by L. T. Ryan
She looked away for a few moments. Glanced back at me. Turned back in her chair.
“Now may we count it?” Kostas said.
I motioned with my head for Alik to join Isadora. The floor reverberated slightly as he stepped behind me. I drew the bag back and let its weight carry it forward. It arced through the air and hit the ground with a thud about halfway between me and Kostas.
His face drew tight, but relaxed soon enough. Getting your hands on almost a hundred grand you figured was lost had a way of doing that to a man. He gestured toward Chris, who stepped forward and scooped up the bag. He brought it to the old guy’s desk, unzipped it, looked inside, shrugged, then dumped the contents out.
For ten minutes they sorted and piled and counted and recounted the money. Isadora sat still, facing the corner. Alik stood next to her, staring at the two men. I figured the bald guy was outside the door. Probably called a few more of Kostas’s men and told them to get back. Ten minutes in, they were probably halfway there.
“We good?” I said.
Kostas looked up at me, over at Isadora, up at Chris.
“It’s all here,” he said.
“So we’re done then,” I said.
“We’re done.”
Alik grabbed Isadora’s arm and pulled. She was dead weight. He leaned over and wrapped her arm around the back of his neck while threading his arm around her back. I stood by the door, waiting. He walked. Her feet dragged. What had they done to her? I thought I might have to return later to discuss it with Chris and Kostas.
I pulled the door open. The bald guy stood at the other end of the hall, looking at the ground. Alik pulled Isadora close and led her through the opening. I stepped out after them.
And then Kostas said, “One more thing.”
Chapter 33
IT FELT AS THOUGH MY internal temperature dropped fifteen degrees. My arms and legs went numb. My breath caught in my chest. The hallway tilted and spun. He wanted more. They always want more. I heard Chris rack his pistol’s slide. Didn’t have to look back to know he’d aimed it at my back.
“I have one more thing to ask you,” Kostas said.
“Wait here,” I said to Alik. “Anything happens, open fire and run.”
“We’re all real curious which one of you did it?”
I turned and stepped back into the room. Chris matched my pace, retreating backward. He did have his pistol out, but it wasn’t aimed in my direction. It pointed perilously at the floor.
“Did what?” I said.
“Who took out Esau?”
Isadora choked back a sob. Alik said something to try to comfort her. Used a tone I’d never heard from him.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.
“Lies, lies,” he said. “They only make me angry.”
“You think I care if you’re angry?”
“I think you should.”
I said nothing.
A smile played on his face. Curled up on one end and slid to the other like a wave. Then it crashed. His mouth parted. Exposed his yellow teeth.
“I had a guy posted outside the cafe. He went in after you two left this morning. Found old Esau dead on his desk. A bloody note trapped under his head. Only my guy figures someone else fired the fatal shot.”
“Why’s that?”
“That is just what he told me.”
“Your guy’s an idiot.”
“I could have told you that.”
“If we had done it, the blood splatter would have been all over the desk, chair, lower wall, and floor. Wasn’t like that. Bullet went in from down low, out the back of his head. Tore through the high back of his seat, and hit the wall four feet above his head. Blood hit mid-wall and traveled upward. Parts of his skull and brains were on the ceiling.”
“He killed himself.”
“Yeah, unless you had something to do with it.”
“I wished my old friend no ill will.”
I laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Well, so long as he delivered in time.” He picked up a couple stacks of money and balanced them one in each hand. “And it turns out he did. Which makes his suicide all that more intriguing. Wouldn’t you say?”
“I wouldn’t presume to know what’s going on in the mind of a depressed man. He lost his wife. Now he was going to lose his house, the cafe, possibly his niece. Too much to take, I guess.”
The old guy stared at the money in his hands. Nodded.
“We done now?” I said.
“One more piece of business.”
“Jesus Christ, what?”
“I ran your name.”
“So?”
“Some interesting hits came back.”
“And?”
“I think there might be some people interested in knowing your whereabouts.”
I took a step to his desk. Kostas looked up. Chris stepped back. His pistol rose.
“Lots of Jack Nobles in the world, old man.”
“True, but not many who match the description of the Jack Noble who died in prison in Russia last month. And at the same time, a Russian prison guard disappeared. Only it turns out they think the guard might have been an intelligence agent. A spy. And a double one, at that.”
“What’re you getting at?”
“I have friends around the globe, including some in Russia. People in the government who may or may not be on the right side of things. I think they might find it quite intriguing that a man sharing that same name and traveling with a Russian, who both show no fear in my presence, are here in Greece, hiding out in Crete.”
“So pick up the phone then.”
“Excuse me?”
“Quit fucking around with me. If you’re gonna turn me over, then pick up the damn phone and make that call.”
