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KAZ TRIED HIS hardest to look away from the large grin that had worked its way into Dinara's face, the picture being engraved into his brain permanently. "I want you focused on what we have to do tomorrow night. After that, you'll get all the information you want.
Nina started tugging at her corset, pollen from the flower having fallen on her shoulder, Dinara catching Matthias eyeing it longingly. "Really?"
"Van Eck promised us thirty million kruge. That's exactly what we're going to take. With another one million for interest, expenses, and just because we can."
Wylan broke his cracker in half at the information, looking up at Kaz with a confused expression. "My father doesn't have thirty million kruge lying around. Even if you took all of his assets together,"
"You should leave, then," Jesper taunted, "we only associate with the disgraced heirs of the very finest fortunes."
"If Van Eck had that kind of money on hand, we would have just robbed him instead of breaking into the Ice Court in the first place," Kaz said, stretching out his bad leg, foot flexing slightly.
"What about that chest full of bills he brought to Vellgeluk?" Jesper asked, his mind bringing him back to the money that was so close to being in his hands, only to be ripped away.
"Bunk. Probably quality counterfeits," Kaz said, disgust written on his face as he pictured the purple bills.
"So then how do we get the money? Rob the city? Rob the Council?" Jesper asked, sitting up taller in his chair, the thought of money making his brain get its fill of serotonin. "But twelve vaults in one night?"
"No. We're going to make like merchers and let the market do the work for us. We're going to take Van Eck's money, and then we're going to take his reputation. We're going to make sure he can never do business in Ketterdam or anywhere in Kerch ever again."
"And what happens to Kuwei?" Nina asked. She had grown a slight attachment to the young boy, always being stuck in the tomb with him, the two having conversations about anything and everything.
"Once the job is done, Kuwei — and any other convicts, Grisha, and disinherited youths who may or may not have prices on their heads — can lie low in the Southern Colonies."
"Where will you be?" Jesper asked, slightly disheartened that the boy he had been with for years wasn't going to be joining them on their voyage.
"Right here. I've still got plenty of business that requires my attention," Kaz said, sending a hopeful glance at Dinara, wanting her to stay with him.
