The Becić Connection

by Estelle Ryan

  Again, Pink and Zork were leading us. Colin was on my one side, Manny on the other. With one arm, Manny pushed people out the way so we could stay close to the others. Soon, Zork was leading us up a side street.

  “Where the bloody hell are we going?”

  “The church,” Zork said over his shoulder. He was looking at his smartphone. “Rene is already on the path going up to the church.”

  “Motherfucker.” Vinnie sped up as Zork and Pink started jogging.

  “First a bloody safari, now a bleeding marathon.” Manny had no trouble staying with us as we jogged up yet another narrow street with low steps.

  The street was well-lit with a softer yellow light. Pots with flowers and trimmed bushes were lovingly placed next to most of the doors leading into the buildings. We passed a couple who looked shocked when both Pink and Zork ordered them to evacuate. We ran up a few more stairs and reached the thick wall surrounding the church grounds.

  “Where is he now?” Manny was breathing harder, but only slightly.

  Only Pink and Zork weren’t winded at all. Zork looked at his smartphone. “The other end of this wall.”

  “The other side?” Colin asked.

  “No.” Pink leaned in to look at Zork’s phone. “We need to follow the wall. About three hundred metr—”

  A terrifying sound exploded above our heads, followed immediately by a slight concussion. Then light.

  My hands flew up to press against my chest as I looked up. Above us the sprinkles of a firework spread out, forming what looked like a waterfall of fire. “It’s started.”

  Darkness pressed in on me. I didn’t know if Luka and his team had disabled the bomb on the ship. I didn’t know how big that explosion was going to be. I didn’t know when Rene planned to set off the bomb in the church. And I didn’t know if I could hold off the shutdown that was threatening to take me from this deadly situation.

  “Jenny.” Colin’s hand tightened around mine. Pink and Zork were moving forward.

  I swallowed, nodded and followed Vinnie at a slower pace. It was clear that Vinnie trained with Daniel’s team. He had the same posture, the same situational awareness as Pink and Zork in front. Colin to a lesser degree, but he’d joined Vinnie for a few practice sessions. I had no training in approaching a man who planned to detonate a bomb. A man whose mental health could be on either side of the scale.

  Another loud explosion brought more fireworks. And more anxiety. I didn’t even try to stop the keening that left my mouth, but followed Vinnie around the corner of the wall.

  The next explosion didn’t sound right. I looked up and saw the fireworks spinning in bright colours.

  “Millard!” Colin let go of my hand, his voice tight.

  Manny was leaning against the stone wall, his hand pressed against his shoulder. A dark wet circle was forming on his brown spring jacket, red fluid beginning to seep through his fingers. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the blood flowing down his hand.

  “I’m shot.” Manny’s lips were thin, his face pale.

  I froze. If someone had shot Manny, that person might still be aiming his weapon at us. I couldn’t even get my vocal cords or my lips to move so I could express my concern. All I could do was push Mozart’s String Quartet in D major into my mind and fight off the shutdown tempting me away from this threat. From watching Manny flinch in pain when he moved.

  “Where did the shot come from?” Vinnie’s quiet question felt absurd when the next firework exploded above our heads, raining down green and red streaks. Screams came from the marina. I could only hope that people were evacuating safely. It was a naïve wish. Once crowd mentality kicked in, panic was inevitable.

  Pink and Zork had their backs to us, their weapons out, moving with them as they searched up and down the street.

  “Top of the wall.” Manny looked up. There was nothing. Whoever had been there before was gone.

  “Fuck.” Vinnie pulled Manny’s hand away, looked at the wound. He grunted and replaced Manny’s hand against his shoulder. He turned Manny around and scowled. “No exit wound.”

  “It’s my shooting arm.” Manny pushed out his hip. “Take my weapon and stop this bloody idiot. Doc and Frey can come with me. We’ll take cover. You three go.”

  Vinnie took the weapon from the holster on Manny’s hip and flicked off the safety. “Stay safe, old man.”

  Manny grunted and watched Vinnie follow Pink. Zork glanced down at his smartphone and turned to the left, the others right behind him.

