Three Fates

walked on, you learn to recognize the tread. Greed is a flaw, but her ego is her true Achilles’ heel. Notch the arrow, aim for the ego, and she’ll stumble.”
    “Isn’t she a marvel?” Grinning, Malachi grabbed Tia’s hand, kissed it lavishly.
    “Snatching the Fate from under her nose ought to hit her ego dead center,” Jack agreed. “There are a number of steps we have to take before going there. First is to determine whether she’s keeping it here”—he tapped the photo of Morningside’s entrance—“or here.” And the front-on view of her town house.
    “Since we can’t be sure, at least at the moment, we’ll have to work out how to get to it in either place.” Gideon moved over to give the board a closer look. “None of us has any experience breaking into a place.”
    “You’re forgetting the time we broke into the basement of Hurlihy’s Pub and tapped into that keg of Harp,” Malachi reminded him.
    “I’ve worked to forget it for more than ten years, as I came out of it with a head big as the moon.”
    “And when Ma found out,” Rebecca put in, “she knocked your big, stupid heads together, dragged you by the ears to the priest for confession.”
    “Then we spent the whole of that summer at Hurlihy’s beck and call,” Malachi finished. “We paid for that lager ten times over.” He sent Jack an easy smile. “Not a very good foundation for thievery, I’m afraid.”
    “That’s all right, I’ll teach you.” At Rebecca’s steely stare, he sat, stretched out his long legs. “When you make your living putting up obstacles for thieves, you have to understand the criminal mind, and have a certain amount of respect for it. We’ll need to break into both places,” he added with a nod to Gideon. “To set her up for the full fall, we’ll need to do both.”
    “Dupe her,” Malachi concurred. “Set her up, then put a nice pretty frame around her.” With his fingers he traced a box around Anita’s photo. “I like the sound of it.”
    “It sounds awfully complicated,” Tia put in.
    “Who wants a bland tapestry? We’ll have to plan each level,” Jack went on. “And connect them. To start, there are four safes in the town house. Double that at Morningside. It’ll take some time and effort to circumvent the security, get in, open each safe—if necessary—get the Fate, get out and reestablish the security. I’ve got some ideas on how to use Morningside to narrow the field. But when we go for the gold, we’ll need a little more time and space. If we can get her out of the way for a few days, we minimize the risk.”
    “I, um, think she might go to Athens.” Tia cleared her throat and they all turned to her. “I asked my father if he might casually mention the Athens connection to her. He doesn’t know what’s going on, but I think he’ll do it for me. He seemed sort of intrigued that I asked.”
    Jack sat back. “Good thinking. And when I give her my report, and tell her one Cleopatra Toliver booked a flight to Athens, that should nail it. We’ve got a lot to do before we hammer that home. We’re going to want to be ready to move on the Fate as soon as she’s at cruising level.”
    “She didn’t go to Prague after Cleo,” Rebecca reminded him. “Why would she go to Athens? She could send one of her pie-faced goons.”
    “They failed.” Malachi sat on the arm of Tia’s chair. “And if she’s the one who killed the guy in the warehouse, she’s upped the stakes considerably. She won’t send an underling this time. At least not if she’s convinced she may be able to scoop up both remaining Fates in one go.”
    “All right, that’s logical.” Rebecca pursed her lips, studying the board. “We want to have her keep the Fate in her home, I’d think. Far too many places to hide something in a place like Morningside, and I’d have to assume the security would be tighter there?”
    “It is.” It pleased Jack that their thoughts aligned.
    “We’d want her to have a concern, then, that Morningside isn’t safe enough.” Gideon angled his head. “Do we lift something from there?”
    “Think of it as a dress rehearsal,” Jack told him.
     
     
    THERE WAS CONSIDERABLE discussion, some argument. There were diagrams and schematics and more printouts to be pinned to the board. Tia absorbed it all. They were planning to break into one of New York’s cultural landmarks, and they were planning to do so for the sole purpose of misdirection.
    It was