“But, but how?” Charlie stammered.
“Not now. Later, we can talk later. Get your people, and let’s get out of here.”
Families were coming out of their houses, staring in amazement at the thrashing chopper. Even the miners, that spent their days in the brewery, left their tables to see what was causing the commotion.
Charlie turned and headed back to the hotel. Dave stood, bag in hand, at the top of the stairs, Nadia and Elaina were coming out of their rooms, not sure what was happening. “Pembroke is outside,” he shouted. “He will tell you what to do. We’re going back to Almaty. Make sure you have all of your files and laptops.”
Halfway down the hallway he heard Nadia shouting to him. “What are you going to do about Riana?”
“F…forget her. We don’t have time for that now. Get your things and get on the helicopter,” he shouted ducking into his room.
He paused unsure where to begin. After a moment, he began tossing things randomly into his travel bags. When he finished packing he unplugged the laptop, and checked the desk drawers, throwing any remaining papers in his bags.
He grabbed Andre’s coat from the closet, and threw it over his shoulders. He had almost forgotten his gun. He had stuffed it in the coat after shooting Sammie. He removed it from the pocket, and looked about the room. His first thought was to hide it somewhere, but was afraid that it would soon be found. Instead, he wrapped the Beretta in a hand towel, and put it back in his coat.
He hurried out of the room. Once in the hall he hesitated and returned. He had forgotten his shortwave radio. It was still on the floor. He picked it up, stuck it in his bag and bolted down the hallway.
On his way out of the hotel, he stopped in the dining room. Riana was sitting at the table, frozen in position, staring transfixed at Sammie’s knife still on the table in front of her. Charlie snatched the knife from her, and put it underneath his arm before heading toward the stairs.
“What’s going to happen to me now?” Riana screamed. There was no answer. “He was my only nephew,” she shrieked at the man disappearing out of the hotel doorway.
The rest of them were already in the helicopter. A tall marine, dressed in fatigues, had helped them abroad, and guided them to their seats. He was now helping them buckle-in as Charlie dashed from the hotel.
Roger stood in the helicopter’s open doorway, franticly motioning him to hurry-up. Charlie tossed him the knife, and threw his belongings on the metal deck. The chopper was already beginning to hover when he got fully aboard.
The blades sliced the thin air, as the helicopter rose above the small town, circled and then headed south. Charlie glanced out the window, and watched Tekeli disappear behind him. Looking back, it appeared to be a serene mountain village covered with a protective blanket of clean white snow. Sometimes, you leave a place with regret, he thought, but he was leaving Tekeli with the utmost sense of relief.
Roger steered him toward the back, both of them steadying themselves on the seatbacks as they went. Half way down the aisle, Liana reached out and brushed Roger’s sleeve. “You never called,” she smiled coquettishly.
“I really tried, but I could never get through, we’ll have to do lunch sometime, when we get back to Almaty.” He turned toward Charlie and winked, leading him toward the rear of the plane.
“This is a pretty plush bird,” Charlie observed, glancing around the inside of the helicopter, still trying to catch his breath. It had been a tough night and a difficult morning, but he was greatly relieved to be finally out of Tekeli. “How did you manage this?”
“It wasn’t easy” Roger grinned, “we borrowed it from a visiting congressional delegation. I have to get it back before they know it’s gone or my career as a Cultural Attaché is over, at least according to my boss Roger Pearlman. After you called Gunn, he called us and said you needed out. He told us that a couple of your people were dead, and you were afraid the same thing would happen to the rest of you.”
“I guess that pretty well sums it up,” Charlie told him. The chopper, by now, was operating at full speed. The vibrations and the sound of the rapidly rotating blades made it difficult to talk. They had to shout at each other.
“I told you,” Roger continued, “that my boss is the CIA Station Chief. Being a cultural attaché is only a cover. Well sometimes, it comes in handy. We were making arrangements to entertain some VIPs from Washington, and we needed a helicopter to ferry them out to the Caspian oil fields. Pearlman thought it was a big pain in the ass, but it turned out to be a heaven sent gift. All we had to do was borrow it for a few hours to whip up to Tekeli, and get you people out. Pearlman called Mr. Valentine, and then sent him an outline of what he wanted to do. The old man thought it was a fine idea, even turned down the volume on his CD player to listen,” Roger grinned.
“But you must have had to get permission from the Air Force before you could borrow their bird. I have heard they don’t take lightly to the idea of someone wandering off the beaten path with millions of dollars worth of fighting equipment.”
“That is where Mr. Valentine came in. He told us he got you into this, and he would see what he could do to get you out.”
“That was big of him,” Charlie commented wryly. He had always marveled at the breadth of Emmett’s contacts. This was not the first time they had come in handy. He was grateful at the thought that the old man wanted to help.
He stared out the window at the ground below. They were speeding over the same section of the old Silk Road that had taken hours to drive a few weeks before. The snow gradually disappeared, and he looked down at the barren steppes he thought so boring coming to Tekeli. Boring is good he decided. He would never knock boring again.
