by Kim Baldwin
Switch nodded. “So many deaths for political power and gain. What a waste, especially since the world is more fucked up than ever.”
Allegro leaned back in her seat. “Hey, want me to drive so you can get some rest?”
“There’s no point in getting there before them.” Switch liked to kid about Allegro’s notorious need for speed.
Three hours before they reached Thessaloniki, however, Switch had given in and let Allegro drive. She needed to close her eyes for a little while before she drove them straight off a cliff.
They reached the city center at noon, where the two men entered an underground parking lot.
Switch waited outside while Allegro followed them in to park in the underground as well. Only a couple of minutes later, the two men exited the lot through a side stairwell, the bald one carrying the case with the icon. Switch stayed with them as they took off down one of the pedestrian-heavy streets near Thessaloniki harbor and phoned Allegro, updating her with their location.
Allegro caught up soon enough. “I called Dilbert. He’s coming our way, though I don’t really know what help he’ll be. He’s fine for intel, but the guy simply doesn’t have the makings of an op. How did he manage to lose TQ in the first place? All he had to do was sit and watch.”
They followed the men on foot, always well enough behind to not get noticed. The one carrying the case with the heavy gold icon kept switching it from one arm to the other.
“They’re going in.” Switch saw them enter a big café along the seaside boulevard.
Allegro texted the location to Dilbert.
While most people were sitting outside basking in the sun, the two men chose a table inside. Switch and Allegro, not wanting to risk getting too close, selected a table outside where they could keep an eye on them through the open glass doors. Switch studied everyone who entered the bar, just in case the two men had stopped for more than a cup of coffee. A few minutes later, Dilbert showed up and sat with them.
One of the men made a phone call and said something to the other. Ten minutes later, the one holding the box all this time handed it over to his skinny friend, who then headed to the restroom with it.
“Weird,” Switch observed.
“You’re up, Dilbert,” Allegro said.
Dilbert got to his feet. “You do know that that’s not my name, right?”
“Whatever.” Allegro shrugged. “It suits you.”
He made his way to the bathroom.
Not long after, Switch saw both Dilbert and the goon with the case exit the restroom almost simultaneously. Then, a few moments later, a young man with a rucksack came out, too.
“Slick,” she said sarcastically of their nerdy associate. “Could he be more obvious?”
“You think they made him?”
“Let’s hope they’re too stupid or tired to notice.”
Dilbert walked back over to his seat, but Switch’s attention was still on the icon. The man handed the case to his colleague, who took it with one hand.
“You see that?” Switch shot forward.
“Fuck.”
“What?” Dilbert asked, surprised.
“The case. It’s empty.” Switch got up and looked around. It took her a few seconds to spot the young man who had exited the WC just after the goon. He was casually walking down the street. His rucksack looked heavy and packed full.
“Allegro, you stay here with the goons, just in case I’m wrong, and don’t lose them. I’ll call you if I’m right.”
“How about me?” Dilbert got up, ready for action.
“Have you ever considered gardening?” Switch heard Allegro say before she hustled to catch up to the young man. He blended in well with all the dark-skinned street hustlers in this tourist-rich district: illegal immigrants from North Africa, the Middle East, and East Bloc who roamed the streets hawking knock-off purses, perfume, watches, homemade bracelets, and other cheap trinkets.
She followed him to the seedier part of town, known for its strip joints, sex shops, street girls, pimps, and by-the-hour rooms for rent.
Switch had started to think she’d made a mistake. If this guy was supposed to deliver the icon to TQ, why in the hell would he be in this part of town? She found it unlikely that someone of TQ’s caliber would choose this low-rent, high-crime area. Was he going to hand it over to another middleman? Then again, TQ was in the wind, and this would be the last place anyone would look for her.
The guy walked into a less-than-reputable hotel, and Switch waited a minute before following. She surreptitiously scanned the lobby before going in to make sure he wasn’t there before she approached the receptionist.
“My friend just came in,” she told the woman, who was busy applying bright-red polish to her nails. “Young guy with a rucksack.”
“Okay,” the young blonde replied with a Russian accent.
“I forgot which room he booked.”
“He already has company,” she replied.
“I’m aware.”
“Oh.” The Russian smiled. “The more, the sexier.”
Switch smiled back. “You know it.”
“Twenty euros. Second floor, room 204.”
“Twenty euros?”
“We charge extra for parties.” The woman winked. “They cause too much damage to the furnishings.”
Switch placed a twenty on the counter and didn’t wait for the elevator. She pulled out her cell and dialed Allegro’s number as she climbed the stairs. “Atlas Hotel on Egnatia Street, room 204. You can be here in ten if you run.”
“Dilbert?” Allegro asked.
“Leave him with the goons,” she said, and hung up.
Minutes later, as she waited outside, the door to the room cracked open and the young guy she’d been following started to step outside, but paused in the doorway. He had his back to her as he finished the conversation he was having with whoever was in the room.
Switch pulled out her Sig Sauer and shoved the business end of it between his shoulder blades. “Get back in there,” she said.
