by Saul, Jonas
“A guy named Tony Soprano.”
“Come on, like the television show? No way.”
“He uses that name. We all know him by that name. No one knows the boss’s real name.”
Only seconds left. “Where can I find him?”
“Montone, Italy. That’s all I know.”
He slumped on the seat and slipped off, hitting the floor beside the bathtub. The loss of blood and gunfire had been enough for him.
István’s confession about being part of a group inside the government, that helped known criminals enter and exit the country if the price was right, would finish him and his little profitable group. A group that started with the right intentions but ended up helping criminals traffic human beings like they were cattle.
Sarah wasn’t just walking around Budapest shooting random people. She was shooting criminals and gathering the evidence needed to have them placed in jail for a long time. She was also learning that this organization was an international one, headed by some tough guy in Italy. A different kind of human trafficking. One that didn’t involve prostitution.
She turned and ran for the hallway.
“Wait! You said you’d give me the camera,” István said, pointing at her, his eyes wider than she’d ever seen. He lay on the floor looking like he was going into shock.
“You just confessed on camera your role in aiding Armond Stuart entry to this country. It’s everything I need for that pig lying out in the hallway bleeding from both feet.”
“But you said you don’t bluff.”
István was shaking all over but trying to compose himself as best as he could and failing miserably.
“I don’t bluff. But sometimes I lie. This little device will go to the proper authorities of course. And since I’m out of bullets this’ll have to do.”
She stepped forward and dropped the butt of the weapon onto the top of his thigh where the bullet had entered moments before.
He screamed and wailed, writhing on the floor.
“I said no questions. That’s for testing me. Our chat is over now. Goodbye.”
Sarah turned and ran from the bathroom. The tenant/pervert of apartment 303 still lay on the floor, the phone near his ear.
“That’s right. Good boy. Talk to the police. I’m so happy you called them.”
She held up the camera. His expression changed and his eyes widened. He knew he was caught.
She watched as he hit a button on the phone and set it down.
Too late, she thought. The police are already here.
Before stepping from the apartment she checked the hallway. No one in sight yet.
She edged out and down to István’s apartment 306. She eased in and closed the door, locking it behind her.
In under a minute she had the camera hooked up to his DVD player. She turned the television on, rewound the recorder and then pressed play.
Young girls showed up on the screen in various states of undress.
Sarah turned up the volume and looked away.
She walked back out to the apartment door and opened it wide. Someone ran by but they didn’t look in.
Leaving the door open, she turned and walked back into the apartment, heading for the small balcony.
Someone shouted from the hallway.
“In here.”
She opened the balcony door and stepped out, closing it behind her.
Third floor. Couldn’t be more than thirty feet down.
She jumped onto the other side of the balcony and slowly slid down a side bar until she was dangling above the balcony of the second floor.
She calculated the distance and waited for the right moment. After her body swung enough to the inside she let both hands go and dropped a foot to the top of the railing on the second floor. Balancing perfectly for a brief second she hopped off and into the balcony area.
Then she jumped over its edge and did the same procedure to get to the first floor balcony. The only difference was instead of jumping onto the first floor balcony she jumped the other way and landed on a bed of grass.
Luckily István’s apartment faced the rear of the building. All the police showing up were at the front.
Sarah released her hair out of the bun and shook it back and forth to loosen it.
When she turned to start walking two guns came up to meet her. One was placed against her forehead and the other was leveled at her chest area. She stopped instantly and stared down at the one over her heart.
“We need to talk,” the gun holder said.
Chapter 10
She froze in the dark and tried to see the face of her would-be shooter. His voice was familiar but his face was hidden enough in the gloom that she couldn’t make it out.
“If I pull back my weapons can I trust that you won’t attack me?”
“That depends on who you are.”
“Imre Mátyás. I was the officer who met you in the Best Western and detained you regarding the incident with the stolen gun.”
Sarah nodded. “I won’t attack.”
Both guns retreated from her person.
“We need to move. We’re not safe here.”
They started walking away from the apartment building. Sirens could still be heard pulling up to the front.
“Sorry about the guns, but I thought if I just showed up you might shoot me or something.”
“What would make you say that?”
“I’ve read your file or at least what the Americans would release to me. And I heard what happened upstairs.”
Sarah slowed a little. “How did you hear that?”
