Read The Pursuit for Free Online Page A

at work. She stopped to look at the sculpture, not to wonder if it was a critical statement about the glacial pace of construction, but to see if the bottleneck had revealed anyone shadowing her. It hadn’t. Her father walked past her and went inside the church.
    Kate followed him and discovered that the church charged admission. Her father hadn’t lost any of his edge, she thought. Paying for a ticket and going through the turnstile presented an obstacle that would flush out anybody following them. She paid her six euros, walked through the turnstile, and entered the vast nave with its impressive vaulted ceiling.
    At the base of each pillar holding up the church were altars to the various craft and professional guilds that had been leaders of the community in ancient times. The altarpieces were large paintings by Flemish masters. The paintings depicted guild members demonstrating their particular trades.
    She stood in front of the altarpiece for the fencing guild, which had once served as Antwerp’s de facto police force. It was a painting of Saint Michael, the guardian of paradise, and his army of angels battling a seven-headed dragon and a legion of naked man-beasts with what looked like monster masks over their crotches.
    “Those are some nasty codpieces,” Kate said in a voice slightly louder than a whisper.
    Her father pretended to take pictures of the nave with his cellphone. “They sure are. Codpieces are uncomfortable enough to wear without fangs and horns on ’em.”
    “I’m not going to ask how you know that,” she said.
    “What happened in the vault?” Jake asked.
    “I was caught in the act of arresting Nick. I told the police that I’d tracked him here from Hawaii and stumbled into the heist.”
    “I’m glad you were able to smooth-talk your way out of jail. I was already making plans to help you.”
    “What did you have in mind?”
    “I was going to do what any sensible father would in a situation like this,” Jake said.
    “You started looking for a good criminal lawyer?”
    “I ordered explosives from my buddy in Amsterdam.”
    She looked at him. “
That’s
what you consider the sensible thing? Blowing a hole in the police station and mounting a jailbreak?”
    “Of course not. That would be insane.”
    “Then what were the explosives for?”
    “I was going to ambush the armored police van carrying you to court on Monday morning and blast open the doors to set you free.”
    “At least that won’t be necessary now.” Kate took a seat in the row of pews behind him and lowered her head.
    “The plan is still on,” Jake said, snapping some more photos. “Now we can use them to bust Nick out. We’ve got forty-eight hours to work on the details and steal the necessary vehicles. A garbage truck and two motorcycles should do it.”
    Good grief, Kate thought. I’m going to steal two motorcycles and a garbage truck! As if she hadn’t already broken enough laws. She pressed her lips together and made the sign of the cross.
    “What are you doing?” Jake asked. “We’re Presbyterian.”
    “The agreement Nick had with the FBI was that if he was ever caught by the police, anywhere in the world, our operation was over and he’d be on his own.”
    “I didn’t agree to that,” Jake said. “Besides, he’s my friend and you love him. That’s more than enough for me.”
    Love him, she thought. Jeez Louise. That’s wrong on so many levels.
    “I don’t…you know,” she said to her dad.
    “What?”
    “The
L
word.”
    “Love?”
    “Yes. The
L
word and
Nicolas Fox
shouldn’t be said in the same sentence. Especially not out loud.”
    Jake gave his head a small shake. “How would you describe your relationship with him?”
    “Reluctant partners,” Kate said.
    “Okay, I’ll buy that. What else?”
    “I guess I think he’s hot.”
    “Too much information,” Jake said. He got up with his back to her, and left a disposable phone behind on the pew. “Get some rest. Call me when