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supposed to protect.
    Atalay took out his cellphone, dialed a number, gave some quick commands in Turkish, and turned to Kate. “I’ve told my men to secure the exits and to call for backup, all in plainclothes. If Fox is in this hotel, he’s not getting out.”
    But if Nick wasn’t in the hotel, Atalay had made a grave mistake. Nick had a sixth sense about law enforcement. He’d easily spot the detectives on the street no matter how they were dressed, and he’d go back the way he came. She hoped that’s what would happen. The alternative was that he was still in the hotel, already a prisoner without knowing it.
    “What room is Cooper in?” Atalay asked the clerk.
    “Room 302, a deluxe suite.”
    The clerk took out a sheet of paper printed with the floor plan of the hotel and circled the room. It was two doors down from the stairs and had windows that looked out over the courtyard and restaurant.
    Atalay and Kate went to the lobby’s courtyard windows and looked up at the third-floor room. The sheers were drawn, but the lights were on.
    The chief inspector stepped back behind the wall for cover and told Kate his plan. Once his men arrived, he’d position detectives at the stairs and elevators on every floor. He and a team of men would go up to the third floor and flank the door to room 302. At that point, Atalay would send a text to his man in the lobby instructing him to have the desk clerk make a courtesy call to Nick’s room.
    “The clerk will say he’s calling Fox to see if there’s anything else the Four Seasons can do to make his stay more enjoyable,” Atalay said. “Not that it matters what he says. I will be close enough to the door to hear the phone ring. The second Fox picks up, we’ll burst in and take him. And if he’s not in the room, then all of us will pull back out of sight and wait for him to show up.”
    “It’s a good plan,” Kate said. In fact, it was probably what she’d do herself in the same situation. The problem was that it could succeed.
    “You need to stay out of sight,” Atalay said to Kate. “If he sees you, we’re finished. You will have to wait here.”
    The translation was that Atalay didn’t want a woman he barely knew along on a mission that might include a firefight, Kate thought. This was fine by her since her primary goal now was to warn Nick, and she needed a private moment to do it.
    Almost immediately, a dozen other plainclothes detectives arrived. Atalay assigned them to areas around the hotel, stationed one at the front desk, and then took the three remaining men with him up to the third floor.
    That left Kate alone in the lobby with two desk clerks and the detective, a man named Giray. He had his phone out and ready, waiting for instructions from Atalay.
    Kate stepped behind a pillar, took out her phone, and sent a one-word text to Nick.
RUN.
    Giray’s phone dinged with the arrival of Atalay’s text and he gave the go-ahead nod to the clerk, who picked up the phone and made the call to Nick’s room.
    “Here we go,” Giray said to Kate with a heavy Turkish accent.
    They walked into the courtyard and looked up at Nick’s third-floor room. The window opened, and Nick Fox casually climbed out. Giray cursed and called Atalay.
    Kate was trying to stay calm, but her heart was pounding in her chest. Nick was on a narrow ledge, and he was reaching for a drainpipe. It was an arm’s length away, and it didn’t look all that sturdy. Kate closed her eyes and wished she was Catholic so she could ask God for a favor. She opened her eyes and saw that Nick had made it onto the drainpipe and was shimmying up to the roof.
    Atalay’s head popped out of Nick’s open window. He leaned forward and aimed his gun at Nick. “Halt,” Atalay said.
    Nick looked down at Atalay. “Give me a good reason.”
    “I’ll shoot you if you don’t.”
    “If you shoot me, and I fall to my death, you’ll never find the goblet.”
    Atalay said something in Turkish, and Kate looked