Deadline

by L. T. Ryan

  And as to Katrine, Frank hadn’t seen her since. There was no goodbye between them. There couldn’t be, and he wondered how in the hell she and Awad had pulled off keeping their relationship intact.

  Frank thought he might never see the woman again. And then two things happened.

  The real Birgit resurfaced in Amsterdam. It was a miracle that anyone noticed. And an even bigger one that Frank was the guy who had. If anyone else had learned of her existence while it was known that she was currently back home in Sweden it would have spelled disaster.

  Around the same time this information became known, a deal that Frank and Awad had been working on with a former Army man and now arms dealer by the name of Darrow was disrupted by none other than Jack Noble. What better way to pay the asshole back than by forcing him to come in, making him think he screwed up a hit ten years ago, then putting him in a no-win situation that would lead to him living the rest of his short and pain-filled life in a cell inside a prison that didn’t exist as far as the general public was aware.

  Only now Jack had disappeared and Frank had to grill Logan to figure out where unless his analysts could decipher that information from Brandon’s computers.

  “What will we do with them?” Ahlberg hiked her thumb over her shoulder toward the helicopter. The doors were open and Frank’s men watched over Logan and Sasha Kirby, the MI6 agent.

  Sasha’s presence intensified the situation. They’d now abducted a member of British Intelligence, and she had seen Frank’s face. She could not be allowed to live. However, Frank was aware that the only way he could get Logan to do what he said when he said it was if he could threaten the life of someone the big man loved.

  “The car should be here any moment.” He looked out into the dark woods where the narrow roadway snaked toward the airstrip. “We’ll load them in separate vehicles to induce panic in Logan. The more worked up he gets, the more dangerous he’ll be, and that will work to our benefit when the time comes.”

  “We should interrogate him,” Awad said.

  “And we will,” Frank said. “Or I should say, I will. I don’t want any of that jihadi stuff going on over here. This is business. Let’s treat it as such.”

  Awad squared up to the man. “You and your kind do far worse than my brothers. We have Allah on our side. You pigs only do it for the fun.” He spit on the ground between them. “Disgusting.”

  “The hell is up your ass?” Frank said. “Might I remind you that you really don’t give a damn about any of that garbage you’re spewing, you bacon-eating asshole. You are beholden to the all-mighty dollar. So here’s a bottle of water.” Frank tossed the open bottle and water sprayed forth on the Saudi. “Why don’t you wash that righteous tone out of your goddam mouth.”

  Katrine smiled at Frank the way she used to ten years ago, and he remembered that it felt then much the same as it did now.

  CHAPTER 53

  “I killed you.”

  I wanted to reach out and make sure the woman standing before me was real. The tattoo, the only thing I had to identify the women with, indicated that it was Birgit standing in front of me.

  “I put a bullet in your goddamn chest and verified that you were dead.”

  She lifted her tank top and slipped her bra strap off her shoulder. She wound her slender arm through and then pulled the undergarment down so that it barely covered her. She came close to me again. I smelled the fish she’d had for dinner on her breath. She grabbed my hand and placed it on her breast at the site of a mass of knotted skin.

  “And I have the scar from it. You feel that? You did that to me.”

  She held onto my hand as I pulled it back, so I pushed her away. She stumbled backward, tripped over her foot and fell to the ground. Before I could turn, someone slammed into my lower back and drove me forward. We landed inches from Ahlberg, hitting the ground hard. The air was expelled from my lungs. Fire rampaged through my ribcage. The son of a bitch was heavy. And unbalanced. I worked to my base, ready to reverse the guy.

  “Enough,” she shouted, hopping to her feet. She delivered a barefoot strike to my side and pulled the man away. “Get that chair off of him.”

  The guy grabbed my right leg and unsheathed his knife. I looked back and saw it glinting in the dim light. He brought the blade up and in one swoop severed the ropes that bound me to the chair.

