I could hear the background chatter of the bank in my earpiece, as Evie had been installed in her new position out on the bank floor. Ronnie was using the spare manager’s office to centralize the control of the ‘operation’, as she called it. Her voice cut through clear as a bell.
“Have I heard right? You have a possible match?”
“Hold onto your ponies, Ron. He’ll be inside the bank within…” I quickly checked my watch, and gave his walking speed another assessment. “fifteen minutes. I think it might be more difficult to wait than to make the pickup on the street. He’s circling the block across from the bank now, but he’ll pass by the Zurich Police Community Microstation in about five minutes. I think it’s the perfect place to confront him. He’ll be thrown off by the presence of a police station, and we only need a moment of confusion. Just long enough to get Therese in front of his face. That should pull him in. At least that was the plan, right?”
I could hear the resignation in her voice as she agreed.
“Very well. If you think it’s going to be that easy, then go ahead. Keep this line open, and we’ll monitor the situation. If you need us, we’ll be here.”
“Fine. I’m leaving the line open. Talk to you soon.”
Then I switched to my separate frequency with Evie.
“Evie, don’t respond. This is an update. I think we can make a low profile take-down out here on the street. Get your gear together, and get into the office with Ronnie. Help her pack up. We’re going to be out of here in about five minutes. I want you and Ronnie in the Audi following behind me when I go. Move!”
Then I switched back to the main frequency, and grabbed hold of Therese, who was trying to make a dive for freedom, straight out my driver’s side window. She was as slippery as an eel, and twice as electric to the touch. Everywhere I grabbed hold of her felt like a spot where I shouldn’t be touching her. Under current conditions.
I got her settled down by literally throwing her into the back of the car again. I held my finger up to my lips, making the internationally understood gesture to ‘be quiet’. She paused just as she was about to let loose at me.
I slipped my hand into the inside pocket of my jacket and brought out a small notepad. Tearing off one sheet, I quickly wrote,
‘GET OUT OF CAR ON SIDEWALK THROUGH YOUR DOOR. WALK NORMALLY. MEET HIM AS HE PASSES IN FRONT OF THE POLICE STATION. I’LL BE BEHIND YOU. CONVINCE HIM TO COME WITH US! SAY THERE IS GREAT DANGER! GO!’,
…and that seemed to do the trick. She calmed down immediately, and then smiled at me and nodded, meaning ‘got you, and I’m Okay’. I hoped it was true. Ted was as edgy as the pig who just found out about the Luau. Therese wasn’t much better at times, and then other times she hid it well. This was the moment she’d come for. I figured she’d be Okay. With me four steps behind her.
She wriggled into the passenger seat from the back and opened the door, stepped onto the sidewalk, and started walking casually towards the oncoming Ted Dawson. Except that she forgot to close the door. Why? What was she thinking of?
I was going to step out into the street, and walk around the back of the car so I could close her door too, but I suddenly changed my mind. Something felt wrong, and the feeling escalated as Therese walked away from the car, towards Ted, and the Community Station.
She hadn’t gone far when I turned on the ignition and quickly assessed the positions of all concerned. There were no obstructions between where I was parked and where Therese had gotten to, down the sidewalk. Not yet. In a few seconds she would pass a lightpost. Plenty strong enough to take the door right off the car if I was moving fast enough. No problem.
I turned the key in the ignition, firing up the power of all my new friends living under my hood. The sound was enough to turn a few heads of passerbys in the immediate vicinity. Then I dropped the shifter into first and punched the gas.
The first thing that happened was the scream of the back wheels as they sought purchase on the pavement. The rubber had to heat up before it was sticky enough to grip at that level of torque. Considering I’d had them put brand new Michelin high performance rubber on all four wheels, I figured I’d be Okay.
The car had just started to side-slip when the rubber found its traction. The torque converter had completion. The wheels stopped spinning and started moving the car. This happened over a period of time that I estimate at about four tenths of a second. Then things started happening fast.
