[Anthology] Abby & Sei Thriller Starter

by Ty Hutchinson

  “Tie the boy’s hands and find something to gag him with.”

  “What about him?” Kostas motioned with this head at Baki’s brother. “He could wake up any minute too.”

  “You’re right.” I removed my knife and slit the brother’s throat. Another undeniable trail marker, unfortunately.

  “Wait, did you just—?”

  “You’re wasting time. Tie the boy up.” That room wasn’t the time nor the place to explain my actions. Kostas was right about the brother waking up, and I didn’t feel like we had anything strong enough to keep him tied and in that room. The thin bath towels would work fine for Baki but not his brother. It was our only option.

  Kostas tied the little boy’s hands, and I proceeded to search the brother’s pockets.

  “What are you doing?” Kostas asked.

  “We still need the keys to the truck,” I said as I continued to rummage through the man’s clothing.

  “We don’t need them. Trust me.”

  43

  Kostas fiddled with the wires under the steering wheel column of the truck, and a few minutes later, we were driving west on a highway disguised as the Askeri Inzibat.

  “You’re a driver, so I can understand knowing how to hotwire a vehicle. But applying a chokehold to a small boy so that you render him unconscious instead of killing him, well, do tell.”

  “To make ends meet while attending university, I worked as a bouncer at a bar. On-the-job training, I guess you could call it.” He shrugged and kept his eyes on the road. “And you? How did you learn to kill so efficiently and without hesitation?”

  “Same as you. On-the-job training.”

  We drove northwest on the D300 state road without saying much to each other. I enjoyed the silence, though the stretch of peace lasted only thirty minutes.

  “We’re heading to a town called Cay. It’s about three hours away,” Kostas said.

  “Can we avoid it? The dark seems to be suiting us just fine.”

  “Not really. This highway we’re on is the most direct route west from Konya, and it runs into Cay. Other roads would have us heading south and then east. But once we pass Cay, lesser-traveled routes will open up to us.”

  I nodded my head and crossed my legs.

  “It’s only three hours away. We’ll pass Cay before sunrise.”

  I could sense Kostas looking at me, even in the darkness of the truck. It was not that I terribly minded talking to him. I had other things on my mind—primarily my next move once I got to Greece and how to locate my daughter.

  My initial thought had me making my way back to Paris and having a conversation with Dr. Delacroix. I hadn’t yet crossed that weasel off of my list of people who might need to die.

  “I’ll try and stay off the major highways and—”

  “Look, don’t take my silence as a sign of discontent. I’m counting on you to get me to Greece. I just need time to think about my next move from that point on.”

  “I’m only trying to lighten the mood a bit. We had a close call back there and left another body. Speaking of close, don’t think I didn’t notice you checking me out in my room.”

  “First off, your segue needs work. Second, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Yeah, you do. I’m talking about when you entered my room to wake me up and I had to get dressed.”

  “I’m sorry, but you might be confusing your dreams with reality.”

  “No,” Kostas said, shaking his head slightly. “I’m pretty sure you were taking tiny peeks at me.”

  “I might have looked in your direction, but I assure you, I was not, as you put it, checking you out.”

  “I’m flattered that you find me attractive.” A grin appeared on Kostas’ face.

  “Oh, brother.”

  “I mean, if you think about it, this is like one long date.”

  “No, it isn’t.”

  “A road trip where two strangers, due to the nature of the time spent together, fall hopelessly in love.”

  “I didn’t realize you were a fan of fictional romance.”

  “Could happen.”

  “It’s unlikely.”

  “Just saying.”

  “Say no more.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at the blackness outside my window.

  Kostas clucked his tongue a few times. “Yeah, you know your tough I-have-an-impenetrable-wall-around-me act doesn’t have me fooled. You stir down below just like any other woman.”

  Did you seriously just go there? “If thinking that you’re stirring my nether regions gets us to Cesme quicker, then keep thinking that. If not, then I suggest you concentrate on driving.”

  I wasn’t beyond admitting that Kostas was an attractive man, but he was also hired to help me get out of the country. We weren’t on a date. I had been double-crossed, a maniacal prison warden was hunting me, and someone had kidnapped my daughter. Getting to know him in any other way other than as a driver was the furthest thing from my mind.

  “We’re about two hours from the city,” the driver reported.

  Demir didn’t respond, but only stared ahead at the road.

  Savas Turan had been Demir’s driver for well over a year and had earned Aker’s trust. He was one of the few men that Demir had conversations with, something he rarely did with the rank and file.

  Turan drove the lead vehicle in a caravan of SUVs heading west toward the city of Cay. The SUVs contained a mix of Demir’s men from the prison and a few from the Askeri Inzibat. Earlier, Demir had received word that Sei and her driver were in the town of Ismil, where a young recruit with the Askeri Inzibat tried to apprehend them on his own. He had paid the price.

  Nature’s call had prompted the young man’s mother to wake in the middle of the night. She realized their youngest son, who often slept in her bed, wasn’t there. A quick search of the apartment revealed that his older brother also wasn’t in his bed. It didn’t take long for the family to discover the two.