  Slowly I pulled my knees under me and stood, facing Ahlberg. She stood back near the boat slip now and aimed a handgun at me.

  “Are you ready to see if you can live through a fatal wound the way I did?” She took a step forward, remaining well out of range. “Aren’t you the least bit curious how I survived?”

  I nodded and said nothing.

  “You knew nothing about me. Never anticipated that you’d encounter me. Right?”

  “That’s right. Katrine was our target.”

  “I never came up in your planning or in the intelligence you sifted through?”

  “You overestimate me,” I said. “I was the trigger man. Nothing more.”

  “You underestimate yourself,” she said. “I know all about you, Noble.”

  I shrugged the suggestion off. “You never came up. I knew nothing about you then, and all I know about you now is that your sister should have been living your life. I’m tempted to think I did kill her that night, but you’re the one with a scar in the spot that I remember my bullet tearing through.”

  She smiled, took another step closer. It was as though she were daring me to take her out. The effects of the drugs they had given me had worn off. I could see the man in my peripheral. He had that look on his face that said he was waiting for me to try something. Anything. He’d act before I had a chance to take a second step. I was close to welcoming the challenge.

  Ahlberg stopped and lowered her weapon, keeping both hands wrapped around the grip. “I trained in pharmacy and anesthesiology, and I induced a coma before you arrived. That’s what saved my life. Well, that and the advance warning I had of the switch and setup. It wasn’t the first time my sister tried to have me killed. She’s such a jealous bitch.”

  “Who warned you?”

  Ahlberg’s cheeks darkened as she smiled and looked away.

  “Who was it? Someone in the Agency? SIS?”

  “My lover,” she said. “You know him as Awad.”

  I sifted through the intelligence I had committed to memory a decade before as well as what I had reviewed the other day in Frank’s old SIS office. Nowhere did I recall ever hearing or seeing or reading that Birgit Ahlberg had an affair with her sister’s husband.

  “You’re lying,” I said. “Who the hell told you?”

  “You would be wise not to spit accusations at me. You know what it takes to survive ten years underground? Not giving away a single hint that you’re alive?”

  “You screwed up somewhere, otherwise your body double would still be alive.”

  Her upper lip curled and her nostrils flared.

  “Christ, you put her in the line of fire by changing your look and hers. And for what, a million dollars?”

  “That is not your concern. She served me and served me well. I have to deal with the fallout from that. When this is all over, she will be properly mourned.”

  I wasn’t sure I cared to hear more of the story. “So what now? Why are we doing this? Why am I here?”

  “I slipped up. This is true. I reached out to him—”

  “Awad.”

  “Yes, Awad.” She sighed. “I let him know that I was alive and had been in hiding all these years. He knew my sister’s fate was to be reclusive for some time. Had to be after the way things went down and the assumptions our family made.”

  “Where did you go all these years?”

  She shrugged as if to say it wasn’t important. “Here and there and everywhere in between.”

  “Back to your contact with Awad,” I said. “What did he say?”

  “Everything a woman would want to hear from her lover.”

 
I struck with the coldest words I could think to use. “And you fell for it.” I paused a beat and waited for her to look at me. “Again.”

  The icy stare remained fixed on me, but this time it was buffered with a thin layer of tears that Ahlberg blinked away. “I took the bullet once, and they designated another for me on the streets of Leiden. If not for Martina, I’d be dead right now. I can only assume that they’ve figured out it was the body double who perished, and that I’m still alive, and they will soon attack with everything they’ve got. That, Mr. Noble, is why we picked you up and dragged you here.”

  I debated whether to tell her.

  “Do you have something to share?” she asked. Her body relaxed for a moment.

  “I put it together at the morgue. Everything was near-perfect, except for that.” I gestured to the tattoo on her leg. “You should have replicated that on your double.”

  “She was scared of the needle, but had finally relented to have it done. We were going to start this week.”

  “Bad timing.”

  “Exactly.” Ahlberg tugged on the hem of her shorts.

