by Gayle Lynds
As soon as he hung up, Chapman phoned the Carnivore and repeated the information. There could be no loose ends to interfere with the warlord’s attack in Khost, especially no further CIA interest.
“Preston will merely set up the hit, as we agreed,” he finished.
The Carnivore’s voice was neutral. “That is acceptable. I’m in Istanbul. Your two targets are as good as scrubbed.”
40
Istanbul, Turkey
A WORLD atlas of languages filled the air as crowds poured in to the Grand Bazaar through the Light of the Ottomans Gate. Eva peered around as she and Judd moved with the throngs. While many women wore shoulder-baring sundresses ending above the knee, others concealed their hair beneath traditional khimar scarves and their bodies under long coats. Some men sported fezzes and large mustaches, and some were clean-shaved and dressed in business suits or skin-exposing tank tops and walking shorts.
They had been watching for Preston or a sign they were being followed. To lessen the chances of discovery they had changed their appearances in the hotel before checking out. Now her hair was black, pulled severely back into a bun at the nape of her neck, while Judd’s chestnut brown hair was bleached blond and cut very short. He wore glasses with plain lenses and looked very much like a tanned Viking tourist.
She’d had a restless night, wondering how she could have so badly misjudged Charles and whether Judd was somehow also going to betray her. Truthfully, she did not hold him responsible for his father’s actions. But still, there was something about it all that made her uneasy. She hoped she could continue to trust him.
Inside, the marketplace was teeming. Completely roofed and domed, with thick exterior walls, gates, and doors, it boasted some four thousand shops, miles and miles of avenues and lanes, and hidden nooks known only to locals.
Judd was giving her a tour. “It’s the largest covered mall in the world and the most famous souk. This street is Kalpakçilarbai Caddesi, the main one. Look at all the gold stores. That’s what it’s known for.”
Kalpakçilarbai was a tunnel of light, with a tall arched ceiling, high windows, and pale walls adorned with exquisite blue tiles. Seeming to extend endlessly, it emanated taste and wealth, with gold jewelry, gold plates, and decorative gold items shining from the glass display windows.
Judd directed them into a giant labyrinth of tiny streets and alleyways, all swarming with shoppers. The view changed time and again. They passed mosques, banks, coffee shops, and restaurants. From the doors of hans—stores—merchants called out their wares in a variety of languages—the strongest Turkish Viagra, the best pottery, the finest watches, the most lovely antiques, the most religious icons.
Suddenly there was a scream. A woman turned, her hands gripping her face in distress. “My purse! He stole my purse!” she yelled in German.
A bag-slasher raced off, his long hair flying as he rounded a corner and vanished. It had happened so quickly no one had time to react. As someone gave the woman directions to a police station, Eva and Judd went onto another street, finally reaching their destination.
A picturesque relic of Old Istanbul, it was a small, dead-end shopping area surrounding a tiled patio. Photos of whirling dervishes in their ecstatic dances decorated walls. Goods spilled from hans. Games of backgammon were in progress at wood tables in the patio, where the players drank from tulip-shaped tea glasses. Eva spotted a cabal of pickpockets, a mother with three children, but no actual dipping.
“I see the shop,” she told Judd.
The windows of the han showcased aged pages of calligraphy. As they walked inside, a sturdy middle-aged man in an embroidered caftan grinned at them.
“Merhaba.” Welcome. He quickly took in their appearances and switched to English. “British and Swedish, yes? You are obviously interested in our gorgeous old script. You must take home many pages. Hang them on your walls. Impress all your family.”
Eva remembered the photo of Okan Biçer that Tucker had e-mailed. This merchant was not he.
“We’re looking for Mr. Biçer, Okan Biçer,” she said. “A friend told us about him.”
“Ah, you have mutual friends. No doubt he sent you to buy calligraphy. We have the best in Istanbul. In all Europe and Asia.”
“My name is Eva Blake,” she tried again. “Andrew Yakimovich is a personal friend. We were told Mr. Biçer would know where Andy is.”
His small black eyes examined her shrewdly, then Judd. “No calligraphy? How sad. You will leave your phone number and address, and I will see.”
