Then he stopped. Badzar had paused a few feet in front of him, his arms limply at his sides as before.
The room was not empty. Drew was here, as Badzar had promised, and he was not yet the corpse that Nergui had feared. He looked, though, as if death might not be far away. He was sitting huddled on the floor at the far end of the room, his face pale and drawn, his eyes haunted. He was hunched forward, dressed in the clothes he had been wearing when he left the embassy. One of his arms was handcuffed to a post, the kind of device that one might use for tethering a dog or a horse.
And next to him was another figure, dressed in black, a black ski helmet pulled across his face, hiding everything but his eyes. He held a pistol loosely in his hand, the barrel pointing toward Drew.
The figure turned to them, and Nergui was sure that behind the mask, his face was smiling. “Good afternoon,” he said. “You are just in time. Only just in time. I’d begun to think that you weren’t coming.” He raised the pistol in front of his face and looked at it, shaking his head. “So I will not need this just for the moment.” He looked back up at Nergui, leaving the gun barrel pointing at Drew.
“But I’m glad you came,” he said. “We’ve a lot to discuss.”
CHAPTER 24
Nergui slowly lowered his pistol, but kept it in his hand. “I suppose I should have expected this.”
“You’re a smart man, Nergui,” the masked man said, “but you’re out of your depth here. I think we all are.”
“Even you?”
“Yeah, maybe even me.”
“Drew. You’re okay?” Nergui looked across at Drew now, ignoring the masked man still pointing his pistol at Drew’s head.
Drew nodded slowly. “I think so, for the moment.”
“He’ll be okay,” the masked man said. “So long as you’re sensible.”
“Forget it, Maxon.”
The masked man nodded slowly, then reached up to peel off the helmet. “As I say,” Maxon smiled, “you’re smart. Smart enough to help your friend McLeish here, if you’re sensible.”
Nergui shook his head. “It’s too late, Maxon. Even if you get away from us, you won’t get away from them.”
“Smart again, Nergui. But you’re wrong this time. I’ve been in this game too long to be caught out now. All I need is a little help.”
“Not this time. It’s gone too far.”
“You’ve no idea how far,” Maxon said. “It’s beyond you now. This isn’t about law enforcement or morality, it’s about politics. Nobody wants the truth, they just want a politically expedient outcome. You can be a hero. You walk out of here with McLeish safe and the killer in custody.” He gestured toward Badzar. “He’s in no state to resist.”
“And in exchange I let you get away?”
“You help me get away. I need shelter for a couple of days and help getting out of the country, that’s all. I might manage it on my own, but with your help-with official help-I’ll be safe.” He shrugged. “Nobody loses.”
“Except Badzar.”
“Jesus, he’s a killer. He’s a serial fucking murderer. Why do you care about him?”
“I don’t care about him. I want to see him given the treatment he deserves, whatever that might turn out to be. But I care about you. If he’s a killer, what are you?”
“I’m a professional,” Maxon said.
Nergui shook his head. “Maxon, you are, as you would no doubt say, a piece of fucking work. Okay, so what if I don’t help you?”
“Then we all lose. Let’s think about it, shall we? You don’t play ball, first thing I make off with your friend here. You’re back where you started.”
“You won’t get away for long. We’re combing the city for you.”
“Yeah, without any success till I gave you a small clue. Like telling you exactly where I fucking was. And the point is that I know exactly how much of a political storm is brewing about our friend. You’ve been able to keep the lid on it so far, but not for much longer. Soon as the Western media realize you’ve no idea where he is-or, worse still, if my patience runs out or my trigger finger slips-you’re in deep shit. Particularly if it’s made known that you had me in your clutches but let me slip away.”
“This is insane, Maxon. Even if I do go along with this, what happens once you hand McLeish over? What’s to stop us picking you up, then?”
