by Rik Stone
Borislav seemed to get excited. “Are you telling me General Petrichova is just trying to get in on the action?”
She hadn’t thought of that. Add something. “Yes. We tried discussing it with Ozel but it all went wrong.”
“Okay, that’s possible. What man are you meeting here?”
“We don’t know the name of the main man. All I know is I’m to meet a man called Aydin Ata. He will take me to his boss.”
“Aydin Ata,” Kudret scowled. “Never heard of him.”
But he is real, she told herself.
“The drug doesn’t lie,” Borislav answered.
The questions kept coming and Anna maintained control. Everything she told them was an attempt to mislead, but eventually she became tired, too tired. So much so, she worried she would reveal the truth. She decided to black out and let her head fall forward – but it didn’t stop her listening in.
Borislav said, “She’s lost consciousness, but it doesn’t matter now; we’ve got as much as she knows. Kudret, we need to move. We’re cutting things too fine. The drug shipment arrives tomorrow and the payment hasn’t shown up from Moscow.”
This revelation is important. Concentrate and make sure you remember, Anna told herself.
“Right,” Borislav continued, “Anton will stay here with you. He can watch her while you contend with the drug shipment. I’ll take the road to Istanbul and see what’s slowing up the truck with the Semtex.”
Without further consideration to Anna, they left. She hung uncomfortably on the yoke and repeated what she had heard about the drug shipment and Semtex in her mind. Over and over, so she wouldn’t forget. The pain was a constant, but it didn’t stop the effect of the barbiturate sending her into a deep sleep.
Chapter 10
Marmaris Marina, Turkey
Yuri Aleksii switched both ignition keys at the same time and, almost in unison, the twin diesels roared into life. He was worried; Anna should have been there by now and his gut, which felt like it was having a butterfly convention, was telling him something had gone wrong. If the feeling had substance then he had to move off from the marina. He looked back from the flybridge of his eleven-meter motor cruiser, Great White, and watched the small blooms of blue smoke dissipate from the rear of the vessel. Mehmet Pasha, his fellow agent and surrogate son, stood on the hammerhead at the end of the pontoon awaiting further instruction. Yuri had been the saving grace in Mehmet’s earlier life and as a result an unbreakable bond had forged between them. He knew him so well; Mehmet was an excellent agent, but he liked the women too much. He’d met and fallen in love with a girl called Nina, but the flipside to that was if he saw a pretty girl he had to have her – traits of his father.
Yuri let the engines warm for a couple of minutes before shouting, “Cast off, Mehmet!”
Mehmet shed ropes fore and aft, jumped on the boat and held a line amidships. Yuri worked in tandem with him as Mehmet slipped the final rope from the pontoon’s cleat and the boat eased gently from its berth. He stored the lines and fenders in deck lockers and came up to join Yuri on the flybridge.
“Don’t you think we’re overreacting, Yuri?”
Yuri turned, scrunched his brow. “Anna is two hours late. It might mean nothing. But if something has happened, we can’t be compromised. To give her a chance, we’ll travel along the coast to Icmeler. If she has been held up and is on her way, she’ll take the coastal path and we’ll see her. If she still doesn’t show, she’s on her own.”
The boat hugged the coastline as far along as Icmeler and still there was no sign of Anna. In truth, she wasn’t the sort of agent who needed worrying about, but he couldn’t help himself. Almost without thinking, he took a hold on a belaying pin, spun the helm hard, and swung the vessel through a half circle.
“Thanks for the warning!” Mehmet shouted, detaching himself from the bulwark he’d nearly flown over. “And what are you doing? I thought you said it wouldn’t be safe at the marina.”
“Can you imagine Anna leaving us to fend for ourselves if she thought we were in trouble?”
Mehmet went on the offensive. “Of course not,” he said. “It wasn’t me suggested we leave. But you were right. If we’re picked up we can’t be of help to anyone. We should carry on down the coast and think out a more rational plan.”
Yuri relaxed and his lips puffed out as he exhaled. “We’re not going back to the marina. We’ll take a temporary mooring at the hotel jetty halfway back along the coast. I want us to have a word with Adam Mannesh.”
