He settled in his seat.
Across from him, a weary Ivana feigned sleep and tightened her grip on her pack.
***
******
Chapter 18
Tuesday, November 23
In Prague darkness had fallen. Bill Hamm studied the riders on the bus. The interior lights, though dim, made mirrors of the windows, reflecting the activities of the various passengers.
Hamm’s attention was directed to the man seated several rows in front of Ivana. While on his phone, he periodically checked on her image in the window across and behind him.
The bus stopped. The mother hustled her young son out the door. A woman, fashionably dressed with phone in hand, mounted the steps. She paused to survey the seats and chose one directly behind Bill.
The doors of the bus closed, the gears ground, and the bus was underway once more.
Minutes later, the lights of the airport brightened the sky ahead.
Bill sat up, muscles tensed. The reflection of the woman behind him revealed her staring onto the street. She showed no interest in anyone.
The phone in his pocket vibrated. It was Jeannine calling from Bethesda. He pushed “Talk.”
“Bill, where are you? Can you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Someone is there? You can’t talk now?”
“No.”
“But can you listen? This is important.”
“I can.”
The woman behind him leaned forward towards his seat. Bill turned away towards his window. Jeannine spoke rapidly.
“Last Saturday we got a package from a man named Pokorny ... worked for Hus-Kinetika. ... His memo proved that they faked data for Xolak just like we said. ... And other papers, newspapers, marked up. ... Last night they trashed the office. .... I had the papers with me to copy. ... Beat up Aileen, barely got away to North Carolina. ... She’s safe, but we’ve talked. ... Hus-Kinetika may have nerve gas called ‘Novichok,’ .”
Bill’s pulse quickened at the word “Novichok,” but before he could reply, the bus driver hit the brakes for a red light.
Across the way, Ivana stood up and reached for her backpack.
The woman behind Bill jumped to her feet.
In her hand was a semiautomatic pistol.
***
At her desk in Bethesda, the next few seconds were like minutes to Jeannine. She no longer heard Bill’s voice.
The sounds on her phone were like a rasp drawn over the edge of a metal sheet. Amid that static, she heard grunts and heavy breathing followed by a distinct moan and a woman’s cry.
Then nothing. The connection was broken.
Bill!
***
Bill Hamm knew no Czech. In accented German he called to the bus driver. The traffic light had not changed.
“Helfen Sie mir. ‘Help me.’ This lady fell. She needs a doctor, now.”
He pointed to the fashionable woman crumpled unconscious in her seat. At the same time he seized the backpack from Ivana and took her arm. He whispered.
“Bitte, Fräulein, please come with me. That woman tried to kill you. I will help you.”
The man wearing fine shoes stayed in his seat and reached for his cell phone. He wanted no part of Bill. He had seen him handle his partner.
Ivana was numb. She, too, had seen Bill subdue her attacker. She did not resist.
Bill pointed to the back door and spoke to the driver again.
“Öffnen Sie die Tür, bitte. ‘Please, open the door.’”
The driver complied.
Bill pushed Ivana off the bus. She stared at his hand. In it was the weapon the woman had intended to use on her. Bill caught her glance and tossed the gun under a hedge.
Through the windows, they saw the driver lean over the groggy woman. The well-dressed man up front spoke on his cell phone.
Ivana stood shivering. Bill spoke.
“Ivana ist dein Name?”
“Ja.”
“Do you speak English?”
She looked up and nodded.
“Yes.”
“Good. My German is so-so and my Czech is non-existent.”
Bill pointed to the glow in the sky that indicated the airport not far ahead.
“We can’t go to the airport. They’re waiting for you, and there will be too many of them. Do you trust me? Will you come with me.”
She managed to nod, “Yes.” What else could she do?
Bill turned to his phone.
“Tom, you’re in the airport parking? I have her. Pick us up. We’re a mile away. Hurry. The bad guys know she’s here.”
The only houses were on their side of the highway. Across the way, gray fields alternated with tracts of leafless hardwoods.
Bill hustled Ivana across. They dashed for the nearest trees and sought shelter behind a large oak. Ivana slumped at the base of the trunk and closed her eyes. She did not speak.
The moonlight accented her high cheek bones. Bill studied her features. Ivana was attractive. Jeannine! He bit his lip.
She needed to know that he was all right. He reached for his phone, but his pocket was empty. Apparently it had fallen during their dash across the roadway. He looked up as a car approached from the direction of the airport. A bright beam pierced the shadows and probed the roadside. A spot light.
Tom’s car had no such light!
Bill jumped behind the oak.
Just in time.
The beam struck the trunk of the tree and paused. Bill pulled Ivana to the ground. She lay still, her body pressed against him. Through his jacket, he felt warmth. He held her tightly.
The light wavered above them.
The car stopped.
***
In Bethesda, Jeannine had waited for more than an hour. Finally the phone on her desk rang.
“Bill, are you all right?”
“Jeannine? This is Aileen. Why did you think I was Bill?”
Jeannine recounted to her partner the fateful phone call. Aileen hesitated.
“Do you want me to get off the line in case he calls back?”