“Because I’ll make sure you don’t get McLeish till I’m well on my way. You didn’t think I was going to just hand him over on your word as a gentleman, did you? No, it’s quite simple. I take him away to another little hidey hole. You get me the clearance and the papers I need to get me out of here to some place of my choosing, and then I give you a call to let you know where to find him.”
“You’re crazy. Why would we go along with a deal like that? Easiest thing would be for you to shoot McLeish as soon as we’re off the scene. That way it’s minimum hassle for you, and we wouldn’t know till it’s too late.”
“Jesus, you know, Nergui, you should be in my job. I’d never thought of that. Well, there you go. But as I see it, you’ve got no option but to trust me. But okay, you take Badzar with you, anyway. Gesture of good faith and all that. That way, if it all goes belly up, you’ll at least have captured the dreaded serial killer. Sounds a smart deal to me.”
“You’re a bastard, Maxon.”
Maxon shook his head, smiling faintly. “No, like I told you, I’m a professional.”
“So how did a professional get mixed up in a mess like this?”
Maxon shook his head, impatiently. “There’s no time for this crap, Nergui. I’m sure you’ve got the story all worked out for yourself.”
“Some of it. You had a cozy deal going on the Gobi project. Yourselves, the Brits, the Russians, Canadians, the Koreans. All amicable. All legit business.” Nergui paused, watching Maxon. “Legitimate businesses, but a nice front for laundering money through an obscure country with the potential for substantial profits at the end. And our government maybe only too keen to encourage it. Once again, everyone a winner.”
Maxon was watching him closely, though the aim of the pistol toward Drew never faltered. “Cut the crap, Nergui.”
“But then things started to go off track. The explorations weren’t going as well as expected. More investment was needed. The Russians and the locals kept telling you there were problems. Your people-and the others, the Brits, the Canadians-were suspicious. The figures didn’t add up.”
Maxon moved the gun closer to Drew’s head. “Okay,” he said. “Let me finish so we can all get moving and so that your friend here understands what this is all about. The Russians knew we weren’t prepared to invest any more without a fucking good reason. So they announced they were investing more, demanding a bigger stake. We were being squeezed out.”
Nergui nodded slowly. “But surely this kind of dispute could be resolved amicably? After all, our government is in charge of the project-they have the final say.”
Maxon laughed, mirthlessly. “You know, Nergui, that might just have been the fucking problem. It’s not for me to judge, but I got the feeling that there were some people there not batting on our side.”
“So you decided to act on your own initiative?”
“It’s my job,” Maxon said. “I’m an enforcer. It’s what I do.”
“Except you didn’t do it, did you? Where did you come across Badzar?”
“You’re wasted in this business, Nergui. You’re pretty professional yourself. You could make some real money. Yeah, I came across Badzar when he started launching one man guerrilla attacks on our sites in the north. I was supposed to-discourage him. But then I heard his story.”
“And your heart bled?”
“-And I thought he was more useful to us alive than dead. I brought him back to the city, initially. But then I managed to persuade him that I was on his side.”
“You must have impressive powers of persuasion.”
“Yeah, and not all of them involve violence. I reinvented
myself as an agent of the US government looking to undermine Russian dominance of the mining industry here.”
“Not so far from the truth, then?”
“The best lies never are. Badzar didn’t exactly trust me, but he could see that we were working toward the same ends. And I also took the precaution of introducing him to one or two addictive substances. It’s amazing how amenable people can be when you’re the sole supplier of something they need.”
“And your involvement was always deniable?”
“Exactly. Badzar had no real knowledge of me. Always useful if things go wrong.”
“Which they did.”
“On the contrary, they went better than we might have dreamed. It’s just that the Russians were such stubborn bastards.”
Nergui nodded. “The first killing-the dismembered body-that was one of the Russian team?”
“One of their geologists. One of those who’d been producing the dubious data. We thought that would give them a clear message.”
“And they didn’t report him as missing because that would have exposed the whole sordid arrangement. Instead, they just responded in kind.”