I was slammed back in my seat, and even though I was braced for it, it almost got away from me at that instant, but my hold was too tight. The next thing that happened was the slamming shut of the passenger door from the push of acceleration, and the car leaped ahead. Out of the corner of my eye I caught Ronnie and Evie walking down the bank steps, business suits, briefcases, they could make it to the car undetected. Maybe.
I stopped on a skid, just before the light pole, and just before Therese got there too. Both windows were rolled down, and it was easy to get her attention. In fact, I already had it. So I shouted out of the window.
“Get in now! Don’t ask why! Move!”
She was in the seat so fast it took me a second to realize that she’d just dived head first through the open window. She was lying with her legs over the edge of the seat and the windowsill, and her back on the seat, with her head near the floor. She scrambled around for a moment or two, and presto! She was right side up. Ted was still down the street away, but he hadn’t missed anything. This was just the sort of thing he had been looking for. Something out of the ordinary.
Well, my gut was telling me that this was going to be exactly that. Something out of the ordinary.
Ted had just started to break for cover, and Ronnie was standing behind Evie as she opened the passenger side door for her. They were taking their own sweet time about it, too. Probably Ronnie’s idea. Heaven knew, she wanted to see what was going down.
It was also part of her job to do this as well. My problem was getting her out of it and keeping her out of it. Right.
Maybe nothing was happening except exactly what we were here and prepared for. Something was buzzing in the back of my head though, telling me to watch out, it was coming, and the fan was up to speed.
First things first.
“Hold on tight.”
I punched it again, and this time I achieved the level of respect due to a Classic Corvette.
This achieved three things. One, any attention that was being paid to this part of the street was focused on me, and that meant not on Ronnie. Everyone on the block had stopped to stare. This was Zurich, after all. They didn’t get out much, like to New York for example, and they probably thought that this sort of behavior was aberrant.
I was slammed back in my seat again, and the bloody front end of the car actually came off the ground, a good eight to ten inches for the first ten feet or so, then it softly kissed the pavement, and in so doing gave me back my steering. Which allowed me to avoid going through a bus stop and a traffic signal pole as we hurtled through the intersection to the block that Ted was on. We were more than likely moving at about sixty-five or seventy KPH by then, because I was just getting the urge to shift into second, but then we would over-shoot Ted, so I held steady.
The engine was growling louder than a pissed-off Grizzly Bear when I skidded to a stop in front of Ted’s position. Therese was leaning as much of her body out the window she could while we’d been moving. I had no idea how she did that. A dancer’s muscles I guess. As we passed Ted, he backed up against the wall and started to pull something from under his trench coat. Not good.
He still didn’t get it. We were the Cavalry. Therese started yelling at him in French, with a Montreal accent, naturally. That caught his attention, luckily. I don’t normally shoot the guys on my side, but when they shoot first… then it gets down to that old saw, ‘Thee or me’. I always favoured me.
There was a rapid exchange of ‘I DON’T BELIEVE IT’s and ‘HOW DID YOU FIND ME’s stuff like that. The kind of
stuff that comes later. I reminded Therese.
“Therese! GET HIM IN THE CAR!”
She ducked her head and body back in through the window and popped the latch on the door. It looked like she was going to run into his arms, but instead she yelled at Ted, and kicked the door open, then dived into the back.
Ted was left with a decision, and he hesitated. Excellent.
Here we were to save his sorry ass, and him being a pilot and all, I figured he would at least have good reflexes. I already knew he didn’t have good judgement. Look at the position he was in. Hunted by the law and the lawless, his brother dead, and nowhere to turn in a ‘Global Village’, as Marshall used to say. It was 1996, if you wanted anonymity, you had better have a large bundle of cash and false identifications.
I was still on Evie’s channel. They had gotten into the car, but were still parked a block away. I couldn’t hear much over the link with all the engine noise and the yelling. I felt that chill down my back and then I knew there was trouble over my shoulder, because time started changing on me, my subconscious mind wanted part of the action. Fighting it down took an effort. I had to deal with Ted first. I spoke directly into the PinMic.