As he looked out, he saw they were passing over a small community of yurts that the nomad tribesman lived in as they moved from location to location. Some of them came out, and looked up in the sky as the helicopter passed.
Several horses, tethered in a makeshift corral beside the tightly clustered dwellings, reared at the unusual sight and loud noise. As the chopper sped towards Almaty, the nomads and their lifestyle were quickly left behind.
“So what has happened to you, since I left?” Roger asked
Charlie turned away from the window, wondering where to begin. It was difficult to talk over the engine noise, and he attempted to keep it as brief as possible. There would be plenty of time for a full debriefing after they got on the ground, but Roger certainly deserved an explanation. He began by telling him how he had found Andre in a mine shaft with the back of his head bashed in, and Henry strangled with a leather cord. The next night when he had gone to sleep, a man dressed completely in black came into his room and tried to strangle him.
Roger leaned closer as they talked, not wanting to miss anything. “I broke away from him,” Charlie continued, “and he ran out of the room. I fumbled under my pillow and found the gun I had hidden there.”
“You had a gun?” Roger asked surprised. “You got a gun into Kazakhstan. That was pretty ballsy.”
“As a matter of fact I did,” Charlie told him, reaching into his coat pocket. “I’m glad you asked. I had almost forgotten about it.” He pulled-out the small Beretta wrapped in a towel, and handed it to Roger. “Do me a favor. Have Pearlman give it to your housekeeping people they will know how to clean it up, and make it disappear.”
Roger took it, and stuffed it into his coat pocket. “So some guy comes into your room and tries to strangle you, then what did you do?”
“I shot him, but the bullet only grazed him. I was never a very good shot with one of these things, particularly lying on my back, but it must have scared him. He ran down the hallway with me running after him. We got to the bottom of the stairs, and I noticed that the doorway to the room you stayed in was partially open. Then I knew, or at least I was pretty sure that I knew, who I was after.”
“Who the hell was it?” Roger asked leaning still closer.
Charlie ignored the question. “Once we
got outside he took off for the woods. You remember the large grove of birch trees down the hill from the hotel?”
Roger nodded, and Charlie continued. “It was cold as hell, and I had left my coat in my room. There wasn’t time to get dressed. Anyway, I was damn sure I was not going to let this bastard get away. He had killed five miners, Andre, Henry, and had tried to kill me. I was going to chase him into hell if I had to. I was beginning to shake so hard from the cold, I was afraid I would collapse. I squeezed off another shot. It missed, but came close enough to scare him, and he stumbled. By the time he righted himself I was pretty close. He pulled out this knife.” Charlie pulled out the long bladed knife he had brought on board. Look at the design on the blade; I think it’s a Uighur knife.
“What kind of knife?” Roger asked staring with renewed respect at the retired corporate guy sitting beside him.
“Put it with my gun and show it to Pearlman. He can figure out where it came from. It will give him something to do,” Charlie grinned. “He started toward me swinging this blade. I told him to stop, but he just kept coming. So I shot him. He fell down on his knees, and I shot him again.”
“Who was it? Who did you shoot?” Roger yelled, his voice rising above the sound of the rotors.
“It was Sammie—Sammie Wang.”
“Sammie Wang? The funny little fellow I rode up to Tekeli with. My God I can’t believe it.”
The chopper was approaching the outskirts of Almati. Soon it was over the American Embassy. As it slowly descended, Michael Pearlman waited impatiently on the roof, tightly clutching a large umbrella. A marine, in dress uniform, stood beside him.
When the helicopter settled on the concrete deck the crew hurriedly opened the door, and rushed their passengers out.
The blades kept spinning. The pilot never considered shutting down the engine. He was already behind schedule, and was in a rush to get back in the air and on to his next destination. Dave led the way, bending double to avoid the props. Following closely behind were Nadia, Elaina, Roger, and finally Charlie.
Once out of the protection of the plane, a raw blast of wind driven rain lashed the departing passengers. They huddled together, cold and unsure what to do next. As soon as everyone cleared the wash from the blades, the marine pushed past them striding toward the helicopter where a member of the crew pulled him aboard.
Roger paused long enough to introduce Charlie to his boss, and hand him the package that he had given him. “Needs to go to housekeeping,” he shouted over the noise. He quickly turned and ran back, leaping through the helicopter’s doorway as it took off.
“He has to shepherd the congressmen,” Pearlman laughed, extending his umbrella over the girls, and herding them toward the stairs.
Trevor Gunn was nervously pacing back and forth in the empty lobby. His smiled when he saw Charlie and the others emerging from the elevator. “Jolly glad to see you,” he told them, shaking the men’s hands and hugging the girls. “We have to be on our way. I tried to get the Kazakhs to extend the schedule, but they would not hear of it. It’s still on for first thing tomorrow, and we have a lot to do before that.”