“The Istanbul businessman who’s driver was supposed to pick Anna up at the airport?”
“Yes, he’s in Marmaris. He’s based in Istanbul, so I can only put him being here down to good fortune.”
*
Yuri moored up at the jetty of the Akasya Hotel. The main building was about fifty meters back from the sea and as the two men walked through the private gardens towards the reception, a security guard stopped them. Within five minutes of Yuri explaining they were there to see Adam Mannesh, he was knocking on the door of a private penthouse apartment.
A few things bothered Yuri about Adam. He had never looked into his import-export agency, but he seemed to have power along these coastal areas as well as in Istanbul. It didn’t quite add up.
A bodyguard opened the door.
“Hello, Hassan, tell Adam I’m here to speak with him,” Yuri demanded.
Hassan hadn’t had the chance to answer when Adam brushed past him with a silent grace that belied a man of such bulk. “Yuri, Yuri, come in! It’s good to see you,” he said.
Always polite, Yuri greeted Adam with the same enthusiasm he was given. He’d had him in tow for several months because of a relationship he had unearthed between him and a young man. No big deal, but it didn’t send out the right messages for Adam’s businesses – whatever they might be. For the sake of silence, Adam was happy to do Yuri the occasional favor, but only as long as it didn’t mix with his dealings. He wasn’t that much of a pushover.
Yuri looked Adam over. Some might say he was obese. If he was then it was his height that helped him carry off a slimmer appearance. Always immaculate and no different now. He wore a powder blue suit with a white shirt, blue lace tie and, as always, a pale blue fez with a darker blue tassel perched neatly atop. Why he wore the hat was a mystery. As far as Yuri knew, Adam had neither religious belief nor military background.
“Adam, I have a problem,” Yuri began. “You sent a man to pick up a friend of mine at Dalaman Airport. I still have no friend.”
Adam screwed his thick, black moustache between thumb and forefinger and looked puzzled. “But Batur told one of my managers he’d picked your young lady up and dropped her on the coast in Icmeler.”
“Not likely,” Yuri said, cocking his head, raising his eyebrows.
Adam turned to Hassan, a permanent fixture by his side. “Hassan, get Batur Hasim, quick as you can. Take him to the seed barn in the country.”
Hassan disappeared without reply.
Opening his palm towards the door, Adam beckoned Yuri and Mehmet out in front of him and said, “I have a car downstairs. Shall we go and wait for them? I think you’ll like my seed barn; it’s … tranquil.”
*
Eight, maybe ten kilometers of winding roads and steep inclines, and the car finally approached an open area surrounded by hills. The front of the seed barn stood twenty meters from the base of a steep, rocky hillside and for the life of him Yuri couldn’t see anything special about the building. Adam seemed to think it was something, but to him it seemed more dilapidated than most in the area. Mainly built from corrugated tin, the dark brown panels were rusted and the shabby corners had rolled away leaving jagged metal jutting out dangerously.
The car pulled up in front of large double doors, one of which housed a small integral access. Getting up close revealed a different story to Yuri. There were no windows at ground level and those in the upper level were heavily shuttered. The chutes normally used for f
illing lorries and trailers with grain were dummies and it could be seen that the whole outside had been fortified.
Yuri went in via the mini entrance and whatever Adam used the barn for became a bigger mystery. The only thing he could be sure of was that it wasn’t for seed. The gigantic open area was marked out with bays, like a huge garage. A large mezzanine floor midway along the building could have been offices, but climbing the steps exposed many rooms. Of those he could see into, there were beds and what looked like en suite bathrooms. Following Adam to the end of a long corridor, they passed several kitchens. Everything he saw was large and expensively fitted out and Yuri began realizing that he hadn’t done his homework on Adam properly. But why was Adam trusting him with this revelation? Already being blackmailed, he must’ve realized he was opening another door. This was too weird to take for granted. However, he needed help. For now he’d keep a low profile and find out about Mister Mannesh another time.
