by David Archer
They got back into the car and started on the trip back to London. Noah called Neil to tell him the house was perfect and to be ready to move later that day.
“Oh, come on boss, I was just getting settled in here,” Neil whined. “The window beside my desk has a fantastic view of the pool, do you know how many bikinis are out there right now?”
“When we get this job done, you can actually put on your trunks and go join them, but for now we got work to do. Pack it up.”
“Me, put on trunks and go to the pool? Boss, have you seen the chicken legs I got stuck with? I'm trying to impress a girl, not scare her away forever! Don't worry, I'll be packed by the time you get here.”
Noah ended that call, then dialed Sarah's number.
“Hola, Señor?” Sarah said as she answered.
“Sarah? It's Noah. How are things going on your end?”
“Hey, our job was easy. We got a white Maxus van, it's parked outside now. We're back at the hotel, in case you're wondering.”
“Okay, that's good. Go ahead and start packing everything up, we're checking out this afternoon. The house that Neil found for us is ideal, so we'll be staying there for the rest of our time in England. What kind of car are you driving?”
“Range Rover, an SUV. Why?”
“That's good, the road to the house is pretty rough. Have everyone load their gear into your car, I want the van empty. We'll be there in an hour or so, and get our stuff packed up.”
“Okay,” Sarah said. “Hey, how many bedrooms are in that house?”
“I counted eight, so there's plenty. Just be ready to go when we get there.”
It was well past noon by the time Noah and Decker got back to the hotel, so they joined the others for lunch after they packed everything up and loaded it into the Rover. Noah explained his plan, that Sarah and Neil would go on to the house, making a stop for groceries along the way, while he, Moose and Decker would pay a call to Mister Pendergrast. Noah had decided on a direct approach, simply snatching the man right out of his apartment. He called Catherine Potts to fill her in on the plan.
“Right, then,” she said. “The tricky thing will be getting him packed up and hauled away without setting off too many alarms. Between NSA, Interpol and heaven knows who else, he gets watched pretty closely.”
“What I'm counting on is that we can convince him to just walk out with us and get into our vehicle. It should look like three guys just going for a ride.”
“All right. I'll just stay on station for a couple of hours after you leave, then. Everyone else seems to be watching me at the moment, curious why I'm watching him. If I stay put, they'll think I know what's going on and that I expect Pendergrast to be back soon. That should give you a head start, at least.”
“What if I get you in any kind of trouble?” Noah asked.
“Oh, not at all,” Catherine answered. “Those blokes are all visitors, here, and I'm MI6, as far as they know. Don't worry about me, luv, I'll be in the sunshine.”
Noah thanked her and ended the call, turning back to Moose and Decker.
“Okay, when we make the snatch, Stan will be driving,” Noah said, “since he's already familiar with the way out to the house. Moose, you and I will go inside the building. We'll knock on his door, and hopefully he'll open it up, but if he doesn't we'll kick it in.”
“I sat there and watched his building security video all morning,” Neil said, “and he never left his apartment. He had one visitor, a woman who went inside for about an hour, then left.”
Moose gave a snort. “He seems to be a cocky one,” he said. “Neil says he doesn't seem to have any kind of security, no bodyguards, nothing. You think he'll put up a fight?”
“There will be two guns pointed at him, so I doubt it. He might be a badass, but nobody can fight a bullet. We'll knock, and as soon as the door starts to open, we'll force our way in. That should knock him down, disorient him so that we can get control of the situation instantly. You'll stand back out of reach and keep him covered, while I put my gun to his head and explain that we're taking him with us.”
They finished eating, and left the hotel. Decker had turned in the rented Jaguar when they had gotten back, so he, Noah and Moose got into the van while Sarah and Neil drove off in the Range Rover.
Noah dialed Catherine's number. “Hello,” she answered cheerfully.
“Catherine, it's Colson again. Any change in the situation there?”
“Not even a bit,” she said. “He had a visitor a couple of hours ago, a professional lady if you take my meaning, but it's been quiet since then.”
“All right, we're on the way. We're in a white van. Call me immediately if anything changes before we get there, okay?”
“Will do,” she said, then hung up the phone.
It took them nearly 30 minutes to drive back to Pendergrast's building, and there had been no calls. A parking space was open just in front of the building, and Decker pulled into it. Moose and Noah stepped out and walked nonchalantly up the walkway.
The two men entered the building by the main entrance and quickly found themselves standing in front of apartment 7B on the second floor. Noah reached out and knocked, while he and Moose both tried to keep their faces impassive.
There was silence on the other side of the door for a second, and then they heard footsteps approaching. There was a hesitation, probably while Pendergrast looked through the peephole to see who was at the door.
A second later, the door opened. As soon as it was obviously swinging inward, Moose plowed his weight into it, slamming it open and causing Pendergrast to fall back. He crashed into a hall table that had been covered in knickknacks, shattering it as he fell to the floor.
“What the…” That was as far as he got before he realized that the muzzle of a large automatic pistol was shoved against his cheek. That realization caused him to clamp his jaws tightly shut, while he stared into Noah's eyes.
