The others knew it, too.
“Well, it’s been nice working with you, Guido,” Aahz said with a sigh. “I know I’ve gotten on your case a couple of times, but you’re a good man to have around in a pinch. You did some really nice crowd work getting us this far. Sorry about that last turn call.”
“No hard feelings,” my bodyguard shrugged. “You gave it your best shot. This alley would have been my choice, too, if I’d been workin’ alone. Boss, I warned you I was a jinx when it came to jailbreaks. I gotta admit, though, for a while there I really thought we were goin’ to pull this one off.”
“It was a long shot at best.” I grinned. “At least you can’t say that this one suffered from over-planning.”
Aahz clapped a hand on my shoulder.
“Well, partner?” he said. “Any thoughts on how to play this one? Do we try to surrender peacefully, or go down swinging?”
I wasn’t sure the crowd would give us a choice. They were almost at our alley, and they didn’t sound like they cared much for talking.
“NOT THIS WAY! THEY’RE DOUBLING BACK TOWARD THE JAIL!”
This unexpected cry came from the street near the mouth of our alley.
I couldn’t believe it, but apparently the mob did. There were curses and shouted orders, but from their fast-fading manner it was plain that the crowd had turned and was now heading back the way they had come.
“What was that?” Massha managed, her voice returning at last.
I motioned her to be silent and cocked an eyebrow at Aahz, silently asking the same question.
He answered with an equally silent shake of the head. Neither of us knew for sure what was going on, but we both sensed that the timely intervention was neither accidental nor a mistake. Someone had deliberately pulled the crowd off our backs. Before we celebrated our good fortune, we wanted to know who and why. A pair of figures appeared at the mouth of the alley. “You can come out now,” one of them called.