Adam appeared to read his thoughts. He smiled and said, “This may look a little clandestine to you, Yuri. But I can assure you I have nothing to hide – or I wouldn’t have brought you here. It’s simply somewhere to hold business meetings and enjoy special parties,” he winked. “And it gives me a little privacy when I need to escape the pressures of life.”
Yuri nodded. Adam bade them sit. Yuri plumped down on a luxurious sofa that ran the full length of the back wall. It nestled behind an oversized table that had at least twenty wooden carver chairs pushed up to it. Adam took a bottle from a liquor dispenser, poured vodka and handed it to Yuri.
“And you, Mehmet, what would you like?”
“Have you orange juice?”
“Religious?”
“No.”
Adam smiled and got the juice. An hour or so later, the double doors automatically creaked open and a car drove into the barn. Yuri hadn’t been in the mood for drinking and left the glass untouched. He got up and hurried along the corridor. At the top of the steps, he saw Hassan getting out of the vehicle and then opening the back door. He dragged a little man out by the scruff of the neck and frog-marched him towards the stairway.
Adam greeted the captive as if he were an old friend. “Ah, Batur, you’ve arrived,” he said, smiling. “So nice of you to come along.”
Batur’s brow sweated. “Mister Mannesh,” he said. “I don’t understand. I’m just a driver. Why would you bring me here like this?”
Adam frowned in a way that made Yuri grin inwardly; he looked like a Chinese Shar Pei with a moustache. “Just a driver, maybe, but it seems you’re a driver who has gone into business for himself. Don’t mess me around, Batur. What have you done with the young lady you picked up at the airport?”
For a moment Yuri thought the look of surprise on Batur’s face genuine, but then his paled features filled with fear. He looked down guiltily and then up sheepishly.
“But … I told my manager when I got back. I dropped her on the seafront at Icmeler like she asked me to.”
After pushing a finger under his fez to scratch, Adam shook his head, took a bone-handled knife from inside his jacket, and flicked a blade from its grip. “Batur, I know what you told the manager. What I’m asking for is the truth. Now don’t try my patience … One chance.”
“Mister Mannesh, I don’t know …”
Before Batur had finished pleading his case, and almost with the speed and accuracy Yuri thought only Mehmet possessed, Adam had whipped the blade up into Batur’s nose and pulled the cutting edge back, slicing through Batur’s left nostril. Such a big man and now the only sign that Adam had moved was a slight undulation of flesh around his girth. Batur’s blood ran freely as he brought his hands to his face and screamed in agony. Adam wiped the blade clean on Batur’s shirt and smiled jovially.
“Right, while I’m still in a reasonable mood,” he said calmly, “tell me what you’ve done with the young lady, Batur.”
“Mister Mannesh, I–”
“One chance,” Mannesh repeated.
Batur cupped the flow of blood from his face, cried, and then folded. “Sergeant Kudret, he–”
Adam gently interrupted. “Batur, if you continue muttering through those closed hands of yours, I won’t hear you. And to me that will sound like another refusal to give me a straight answer.”
Batur straightened sharply, kept a grip on his nose, and lifted his hands from his mouth enough to be heard. “Sergeant Kudret! He took Miss Anna. I don’t know how he found out about her coming to Turkey, but he knew. I didn’t want to follow his orders, I swear, but I know he takes girls to his place and does cruel things. I have driven them there sometimes myself. He said if I didn’t do as I was told he would take my daughters and defile my wife.”
Adam laughed and his body wobbled. “Please, please …” he said, sniggering again. “Batur, not only do you have no daughters, you don’t have a wife.”
Batur’s hands held onto his nose and his eyes popped open as big as saucers.
Adam said, “Enough of that. Where did Kudret take her?”
“We were stopped at a roadblock near the old Ozel club, the one that was blown up. I don’t know where they took her after that.”
Adam laughed joyfully. “Oh, Batur, I didn’t know you were such fun. And I was wrong. You don’t think I’m stupid. The fact is, it is you who is stupid. You’ve just told me you took girls to wherever Kudret made use of them. Let me say this again … one chance.”
Slowly, but precisely, Batur revealed all.