Imre slowed too and looked back at her. “Come on. We can’t stop. We’re probably being watched right now.” He turned and kept up the pace. Sarah followed as he began speaking again. “István has been under investigation for some time. He knew it and we knew that he was aware of us. I’m one of the officers that work with him so I listen into the recordings. I was in a van across the street. I heard you when you first entered his apartment.”
“Why were you in the van listening in? That’s quite a coincidence. And since you were there and you’re a police officer, why did outside police come when called? Is there a reason you guys didn’t storm the apartment?”
Imre ran a hand through his hair. He kept looking left and right and a few times behind him.
“I was in the van because of an anonymous tip. We were told you’d be there with the evidence we needed to lock you up. The police were called by a tenant. We waited in case you actually got a confession out of István. That’s why we didn’t storm the apartment. Our instructions were to get both of you.”
“Then what are you doing now? Letting me go? If so, why?”
“Yes and no. Look, I know that the police want you but other than stealing the gun we have nothing on you. And from what I just heard you do in that apartment I’m happy you had the gun.”
“Did you listen to all of it?”
“We heard you enter his apartment. You told him no questions, hit him after he asked one and then you both got quiet. We waited. We couldn’t tell what you were doing. We still had nothing on you or István. Then, we heard movement again and now there’s some kind of recording playing back in István’s apartment. Once the confession part started all our officers were dispatched upstairs to apprehend all parties involved. We were also supposed to nab you so I went around to the back of the building to watch for you.”
This was getting confusing. “Okay. You got me. So what are we doing running away?”
“Because I need information. I thought we could talk. Do a little exchange.”
“What kind of exchange?”
They were at least a block away now. Imre turned right on a long street and headed for a small park coming up on the left. Sarah followed. He kept a watchful eye on their backsides.
“And why do you look so paranoid?”
“Because they’re everywhere.”
“Who’s everywhere?”
“The Ameri
can government guys.”
“You’re not making much sense,” Sarah said even though she suspected who he was talking about.
“Follow me,” Imre said as he crossed the empty street.
Sarah followed him as they entered the darkened park and found a bench to sit on. A small line of bushes covered their back and the front looked on toward the park. Unless someone saw them enter, there was no way anyone would know where they were.
“All I know,” Imre started in a whisper, “is that these American guys showed up about three weeks ago. They come with a lot of clout. I have a friend at the FBI. I asked him who they were and he didn’t know. Never heard of them. After he looked into it, he found out that they’re run inside the United States Department of Defense under the National Security Agency in an unknown branch that handles something of an interpretation of messages from the Other Side. After he had asked a few questions he was warned to watch himself. These weren’t people that you piss off, apparently.”
Sarah looked around now that her eyes had adjusted better. “Are you being serious with me? I mean, how powerful are they?”
“A dozen men came to Hungary in their group. They operate like a military unit. They come with full diplomatic immunity. Our government isn’t allowed to touch them and that comes from the higher ups. Actually, we’re supposed to cooperate fully in the event that they need our assistance. They have only one task and that is you.”
She felt as if she’d been punched in the gut. How could she be of interest to the NSA? What could she have done to spur their interest? She understood if they were a paranormal group, but not the NSA.
“I’m not following.”
In the dark she could tell he turned to face her.
“Come on, Sarah. I told you, I read the file they gave me. Even in that small file I know that you have some ESP thing going on. It tells you when people are in trouble or going to die and you save them. The government wants people like you. Are you even aware of your potential?”
“They’d get really tired of me quick,” Sarah said knowing that Vivian wouldn’t send her a message if someone was watching as evidenced from the day she got to Hungary until Parkman checked them into a new hotel where she wasn’t being monitored. “How do I know you’re not one of them?”
“You don’t. But if I was wouldn’t they just grab you right now?”
Sarah considered that and then asked another question. “Where’s Parkman? Do your people have him?”
She could tell that Imre had looked away again. His head was roving, watching the grounds for movement.
“We don’t have him. They do.”
“What do they want with Parkman?”
“I don’t know but it makes me think they want to sweat him for intimate details about you. It sounds like he would have a wealth of knowledge the way he talked about you when he sprang you from jail.”
“Are they human?”
His head shot around at her. “What kind of question is that? Of course they’re human.”
“Then they bleed and if they bleed then they die like anyone else. They only think they’re powerful because of the agency they’re assigned to.”
“Sure, you keep telling yourself that but I’ve heard these guys are the best of the best.”
