The bodyguard’s brow furrowed as it took on the unaccustomed exercise of thought.
“I dunno, Boss. It seems that however much planning was done, something always came up that we hadn’t figured on. If I had to hang our failures on any one thing, I’d say it was just that . . . over planning. I mean, after weeks of lectures and practice sessions, you get a little overconfident, so when something goes wrong you’re caught flatfooted, know what I mean?”
Nervous as we were, that got a laugh from both Massha and me.
“Well, that’s one problem we won’t have to worry about,” I said. “Our planning time is always minimal, and for this caper we’re going to have to put it together in a matter of hours.”
“If you take hours, you’ll never pull it off,” Vilhelm said, entering our planning room just in time to hear my last comment.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Massha growled.
“Say, are you sure you guys are on the level?” the vampire said, ignoring my apprentice. “It occurs to me that I’ve only got your word on all this . . . that Vic is still alive and all. If you’re taking advantage of my good nature to get me involved in something crooked . . .”
“He’s alive,” I assured him. “I’ve seen him myself since we were here last . . . but you didn’t answer the question. What was that you were saying about what would happen if we took hours to plan the jailbreak?”
The Dispatcher shrugged.
“I suppose you guys know what you’re doing and I should keep my mouth shut, but I was getting a little worried. I mean, it’s sundown already, and if you’re going to make your move before the execution, it had better be soon.”