“Smart man,” Noah said. “Here's the situation. My friend and I would like you to take a ride with us. We have absolutely no qualms about killing you if you refuse or try to draw attention to yourself, so really, the only thing you can do is get up and walk calmly and peacefully out the door with us. If you so much as make a face at someone to try to say that you're in trouble, I will shoot you dead, and then I'd probably have to kill the other person, too. You wouldn't want that to happen, now would you?”
“Depends,” Pendergrast said. “Apparently you're planning to kill me anyway, so what would I have to lose?”
“I have no intention of killing you, if I can avoid it. In fact, all I really want is to have a little talk with you, but under certain controlled conditions. Once that talk is over, I'll be happy to drop you off here once again. You only get killed if you make a mistake. Understand?”
Pendergrast flicked his eyes to Moose, who hadn't said a word and was standing just inside the now-closed door with his own pistol aimed at Pendergrast's head. He kept them on the big man for a moment, then looked back at Noah.
“Fine, you want to talk. Why can't we talk here?”
“Because I don't want to be interrupted, and I don't know who might be dropping by to visit you. We do this my way or no way, and if we do it no way, that's where you end up in trouble. Now, I'm going to back away and help you get up, and then we're going to walk out the front door like old friends, the three of us. Just remember that your old friends, here, each have a pistol in their pockets that are pointed at you. Got it?”
Pendergrast nodded once, and then accepted the hand Noah offered him to help him up. He didn't attempt to fight, and only looked around at the broken table and ceramics for a moment before dusting himself off. “Well, guys, you ready to go? I sure am.”
Moose and Noah tucked their guns into the pockets of the light jackets they wore, and Moose opened the door again. Pendergrast smiled and stepped out, then waited for the two of them to take a position on either side of him. Side-by-side, the three of them walked down the hal
l to the stairway, and a moment later they walked out the front door.
Decker had stayed in the van as planned, and the side door was standing open. Pendergrast and Moose climbed in the side, while Noah took the passenger seat up front. Moose closed the side door, and Decker put the van in gear and drove away from the curb.
Moose produced some large zip strips, and quickly bound Pendergrast's hands behind his back, and then bound his feet together. Pendergrast cooperated, saying nothing during the procedure. Sitting on the floor of the van, he was unable to see out the windows, so he had no idea where they might be going.
They rode in complete silence for about twenty minutes, but finally Pendergrast's nerve broke. “Okay, can you at least tell me where we're headed? Is it going to be much longer before we get there?”
Noah looked around at him, but said nothing. A moment later, he turned back to look out the windshield. Pendergrast let out a sigh, and leaned against the side of the van. “I thought you wanted to talk,” he said.
“I do,” Noah said, “but I'll tell you when.”
“Look, man, I'll tell you whatever you want to know. We don't have to do the rubber hose and spotlight treatment, just tell me what you want to know. I don't have a lot of secrets.”
Noah turned to look at him again. “Okay, let's test that theory. Where is Selah Habib?”
Pendergrast scrunched his eyebrows together. “Who? I have no idea who you're talking about.”
Noah smiled. “That was your one and only chance to avoid what's coming.” He turned around and looked out the windshield again.
“No, wait,” Pendergrast said. “Seriously, I don't know who we're talking about. Who the heck is Sheila whatever?”
Moose, who was also sitting on the floor of the van, kicked Pendergrast gently in the leg to get his attention. When he had it, he simply shook his head and put a finger to his lips. Pendergrast let out another sigh, then leaned back and shut up. The rest of the ride was in silence.
When they got to the house, Decker drove the van right into the barn and parked it under the hoist they had looked at earlier. Noah climbed out and opened the back door of the van, and Moose slid Pendergrast out until he was sitting on the edge of the van floor. A moment later, he took out a knife and cut Pendergrast's hands free.
The man rubbed his wrists and looked down at his bound ankles, but Moose shook his head. He produced another pair of zip strips and put one around each of Pendergrast's wrists, linking them together again, but this time in front of his body.
Noah had gone over to the wall and untied the rope that led to the block and tackle. The mechanism was well maintained, because the weight of the hook was enough to bring it down smoothly as Noah paid out the rope. When it hung just about Noah's height from the floor, Pendergrast suddenly had a look of understanding on his face.
Moose and Decker took the man by an arm each and put his zip-stripped wrists onto the hook, and then Noah began pulling on the rope. The block and tackle had been designed to lift several bales of hay at a time, so Pendergrast's weight was almost nothing to it. His feet left the floor only a second after Noah began pulling.
“Hey, wait a minute,” he yelled. “The rope looks pretty old, come on, you don't want to do this! How high we going? Come on, man, you said you wanted to talk, let's talk.”
“We tried that,” Noah said, “but you decided to lie. I'm done with your lies. The next time I ask you a question, I want the truth.” He kept pulling on the rope, lifting Pendergrast even higher.
“So ask,” Pendergrast yelled. “I'll be honest, I swear!”
Noah didn't say another word, but just pulled on the rope until Pendergrast was hanging from the center beam of the roof. More than forty feet of nothing but air separated him from the concrete floor at the bottom, and the look of terror on his face told Noah he had chosen an appropriate technique.