  “I told Skinner that it was you in the morgue. The job was complete.”

  “Then why not just leave?”

  “He wanted us to stay put, and without his help, getting back home was going to be a bitch. And I had to figure out what was taking place behind the scenes. Who was the woman on the table? So I went to Germany after our talk with the witness was cut short by a couple guys in the woods.”

  “Her bodyguards,” Birgit said.

  “Katrine’s?” I said.

  She nodded. “They were on the street that day. It was her that pulled off that shot. Did you know that?”

  I shook my head.

  “I also saw the witness the day he was murdered in the woods.”

  “That was you? At his house that morning?”

  “I went to question him. He was scared, of course, as he had seen the shooter on the roof, as well as me and Martina. I suppose we all looked the same, and he wasn’t sure if he was looking at a killer or a ghost.” She smiled for a second. “Guess I’m both.”

  I studied her, trying to ascertain whether what she had said was bullshit.

  “How did you feel talking to her weak husband?” Birgit said.

  I shrugged. She had the man pegged. “Did she really have cancer?”

  Ahlberg smiled again and shook her head. “We conceived that well before she ever mentioned the fake symptoms.”

  “Who was she?”

  “Someone who meant a great deal more to me than you do. She grew to be more than my body double. Much more than my friend. So don’t you forget that I stood there and watched as she was executed in broad daylight. If it serves my purpose, I will gladly smile as you suffer the same fate.”

  “Why not just get it over with?” I stepped toward her. The man to my side started moving. Ahlberg held up a hand to stop him. “We’re here now, all alone. Kill me now. I’m tired of these games.”

  Ahlberg, to her credit, did not back down from me. We stood toe to toe. I stared down at her. Smelled the mix of sweat and soap and the fish on her breath.

  “I’m not going to kill you. Yet.” Her smile faded as the door covering the boat slip rose out of the water. It made a hell of a racket as it cranked up. Ahlberg took a few steps back, turned away and greeted the man piloting the small craft.

  There was something familiar about him. He cast a quick glance at me but did not hold my gaze. Instead, he looked toward the entrance, nodded, and stepped to the edge of the boat. The door slid down and hit the water.

  I studied him as he conversed with Ahlberg. He was shorter than her, but well-built. His dark pants matched his t-shirt and the cap on his head. They spoke in her native Swedish at length. He nodded as she unleashed a series of questions. A broad smile crossed her face as she turned and flashed a thumbs-up to the man behind me.

  The man stepped off the boat and that’s when I saw it.

  Ahlberg walked over to me, standing in roughly the same spot as before. The sweat and soap mixture wafted past, and between that and my revelation about the man, I found it hard to concentrate.

  She leaned in and whispered in my ear. “Before I decide your fate, Mr. Noble, you need to finish the job you started ten years ago.”

  I acknowledged the words I hardly heard. I was too busy staring at the thousand dollar pair of shoes worn by the man who had just arrived.

  CHAPTER 54

  With the headaches and subsequent doctor visits, another part of Bear’s life had died. Namely the panic and anxiety that had stricken him since he was a child. Not one to let anything interfere with his plans and job, he learned early how to overcome the affliction. However, it never fully went away and had a habit of roaring to life at the most inopportune times. But for the past few months, whether it was the peace and tranquility of the estate, or the possible prognosis he faced, the general buzz he normally felt had disappeared.

  It came back with a vengeance as they pulled Sasha away from him and stuffed her in a car with Frank Skinner and Katrine Ahlberg. Bear almost would have preferred she be seated next to the terrorist Awad. The bastard was soft. He funneled money, not jihadists, through training camps. The guy would fold at the sight of a pair of pliers anywhere near his fingertips.

  At the end of the winding woodlands road, the vehicles split up. Sasha’s went right. Bear and Awad turned left.

