Free The Drazen World: The Lesson (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Milana Raziel

              PROLOGUE
 
    She cut through the glaringly bright, sterile terminal with the quick efficiency of one who was far too familiar with its corridors and had places to be. Wearing a perfectly cut, discreet black Armani pantsuit like her own personal armor, Lena Corradi's efforts to blend into the woodwork were at odds with her slim, pale beauty as she drew the appreciative eyes of the men she hurried past. But for her twenty-first-century accoutrements, she could have stepped from a Renaissance painting, the serenity of her classically beautiful profile and elegant carriage undisturbed by the clamor around her.
     
    Click click click kerchunk
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    Click click click kerchunk
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    She wrestled her roller bags through the doors of the oasis called the Admiral's Club, her base of operations for the next nine hours. The door swept shut behind her, blocking out the hubbub of the terminal and enveloping her in tranquility. She made a beeline for a vacant corner and sank into the plush sofa. She was in no mood for small talk or, god forbid, a businessman on the prowl. It may have been a while between her sessions at the club, but she wasn't desperate for companionship—just a bit of solitude. Her black patent Louboutins clattered to the floor as she tucked her feet up under her, settling in for a long wait. Thanks to a string of mechanical failures and mishaps in Tokyo blowing every one of her connecting flights, a night in her own bed in New York was just another dream that had slipped away.
     
    Known as an “art retrieval” expert, Lena Corradi was equal parts cat burglar and diplomat. Her expertise in following the flows and eddies of an unending stream of paperwork and provenances coupled with her deft touch in negotiations and iron will kept her globe-trotting from one assignment to the next.
     
    Most recently, she had been in Asia for months, tracking a Vermeer missing since the early days of World War II. Her search had taken her from Hong Kong to Singapore to mainland China before she finally caught up with the masterwork in Kyoto, Japan. With the Vermeer in question riding shotgun on its own first class ticket, she planned to turn it over to its rightful owner in Houston then hightail it home. But for now, she was stuck at LAX, waiting for the next flight able to accommodate her and her precious cargo, packed in a protective case. Too large to fit in the overhead bin, the painting required a seat of its own. Adjoining seats in first class were hard to come by at the last minute, especially between LA and Houston. The continuous exchange of money and glamour would not be interrupted—especially by something as mundane as an Old Master.
     
    Tracking the Vermeer down was easy compared to actually retrieving it once she’d pinpointed the location. Negotiating its return was a long, drawn-out process steeped in the intricacies of Japanese etiquette and demanding more than a little groveling. Like most of her Asian assignments, her meetings meant ceremony and deference for days on end with no release. Even for a masochist like Lena, that was too much.
     
    In the end, it took a more than a little shaming and a hint of extortion to win the day. She reminded the art lover involved that it just wouldn't do if it were disclosed that a prominent Japanese industrialist was in possession of a family heirloom stolen by the Nazis from a Holocaust victim whose family had received the painting as a gift from the artist himself. A revelation like that would have highlighted the historical connection between the Nazis and the company that its owner would rather leave under a rock.
     
    Despite the endless begging, Lena relished jobs like these—bringing the lost art of the Holocaust out of the shadows and back to its rightful owners. But these assignments were becoming fewer and further between as art and artifacts became the currency of crime and