The beaded curtain separating the store from the back rustled, as if someone had been starting to come through and then changed his mind—or had been listening. When the shopkeeper glanced back nervously, Judd strode past him.
He hurried after Judd. “Hayir, hayir.” No, no. “Okan is not here. He is not here.”
Checking the other shoppers who were watching curiously, Eva followed as Judd pushed the merchant aside, brushed through the curtain, and opened a wood door. A sweet, cloying odor filled the narrow hall.
They strode down it, the shopkeeper on their heels, wringing his hands and lamenting. When they finally passed through an arched stone opening, Eva and Judd stopped and stared.
“I’ll be damned,” she said.
Their shirts off, men lay on faded lounges against stone walls, eyes half closed, fezzes crowning their heads at drunken angles. Some propped themselves up on elbows, holding long pipes, the bowls heating over oil lamps. In the bowls were waxy brown “pills”—opium. It was an old-fashioned opium den. In the light of the small lamps, the men turned toward their visitors, their gazes dreamy, their cheeks puffing as they continued to inhale the intoxicating vapors.
Okan Biçer was standing in the middle of them, rubbing his elbows, distraught. His long thin face was sweaty, and his eyes darted nervously around. He gave a quick nod to the shopkeeper, who shrugged and marched back toward the store.
Collecting himself, Biçer walked forward and bowed. “This is no place for you. We must leave. You can tell me everything I can do for you then. That way.” He gestured toward the shopkeeper’s retreating figure.
But Eva was already moving toward a man asleep on his side on a lounge. His large fez lay over his ear, and one chubby hand dangled to the floor. Fifty-plus years old, he had a large head, thick gray hair, heavy round cheeks, and oddly sensitive lips. The bags under his eyes were huge and dark, almost bruised—but that was opium for you. Dressed only in loose trousers and tennis shoes without laces, he was snoring lightly.
She shook his shoulder. “Andy, wake up. Andy Yakimovich. Wake up.”
Yakimovich, the antiquities dealer, rolled over onto his back, his large white belly spreading. He snored louder.
Judd grabbed Yakimovich and propped him up against the stone wall. “Wake up, Yakimovich. Polis.” Police.
His eyes snapped open, and the room emptied—Biçer raced away through a different door, off to the side, and the other men staggered to their feet and stumbled after him. Opium poppies were one of Turkey’s largest crops, and through international agreement, the United States annually bought a large percentage of their legal opium. But just as it was in the United States, the narcotic was illegal for self-entertainment in Turkey.
“Polis?” Yakimovich muttered worriedly. He looked at Judd. “You are police? You do not look like police. What kind of police are you?”
Eva tapped Judd’s arm, and he moved aside. “Hello, Andy. I’m Eva Blake, Charles Sherback’s widow. I believe Charles left something with you for me.”
His eyes wandered. “You are not police. Go away.”
She grabbed his stubbled chin. “Look at me, Andy.” When he focused, she repeated, “My name is Eva Blake. I’m Charles Sherback’s widow. I want what he left for me. Judd, get out the scytale.”
Judd took the tapered gold cylinder from the duffel bag and handed it to her. Even in the dim light it glowed, engraved and beautiful. She held it up for Yakimovich to see.
A tender look entered his eyes. He snatched the baton from her. Holding it in both hands, he pressed it against his heart. “I have missed you,” he murmured.
“I believe Charles left a message for me that fits around the scytale. I need it—now.”
His eyes narrowed. “Absque argento omnia vana.” Then he gave what he seemed to think was a winning smile.
“What does he want?” Judd asked.
“It’s a Latin phrase: ‘Without money all efforts are useless.’ He expects to be paid.” She yanked away the scytale from Yakimovich.
His gaze followed it hungrily.
“Do you want it back?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yes. Please.”
“Give us Charles’s message, and you can keep the scytale.”
Yakimovich’s eyes adjusted. For the first time he seemed really to see Judd and her. His body shuddered with a sigh. “All right. It is in my office.”
