Assassins Hunted

by Rachel Amphlett

  ‘I guess.’ Nathan glanced over his shoulder at the approaching train. ‘I did all my fieldwork training, but then I got assigned to this project. Spent most of the last six months at a desk.’

  ‘Don’t apologise,’ said Eva. ‘If you hadn’t reported a breach in the system, no-one would have believed me about the attack in Cyprus, and—’

  ‘What?’

  The noise of the train drawing to a halt next to the platform put paid to any conversation. Instead, Eva peered through the window of the carriage and, noticing it was deserted, pulled Alex in after her and sat down.

  Nathan joined her as the doors slid shut and the train pulled away.

  ‘What did you say?’

  Eva checked Alex was settled into his seat and happy to watch the scenery pass by the window, then turned her attention back to Nathan.

  ‘It’s why they assigned you to go with me to the hotel.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Think about it,’ said Eva. ‘We’re the only two people that know about my existence, and the Section puts us in a hotel together.’

  ‘And then send an assassin to kill us,’ finished Nathan.

  ‘If you hadn’t flagged the breach—’

  ‘They wouldn’t be trying to kill me as well,’ said Nathan. His gaze fell to the window as the train re-entered the tunnel and began powering through the city on its journey south. ‘Shit. I hate being right.’

  Chapter Twelve

  ‘What the hell happened, Greg?’

  Miles slammed the door to the room that had been allocated to him, and glared at the two analysts that looked up from their computers, shock on their faces.

  ‘We don’t know,’ the elder of the two men admitted. ‘We think something spooked her.’

  ‘You think?’

  ‘She was already on the move before the gunman reached her room.’

  Miles ground his teeth, forcing the anger down, and held up his hand. ‘Okay, status report. What do we know?’

  ‘They checked in at eleven seventeen, collecting separate key cards for their rooms,’ said Greg. He pointed at two computer screens displaying a frozen image from the hotel’s security cameras. ‘We’ve got two angles on these. One from the reception desk, the other from the front door.’

  Miles leaned closer to the two screens. ‘What’s the layout, Jason?’

  ‘The elevators are to the right of the reception desk as you enter the hotel lobby,’ said the younger analyst. ‘On the left is the bar, separated from the lobby by double doors.’

  ‘Okay, got it. Play the recording.’

  Miles stood with his arms folded across his chest as the screens flickered, and the camera feed returned to its starting position.

  Greg had cued it from the moment Eva, Nathan, and Alex entered the hotel, the small boy turning his head from side to side, a look of wonder on his face as he gaped at the extravagant surroundings.

  Nathan hurried towards the reception desk, efficiency in his movements as he left Eva to check in. Within moments he could be seen talking to the two receptionists, one of them laughing at something he’d said, before her colleague had turned to her computer and started the check-in process.

  Miles realised he was holding his breath as he watched Eva.

  Although to a casual observer she appeared to be bending to Alex’s will, letting him point and tug at her sleeve to get her attention, Miles could see the way her eyes swept the lobby, looking for any signs of threat.

  He watched the way her head jerked up, and noted that it had only taken her moments to spot the men he’d put in place to protect her. She was professional though, and did nothing to alert anyone around her that heavily armed men were walking around one of the most prestigious hotels in Berlin.

  Her gaze shifted to her right, assessing the elevators, and no doubt the fire exits and staff areas that would have already been checked for potential threats by Miles’s team.

  Then she looked to her left, towards the bar, and Miles thought his heart would punch through his ribcage.

  ‘Stop the tape!’

  Jason leaned forwards and hit a button, then waited, his hand hovering over the controls.

  ‘Move it back to when she looks at the entrance to the bar,’ said Miles. He glanced at Greg. ‘Do we know if the doors were open at that time?’

  Greg leafed through his notes, his eyes flickering over hastily scribbled details he’d managed to glean from the security detail so far. ‘Yes. The bar opened at eleven, so the doors from the lobby would’ve been open.’

  Miles pointed at the screen. ‘Play it again. Pause it when I say so.’