Maxon nodded. “Pretty much so. We underestimated them, I guess. We thought that, compared to us, this was just a two-bit bunch who would back off at the first sign of trouble.”
“Pretty naïve, Maxon.”
“Yeah, well, I guess I’m used to operating in more civilized parts of the world.”
“So the second victim-the one who was helped off the hotel roof-he was one of yours?”
“Same thing. One of our geologists. I think the message was clear.”
“But you didn’t take it?”
“Shit, no. I mean, this was a goddam battle of wills now. We directed Badzar very gently toward another of their team. Someone closer to the top guys.”
“The body we found dumped in the ravine, and they responded by killing Mr. Ransom, who I take it was one of yours?”
“Exactly. Ransom had been doing some work for us, trying to verify the data that they’d been producing. He was our expert in that field. Poor bastard. He wasn’t involved in any of this. Just doing his job.”
“Another professional,” Nergui said. “But I suppose you could say the same about the geologists you killed.”
“Those bastards knew what they were doing,” Maxon said. “They were in it to their necks.”
“So how did our Mr. Delgerbayar get involved in this?”
“We didn’t know how they’d caught on to Ransom. He was basically a backroom guy that we’d had crunching data for us. Had barely been down to the Gobi and certainly wasn’t anyone they’d see as a threat, unless they had some inside knowledge. Delgerbayar had been on the consortium’s payroll for a while, but he wasn’t just doing our dirty work, he was also helping out the Russians as well. They were paying him to do some digging about what was going on. He’d been up in the north asking questions, and then headed back south to talk to the Russians in the Gobi. He was getting rattled because he thought if there was a scandal his neck would be on the block. But it was clear he knew something about Badzar. That didn’t worry me particularly-Badzar was always disposable-but too many people were beginning to know too much. Down south, everywhere was alive with rumor. We thought that Delgerbayar’s death might make a suitable gesture. And it wasn’t difficult to persuade Badzar.”
“Why not?”
Maxon laughed. “Didn’t you know? Delgerbayar was one of the leaders of the group who broke up the prospectors’ camp. I don’t know whether Delgerbayar actually killed Badzar’s father himself, but it’s possible. Badzar didn’t take much persuading.”
Nergui nodded. He could still see, in his mind, the grotesque vision of Delgerbayar’s dismembered body stretched out in the factory where Badzar’s father had once worked. The horror of the scene remained unchanged, but his response to it-his assumption of a clear distinction between victim and perpetrator-had changed forever. It was, he thought, the loss of another kind of innocence, long after he had assumed that cynicism had made him invulnerable to such shifts.
“And it was after that that we came across you in the Gobi?”
“Yeah, and you bastards scared the shit out of me. I thought that the Russians might have been on to Badzar, but I assumed I’d kept myself out of the picture pretty thoroughly. I headed down to the Gobi to brief Collins, who was liaising with our people down there. We headed out to the tourist camp to avoid being seen at the mines, and then you bastards turned up.”
“Just coincidence. We were following Delgerbayar’s trail.”
“Yeah, because everybody heads to the same place down there when they’re trying to be incognito. Jesus, Nergui, ever thought that maybe this country of yours lacks some leisure facilities? Anyway, I thought they were on to us. Good job I tend to jump to conclusions, because it turns out I was right. I spotted a couple of guys lurking around the camp, and thought I’d better make myself scarce. Collins was pissed in the tent. I invited whatshisname, the guy who ran the camp, in to join us for a few drinks. Then I slipped away, supposedly to the john.”
Nergui raised his eyes. “You invited Batkhuyag in there deliberately?”
“Sure, so there were two guys. But also Batkhuyag had some inkling what was going on. He kept his eyes and ears open a bit too much. Another rumor merchant. I thought that, in the dark, it was quite probable that the killers wouldn’t realize I wasn’t there-they probably wouldn’t know what I was supposed to look like. At the very least, it would buy me some additional time to get away. So that’s what I did.”
