Page 140 of Dawn Caravan
Ben sat next to her. “As her majesty requests…”
Her eyes lit up. “I could get used to that.”
He laughed. “Don’t.”
Inside the bag were a note, a gold bar, and three familiar rubbings.
“See?” Tenzin said. “I told you René was part of the plan.”
“What are these?” Ben picked up the rubbings. One was eerily familiar. “Are these… Does he already have the goblets? He only had one night.”
Tenzin raised an eyebrow. “He’d been planning this for a while.”
Ben was reluctantly impressed. “So René has the three goblets.”
“Or he’s been in their presence and knows where they are.”
“And he’s still at the camp? How do we know he’s not tunneling to Paris as we speak?”Like a gopher. A big French gopher.
Tenzin took one rubbing from his hand. “The real value of the goblets is authority. René doesn’t want that authority. He’s spent his life running from anything that will require more than the most superficial commitment. He wants treasure.”
“Don’t lie. He wants the goblets too.”
Tenzin shrugged. “I may have threatened to cut off various parts of his body if he took the goblets.”
“I’m going to guess he was both afraid and oddly turned on by that.”
Tenzin just said, “He is a very odd man.”
Ben turned the gold bar in his hand. “Okay, so he wants treasure. Why is he helping us?”
“Because if he takes it without some major distraction, they’ll know he has it and he won’t have any peace, nor will he have a safe house when he inevitably pisses someone off again and needs a place to hide.”
“So he wants to steal from the Poshani… but still stay friends?”
“I didn’t comment on the likelihood of his plan succeeding or the probability of the Poshani figuring out who stole from them.” She glanced up. “Which they will do. They will probably find out.”
“So how are we getting away with it?”
“Silly Ben.” She elbowed him. “You’ve beenhiredto steal for them. Which is probably the best hired job ever, in my opinion.”
The wind turned, and a low rumbling sound came from over his shoulder.
Ben turned and his eyes went wide. “Tenzin.”
“Yes?” She was reading the note.
“There’s a very large bear right behind us.”
“Hmmm.” She didn’t look up. “Does it have cubs with it?”
“I don’t see any.”
“Male or female?”
“I’m not going to ask.” He reached for her arm. “You have the bag?”
“Yes, what—?”