“We won’t talk long, and something tells me he can’t. But I need to know more about what happened. Are you all right?”
“I hurt, but I’m managing. At least Peter got me away from that madman Gustav. We’re with two people. Jim Harrigan is a cop. He’s the one who called us and wanted us to give Pokorny’s package to the police. Mila Patekova is a realtor here on the Outer Banks. Her cousin, Anne Simek, is missing.”
“Who did you say? What was that name?”
“Simek, Anne Simek, she is ... ”
“No, before that. Was Jim’s name Harrigan? Bill knew a ‘Harrigan’ at the CIA. Ask him if he ever worked there.”
The phone went silent. Then Aileen came back on the line.
“One and the same. He remembers Bill well.”
Jeannine was about to speak further, when her phone clicked.
“Aileen, I have a call. It could be Bill. I’ll call you back.”
Jeannine checked the calling number. It was Bill Hamm’s.
“Bill, what happened? Are you all right?”
But the caller wasn’t Bill. She heard what to her was gibberish.
“Prosim, kdo jste? Našel jsem tento mobilní telefon.”
She did not recognize the language.
“Please, who is this? Do you speak English?
“No English, Czech. Aber, sprechen Sie Deutsch?”
At least she knew that was German.
“Nein. No. I speak English, please. ... English.”
The caller was as confused as Jeannine.
“Phone, I find this phone on road. Yours is last call.”
“Please, who are you? Where are you?”
The caller tried two languages.
“Jsem v Praze, na letišti Ruzyně, ... auf dem Prager Flughafen Ruzyně, ...”
At Jeannine’s silence, the caller struggled with English.
“Prague Airport. Ruzyne Airport,
Prague.”
“Prague! How did you get this phone. Where is the owner?”
Loudspeakers drowned out the answer. The caller tried again.
“I find in road. My plane leaves. I put phone to Informace desk, ... Auskunft, ... You find there.”
The line went dead.
Jeannine’s hand shook. She put the phone down.
My God, Bill, Prague? And your phone? What happened?
She sat, elbows on the desk, face in her hands.
***
It was afternoon in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Karel’s men sat in the Excursion. If “mood” had a color, theirs’ was “black.”
First, they had been angry when they awoke in Grandy and found their prey gone. Zeleny and the Simek woman had tricked them. Second, they had driven to Kitty Hawk in the hopes of spotting the pair. No luck.
After that, a furious Karel had called from Prague. Gustav now was the number one target, not Simek. He was to be eliminated immediately. Yesterday was not soon enough!
And Karel blamed them for Ivana’s flight!
No more excuses.
***
In Jim Harrigan’s apartment in Duck, Aileen retreated directly to the kitchen while Jim, Mila and Peter Zeleny sat around the coffee table in the small living area. Their strategy was to hope that Anne would call Mila whose phone lay on the table.
The discussion was loud. The phone was silent.
Aileen sat at the kitchen counter. She rested her head on her arms to avoid pressure on her swollen face. A dull pain in her shoulder provided a constant background to the throbbing behind her eyes. Finally they closed and she dozed.
She awoke to a touch on her arm. Mila stood next to her.
“Dr. Harris, this apartment is too small to sleep. I have a house in Corolla that has more room. Are you up to moving?”
“I guess. Are we leaving now?”
Mila nodded and helped her up. They left for Corolla.
***
At the Moccasin Cottages in Coastal Carolina, the sun was low in the West. Anne Simek, alone and scared, stood on her porch. Far out on the Albemarle Sound, the lights of a single craft shone through the evening mist. Across the inlet a lone Osprey sat on a rubble of sticks atop a dead Pine. The landlady had told Anne that some Ospreys stayed the year round. Anne wondered if that bird felt as alone as she.
And Anne was plagued by the cabin’s roaches. She had now seen six. Large, they ran making scuttling noises. Her thoughts turned to Mila. She had been trustworthy about the roach-free rental. But about Vaclav? Mila, you should have told me?
She studied the small green chip in her hand. Its files were password-protected. Whatever they contained, someone was willing to kill for it, and that same someone was looking for her!
At that thought, Anne decided. She put Vaclav’s chip in her purse, loaded laptop and bags into the Focus, and went to the office to pay the bill. Minutes later she was back in her car.
All right, Mila. You win. I need help and you’re it.
She headed for Nags Head and Mila’s house.
***
******
Chapter 19
Wednesday, November 24
Daylight brightened the countryside near Ruzyne Airport. The sun’s rays broke through the bare branches and crossed Bill Hamm’s eyes. He awoke on his back, shivering in a layer of leaves and broken twigs that surrounded him.
He turned his head to see Ivana huddled under a nearby bush. She sat trembling, her arms locked about her knees to retain body warmth. She wore only a sweater, her jacket covered Bill’s chest. Apparently too, she had pushed leaves and branches around him for insulation and concealment.
He focused upwards. Above him was a horizontal branch, shoulder high. Now Bill remembered. They had fled through the woods from the searchers’ lights.
Evidently he had run into the stout limb and been knocked unconscious.
He felt his forehead. His fingers came away tinted with blood, but not much. Whatever gash he had sustained was not deep.