The boy put his hands up and followed her instructions. “Hey, I’m just the delivery guy.”
Switch closed the door behind them. To her left, a petite Asian woman with an eye patch sat on the bed. Next to her was the boy’s rucksack.
“Open it,” Switch said to the Asian.
The young woman looked so terrified Switch almost felt sorry for her. She kept opening her mouth to speak but nothing came out.
“Open it,” Switch repeated, and pushed the youth forward. He fell on the bed next to the Asian girl.
Switch pointed the gun at both of them. “I’m not going to say it a third time.”
The woman was shaking now. “I was told not to.”
“Open it!” Switch shouted.
The woman jumped in fear but didn’t touch the rucksack. Instead, she shut the one eye she still had and calmly folded her hands in her lap, like she had accepted Switch was going to kill her.
Finally, the young man leaned over and opened the rucksack. Switch moved closer and bent over to look.
There it was, the heavy gold icon in all its glory. Though she’d already seen it, Switch couldn’t help but marvel again at the artistry and opulence of the ancient treasure.
“Who do you work for?” she asked them.
“I don’t know,” the young man replied, his hands still in the air.
Just then Allegro came barging in, gun in hand, with the Russian receptionist not far behind her screaming that Allegro owed her twenty euros.
The blonde stopped screaming when she saw both women were holding guns.
Allegro looked from the Russian, to the Asian, to the dark-skinned youth. “It’s all nice and ethnic in here, but where’s Lady Lizard?”
Chapter Twenty-eight
Thessaloniki, Greece
When her cell phone vibrated against her hip, Jack checked the caller ID, but the number read not available. No one knew she was in Greece, and she didn’t want to start ly
ing about it if it was Cass calling from an unfamiliar phone, so she stuck the cell back in the pocket of her black cargo pants and continued down the streets of central Thessaloniki. She had no idea how to proceed. She hadn’t thought ahead about how she would find TQ once she got here, and the one op she knew who was working the case—Allegro—wasn’t going to be in any hurry to help her. Allegro had made it very clear she didn’t like her because of Jack’s past history with a good friend of hers, agent Domino, during the period she worked for the underworld.
A minute or two later, her phone vibrated once again with the same mysterious lack of identification for the caller, so she continued to ignore it. When it buzzed a third time, she found a text message waiting: Call me. I have the info you need. Reno.
“What the…?” Jack whispered. Why the hell would Reno contact her with any intel at all? She dialed the EOO main switchboard.
“How may I help you?” asked the woman who answered.
“This is Jack Harding.” She refused to give her old code name and number, which was standard protocol. “Reno has been trying to reach me.” She didn’t expect the EOO operator to help, but she had nothing to lose.
Jack was surprised when the woman responded. “Just a moment.” After a couple of clicks on the line, in the background, she heard the operator say, “Reno, I have Phantom 100613 on the line.”
“Hi, Jack,” Reno said politely. “How you been?”
“Fine, and you?” She responded automatically, thinking all the while how surreal this was getting.
“You know how it is around here, I—”
“Yeah, that’s great. I was just being polite.”
He laughed. “Okay, so I contacted you for an update.”
“Concerning?”
“Rothschild’s maid is in custody,” he said without further preamble. “Agents Switch and Allegro are holding her at the Zaliki Hotel.” He rattled off the address. “So far, she’s refused to talk to anyone, let alone give us TQ’s location. We don’t know if Rothschild has skipped the country yet or if she still has hopes the maid will return with the icon. If the latter is true, then I suspect she’s not going to risk waiting for her return much longer. She’s going to panic and want to disappear again. My advice is that you talk to the maid today and see if you can get her to talk to you. At this point, she’s our only hope.”
Jack, although shocked, didn’t want to show it. “So, you know where I am.”
“Of course.”
“Who else knows?”
“I can’t give you any more information,” Reno replied.
“Pierce,” Jack said. “Cass told him I was gone and he knew I’d go after TQ.”
“Like I said…”
“Did he ask you to contact me?”
“Look, I told you, I can’t say much more. And besides, what does it matter? The point is you’re there, TQ is there, and well…do what you gotta do. You need the fifth floor, room 501.”
“Thanks.” Jack hung up.
She flagged down a cab and gave the address to the driver. Ten minutes later, the taxi stopped in front of the hotel.
Jack took the elevator to the fifth floor and knocked on the door.
“Who’s there?” a female voice asked from within.
“Jack,” she replied. “Reno gave me this address.”
An attractive androgynous woman with olive skin opened the door. “I’m agent Switch,” she said. “Come in.”
“Hey, if it isn’t Pierce’s pet project.” Allegro greeted her from the couch as soon as she got inside.
“Hey,” Jack responded.
“Reno called. Said to expect you.”
“Well, here I am.” Jack looked around the room. They were in a small outer suite with a sitting area and desk. The curtains to the balcony were drawn, and the two doors she saw—presumably leading to the bathroom and bedroom—were both closed. “Where’s the girl?”
“In the bedroom.” Allegro pointed to the door on the right. “She’s terrified. She refuses to talk, eat, drink, and even use the toilet. The woman’s biggest organ is clearly her bladder.”