  “Missy!” Manny shook off Colin’s hand and took a step closer to me. “Move! We have to take cover.”

  Another firework exploded and I shuddered. I mentally wrote another bar of the string quartet and nodded.

  Colin reached out to take Manny’s elbow. “Can you walk?”

  “Of course I can bloody well walk.” Manny shook off Colin’s hand for a second time and straightened. “Stay next to the wall.”

  Colin took my hand and pulled me closer. I glanced up as the next fireworks exploded in a louder boom than the others. It was followed by smaller explosions, resulting in another beautiful display against the dark sky.

  Manny walked back the way we came until we reached the street with the steps. Instead of going down towards the market square, he turned left. We stayed close to the thick stone wall. On the other side of the street were stone benches in front of the two- and three-story buildings. Some of the benches were in arches built into the facades. I supposed many weary tourists rested there. Manny stopped and narrowed his eyes. “Our villa is two blocks that way.”

  “Then let’s go.” Colin tapped Manny’s shoulder the same way Daniel’s team did when they were alerting a teammate they were moving or ready to move. Manny nodded and continued.

  We passed a man sitting on a stone bench just as another firework exploded above us.

  I stopped.

  Colin pulled my hand, but also stopped when I didn’t budge.

  The next firework boomed over our heads and, like the previous one, lit up the narrow street. I clearly saw the face of the man sitting on the bench. He held a gun in one hand, his smartphone in the other. The gun was aimed at my chest. Every muscle in my body went rigid and I drew in a stuttered gasp. “Rene.”

  “Who the fuck are you people?”

  Chapter TWENTY-TWO

  “WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU? Huh?” Rene Sobin got up, his gun held steady, still aimed at my chest. What concerned me even more was the frenzy I observed in his wide-stretched eyes. “I won’t let you kill me. I won’t!”

  I couldn’t speak. Another firework exploded above us and I cringed. The lights accompanying the explosion glinted off his smartphone screen. It was active. He was watching the live feed.

  “Lower your weapon, Rene.” Manny’s words held authority.

  A micro-expression of doubt flashed across Rene’s face, but then he pulled his shoulders back. “I’ve done everything the Collector wanted. Why is he trying to kill me?”

  “We’re not here to kill you.” Colin’s tone was steady, calm. “We’re here to stop you.”

  “No, you’re not! The Collector sent you to kill me. Don’t lie to me!”

  Just like that, my focus snapped back into place. I registered all his nonverbal cues. I knew I had to calm him down. I cleared my throat. “I’m Doctor Genevieve Lenard. I don’t have any connection to the Collector. We don’t have any connection to the Collector.”

  Manny shifted to the side, placing himself a bit more behind us. For a moment, this action surprised me. He usually put himself between everyone and whatever danger there was. If he was hiding behind us, it had to be for a good reason. I heard a soft grunt of pain a moment before another firework exploded above us.

  More screams came from the waterfront.

  I exhaled a shaky breath and hoped Manny was doing what I thought he was: contacting Francine or Vinnie or Pink. Contacting anyone who could come and help us.

  Because Rene didn’t believe me. His mouth
pulled into a cruel smirk. “Oh, the Collector trained you well. I almost believed you. But I know the Collector never leaves loose ends. I just didn’t think I would be considered a loose end. How much do you want, huh? How much should I pay you to let me go?” He leaned a bit to the side and glanced behind me at Manny. “I’ll double whatever the Collector is paying. No, I’ll triple it.”

  “We’re not working for the Collector.” Colin widened his stance to hide Manny even more from Rene’s view. “You’re the one who is his puppet. You’re a loser, a junkie and a puppet.”

  I barely controlled my gasp. Colin was baiting a man who was clearly on the edge of sanity.

  Rene jerked his glance away from me and focused on Colin. “I’m not a puppet!” His hand tightened on the weapon and I wished Colin had chosen a different method of distracting Rene. But it was effective. He shifted from side to side, his nostrils flared, an angry blush crawling up his neck and face. Apart from his obvious aggression, he looked exhausted. And scared. “The Collector is not controlling me. I’m doing this because I want to.”

