The Day After Yesterday (Mobsters, Monsters & Nazis Book 3) Read online

  “Standing up in a hail of bullets leans more in the direction of stupid than strong in my book.”

  Ava laughed. “Fair enough. I’m not exactly a lounge singer.”

  “I’m not that bad of an investigator. Are you military?”

  “Of a sort. I work for a government organization that has an allergy to acronyms.”

  “What do you do for this shadowy organization?”

  Ava started to pace. “That’s difficult to explain.”

  “Make it simple.”

  She made small circles with her hands, as if trying to find the right words. “We keep powerful things from getting into the hands of bad guys.”

  “Like the Object?”

  She nodded.

  “So your cover at the Monarch was to learn about the Fat Man’s interest in the Object….”

  “And to figure out the connection with the Nazis,” she finished his thought.

  It was Derrick’s turn to pace. He stopped after taking a few steps. The hymn came back to him more powerfully than ever. “What’s the Object?”

  Ava shrugged. “Above my pay grade. All I know is that I’m supposed to retrieve it and make it disappear.”

  “That sounds unsafe. If you’re looking for an artifact that could harm the world, then wouldn’t you want to know how to handle it once you got it?”

  “Perhaps you’re not all looks after all, Diamond,” she chided.

  “Don’t dodge the question: what do you know?”

  Ava paused. She seemed to be calculating how much she wanted to share. “All we know is that the Nazis built a machine and that the Object guides it.”

  “So, the Weasel knows as much as you do?”

  Once more, a shrug. “It’s a top-secret project. Do you think they’re handing out fliers?”

  Derrick threw up his hands and walked away.

  The shadow watched from a metal walkway at the far end of the warehouse. He observed them as they traded insults and questions long into the night. As Derrick retired for the night, he placed his journal down on a long table with a small lamp and then went into the next room. The shadow leapt down, careful to avoid all of the classic noisemakers that seemed to be the bane of creeping figures everywhere. After reaching the table, the shadow flipped to the first blank page. Taking a pen from his pocket, he scribbled some words on the page before fading into the darkness.