Jack walked to the room Allegro had pointed out. “Do not under any circumstances interrupt me.”
“Good luck,” Switch said.
Jack opened the door and found the petite woman sitting on the edge of the bed, gazing out the window. She didn’t turn to look, neither when she heard the door nor when Jack shut it.
Jack approached her slowly and crouched at the woman’s feet. “Remember me?” she asked softly.
The woman turned her head slightly and nodded, but never tore her gaze from the window. “I remember you,” she replied, her voice barely a whisper.
“Great.” Jack smiled. “You don’t have to be afraid. We’re not going to hurt you.”
The woman nodded again in understanding but looked no less terrified by the reassurances.
“I just want you to tell me where your employer is,” Jack said.
“But I can’t.”
“Is it because you don’t know, or because you’re afraid to say?”
The woman nodded again and unconsciously reached up to adjust her eye patch.
“The second?”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
“Will you tell me your name?”
“In my country they call me Jasmine,” the woman replied. “My lady calls me Yu Suk.”
“But that’s not your name, is it?”
“No.”
“So, screw what she calls you.” Jack smirked. “You don’t have to worry about her ever again.”
“She will find me, you know,” the woman said, with resignation. “She will always find me.”
“Now, that’s not true. I can make sure she never touches or sees you again.”
The woman shook her head. “I will be free of her only when I die.”
“Not if she dies first.”
Jasmine’s smile revealed more bitterness than genuine happiness. “People like her have a contract with the devil. She will never die.”
“What if I tell you that I hold the deeds to that contract?”
“She almost killed you before,” Jasmine reminded Jack. “What do you think you can do to hurt that woman? No one can hurt her.”
“The first part’s true.” Jack hadn’t soon forgotten the horrendous torture the bitch had put her through, and neither would Cass. “But she threatened to kill someone I love. That was why I let her do bad things to me. Now, that no longer applies.”
“You don’t love someone any more?” Jasmine looked at Jack for the first time.
“No,” Jack lied. “I have no one in my life she can hurt.”
“I wish I could say the same.” Her response confirmed Jack’s suspicions that TQ was using threats to Jasmine’s family to keep her cowed and obedient.
“Let me give you your life back.”
Jasmine shook her head. “I can’t remember how to live any other way. It has been too many years.”
“I’ll help you learn. You can’t possibly go on living in fear, and besides, there’s no way she’s going to come back for you. She’s too afraid of getting caught. She must realize by now that something has gone wrong, so it’s only a matter of time before she gets on her broom.”
“Let her go. Let her go to hell.”
“Thing is, I want to send her there for good so that she never hurts anyone again.”
“But what if you don’t?” Jasmine asked. “She will know I told you where to find her. No one knows but me.”
“Look.” Jack grabbed the woman’s hands and held them gently in hers. “I promise you, I swear to you, that I will not let her get away, because I intend to kill her. So, you don’t have to worry about her coming after you.”
“But what if you don’t succeed?” Jasmine asked again.
“I will. It’s that simple. All you have to do is give me her location, and I promise she will be dead before tomorrow. And then you will be free to do what you
want. Stay in the States, go back to China, or whatever. We will help you financially. Make sure you have everything you need.”
Jack could tell from Jasmine’s expression she wanted very much to believe what she was hearing, but her long association with TQ had made her unusually wary of trusting anyone. “How do I know you’re not lying?”
Jack stood. “I have made very few promises, and to only one person. You are the second one I am making a promise to.” She placed her hand under the woman’s chin and lifted her face so that she could see Jack’s eyes. “I never make a promise unless I know I can keep it.” Jack caressed her cheek. “Do you believe that?”
Jasmine nodded.
“I promise I will get rid of TQ forever, and I promise to take good care of you when this is done.”
Jasmine caressed Jack’s hand. “I believe you.”
Jack smiled. “I’m honored.”
Jasmine took a deep breath. “She is on a yacht at the harbor in Porto Carras. She has hired a crew of two and is waiting for me to leave for some island. I don’t remember the name. But after that, she is going to take a plane to Madrid, and from there to South America.”
Jack bent over and kissed the woman’s forehead. “Thank you.”
“Thank you,” Jasmine replied, and curled up on the bed. “I think I can finally sleep.”
*
Off Santorini Island, Greece
Ariadne did what she’d never done before, and that was barge into her father’s office without notice or even knocking. She’d gotten virtually no sleep in the last twenty-four hours, and her usual polite decorum seemed absurd, under the circumstances. She wanted some answers, and her father had been hiding away in either his suite or his office ever since their return to the Pegasus the day before.
“We need to talk,” she said.
Her father sat reading the newspaper on the couch. “Have a seat.”
Ariadne sat across from him and crossed her legs and arms. “I’m waiting.”
Her father rubbed his eyes. Although it had been a restless and trying few days for him, Ariadne had to admit she hadn’t seen him look this lively and healthy in a long time. Even his ever-present coughing had stopped. He folded the newspaper and placed it on the coffee table.