  “You’re lying.” The words were out of my mouth before I’d thought about it. I gripped Colin’s hand even tighter. “I’m an expert in nonverbal communication and can tell that you are suffering greatly from anxiety.”

  His breathing became heavier, his anger stronger, replacing his anxiety. He looked from me to Colin and glanced back at Manny. Another firework exploded and he looked up. His smile was wistful. “Tell the Collector that I’ve done everything we agreed. I’ve done even more than that. The little money I made from selling the streaming access is just to get me back on my feet. If the Collector wants that money, no problem. I’ll hand it over.” He looked back at us, his frown deepening. Then he took a step to the side to better see Manny.

  I needed to keep his attention on me. “Why did your father have those numbers added to the paintings?”

  “My father.” The barrel of his weapon trembled until he pulled his shoulders back again and glared at me, his lips tight, the corners of his mouth turned down. “The man who decided I was nobody to him. It takes a special kind of fucked-up sick head to tell the son who’s there to see your last breath that he means nothing to you. That he’s been a disappointment to you his whole life.”

  “That must’ve stung.” Colin nodded as if he empathised. Another firework exploded, green and red colours decorating the sky.

  “Stung? Nah. I was used to it.” Rene’s voice took on a cold tone that sent a shiver down my spine. “One mistake. I made one mistake in my last year of school and he wrote me off.”

  “What mistake?” My voice quivered. It was difficult to suppress a shudder when three fireworks exploded one right after the other. I wished Vinnie would hurry up. I couldn’t do this for much longer.

  “I was just a teenager. I got drunk and caused an accident. Nobody got hurt.” Rene shrugged, his weapon jerking down to my chest again. “Not much, anyway. That was when my so-called father decided that his oldest son was perfect and I was nothing.”

  “Is that why you decided you were owed the treasure?” Colin asked.

  “No.” Rene’s muscle tension increased and I worried that this line of questioning was going to break the miniscule control he had. “I would never have known about that stupid treasure if he hadn’t revealed it to me while he was dying. The bastard was so happy to tell me that he never intended to steal the silver. But during the excavation there was a lot of confusion and the archaeologists forgot these boxes when they took the others to be documented.”

  For a micro-second, Colin’s acting gave way to his genuine interest. He recovered quickly. “Why did Slavko take those boxes?”

  “He told me it was a difficult time in the world and he didn’t know what his future was going to be like. He thought it would be good insurance in case he ever needed it.” Rene glanced up when another firework exploded, his smirk replacing his anger for a moment. But his lips thinned again when he looked back at Colin. “But my father never needed it. He had a successful life. And the old fucker laughed when he told me he would never give it to me. He said he made sure that only Goran, with his knowledge of art, would be the one to figure out where in Croatia it was.”

  “He underestimated you,” Colin said.

  “Fuck, yeah.” The hatred on his face scared me. People with this much loathing acted irrationally and impulsively. I focused on his finger resting next to the trigger. The tension in his hand was alarming, but at least his finger wasn’t resting on the trigger. He lowered the weapon, aiming it at my torso. “I remembered when I was a kid, he often took out copies of four paintings and stared at them for hours. I didn’t know much about art, but I knew he used one man for buying and selling his art.”

  “Florian Brasseur.” Colin looked at the smartphone in Rene’s hand and blinked once.

  It was hard to look away from Rene, look away from the gun in his hand. I had this irrational thought that he would act the moment I took my eyes off his face, the moment I stopped reading his nonverbal cues. I made myself look down at his phone.

  There was no more live-streaming. Had Vinnie, Pink and Luka found the person who had been filming the fireworks? Were they coming to help us?

  Rene frowned and glanced at his wristwatch. Then he looked at his smartphone and jerked. He shifted the phone in his hand and tapped the screen with his thumb. The screen activated. “Where’s the feed?”

  “I told you we are here to stop you.” Colin moved closer to me, pushing me to the side, slightly away from Rene’s aim.