Finally, he lifted himself up.
Ivana rubbed her ankles. She spoke.
“Are you better?”
“I think so. How long have I been down.”
She shrugged.
“Maybe an hour, maybe more.”
“And you didn’t leave?”
She shrugged again.
“I thought about it when they stopped looking for us, but you saved my life. Besides, I have no money and no place to go They found my knapsack.”
She added.
“It was by the tree when we ran. I heard them shouting. It had my Euros and the papers I took from Karel.”
“Karel?”
“Karel Moravec, my boss. Those men after me were his.”
“What ‘papers’ do you mean?”
“It wasn’t just papers. There were official company records plus CD-ROMs, hard copy files and photos. Gustav said it would be my insurance policy against Karel. With them, we could prove Karel is an international criminal, demonstrate his crimes against humanity.”
“Gustav? Do you mean Gustav Slavik?”
“Yes, but how would you know him?”
“He’s the reason I’m here. He wants us to protect you.”
“Me? But you are American. He hates Am ... ”
Ivana stopped and frowned.
It was Bill’s turn to shrug.
“Evidently he likes you more than he hates us.”
Ivana shut her eyes. She owed that old man. Thank you, Gustav.
***
Ivana stood while Bill surveyed the bare winter woods. Only a few brown leaves populated the otherwise bare branches of the oaks. A cold breeze whispered through the tree tops. Ivana pressed her arms to her body. Bill returned her jacket to her shoulders.
“Thanks for the loan of your coat, but we have to leave now.”
He felt in his pocket for the phone. His hand came out empty. Damn! He remembered. He had lost it crossing the road.
He looked about. There, to the north was an opening through the trees, a cultivated field of stubble.
“There is a farm over that way. The house can’t be far. We’ll say we are hikers who are lost. You can ask to use their phone. We’d better start walking.”
Bill picked his way through the brush.
Ivana followed.
***
In North Carolina, the sun was still low on the eastern horizon when Gustav Slavik and Johan Zeleny arrived at the Dare County Airport in Manteo.
Gustav stepped down from their charter. Across the tarmac, the Emergency Management Services’ Medevac Bk 117 helicopter stood ready for use. Further beyond, the waters of the Croatan Sound rippled under the morning mist.
Johan rubbed his left knee and descended. He limped after his leader.
“I’m not as young as I used to be. Who do we locate first, Simek or Mila.”
“We go to Nags Head. I want to see Mila. Simek is scared. She’ll stay and hide at the Moccasin Cottages. There is no hurry for her.”
“Any news about Ivana?”
Gustav glared. Ivana was a concern he shared with no one. He walked to the rental car.
Johan limped after him in silence.
Gustav knew the way to Mila’s house. He drove.
***
In Nag’s Head, Karel’s men drove past Mila’s house. The nearby houses appeared shuttered for the winter and no cars were visible. Only Mila’s had clear windows and was in current use. Still, its driveway was empty. Evidently she was not home.
The driver steered the gray Ford Excursion around the corner. The street was deserted. He spoke.
“I’ll park past that third house. That way no one can see us from Patekova’s windows.”
The passenger touched his ear, still sore from the smashed listening device. He spoke.
“What are we doing? Are you sure Gustav will come back here?”
“Karel says Gustav left Maryland for the Outer Banks. Give me a better idea. Th
is is the only place we know Gustav has been. Maybe Simek and Zeleny will show up too.”
He stopped and thought. He pointed to the house next to Mila’s. Like hers it was lifted on sturdy posts, one floor above the ground. The only structure visible in the open area underneath was a partitioned shower for bathers. It had swinging “saloon” doors supported by two of the load-bearing posts.
“You wait in that shower. Stand inside behind that post. I’ll do the same across the street.”
The house across the street was likewise mounted on posts. It too had a framed shower in the open space underneath.
“No thanks, it’s cold. I’ll wait in the car.”
The driver looked at his partner. They were in enough trouble with Karel. There was no point in fighting among themselves.
“All right, I’ll take the far shower. You stay in the car. But when I signal, get in that other shower, fast.”
Both men wore body armor. Each had a modern-variant AK-47, with a classic curved 30-round magazine. Armor and weapon were heavy, but they would be in fixed positions.
The driver slung his weapon over his shoulder and made his way under the house. Once in the shower, behind the swinging doors, he looked over and waved. The passenger waved back through the car window.
This was no fancy plan. This was an ambush, one with overwhelming firepower.
Gustav would die!
***
In Corolla, North Carolina, the night spent in Anne Simek’s rental was uneventful. Mila slept in Anne’s bedroom off of the great room on the top level. Peter Zeleny, Aileen Harris and Jim Harrigan had separate bedrooms on the mid level below.
Jim was the first to rise. He made his way to the top level where he found coffee. Soon a “wake up” aroma filled the great room and filtered to the bedrooms below. In response, Peter Zeleny smothered his face in his pillow and lay motionless. Likewise, in her bedroom Aileen did not stir.
The Prague Plot: The Cold War Meets the Jihad (Jeannine Ryan Series Book 3) Page 13