Adam told Hassan to drive Yuri and Mehmet out into the country where Batur said Sergeant Kudret owned a smallholding.
“What will become of Batur?” Yuri asked before leaving.
“Well, that isn’t a question I want to answer directly. But the man has scorned me. He’s shown me the greatest disrespect by making me appear unworthy in front of my friends. What would you expect?”
Batur held onto his nose with both hands, but his fingers had moved up to cover his eyes as well. He sobbed miserably and his body shuddered. Yuri turned away. It wasn’t his business.
*
Hassan said, “Mister Mannesh told me to wait here on the hillside, and told me not to get involved. Mister Mannesh also said this squares everything and you shouldn’t ask any more of him. He said for me to stay until sundown to give you time to get her out. At sundown I leave.”
And that was where Yuri and Mehmet left him.
Mister Mannesh had had a lot to say, Yuri thought while crouching down as he and Mehmet crossed an open piece of ground. He had agreed to the terms, knowing he would never have got the chance to save Anna without him. Still, when there was more free time he would find out what Adam was using the seed barn for. If he was dabbling in the wrong games, there would be no telling what he might be able to get from him that could be of use in the future.
The grounds around the old farmhouse had been left to run wild. The yet rooted tumbleweed, which made it something other than tumbleweed, gave good cover and they were able to crawl across the divide easily without being seen. Getting to within a few meters of the single story building, he saw rusted corrugated bins lined up along the back wall and a large, heavy looking man in a black suit sitting on the sanded rocky ground next to them. His back was against the wall and he hadn’t long lit a cigarette. Yuri recognized the smell that drifted over: Drozhba. It had a long cardboard tube fitted to act as a filter. He hadn’t long given up smoking himself and it was the Drozhbas did the trick. They were so strong they almost burnt his throat out. This man had to be Russian. No one else would smoke that shit.
Yuri used hand signals to tell Mehmet to stay put and then crawled to the front of the building. He worked his way around to the front, stood with his back against the wall, and then quietly shuffled to the entrance. Gently, he levered the door handle down – open. He edged through the door, into and down an entrance hall. All the rooms appeared to come off this same corridor. Only one door was closed. Yuri hoped that would be where Anna was being held. He didn�
��t yet want to make a noise, so he carried on to the end of the passageway. He took a cosh-like bludgeon from his waistband, crooked his arm in readiness, then kicked the backdoor as hard as he could; it flung open, crashed against the wall, and was so rotten it shattered like matchwood.
The man in the suit fell away from the wall with a start, rolled over onto his back, and lay rocking like an upended turtle. Yuri let him sway back into position and smacked him in the temple with the cosh, and then raced back along the passageway to the closed door, locked, but the structure was weak and even the frame came away when he shouldered it. The relief of seeing Anna soon changed to anger. Her eyes met his and she sighed deeply, blowing air hard through her nose and mouth.
“I thought you’d never get here,” she said, voice dribbling like a burbling drunk.
“Excuse me! How was I to know you were in a hurry?” he said and forced a laugh.
When he unscrewed the butterfly nuts holding the steel bands to Anna’s breasts, the liberation sent muscle spasms shuddering through her body. Mehmet came in behind him and then politely turned away. Even through her torment, Yuri saw her eyes crinkle in a smile.
“That’s my boy, never takes advantage of a woman unless he’s the one who put her at a disadvantage in the first place,” he said and buttoned up her blouse before shouting, “All clear, Mehmet! You can cut her loose now.”
Mehmet came back in with a knife in his hand, but there was no need to use it. The knots loosened easily and he was able to unwind the rope from the wooden yoke. Finally, she fell into Yuri’s arms.
“Here, little one,” he said, “I’ll carry you to the car.”
“No, I can manage,” she said defiantly, but releasing his grip she stumbled with her first footfall. Yuri scooped her from her feet and carried her out.
The man in the suit had come round and sat dazed against a corrugated bin.
“Here, take Anna,” Yuri said, dropping her into Mehmet’s arms. “I’ll take the big lump. We need him to tell us what we’re up against.”