41
ANDREW YAKIMOVICH dropped a white cotton shirt over his head and led them out through the side door and into a meandering stone passageway. The air smelled of dust, and the walls were rough. Naked lightbulbs flickered overhead. Positioning his fez carefully onto his gray hair, he walked slowly, a wounded lion, aged but proud.
“The foundation is Byzantine, the floor plan Ottoman,” he told them. “This is one of the hidden worlds of the Grand Bazaar. Along here are rooms that have been workshops for centuries.”
As Eva watched, he gestured at doors. Few displayed signs. Most were open, showing antiques being repaired, stones being set in silver and gold, and tourist T-shirts being sewn. The mother with three children whom Eva had spotted earlier stood inside one room with a half dozen other people. She pulled billfolds from her purse and handed them over to a man sitting behind a desk.
“How far does this go on?” Judd wanted to know.
Yakimovich waved a hand. “It winds. A quarter mile perhaps.”
He took out a large old key and stopped. Unlocking a door, he stepped inside and rotated a switch. Electrical conduit ran up the wall and across the ceiling. Low-wattage lightbulbs beamed into life.
Eva and Judd followed him inside. Once a prominent antiquities dealer, Yakimovich seemed to have packed his entire life into this cavernous room. Crates rose to the ceiling, most unlabeled, fading into the dark recesses. Pieces of beautiful but dusty old furniture were stacked in a corner. Tall rolls of handmade carpets leaned against walls.
With a proprietary glance around, he moved to a marble-topped table and sat. “The scytale, if you please.” His tone was businesslike.
Eva laid it on the table, which was empty. There were no record books, no accounts, no letters from buyers eager to purchase one of Yakimovich’s treasures. No chairs in which customers could sit.
She tried to figure out how to phrase the question without insulting him: “You’ve retired, Andy?”
He let out a loud hoot, his face animated in the way she remembered. “You are too kind. I have no illusions about what I have become.” He peered at her, his gaze sharp for a moment. “Once I was great, like Charles. He could be a bastard, but I understood that. We have our own code, we bastards. Especially when we share a passion.”
He opened a small drawer and took out a long strip of tan leather on which letters in black ink were visible on one side. Eva inhaled, excitement coursing through her. At long last perhaps they would learn where the library was. As he started to lay down the strip, Eva snatched it up. The leather was stiff but pliable. She grabbed the scytale.
“Wrap from the large end first,” Yakimovich advised.
She did as he said, working slowly. It was an awkward process, the leather’s stiffness making it even more difficult. She could feel Judd’s intensity beside her. Finished, she gripped the scytale by both ends, holding the strip in place with her thumbs, then turned the cylinder horizontal to read the words.
Disappointment filled her. “All I see is gibberish.”
“I will do it,” Yakimovich said. “One must help the letters to grow into words.”
With a flourish, the antiquities dealer pulled the dry leather slightly and used a thumb to press it flat against the scytale as he rotated it and rewrapped the strip. It was slow work. Finished at last, he gave a nod of satisfaction. Holding the baton at the ends as Eva had so the strip would not slip, he turned the scytale and studied the script.
“It is Latin, and it is from Charles, but perhaps that is to be expected, since he is the one who left it here with me.” For a moment he continued to read silently to himself. Then his head jerked up, and his eyes flashed with excitement. “My God, Charles did it. He did it! He tracked the library! Listen to this: ‘You can find the location of the Library of Gold hidden inside The Book of Spies.’ ”
THE CALLIGRAPHY shop was silent. The customers had been banished, and the door locked. A large bruise was appearing on the shopkeeper’s cheek where Preston had hit him with his fist. He cringed as Preston grabbed his arm roughly.
“Show me exactly where they went,” Preston ordered and shoved him through the beaded curtain into the back.
The man ran down the dim hall toward an arched opening. Following, Preston took out his S&W pistol and screwed on the sound suppressor. Behind him were his two men, weapons in hand. A third man soon joined them.
JUDD LEANED forward. “Keep reading, Andy,” he ordered.
“Hurry!” Eva said, thrilled.
“It says here Charles’s predecessor wrote it inside the book, then smuggled the book out of the library—” Yakimovich stopped, the scytale frozen in midair.