“Evie, are you on-line? Answer one flash for yes.”
I glanced in my side view mirror and saw the flash of the Audi’s lights. Good.
“Watch out for the police station. I suspect that the grey men have it under their control. If not there, then somewhere around here. I feel them. I’ll get Ted out, you watch my back.”
“Roger that, Jeffry. Consider yourself covered.”
In the mirror, I could see the car pull out and hammer it until they were about twenty yards behind me, then they just parked in the street lane next to the parking lane. She parked and popped out of the car, leaving the driver’s door open, and at the same time Ronnie slipped over to the driver’s seat and closed the door.
The car started keeping pace with ours, which was just moving fast enough to catch up with Ted again. He had started to run, but he was looking back over his shoulder too, so he wasn’t running very fast, or efficiently. I don’t even know if he knew where he was running to. I think he was afraid that he was about to die.
I got the car up ahead of him again, and slammed on the brakes, setting the parking brake too this time. I unsnapped the seat-belt, and grabbing the roof with both hands, pulled myself out of my window until I was sitting on the door, facing Ted across the roof of the car. My left hand held me steady because I had a grip on the edge of the roof.
My right hand was extended with my arm, over the top of the roof of the car. In my hand was a Colt .45, and it looked like Ted knew what that was all about because he came to a jilting halt as he ran, stopping right at the car.
“Get in Ted, we don’t have time for these games. We’re the good guys. The bad guys are here somewhere, and when they find you, you’re a dead man. You know that.”
He stood rooted to the spot. Then I yelled at him.
“GET IN THE CAR, IDIOT!”
He shook off the fear, and looked at the gun. He knew he’d been done.
“FASTER!”
Then Therese did what she was here for. Sort of. She called out to him to reassure him that we were the good guys.
“Ted, c’est moi, Thérèse. Les gens ici sont nos amis. VIENS VITE! MAINTENENT!”
All of a sudden it was a whole new ballgame. Two things happened in quick succession. First, he understood. Finally.
Like his brain had been in neutral, and now it was in full automatic. He started running towards the Corvette.
Second, a Zurich cop walked out of the station onto the sidewalk.
I slipped back down into my driver’s seat, snapped my belt into place, and holstered the Colt while I was at it. Therese was leaning into the passenger window from the back, encouraging him to move faster.
“Okay, Therese. Brace yourself back there, this might be a wild ride.”
“Oui. Je sais.”
Well if she knew already, then I didn’t need to worry for her. One less item to require my attention. Good.
Behind us, about fifty or sixty feet, was the Audi, with Ronnie at the wheel, and Evie looking mighty fine, with a business suit and a rocket launcher. Somehow, the look suited her, if you’ll pardon the pun. The launcher she kept down at her side, as much out of sight as possible, while she stood at the front of the car, covering the community station on one side and everything else on the other. All of this while keeping a good backwards pace. But all of that had changed when the cop showed up.
I spoke directly into the PinMic again.
“Watch for this guy, Evie, I have a bad feeling about him.”
“You think I need glasses? Get going, fool! Let me get out of the street for God’s sake!”
As I was receiving a dressing down from Evie, the cop was taking in the situation fast enough. He connected the two cars easily because we were both running in line at slow speed, and then there was Evie, walking backwards in front of the Audi. That didn’t look too normal. Then there had been the gun in my hand. That didn’t look very normal either, but then I don’t know if he’d seen it. He was on the sidewalk in front of the door to the station, about fifty yards from my position. Evie was about twenty yards closer.
He definitely spotted Ted though. And as soon as he did, out came the machine pistol, and I went into overdrive. Zurich Police do not ride a bicycle beat with machine pistols. I could see the ugly lines of the weapon in the rear-view mirror. It looked like one of those Czechoslovakian knock-offs, but I wasn’t close enough to specifically identify the gun. That wasn’t good. Was this a cop, or was it someone posing as a cop?