  The three men watched in silence as the recording began, the two cameras clearly showing Eva leading Alex through the lobby.

  At first, she appeared wary, her chin jerking slightly as she noticed the Section’s security men for the first time.

  Then, she turned her head to her left, and her whole demeanour changed. She’d looked away quickly, but her shoulders stiffened, and she quickened her pace towards the reception desk.

  It was subtle, but enough to convince Miles. He straightened, his mind racing. ‘Do we have any footage of the bar area?’

  ‘Negative,’ said Greg. ‘Nothing at all.’

  ‘Okay,’ said Miles. ‘Replay the footage from the whole morning from both camera feeds. From first light to an hour after Eva left the building. I want every single person who went anywhere near that side of the lobby to be accounted for. Identification, home addresses, and whether they’re staff or otherwise, understand?’

  ‘Got it,’ said Greg, his fingers already flying over his keyboard.

  Miles turned as the door opened, and raised an eyebrow as Knox entered.

  ‘I heard about the attack,’ he said, loosening his tie as he approached. ‘What happened? Is she alive?’

  Miles pointed at the screens. ‘Something spooked her. She got out just in time.’

  ‘What spooked her? Not our men?’

  ‘No – she’d seen them and didn’t bat an eyelid. Almost as if she expected us to have people there.’

  ‘So, what scared her off?’

  ‘Greg – play that sequence again,’ said Miles.

  He watched and waited while Knox was shown the footage, and then leaned forward to stop the recording. ‘She saw someone,’ he said. ‘I’m certain of it. Someone was in that bar, and whoever it was frightened her.’

  Knox’s brow furrowed. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘No,’ said Miles. ‘But at the moment, that’s the only reason we’ve got to explain her actions.’ He frowned. ‘My guess is that she recognised the shooter before he had a chance to get to her room, and escaped down the fire exit, taking Alex and Nathan with her. We’re pulling CCTV footage from the nearby subway stations now.’

  Knox ran a hand over his jaw. ‘I have to say, Newcombe, this is extremely troubling. Eva is one of our best assets. She’s had her cover blown, and her life and that of the boy are still under threat. And now she’s on the run. Presumably because she thinks we’ve got something to do with the attack.’

  ‘I’m going to need more manpower, sir.’

  The Section chief sighed, and motioned Miles over to the far corner of the room. ‘The problem is,’ he said in a low voice, ‘the more people I bring on board, the more her life could be at risk.’

  ‘You think someone here could be involved?’

  ‘I don’t know what to think. When was the last time you knew of a deep cover operation like this being exposed so badly?’

  Miles exhaled. ‘True.’

  ‘Let me see what I can do about some extra manpower. We’re going to have to be careful, though,’ said Knox. ‘Right,’ he said, and pointed at the two analysts that stared up at him from their desks. ‘No-one leaves this building until we find her, understood?’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ said Miles, ignoring the glares from his team. ‘We’ll let you know as soon as we have something to report.’

  ‘Make
sure you do,’ said Knox. ‘And find out who that shooter was, where he’s gone, and how we’re going to stop him. This is an absolute disaster, Newcombe.’

  ‘Sir.’

  Chapter Thirteen

  Eva wiped the condensation from the window of the train carriage with her sleeve and peered out into the night, cupping her hands around her face to block out ambient light.

  As the train slowed, a station drew into her line of vision, and a nameplate loomed out of the darkness, illuminated by the light from the train carriages.

  She dropped her hands and turned to Nathan.

  ‘It’s this one. Let’s go.’

  They hurried along the length of the carriage and as the train crawled to a halt, Eva swung the door open, climbed down onto the platform and then turned to take Alex from Nathan before he joined her and slammed the carriage door shut.

  No-one else alighted from the train.

  The conductor’s whistle blew from the end of the train, echoing the piercing shriek emitted from the stationmaster’s whistle at the far end of the platform, and the carriages began to ease forward.

  ‘Move,’ said Eva, and led the way into the shadows of a low structure she guessed to be a waiting room.

  The interior was dark, and there were no other passengers to be seen.