Nergui was still staring at Maxon. “I see what you mean by professionalism. But how did you manage to get out of the area?”
“I’d got Collins to organize me a motorbike. I think it was stolen. Anyway, I had that, with a decent supply of gas, so I just headed north into the desert.”
“Pretty risky at the time of year.”
“Maybe. But what you don’t know don’t kill you. As I was well prepared. Always am. I headed north-I’d got various equipment including good GSM navigation equipment with me. I just drove and drove through the night. Eventually got back here. Probably not thinking too straight by that point.”
“Which is why you kidnapped McLeish?”
“No, I thought that through pretty well. I knew the Russians were after me. I suspected that your government wasn’t likely to do me any favors. So I had to try to get out of here. Which wasn’t likely to be easily achievable by any conventional means, as far as I could see. Then I thought of you and McLeish. You struck me as being, well, smarter and less corruptible than some of your compatriots and that McLeish would provide the leverage I needed.”
“But how did you track him down?”
“Not difficult. I aimed to call all the major hotels asking for him, so I could see where he was staying. As it turned out, I hit pay dirt first time at the Chinggis Khaan. I just waited there till he came out and followed him. Ended up at the embassy. I had a cold night waiting out for him to emerge, and then I thought it was wasted because he was going to get in the fucking car with the rest of you. But he didn’t, and so here we all are. And now you and your friend can see how serious this fucking situation is.”
“So where do we go from here?”
“Simple,” Maxon said. “You take Badzar with you, claim the credit. Meanwhile, I look after McLeish while you make the arrangements to get me out of your goddam country.”
Nergui glanced at McLeish. “I don’t know if it’s that simple,” he said. “I’m still a policeman. I don’t know whether I can go along with just letting you go. And that’s putting aside the question of how much I can trust you in any case. If I let you out of here with McLeish, I can’t expect to see either of you again.”
“Jesus, what are the options here? I need to get out of your fucking country as soon as possible. Those bastards are only a step behind me. I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize my escape. But you need to act fast. And as f
or your fucking scruples, well, don’t you realize you’re the only one left who seems to have them? Your fucking government are behind the Russians on this one all the way. They just want to get the best deal. They happily got into bed with my people when that looked the most lucrative option, and now they’ve just as happily switched sides.”
He paused, suddenly, and then unexpectedly smiled. He turned and gazed at McLeish, who was slumped against the concrete block, looking drained, beyond words. “And, anyway, Nergui, what are your fucking scruples worth? It’s McLeish’s life you’re gambling with, not your own.”
The last comment hit home. Maxon was smart, right enough. While Nergui had been talking, trying to buy time, Maxon had still been one step ahead, taking the opportunity to make sure that he and Drew understood the full significance of what they were involved with. Turning Nergui’s own scruples against him. Pushing the only button that might make him cooperate.
Nergui shook his head and turned toward Drew, not knowing what he was going to say, let alone what he should do next.
It was as if Drew had taken Maxon’s words as a cue. He suddenly seemed to gain new and unexpected strength and flung himself across at Maxon, dragging the metal post and concrete block behind him. Maxon staggered backward, startled by the energy of the sudden lunge. His gun went off, firing randomly into the vaulted spaces above them. Almost simultaneously-and Nergui could never be sure what he had or had not seen-the factory space was plunged into sudden darkness. Nergui reeled at the total blackness, dragging out his gun but afraid to fire. He fumbled in his other pocket for his flashlight, which became frustratingly tangled in his coat.
Another shot echoed around the empty building, and then another. From somewhere just ahead there was a sharp cry of pain, and then a third shot. Then there was a long, agonizing silence.
Nergui rolled across the floor till he felt the cold stone of the wall against his back. His ears and eyes were straining, trying to discern some movement, to gain some clue about what had happened. Finally, moving as silently as possible, he pulled the flashlight from his pocket and, throwing himself into a crouching position with his pistol held in front of him, he shone the light around him.
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