  The terrorist had lowered his weapon after they left the single-lane road. Complacency? Concern that he might be seen by a passing motorist? It didn’t matter because the flex-cuffs around Bear’s wrists prevented him from unleashing his fury on the man who sat opposite. Although, if the guy moved one foot closer, he’d find himself wrapped between Bear’s thighs in a scissor move that no man had ever escaped. Awad would suffocate slowly, unless Bear decided to end it quickly by snapping his neck.

  When he could no longer take the racing thoughts, tight chest, and pounding heart, Bear said, “Where’re they going?”

  Awad didn’t glance up from his phone.

  “Hey, asshole,” Bear said. “I’m talking to you.”

  Still no response from Awad.

  “Towelhead.”

  Finally Awad looked up with a slight grin. “Do you have any idea who you are talking to? Another insult like that and I’ll see to it you are brought back to Saudi Arabia if you somehow manage to survive the next twenty hours.”

  “Please,” Bear said. “That’s like a friggin’ country club spa.”

  The man returned his attention to his device. Bear leaned forward. The Saudi lowered his phone and raised his pistol.

  “Where are they going?” Bear slowed the words down as though he were talking to a five year old.

  “What does it matter?” Awad said. “You’re not going to see her again, I can promise you that.”

  Bear looked down at his bound hands, shook his head. He heard Awad’s short laugh and that was enough to send Bear’s rage-meter into the red. He lunged forward using the top of his head as a weapon intended to strike the terrorist dead in the middle of his face, leaving a crater where a nose had once been.

  The blinding pain started at Bear’s temple and stretched past his ear. The Saudi moved with speed and efficiency that Bear had not imagined the man possessed. He looked weak and slow. Bear summed him up as sagging. But the guy had managed to get the best of him in the current conditions.

  Bear dropped to a knee. How had it happened? He had launched like a missile and out of the corner of his eye he saw the pistol striking him.

  It wasn’t enough to stop him though.

  Bear pressed his head into Awad’s gut. He planted his feet against the rear seat and used his massive quads and hamstrings in an effort to push Awad’s stomach and intestines out of the man’s mouth. The terrorist struck him again, on the back of the head. And again, at the base of the neck. Bear was struck in the same spot twice more and he felt his extremities go numb. He collapsed on t
he Saudi’s lap.

  “Stop the car,” Awad said.

  The tires screeched. Bear felt himself shift forward then slump back onto the space between the two rows of facing seats.

  The front doors opened, closed. Awad kicked him in the face. The rear doors opened. The men leaned in. They grabbed Bear under his arms and dragged him back to his seat. The flex-cuffs were removed. Damn his muscles. Nothing fired when he wanted it to. Why didn’t they work?

  His arms were pulled behind him. The cuffs went back on. He heard the scraping sound of duct tape being pulled from the roll, ripped off. They planted it over his mouth. Simply struggling against it pulled the surrounding hairs out.

  After the car was in motion, Awad leaned forward. He placed his elbows on his knees and wrested his right arm over his left wrist. The pistol aimed dangerously at Bear’s head.

  “Another outburst and I’ll finish you myself,” he said, smiling. “After you watch me have my way with your woman.”

  Bear settled in for the remainder of the ride, positive that if the right opportunity arose he would snap the Saudi’s neck.

  Sometime later the car left the road and bounced and dipped and swayed. The first sliver of the sun rose above the horizon, casting the field of lavender in an orange-ish wash. The vehicle came to rest in front of what appeared to be a six-foot high mound of dirt with a door stuck in the middle.

  What the hell was next on the itinerary?

  CHAPTER 55

  Frank decided that silence should rule the drive. He had instructed Katrine to ride up front despite the tug in his chest to have her next to him. He wanted the time alone with Sasha to see if the woman would offer up any information. He knew that pairing Jack with Logan would result in one of the men — most likely Bear — informing Sasha of what they were doing. The intelligence operator in her programmed to follow orders would not be able to override the analyst that wanted to come out and play. She would begin to dig and would come upon a whole host of facts that would help Frank wrap this mess up once and for all.