Trevor led them toward the Land Rovers that were waiting in the driveway. He paused long enough to thank Michael Pearlman for what he had done getting the people out of Tekeli. “I owe you a dinner,” he yelled to him climbing into the driver’s seat.
“Two of them,” Pearlman shouted back,
Afterward, he pulled Charlie aside as he was getting into the car and told him, “we’ll get together as soon as you finish the presentation. If I don’t let you go now, old Trevor will have a nervous breakdown. Sounds like you had a lot of fun up there in the mountains, and I want to hear all about it.” He patted Charlie on the back
“Thank the maestro for me,” Charlie yelled back to the station chief as he followed Trevor to the cars.
Trevor motioned for Charlie and Dave to join him in his car. Nadia and Elaina rode in the second Rover, with Trevor’s secretary behind the wheel. The two women were still trying to adjust to what had happened to them since Charlie had come into the dining room, early that morning. They had been rushing ever since, and were exhausted. They welcomed the opportunity to relax in their seats.
Trevor’s secretary swore as she ground the gears, and jerked the car from the curb.
28
Almaty
It was late in the afternoon. The streets of the city were almost empty. The few people they saw were hurrying to their next destination to escape the driving rain. Dave nudged Charlie pointing out the window to an old woman walking nonchalantly along the sidewalk, her head sticking defiantly from the top of green plastic garbage bag that protected her clothes.
“That’s real technological innovation” Dave commented with a grin. “I’ll have to remember that.”
Watching the old woman, Charlie glanced in the car’s side mirror, and was surprised to see the trailing Rover pull to the curb. The door opened and Nadia got out and began running down the street clutching her coat tightly around her. Trevor apparently had not noticed, and continued on his way.
Inside their building, his secretary informed them that Nadia left to check on her cats, and would join them shortly. He shook his head in disbelief, before herding the group hurriedly up the stairs.
The offices were empty. Everyone had already left for the day. An old babushka busied herself emptying ashtrays, and dusting the tops of a long row of filing cabinets, totally unconcerned with the new arrivals.
They all followed Trevor into the conference room where they had first assembled. It seemed to them that it had been months before, but in reality it was only a matter of weeks.
As soon as Roger called to say they had developed a few ideas on how to get Connelly and the crew out of snow-bound Tekeli, Trevor began preparing for their arrival. He had the utmost confidence in the resources available to the Americans, and if Roger believed he could get them out, he was confident they soon would be back.
He also knew the time would be short between their arrival and the meeting, so he began assembling the supplies they would need. There was a stack of large tablets for making flip charts, numerous boxes of marking pens of assorted colors, a large Russian-English Dictionary, a case of bottled water, and two pots of almost fresh coffee brewing on the burners.
“Anything else that you need, just let me know,” Trevor told them. “I have alerted a Chinese restaurant down the street, and as soon as I give them a call, they will bring in your dinner. Tomorrow, after the meeting, we will all go out for a celebratory meal. You certainly deserve it.”
They all looked at each other. “We sure as hell do,” Dave replied caustically.
Trevor motioned for Charlie to follow him into his office. On the way they passed his secretary who was putting on her coat to leave. “Before you duck-out, please call the Lotus Petal and tell them to bring the dinner I ordered.
She wouldn’t be much help here,” he whispered to Charlie. “Her talents are elsewhere.”
Nadia came up the stairs, her face flushed from hurrying. “How are the cats?” Charlie grinned and pointed toward the conference room.
“Oh my—they really missed me,” she smiled, heading in with the others.
“She does good work,” Charlie told Trevor, taking a chair beside his desk.
“That’s good to know. Now tell me what in the bloody hell was going on up there. I knew there would be problems. There always are, but not the kind you encountered. Start from the beginning.”
Charlie did what Trevor asked, as completely as he could. He began with finding the note in his shirt pocket and going on from there. His story included the death of Andre, and Henry, and the attempt by Sammie to strangle him. From there he went on to tell Trevor how he chased after him, and finally described to Trevor how Sammie had come at him with the knife, and ultimately how he was forced to shoot the little man before leaving him face down in a snowdrift.
He ended his story with the final comm
ent, “he had the blade, but I had the edge.”
As the two men sat looking at each other, Charlie suddenly recalled the iconic line from the movie “The Untouchables” where Elliott Ness is advised, by Shawn Connery playing Malone, on how to get Capone,
You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife—you pull a gun. They send one of yours to the hospital you send one of theirs to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way.
He chuckled to himself. Perhaps the city had unconsciously become more ingrained in his character than he realized.
The voice of Trevor Gunn brought him back from his reflections. “My God Sammie! I just can’t believe it. He was always so friendly and accommodating. I will never again trust anyone who is not an Englishman.”
Immediately recognizing what he had just said he quickly added with considerable embarrassment, “And you Yanks too of course.”
Death on the Silk Road Page 24