  “We know she left Ismil sometime between the hours of eleven and three a.m. That’s when the mother woke,” Turan said. “We were notified an hour later. It’s possible they might have stopped in Cay or haven’t even reached it yet.”

  “That’s the problem. We can remain in their footsteps, or we can get ahead of them and cut them off.”

  “But they might—”

  “That wasn’t a suggestion.”

  Demir removed his cell phone from his pants and dialed a number. “I want every available man to go to Denizli. I want that city sealed off. No, forget about Cay. They’re driving a stolen Askeri Inzibat truck,” Demir said forcefully into his phone. He knew he had a better chance of catching Sei farther west.

  “Do you think they’ll stay in that truck?” Turan asked.

  “They will until sunrise, then they’ll look for another vehicle, most likely somewhere near Denizli.”

  Demir hung up his phone and squeezed his left hand into a fist, triggering a ripple of popping from his knuckles. The crinkles in his forehead deepened further. He knew what vehicle they were in and that they were somewhere between Konya and Denizli, but nothing more. His chances of finding her were at their highest, but still he couldn’t help but think that Sei would successfully flee Turkey.

  44

  All seemed to go according to what Kostas said. The highway remained dark thanks to the miles of farmland on either side of the road. It helped me to relax a tiny bit. Not having control over my situation and having to rely heavily on someone I didn’t know well wasn’t something I’d had to contend with in the past.

  We managed to stop just once so that Kostas and I could relieve ourselves on the side of the road. From there on, we kept to our own thoughts until the sun began to peek over the horizon.

  Kostas cleared his throat. “We should be nearing the town of Denizli.”

  “Would it be smart to avoid it?”

  “This particular road we’re on skirts the outer edges. We should be fine
.”

  “And how much farther to Cesme from there?”

  “If all goes well, another four hours. Now that the sun is rising, we’ll know for sure how much this truck will help us.”

  I agreed with Kostas’ assessment with the truck. We passed the occasional car or transport truck and managed not to encounter any checkpoints, although the truck as a cover was still largely untested.

  “I’ll do my best to avoid the major highways and stick with smaller state roads. They can’t have checkpoints everywhere,” Kostas said.

  I had nothing to add. I could think of nothing more we could do to avoid the Askeri Inzibat. I’d have to completely trust Kostas’ navigation skills.

  “I am curious about what we will do if we do encounter a checkpoint. Seems like if we were actually the Askeri Inzibat, we’d stop and chitchat or check in with an update.”

  “Not necessarily. We’ll continue as if we have someplace we need to be. We also have this,” I said, pointing to the AS IZ helmet that had been left in the truck by Baki’s brother. “You put it on, I’ll duck down, and we’ll hope for the best.”

  “Sounds more like a wish list rather than a plan.”

  “The windows are tinted. That should help.”

  Kostas chewed on his lip for a moment. “So just to be clear, I wave and keep driving.”

  “Well, stopping for tea and crumpets isn’t an option.”

  “But if we are stopped…”

  “If they signal for us to pull over, keep driving. Wave and smile, but don’t speed up. There’s a chance they’ll be lazy and let us go.”

  “If they don’t? We’re doomed if we end up in a car chase.”

  “If we do encounter a checkpoint, and there’s only one vehicle, they might not come after us if we don’t stop. If there are two, I’ll assume a few men will stay behind and few will come after us. We’ll drive as far and as normal as possible while looking for a place that’s hopefully out of sight where we can deal with them.”

  “So we’re basically winging it.”

  “Bravo.”

  Kostas shook his head and let out a breath. “I really hope you’re handy with that knife.”

  “And I really hope you’ve mastered something other than a chokehold.”

  45

  “Uh, oh.”

  Those two words were what I least wanted to hear at the moment.

  “We have company,” Kostas said as he looked in the rearview mirror.

  I craned my neck and peered out the back window. Behind us I saw emergency vehicle lights in the distance, and they were closing in fast. “We don’t know that they’re coming for us just yet. We’re driving an Askeri Inzibat vehicle.”

  Kostas put on the helmet, and I scrunched down into the seat. As the lights neared, they moved over to the left side of the road.

  “It’s them, but it looks like they’re passing us. They’re in a hurry to go somewhere, maybe Cay.”

  “Let’s take advantage of it. Turn on your lights and join them.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “We can move at a faster speed without attracting attention. We’ll ditch them as we near the city.”

  Kostas did as I said and joined the caravan of military police. “You think they’ll notice?”

  “That’s a chance we’ll have to take. We need to get to Cesme as fast as possible.”

  “You should be approaching a small farm road that will bypass Cay and take you straight to Denizli.” A smile formed on Demir’s face as he folded the map he was looking at. He had just gotten off the phone with an officer in the Askeri Inzibat who was on his way to Cay when he passed a lone AS IZ truck, which then joined his caravan. It didn’t take much for them to discover it was the stolen truck from Ismil. Rather than try to apprehend the driver and passenger, the officer called Demir to see what he wanted to do.