Pounding feet in the corridor echoed loudly against the stone walls. The feet were coming toward them.
Judd pulled out his Beretta and ran toward the door, the only door to the storeroom.
Eva snatched the scytale from Yakimovich’s hands.
“No!” he yelled, reaching for it.
“I’ll send it back to you.” Eva sprinted.
Judd had flattened himself behind the open door. He motioned Eva to stand back beside him.
At his desk, the antiquities dealer seemed unable to move.
“Hide!” Judd commanded.
Yakimovich’s face blanched. He scuttled back among the crates and disappeared.
Suddenly the shopkeeper from the calligraphy store burst through the door as if he had been thrown. His eyes were wild, and sweat poured down his bruised face.
“Help me! Help me!” He ran in among the old furniture.
Light noises of a struggle reverberated from the stone corridor. Feet scuffed and snapped against the floor. There was a loud grunt, then another. The dull sound of something hitting flesh. A swift crack, then another. From the floor?
It was if they were listening to a radio, with the only clue being that some kind of fight was going on. Eva peered at Judd, who had a distant, cold look that sent chills over her skin. Finally there was a horrible quiet.
Judd raised a hand, silently telling her to wait as he stepped to the edge of the doorway. Pistol up, he peered out cautiously. Then he vanished into the hall.
Ignoring his order, Eva followed.
Four men were down. Two were about twenty feet away, bloody exit wounds showing on their foreheads. The other two—Preston and another man—lay close together near Yakimovich’s door. There were no obvious wounds on either.
Instantly Judd kicked Preston’s pistol from his limp hand, then swept it up.
“Dammit, Preston found us again,” she whispered.
He nodded. “We’ll talk about it later.” Looking up and down the winding hallway, he crouched beside the killer. “Check the other guy’s pockets, Eva. Do it fast. We can’t stay here long.”
She knelt. The man had gray hair and a long gray mustache. His face was the color of a roasted almond, the lines deep, the nose prominent. His fez lay upside down beside him. She rustled through the caftan and found only a wallet. Inside was an Istanbul driver’s license for Salih Serin, a credit card
in the same name, and a few Turkish lira. The photo on the driver’s license matched the face of the man lying beside her.
“No weapon,” she said. “His name is Salih Serin. He lives in Istanbul.”
“Preston has a pistol and cash, no ID, and a small notebook. He’s pulled out most of the pages, but there’s one left. He wrote, ‘Robin Miller. Book of Spies. All we know is Athens—so far.’ ”
Eva felt a surge of excitement. “Then we have to go to Athens.”
“Yes.” He gave her Preston’s weapon. “If he so much as moves, shoot him. We don’t know about Serin yet, so be careful of him, too.” He tucked the note and money inside his jacket and hurried back into Yakimovich’s room.
Serin moaned and murmured something in Turkish. Opening his eyes, he jerked his head from side to side, panicking, until he saw Preston was lying unconscious.
He looked up at her and smiled. “You are pretty.”
Judd returned, carrying rope and their duffel bag. “The shopkeeper was no help. He’s blithering, scared to death.” As he tied Preston’s hands tightly behind him, he peered across at Serin. “What happened?”
The Turk sat up. “I know those two.” He pointed a thumb down the hall at the prone men. “They are evil. I was back there in a workroom, visiting a friend, and I saw them run past. A long time ago I was with MIT.” He gazed at them and explained. “Our Milli Istihbarat Teskilati, the National Intelligence Organization. So I thought I would see what badness they were planning. By the time I got here, both of them were on the floor with gunshot wounds, and that one”—he gestured at Preston—“had just hurled Mustafa through the door. He and I had a large battle.” He gave a conspiratorial grin. “But I am an old street fighter, and he thought he could take me. Still the weasel managed to whack me a good one just before I got him, and I fell and cracked my head.” He rubbed the back of his skull. “In the old days . . . ah, in the old days I would’ve eaten his gizzard.” He sighed tiredly.
“Are you all right, Mr. Serin?” Eva took his arm as he struggled to his feet.
Judd was suspicious. “There wasn’t any bump on Preston’s head. How’d you knock him out?” He finished binding Preston’s feet together.