  They averted their eyes as the last of the train carriages passed, the slam of the door to the guard’s cabin reaching her ears before a final rush of air tugged at her clothes, and then the train’s rear lights disappeared into the night.

  ‘Wait,’ she whispered. ‘Don’t move.’

  She craned her neck to peer around Nathan, hugging the sleeping form of Alex to her chest while she tried to gauge the stationmaster’s movements.

  She froze, as at the far end of the platform he stopped moving, and seemed to be waiting.

  Eventually, perhaps deciding that whoever had disembarked had already left the vicinity, he shook his head and shuffled across the poorly lit platform to his office.

  A door closed, the lights beyond their hiding place dimmed, and silence descended upon the train station.

  ‘What is this place?’ hissed Nathan.

  ‘We’re near the border with Germany and the Czech Republic.’ She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. ‘Half a mile that way is the official border.’ She pointed to her left. ‘But we’re going that way. It’ll probably take us a couple of hours to cut through the fields.’

  ‘What about border control?’ asked Nathan.

  ‘Negative,’ said Eva. ‘The Czech Republic signed up to the Schengen Agreement with its neighbours, so that makes border crossings easier. Despite more stringent controls on main roads because of the migrant crisis, we should be okay. My guess is that if we cross through one of the small towns, we won’t be stopped. They probably won’t even have anyone manning the crossing at this time of night.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘No. Keep an eye out for any customs officials once we’re in sight of the signs for the border, just in case.’

  An hour and half later, Eva’s new ankle boots were covered in mud and her jeans were clinging to her calves.

  The route across the fields and through hedgerows had been hard going, hampered by having to carry a fitful and exhausted Alex.

  Eva had been grateful when Nathan offered to carry him, and between them they managed to keep going, one bearing the extra load when the other began to stumble.

  ‘Why Prague?’

  ‘It’s where all this began,’ said Eva. ‘I thought maybe we’d find some answers there.’

  ‘Wouldn’t it have been better to head for the UK, regroup there and work out what’s going on? ‘

  ‘Better, maybe. But not safer.’ A breeze lifted her hair off her forehead, and she shivered. ‘The way things are going, I don’t know if we’d ever make it back there alive.’

  The moon scuttled back behind a cloud, but not before she’d seen the look of shock that crossed his face.

  ‘Better that you know the truth, Nathan.’

  ‘Easy for you to say.’

  She stopped and held up her hand as a rushing sound reached her ears.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘The main road. We need to put some distance between us and the border before we venture out onto it though. We’ll raise too much suspicion otherwise.’

  ‘What’s your plan?’

  ‘We’ll hitch a ride to the outskirts of Prague. It’s only sixty miles away.’

  ‘Isn’t that risky?’

  ‘No. We’ll say we were dumped by an unscrupulous taxi driver who decided to ditch us just over the border. Follow my lead. We’ll be fine.’

  Twenty minutes later, they found a small stream beside a hedgerow and despite the cold, waded in and washed the worst of the mud from their shoes and jeans.

  ‘We’ll dry out fast enough,’ said Eva, ignoring the biting chill that now nipped at her skin. ‘We’d stand out a mile with all that mud over us.’

  They pushed through a break in the hedgerow and stepped onto a grass verge that bordered the main road leading towards Prague.

  Nathan checked his watch. ‘It’s one o’clock in the morning. We’ll never get a lift at this time of night.’

  Eva cast her eyes along the deserted highway, and then pointed to her right. ‘Okay, well Prague is that way, so let’s keep going.’

  Despite Nathan’s foreboding, vehicles did pass them as they walked. After what seemed an age, and an inordinate amount of unsuitable vehicles, including two motorbikes and a large truck, Eva spun round at the sound of an approaching car.

  ‘This one,’ she said, and pushed Nathan to the edge of the pavement. ‘Make sure he stops.’

  She pulled Alex until he was standing in front of her, and placed her hand on his shoulder. ‘Nearly there,’ she murmured. ‘Then you can sleep.’

  Alex grumbled under his breath, but remained where he was.