“Are you trying to sell me on them?”
“No Sarah. They scare me. I haven’t seen men with this kind of power since the KGB and even those guys wear tutus and do pirouettes compared to these black operation men. I’m telling you this too so you’ll be careful. Maybe you should silently leave Hungary. Get out while you’re still a free person.”
“When you first started talking you said something about an information exchange. I’ve heard what you’ve had to say. What do you want from me?”
Her hand started going numb in that second. No, she screamed in her head. Not here, not now.
Her arm followed and a second later she slumped to the ground.
The blackout lasted all of one second. Another time Vivian had taken over her body and it had nothing to do with giving her a message. This was starting to get annoying.
She opened her eyes and looked straight ahead along the cement floor. Imre was also on the ground in front of her.
What the fuck?
She reached forward and touched his shoulder.
“Imre?” she whispered.
He didn’t respond. She moved her hand to slap his face but it brushed against something like a feather around his neck area. She reached back and felt the feather. It was attached to a steel pin that protruded from Imre’s neck.
A tranquilizer dart. Like the one I got in the hotel. Rod’s here.
Panic set in. She heard rustling, footsteps running. A light came on. Someone was coming toward her with a flashlight.
“I got both of them. They both went down, sir.”
Someone about twenty feet away was reporting in. Sarah looked up and saw another tranquilizer dart in the bush about where her head had been. Vivian had saved her by knocking her out for that brief second.
Thank you.
She leaned forward and reached inside Imre’s jacket. Feeling her way around as fast as she could Sarah grabbed both guns and yanked them out of their holsters.
With two new weapons, she rolled away and under the bench. As the shooter stepped closer he lowered his flashlight. Sarah had moved enough to avoid being caught in its beam. She was behind a small set of bushes. The shooter turned away and scanned the area while reaching for a radio clipped to his belt. While his back was to her, Sarah stood up quietly and tiptoed to stand behind a tree seven feet from the bench.
“Come in sir.”
She could hear the shooter talking. With the stealth of a predator she leaned around to get a glimpse of his face. He was hard to see in the dark as his flashlight cast him in silhouette. She assumed he was listening to another party through the use of an earpiece as he started talking again.
“Yes sir, I understand. I shot two darts. Both parties went down. The girl first. These darts would take down a horse. There’s no way she’s awake.”
There was a few second pause.
“Yes sir, copy that. But I saw what I saw. When the girl…wait, sir, I see the problem. There’s a dart in the bush behind where Sarah was sitting. She must’ve ducked down for some reason at the exact moment I fired. In the dark I must’ve missed her dropping and thought it was because of the dart.”
“Yes sir. Copy that. The girl’s the priorty. Yes sir. I’ll have my team scour the area. We’ll get her, sir. We’ll get her.”
Sarah placed both guns in her belt line and moved away from him as quietly as she could. She got twenty feet and then climbed a small fence to exit the park area.
After clearing a full city block, with no more concern for noise, she ran for her life.
Chapter 11
She made it to the block where her hotel was without being stopped. It had to be at least two in the morning. The neighborhood was quiet. She knew they would be watching the building by now. They had to have an operative staking out everywhere she went. Even if she was wrong, she had to assume the building was being watched.
Before getting any closer Sarah eased up and jumped into the darkness of an alley that cut between two buildings. She needed her passport from behind the fire extinguisher in the hall on her floor if she wanted to travel anywhere but she couldn’t just walk in and grab it. A tranquilizer dart may be waiting for her and then who knows what after that.
She would wait and watch. Eventually they would give themselves away. The building she leaned against was as old as the rest in the area but this one had cobwebs on it and garbage strewn about the alleyway.
Her hair had come loose with all the activity in the last couple hours. She tied it back into a bun again. It was a lot easier years before. She didn’t have as much hair and what she did have she used a red bandanna to cover it up and keep it out of the way. Come to think of it, everything was easier then. She didn’t hav
e an NSA organization trailing her while wearing fedoras and she wasn’t after an international human trafficker. In those days she would get a message and save a stranger from some accident or something less challenging. Mostly anonymous stuff.
But it wasn’t so anymore. She had risen in the ranks from an unknown to one sought after. The American government wanted her and she didn’t want them. Even if she stopped listening to the messages they wouldn’t stop coming after her. This was a new problem, one that didn’t seem to have an easy solution.