  Rene tapped his phone screen again, then glanced at Colin. His smirk was vicious as he slowly moved the aim of his weapon back to the centre of my forehead. “You’re not going to stop me.”

  Another firework exploded above us, this one larger and more spectacular than the others. It was a series of explosions, resulting in swirls of fire spiralling down and waterfalls of fire lighting up the sky.

  Then it was silent.

  I could feel my heart racing in my veins, my breathing increased. Without thought, I hunched my shoulders in anticipation for the bomb exploding on the ship.

  Nothing.

  The silence stretched out.

  All I could hear was Manny’s laboured breathing behind me.

  Rene lifted his smartphone and tapped the screen. “Something isn’t right.” He tapped the screen again. “Why hasn’t the bomb detonated?” He tapped the screen harder. “I don’t have any signal.” Rene tapped his screen one more time and looked up at the church on the hill behind us. “No! This can’t be happening. I need this to work.”

  “Why do you need this to work, Rene?” Colin pushed me to the side again. “Why do you need to blow up the church?”

  The anger Rene was exhibiting was disproportionate to the situation. His breathing turned into a growl. “This was my last chance. The Collector was going to clear my debt. My brother didn’t want to help me again and my father wouldn’t even listen to me. But the Collector offered. I was going to be debt-free. And the money from the streaming was going to give me a new start. A new beginning.”

  “Who is the Collector?” Colin pushed me to the side again. The gun was now aimed between us.

  “The Collector?” Rene’s sneer was deadly. “You’ll never find the Collector. No one will.”

  His smartphone screen displayed a large red button in the centre. He tapped it. Again and again.

  “Argh!” His animalistic scream sounded through the street. I watched as if in slow motion as he moved the weapon, aiming at the centre of Colin’s forehead, moving his finger to the trigger.

  Sharp pops sounded and Colin pulled me to the side. My body wasn’t functioning, wasn’t responding to any messages from my brain. All I could focus on was Rene’s body falling to the ground, a round hole between his eyebrows, another two holes in his chest.

  I pressed my hands against my head, my eyes wide as I realised the sharp pops had stopped.

  Rene was lying on th
e street in front of me, his eyes open, blood seeping through the holes in his body. Vinnie ran to us, Manny’s weapon still trained on the man on the ground, and kicked Rene’s gun out of his dead hands. It slid across the street, coming to a stop against a stone bench.

  “About bloody time.” Manny’s voice was strained. My muscles felt stiff as I turned to look at him. He took a step to the side and lost his footing.

  “Millard!” Colin let go of my hand and caught Manny, lowering him to sit on the cobblestones.

  Pink and Zork joined us, both their weapons still out and ready to be used. A low keen left my throat and I turned back to Manny. His shoulders were hunched, and not because he was trying to create a false impression of incompetence or lack of interest. He was in pain and he was losing too much blood.

  Tears filled my eyes and I wrapped my arms around my torso as another keen tore from me.

  “I’m okay, Doc.” Manny looked up at me, truth on his face. “This is just a little scratch.”

  Vinnie snorted and Colin shook his head as he got up. He put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me against his chest.

  “The ship?” Colin asked.

  “Luka found the bomb. Marko disabled it.” Zork tapped his phone and frowned. “Everyone’s safe. Hey, I don’t have a signal.”

  “I SMSed Francine to give you our location, then hack the holy hell out of Croatia and block all the signals.” Manny glowered at Rene. “I wasn’t going to let that bugger blow up the church from his bloody phone.”

  Darkness pushed into my peripheral vision. I could fight it no longer. The knowledge that the passengers were safe, the tourists on the marina were safe, and above all, my friends were safe allowed me to relax into the shutdown.

  I uttered a low keen, leaned against Colin and let the blackness take me.

  Chapter TWENTY-THREE

  “WHY ARE WE HERE, DOC G?” Nikki waved her hand to indicate the spacious room we were in. “I mean, I like totally get that Gérard is happy to have the Becić back, but a party?”