Noah went to the wall and began climbing the ladder, going all the way to the third loft. The floor of that loft was just about even with where Pendergrast was hanging, and Noah walked right up to the gap.
“You ready to give me the truth?” Noah asked.
“Oh, yes, and you bet! Ask me anything, I'm ready to talk!”
“It's the same question I asked you before. Where is Selah Habib?”
“Oh, geez, I told you, I don't know who that is! Ask me something I can answer!”
Noah stood there and looked at him for a moment, then shook his head. “I don't think you will ever give me the truth,” he said. “Here's the deal. I'm going to ask you one more time to answer that question, and if you don't, if you continue to tell me you don't know who I'm talking about, then my friends and I are going to get into our truck and drive away. I've rented this place for a month, so no one will be coming out here for at least that long. Do you want to know how long it would take you to die of thirst, hanging there? About four days, that's what I'm guessing. You might manage to make it five, but I don't think there's any hope of going beyond that. In the meantime, you will piss and shit yourself over and over while you hang there, and if you were to manage to shake yourself loose, you'd fall to the concrete floor. That would almost certainly break several bones, and make it impossible for you to go anywhere to get help.” He paused and just looked into Pendergrast's eyes for a moment. “Where is Selah Habib?”
This time, Pendergrast hesitated. “Look, man, I swear I don't know who that is.”
Noah turned away without a word, walked back to the ladder and started down.
“Oh, come on, I'm trying, here!” Pendergrast yelled. “If you ask me something I can answer, I will, I swear.” He continued shouting as Noah climbed all the way down, and motioned for Moose and Decker to get into the van. They drove out, and within seconds the van was completely out of range of Pendergrast's hearing.
They drove up to the house and parked, then went inside. Neil and Sarah had not yet arrived, but they found some teabags in the cabinet, along with a canister of sugar, and they each made themselves a cup of tea with the microwave.
“You really gonna let him hang there all night?” Moose asked.
“Yep. I figure that will soften him up, and he'll be ready to tell me whatever I want to know by morning.”
“Thirst will be working on him by then,” Decker said, “so that will help. He seems to be somewhat terrified of heights, too, so that won't hurt anything.”
“He'll be trying to swing his way over to the loft floor,” Noah said. “As soon as it gets dark, Moose, I want you to go out there and climb up to that loft as quietly as you possibly can, then just sit in the shadows and watch him. I don't think there's any chance he'd actually escape, but let's not take any risks.”
Moose tapped on his phone for a moment. “Sundown isn't until eight fifteen tonight, so that'll be a few hours. At least it will give me time to eat some dinner first.”
As if on cue, they heard the Range Rover drive up just outside the door, and all three got up to go and help bring their things in. Moose and Noah grabbed bags of groceries first, and carried them in to the table, then went back to get their own bags. Each of them chose a bedroom, except for Sarah, who carried her things into the room Noah had selected.
Since it was still only midafternoon, they all helped to put the groceries away and then sat down in the big living room and turned on the television. It was a large flat-screen model that was mounted on the wall, and the remote was lying on the coffee table. They watched a few minutes of a news program that was almost over, then flipped channels until they found a comedy movie that was just coming on.
When the movie ended, Sarah declared herself hungry and went to the kitchen to see what was available to make for dinner. Most of the food they had bought was simple fare, since they didn't really know how long they would be there. She opted for chicken salad sandwiches, and opened a big bag of rippled potato chips to go with them. She made each of them a sandwich and put it on a plate, along with a pile of chips, then yelled for them to come and get it. Ev
eryone took a plate, although Neil stopped to make himself a second sandwich, and then they went back to the living room to watch more television.
“Sarah,” Noah said, “how come you never make this at home?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Because you usually do the cooking,” she said. “This is the first chance I've had.”
“Really? Remind me to change that.”
SIX
Moose, for all his size and muscle, could move silently when he chose to do so. This was partly due to his Navy SEAL training, but he had also developed the skill on his own as a kid, always finding ways to sneak up on his friends during their various combat games. Getting up the ladder silently had not been difficult for him, and he had made himself comfortable on a couple of hay bales as he settled in to watch Pendergrast hanging.
Periodically, the man would start yelling for help, and would keep it up until his voice gave out. He reached the point that his voice sounded scratchy even when he first began talking, and Moose knew that the guy was on his way to cracking. Very few people could handle hanging this way and still manage to resist questioning. After only a few hours, Pendergrast—like most people—would be ready to do anything at all to get down from his position and survive it.
Noah could probably have questioned the guy right then and gotten the answers he wanted, but he insisted on leaving him hanging all night. Moose didn't know why, but he was learning to trust Noah's instincts. Letting him hang overnight might cause Pendergrast to spill even more beans, and Noah had demonstrated in the past that he could adapt quickly when the situation called for it.
The night wore on, and finally, Pendergrast stopped yelling and just hung there. His head was drooping onto his chest, and it dawned on Moose that the man had actually managed to fall asleep. Don't think I could do that, Moose thought to himself. How can a guy sleep when he's hanging by his wrists like that?
