweeting right now,” Risky agreed. “I could say, ‘Found Mack in Paris thanks to—’”

And that’s when the train reached the next station and the brakes screeched so loud that Mack heard none of what Risky had to say.

The doors opened. It wasn’t Mack’s stop, but he really wanted to get off anyway. Get off and then run screaming down the platform, up the escalator, and onto the street.

But he didn’t do any of that. In the movement of bodies on and off the train, Dietmar was suddenly closer. He hadn’t noticed that Mack was talking to Risky.

“We must get off in two stops and then switch to the—”

Dietmar stopped talking when Mack made a quick throat-cutting gesture. Then he noticed Risky. She gave him a dazzling smile.