Aristocratic Thieves

  Chapter 30: It’s a Go

  Things were spinning fast and there was no stopping them. That was ok with Jinny, who realized it was his responsibility to keep all the plates rotating on the poles and not let any of them drop. In order to do this he cut back from eating five meals a day at different restaurants to four. Plouriva now had to organize the final logistics of the heist. Jinny had to tell the Junes where things stood, and then get with Henric and Constantine. So Jinny called a team meeting for the next evening, to be held at his small borrowed apartment.

  The Junes had been enjoying the culture of Saint Petersburg. They visited the Hermitage every morning when it opened at 9am. This way they avoided most of the crowds which turned up daily at about 10:30. After that incredible daily experience they took a walk in a park, and then had lunch at some nice restaurant. The afternoon was spent walking along the river, or just walking the streets. Henric and Constantine did what they do. Some days they worked on little projects, like the Hermitage caper, and some days they did nothing. They were enjoying their retirements. Neither the Junes nor the Russian quasi-gangsters hassled Little Jinny, or tried to pressure him. They didn’t know he was eating five meals a day at restaurants, but figured he was gainfully employed working on their project.

  That evening everyone showed up at Jinny’s place on time. The Junes were there, and Henric and Helstof Gromstov, and the Rodstras, Plouriva, and two gay guys. This made for a tight squeeze in the apartment, but nothing like what the prison cells would be like if something went wrong. It had been almost two weeks since everyone had been together, and over that period Jinny had eaten sixty meals in forty different restaurants. Despite playing the restaurant field, he had not gained an inch on his waist, having good genes in that department. If anyone had asked, he would have admitted to this gastronomic indulgence, but no one did, and he didn’t bring it up.

  Nor did anyone immediately bring up the observation that their numbers had increased by two since the last team meeting. Plouriva was tempted to do so, but she bit her lip. Jinny brought ten small glasses and two bottles of vodka from the kitchen, and poured a shot for everyone. He noticed no one drank, and knew the reason. There were two strangers in the room. For Jinny, Henric, and Constantine, this was not a problem. For them, what was necessary on a job was necessary. These three guys were risk-takers from way back. Plouriva knew the scoop, and was trusting of her man. On the other hand, the two Russian wives and the Junes were more than a little curious as to who these two guys were.

  Jinny looked at Plouriva, wanting her to introduce the guys and provide an explanation. They were, after all, now working for her. Plouriva frosted Jinny with a stare that would have made a Siberian wolverine shiver, and he got the message. “The good news,” he said, “is the job is on.” He looked at Henric and asked, “Can you have the trucks here three nights from now?”

  Henric took out his cell phone, made the secure connection, spoke to someone for less than a minute, hung up, and said, “Yes.”

  Jinny then looked at Plouriva and asked, “Can you do this three nights from now?”

  Plouriva closed her eyes and thought. She opened her eyes and looked at the two gay guys, both of whom nodded. She closed her eyes again and thought some more. When she opened them, she looked at each person in the room, and answered, “Yes.”

  Jinny then looked at Constantine and asked, “Can you get four of us out of the country, the morning after three nights from now?”

  Finally, Jinny was forced to explain the presence of the two strangers in the apartment, and the fact that they knew about the caper. He was forced to do this when Constantine asked, “Four?”

  So Jinny, in a laidback manner, sort of matter-of-factly, explained that Peter and Pater are on the Hermitage security staff, and are going to be on guard three nights from now at one of the service road entrances, and they will let the trucks loaded down with grade C Hermitage artifacts leave the compound without asking any questions or sounding any alarm. And because the next day all hell is going to break loose at the Hermitage, and someone will pretty quickly figure out what has gone down, and will ask pertinent questions about the guard detail, and well, to make the plan work, he had to agree to get Peter and Pater out of the country to protect them from sure death, and on top of that had promised them jobs in Charleston, and so yes, there were four of them that Constantine now had to deal with.

  When he finished this explanation he looked at Roger, and then at Gwen, and then at the two Russian wives, and then at Plouriva. Then he smiled. No one said anything. Roger looked at Gwen. Constantine looked at Henric. Slevov looked at Helstof. Peter looked at Pater. Plouriva looked at the ceiling.

  Jinny waited patiently, with the same supremely confident look on his face he had way back in time when he sat on the couch in the June’s house in Charleston, waiting for them to decide if they were in on the caper, or not. Now they were in Russia, not America or France. And the plan all along was for Roger to handle matters in France and Gwen to handle matters in Charleston and Jinny to handle matters in Russia. But underneath all of that was the fact that Roger was the boss of the operation. At least as much of a boss as Gwen would permit. Roger had not done much bossing here in Saint Petersburg, because Jinny and Plouriva had done well at their respective tasks. But now, clearly it was time for an executive decision. And Roger was the executive.

  Roger stood up and went to the little balcony that looked out over the alleyway filled with trashcans. Three stories down he saw a Russian bin diver retrieving a treasure from the bottom of a dumpster. After a minute he turned around and looked at Gwen. They communicated telepathically, with not a single movement of any part of their bodies. Roger looked at Peter and Pater. Then he turned and again looked out on the alley. He stood there for two minutes, at the end of which he walked to the small table on which sat the ten small glasses of vodka. He picked up one of the glasses and knocked back the shot. When he finished he said to everyone, “Onwards to Charleston.”