"You gave Rasputin the key?" Destinee scooted her chair a bit farther from Kris, so she could see him clearly, "You trusted that jerk after what he did to me?"
"That hadn't happened yet," Dwayne pointed out. "You can't judge people on the basis of what they're going to do. Or at least, we can't."
"Oh, I guess," she shrugged, and moved closer to her fiancé again. "Sorry, it's just that man. He's like pure evil. I can't imagine him ever doing something for the right reasons. I mean, he told you what was in the Box, but that's only because he thought it would get you to do what he wanted. He knew why it was supposed to be closed, but he still thought he was strong enough to tame the genie, even if that meant the end of the world."
"You should never trust him with anything," said Dwayne, "Especially not... Wait, if he had the key, why was he..." he hesitated uncertainly.
"Landry thought the Russians had the key," Ferrari explained, "I'd be willing to bet he thought that meant Fydor Levonov. A guy I came across in my research, in the same kind of industry as Spenser, but fond of decorating the streets with old Red Army propaganda. Crazy fence who liked to play up his Russian heritage, even if he was really Polish. But of course, Levonov wasn't involved. Landry hadn't even heard of Grigori Rasputin or the Golden Pointer. And even if he had, Rasputin thought that either Marco or Dwayne had the key. And when I spoke to Trevor later, it turns out they were operating on the assumption that Monty would have the key the whole time. Apparently, from studies of places the Box had shown up in the past, it always seemed to end up someone with a certain kind of psychological profile taking the key."
"But if none of them took the key, and Kris didn't have it, then... ewwww!" Destinee blushed and looked away, "You didn't, like, swallow the key or something did you? That's gross, when I think what it touched, and... tell me you didn't?"
"He didn't," Ferrari grinned, "It's like a shell game. The best way to hide something is to keep it moving."
YOU ARE READING
Mr Hook's Big Black Box
FantasyIf anyone is interested, I'm looking for a group to read this book-club style (one person reading each narrator, with breaks to criticise the story and point out any mistakes I've missed, banter, diversions etc) on a video chat for youtube. Now on h...