  Eva lifted her eyes from the downy fluff of his blond hair to the glare of the approaching headlights, and let her desperation show.

  Nathan lifted his hand as the vehicle drew closer, stepping off the kerb as it slowed.

  The driver lowered his window as the car stopped, his features etched by the pyramid of light that shone from the halogen lamps above.

  ‘Co je špatně?’

  ‘Thank you so much for stopping,’ began Nathan in broken German, and glanced over his shoulder at Eva.

  She took the hint; he’d struggle to maintain the lie and needed her to take over.

  She took Alex’s hand and led him towards the vehicle, smiled at Nathan as if he was her knight in shining armour, then turned her attention to their very real saviour.

  ‘Sprechen Sie Deutsch?’

  ‘Ah – ja! I speak a little German,’ he beamed. ‘That will have to do.’

  ‘We’re so sorry to trouble you,’ she continued in fluent German. ‘We only arrived this morning. Our taxi driver dumped us two miles away from here.’ She swore under her breath, her disgust apparent. ‘We didn’t know he wasn’t a legitimate driver. He’s stolen all our luggage.’

  The driver of the vehicle cursed, and nodded. ‘It is a problem,’ he said. ‘So many unscrupulous people, taking advantage of tourists.’ He smiled at Alex. ‘Where are you from?’ he asked.

  ‘Australia,’ said Eva, and hoped to hell her German disguised the fact that her accent was pure English. ‘We were wondering – if you wouldn’t mind—’

  The driver held up his hand to stop her. ‘Where do you need to go?’ he asked.

  Eva exhaled with real relief. ‘Into the city,’ she said. ‘If you can get us to—’ She frowned, and paused as if to try and recall, ‘—Smíchov, we’d be very grateful. We can pay you – we have cash.’

  ‘No, no – I won’t take your money,’ said the driver, and climbed from the vehicle. He held out his hand. ‘I’m Markus.’

  Eva smiled. ‘Natasha,’ she said, ‘and this is my husband, Simon. This little imp is Al
ex.’

  She deliberately stuck to Alex’s real name – it was safer, and less likely to confuse him in his exhausted state.

  Markus opened the back door and ushered Alex and Eva to the back seats, then gestured to Nathan to take the passenger seat. ‘It’s only a little out of my way. We’ll be there in no time.’

  Eva leaned over and fastened Alex’s seatbelt for him while the driver jogged back to the open driver’s door, swung it shut and eased the car back onto the highway.

  As the the vehicle picked up speed, she exhaled some of the tension she’d been holding back.

  They weren’t out of danger yet, not by a long shot, but they were moving again – and in the right direction.

  ‘Do you have somewhere to stay in Smíchov?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Eva. ‘My sister keeps an apartment there. Luckily she’s expecting us.’

  ‘A nice area,’ agreed Markus. ‘Very close to everything.’

  He indicated, and overtook a large double-trailer truck with Polish plates, the powerful car surging forward before sweeping back into the right-hand lane once more.

  ‘Would you like me to take you to the police station in the morning?’ he asked, his eyes finding hers in the rear-view mirror. ‘You and your husband should report this as soon as possible.’

  She shook her head. ‘That’s very kind of you,’ she said. ‘But we’ll go and see them once we’ve phoned our travel insurers and the embassy.’ She leaned over and ruffled Alex’s hair. ‘At the moment, we’re just trying to get to our destination and keep our fingers crossed this one thinks it’s a big adventure.’

  Markus smiled and nodded. ‘I have two nephews,’ he said. ‘I understand.’

  Eva let the conversation end, and the occupants of the car spent the rest of the journey into the city centre in companionable silence. She was grateful Nathan spoke no German – it stopped Markus asking too many questions.

  Instead, she watched Nathan’s reflection in the window next to his head. He seemed lost in thought as he looked out at the streets as they passed by in a blur.

  She resisted the temptation to look over her shoulder at the sparse traffic on the road behind them. She would be followed, she knew, but for now she had to trust that her quick thinking had put some distance between her and her pursuers – whichever side they were on.