“EVIE! THE COP! WHAT KIND OF SHOES DOES HE HAVE ON?”
“Wha…”
“ANSWER!”
“Uh, loafers.”
At that second, the door slammed shut as Ted jumped into the passenger seat. He had done up his belt and put his arms around Therese before I looked over, or vice-versa, I couldn’t tell.
They held on to each other like you do a life raft at sea. There was no doubt in my mind that this was exactly who I’d been sent to find. The ‘Ted Dawson’ that was the surviving brother to the weirdly murdered John Dawson. That was all I needed to know right now. I spoke out, loudly.
“Evie, run for it! Don’t show the launcher. Now! GO!”
I was talking to her as I reached up to grab the roof edge and half-out the window I went again. This time I had the H&K in my right hand. The cop had been leveling his weapon on the Audi, and it was just a matter of picking off the machine pistol. With loafers on, this guy didn’t belong to the Bicycle Patrol. No way. But what if he was a visiting officer? I was too far away to make a positive judgement call, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to gun down one of the good guys, even if he was trying to kill us. Against the rules, you see.
As I fingered the laser sight I was amazed at how well it worked. Even in broad daylight the little red dot was easily spotted. The cop/not-cop spotted me and my gun as he was about to let loose on the Audi.
Like magic every time. You put a gun on someone and they stop whatever they were doing in order to obey the First Rule. Survival. Now he thought it was down to the fastest trigger man, as the machine pistol turned my way.
The guy had seen my gun and was trying to switch targets. Now, I was ninety-nine percent sure he wasn’t a real cop. He was too stupid to be Zurich Police. The machine pistol he was waving about would scatter like crazy at this distance. It would be pure luck if he even hit the Corvette, and that was a fair-sized target. And he hadn’t said one word.
The dot was on his face, then I twitched the gun and it was on his hand. Close enough.
I let it go, three rounds in rapid succession. The fire spit out of the barrel for several feet, and the roar was like one extended explosion. The cop’s hand flew backwards in a spray of blood and bone and the pistol went flying backwards too, and kept going, breaking the plate glass of the station window b
ehind him. I prayed that I was right as I slipped back into the driver’s seat for the second time.
What I really feared was that I was right. Which meant that the cop that had been wearing that uniform was more than likely dead already, inside the station. I clipped my belt on and shouted out in general to whomever.
“Hold tight!”
Then for the PinMic.
“Ladies, let’s go. Hop it!”
“Roger that.”
I watched in my rear-view mirror as Evie made her way to the passenger side of the Audi, her eyes sweeping the area, then she was in the car. I switched back to the main channel and found Ronnie talking out loud to herself. Or maybe to me.
“…and when I get hold of you, Jeffry, you’ll wonder whether it was worth it or not. If anyone gives any orders around here it’s me. How dare you cut off my comms link! You rotten…”
“Uh, Ronnie?”
“What? You’re there. Well, what’s up? Situation all clear now? The little woman can come out to play now?”
“Snap out of it! This is the job. That was no cop. We’ve got Zurich done. Be happy. Now follow me.”
I slipped it into first again and pulled away from the curb. Fast, but not crazy. Ronnie pulled in behind me in the slot position. She may have been pissed off, but she was smart enough to know when we should leave.
I drove quickly down Uraniastrasse, then turned south onto the Limmatquai when I crossed the bridge, bringing us out of the downtown section of Zurich.
“Ronnie.”
“Yeah?”
Her tone wasn’t good. She was still pissed off about my private comm link with Evie. I hoped she took it easy on her, though Evie was capable of taking care of herself well enough. The outcome would be interesting, but that was all for later.
“Ronnie, get over it or just go home, alright? We’ve got troubles enough without dissent here. I work for you. Plain and simple. I am one hundred percent loyal to you. Get it? Let’s drop the bullshit and resolve the issues at hand, Okay?”
The Diamond Dust on Dragonfly Wings: A Jeffry Claxton Mystery Novel Page 74