Joe leaned forward. “Then I’m going to take off the tape, and we’ll begin.” He stared deep into his eyes. “But you’ll have to remember that if I see any sign of trickery, I won’t hesitate. You’re expendable, Sebak. And, if I don’t get what I want, then I’ll have no hesitation about showing you that.” His fingers moved gently on Sebak’s neck, and he could feel the muscles tense. “You’re in my way. It’s up to you to prove that I should keep you alive.” He suddenly reached up and ripped off the tape with one motion. “Are you going to scream, Sebak?”
“No!” His gaze was holding Joe’s. “I promise. I won’t—” He stopped. “I want to live. Tell me how I can do that.”
“I fully intend to do that.” He said over his shoulder to Gideon, “It’s over. Come out, come out, wherever you are. Sebak isn’t going to have any trouble believing that I’ll do anything I have to do now.”
“I can see that.” Gideon moved forward. “Intimidating, indeed. Is that how you treat the prisoners at your precinct when you’re interrogating them?”
“No, that’s my job, and there are rules. This is Eve, and there are no rules.” He looked back at Sebak and gestured to Gideon. “You’ll remember him, he was going to give you a great deal of money. But now you’ve decided that’s not necessary, haven’t you?”
“I remember him.” Sebak’s tone was surly. “We can still deal. I’ll get you in to see Dobran. You didn’t have to hurt me.”
“Yes, I did,” Joe said. “I don’t have time to do anything else tonight. But I could learn to enjoy it if you don’t cooperate.” He took a step closer to Sebak. “And we will pay a visit to your boss, but I think you know a good deal, and that will save me time. Gideon tells me that he indulges in his favorite opium pipe in the evening and might be a bit bleary when I wake him.”
Sebak hesitated. “Gideon said that he wanted info about some DNA project Dobran was doing. I don’t know anything about his business.” He looked suddenly alarmed as he met Joe’s eyes. “Well, maybe a little. But you’d do better to talk to him.”
“I think you’d know about this,” Joe said softly. “It was a very big job, perhaps the biggest Dobran has ever done. It would have been very difficult for him not to call in all the help he could get to keep himself safe and the work secret. You’re his errand boy, and he trusts you. You might not know anything about the lab work, but you’d be drawn into the job itself.”
“He doesn’t trust anyone that much.”
“I thought we had an understanding,” Joe said. “Now I’m going to ask questions, and you’re going to answer quickly and fully. Or we go back to the moment before I ripped off that tape. Do you want that, Sebak?”
“No! I just—” He was breathing hard. “He knows bad people. He could have them kill me.”
“That’s your problem, but you have a bigger one with me.” Joe smiled. “Don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Then we go forward. What do you know about that DNA job Dobran took on several months ago?”
He was silent, then said reluctantly, “He didn’t want to do it. From what I overheard when he was talking on the phone, the money was more than he’d ever been offered before, but he said it was too dangerous. He said that he had plenty of money and didn’t need to run that kind of risk to get more.”
“And who was on the phone?”
Sebak shrugged. “I don’t know. Somebody important. Dobran said something about not caring how big they were, it was nothing to him. He had enough business, and he wasn’t going to run the risk.”
“But evidently he did run it.”
Sebak’s lips twisted as he nodded. “Dobran was offered a price he couldn’t refuse. A box was delivered here a few days later, and he sent me to take it to Caladon that same day.”
“Caladon?”
“Kalid Caladon. He’s Dobran’s favorite art expert. He’s expert and discreet. Dobran has all his artifacts appraised by him.”
“And this was an artifact that Dobran sent to him for appraisal? What kind?”
“A gold statue. Dobran was excited about it. He was even more excited when I brought the report back from Caladon. He had me set up a special glass case in the gallery for the statue and arranged