  “You think they’ll suspect anything?” Turan asked after listening in on the conversation.

  Demir shook his head. “They believe they’re hiding in the open. They’ll follow as long as it’s still dark. Radio their position to all involved, but make sure nobody engages. I want them to think we don’t know anything yet.”

  “Do you still want me to try and get ahead of them?”

  “Yes. We’ll come at them from the opposite direction.” Demir stared quietly out his window. He could feel his grip tightening around her. There would be no escaping this time.

  46

  For two hours, we raced along the highway with our lights flashing.

  “Are we still on the same highway?” I asked. “Feels like it’s gotten smaller and bumpier.”

  “I don’t think so. They veered to the left about an hour back. I’m not familiar with this road. It might be a shortcut.”

  “We should figure out where we are. Give me your phone?”

  I took Kostas smartphone from him and tapped the Google Maps icon. An impatient minute later, I conveyed the name of the highway to Kostas.

  “I’m not familiar with it. See where it leads.”

  I scrolled the map, following the dotted line until it reached a solid orange line. “It looks like this road connects with D320. Does that ring a bell?”

  “Yes, that’s the highway we would have taken after passing Cay. It heads straight toward Denizli.”

  “Why would they bypass Cay entirely if that’s where the highway we were on originally led to?”

  Kostas shrugged. “Could be a number of factors. Maybe they’re trying to get ahead, set up a secondary position in the event we slip by in Cay.”

  What are you planning, Demir?

  “If that’s so, my concern is whether our departure would draw suspicion,” I said. “They probably believe we received the same information and were ordered to go wherever they’re heading to.”

  “I guess it all depends on what their orders were,” he said. “Are they setting up a check point along D300, or are they heading to Denizli?”

  “If the family discovered the mess we left back at the café shortly after we headed out, it wouldn’t take long for word to reach Demir. He’ll have a good idea of the lead time we have, which has me wondering if they know more than we think.”

  I looked at the dual-band radio console on the truck’s dashboard. “We haven’t heard anything on the radio. Shouldn’t there be chatter?”

  “You’re right. The Askeri Inzibat is on a massive manhunt. There should be endless squawking.”

  “Unless…”

  “What?”

  “They know; they’re on to us,” I said.

  “You think?’

  “We were a lone truck not heading anywhere in a hurry until the other Askeri Inzibat appeared.”

  “You’re saying if they already know the truck was stolen, they should know this is it?”

  “I’m saying more than that. They’re leading us right where they want us.”

  Kostas shifted in his seat. “Damn! Any departure now will only signal that we’re on to them. Following is the only reason we’re still alive.”

  I agreed with Kostas. We had practically turned ourselves over to Demir. I should have recognized this earlier, but we were operating in survival mode, making decisions on the go. “There’s got to be a way out of this.”

  “We could be driving right into an army of Askeri Inzibat for all we know.” Kostas tightened his grip on the steering wheel and cursed under his breath.

  “We could be or we can assume Demir is still mobilizing his men into position. That opens up a possibility.”

  “For what, a gun battle? We don’t have much firepower, in case you haven’t noticed.”

  Just then, Kostas’ smartphone rang. “Yes… I see. Are you sure the intel on that is credible? That’s a shame.”

  That wasn’t a friend on the other end of the line. Kostas’ tone had become direct and serious. A drastic U-turn from his bubbly persona.

  “I’m heading west on a small farm road but I believe I’ve been compromised. I’ll ne
ed an immediate extraction. That’ll work. One hour. Yes. I’m still with the package. There could be, but I’d like to make that call. I understand, but I still would like that decision to be mine.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was as if another person had switched seats with Kostas. I slipped my hand down to my side and gripped the handle of my knife with only one thought on my mind. Who are you?

  47

  Kostas drew a handgun at the exact moment I pulled my knife out of its sheath. Until then, I was unaware he had a firearm. The one I lifted off of Baki’s brother was in the glove compartment. He had the tip of the barrel pressed firmly against my temple, and I had my blade in position to slice into his neck. This wouldn’t be an easy win.

  “There is an outcome that will benefit us both,” Kostas said, his eyes shifting back and forth between the road and me.

  “Why should I believe you? It’s quite obvious you’ve led me to believe you were someone that you aren’t. Why not keep on lying?”

  “I didn’t lie. I withheld. You did no different.”

  “You deceived.”

  “You should be grateful that you even have an option.”

  Who was this man? A number of possibilities populated my mind. I didn’t think he worked for the Turkish government—maybe the Greeks, but what interest would they have in me? I had to wonder how well Kashani knew Kostas. Or had he duped the arms dealer as well?

  I studied what little of his weapon I could see. It was a Walther P, easily accessible in many countries but used more in Europe than elsewhere.

  “We have an hour. At that point, the favorable option on the table for you will disappear.”

  Could I trust him? That’s the question I had been asking myself. But the real question was what other option did I have? If I killed him, I could forget about getting out of the country. I had to wonder: had he ever intended to get me to Cesme and onto a boat to a Greek isle?