Laughing, Kostas stood, held out his arms. “Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. I’m not going to make a call. I just wanted you to know, in case I come calling or something, that you should think twice about rebuffing me. And also to let you know that if something were to happen to me, procedures have been put in place to make sure that those friends of mine receive this information.”
His face was like a stone wall with two dark eyes peering through. I held it for a few, and then looked down at the ground. Lifted my hands, clasped them around the back of my head.
“Be ready, Jack Noble,” he said.
I let my arms drop, swooping to the side, then grabbed my wrist behind my back.
“Because I see myself needing your services very soon,” he said.
The back of my hand rested against something cool and hard.
“And you better pick up and be ready to go when I ca—“
He didn’t finish the sentence. I’d pulled the backup piece I took off of the bald guy with the fat head and mustache and opened fire on Kostas. Three red blossoms formed on his chest, tightly grouped at dead center. He fell backward into the bookcase. Several volumes rocked on the shelf and spilled over, landing on top of him. His wide-eyed stare lost focus and dimmed.
Behind me there was shouting. A shot was fired. The bald guy grunted and moaned. Alik fired a second shot and the other man went silent.
Chris stood less than eight feet from me. His arm dangled at his side. The gun pointed at the ground. He stared at Kostas, shaking his head.
I drew the other pistol, aimed both at him. He looked over at me.
“Dammit, Noble.” The neutral accent was gone. I worked to place his voice. He threw his free hand in the air and held his thumb and index finger a fraction of an inch apart. “I was this fucking close. We almost had his entire support network, and you come along and fuck it up.”
“The hell you talking about?” I kept both pistols aimed at him, but my mind was already racing through our exit. What if the bald guy had called in others? Every second we wasted meant more chance of a shootout.
Perhaps thinking the same thing, Alik said, “Jack, we need to go.”
Chris h
olstered his pistol and walked over to Kostas. He leaned over. Grabbed a fistful of his own hair with each hand. He turned to me.
“Who are you?” I said.
“My name is Christopher Stoss and I’m a Mossad operative. I’ve been undercover here for three years, during which time I worked my way into Kostas’s organization, and practically became his right hand man. All for the sole purpose of taking down his network because, among other things, they fund terrorists who wish to bring harm to my country.”
I took a step back.
“Jack,” Alik said. “Let’s go.”
“I can still salvage this.” Chris stepped toward me. “Shoot me.”
“What?”
“You can hit me without doing damage, right? If you are who I think you are, then I know you can.” He turned his head away from his right shoulder. “Come on, Noble. You owe me this. If I’m not injured, they’ll wonder why you left me. I’ll have to abandon the op. Coming off under cover, you know what that means, don’t you?”
“You’ll be stuck in an office,” I said.
“I’m not ready for that,” he said.
“Jack!” Alik said. “We need to get out of here.”
I lifted the pistol Alik had secured from his pilot friend. Aimed it at Chris.
He held up a finger. “Just so you know, I ever run into you again, I’m going to kill you.”
I pulled the trigger. The bullet seared through the flesh of his shoulder. Through and through.
“Now get the hell out of here,” he shouted.
Chapter 34
WE HURRIED DOWN THE WALKWAY. Isadora had come to and needed little assistance. I led the way, both guns drawn, ready to fire. The back door of the front house opened. I waited until I had a clear view. Didn’t want to shoot one of the women.
Michael stepped out, holding a bottle in one hand and a sandwich in the other. He stopped. Looked confused. Dropped his food and reached to his side.
I fired twice. Hit him in the gut. He fell over and rolled on his back. I rushed forward. Shot him again, this time in the chest.
There were screams from inside the house. A woman poked her head out. She stared at the dying man on the ground. She tried to slam the door shut, but it bounced back open, hitting her in the face. Her feet tangled as she tried to turn and run.
“Don’t shoot me,” she said, one arm outstretched toward me.
I stepped past her, into the room, and cleared it. A few women remained, that was it. They pulled their knees to their breasts and covered their faces with their hands, leaving gaps between fingers to watch me. I crossed the room and stopped at the front door, waited for Alik.
“Wait back there, Isadora,” I said. “We both need to be ready, Alik.”
Isadora remained at the back of the room as Alik joined me. He pulled the door open. I checked outside first. It was clear from there to the driveway. He pulled it wider. The rental car still idled on the grass.
“Let’s go.”
I stepped out front, aware of the heavy gusts that whipped over the top of the house. The trees shook. Leaves blew up and down and to each side. My feet sunk an inch in the muddy ground.
“We good out there?” Alik said.
“Yeah, come on.”
We reached the rental and helped Isadora into the back seat. She folded her legs underneath her and crumbled to the side, resting her head on the sidewall. Alik and I got in. He backed into the driveway, the road, then shifted into first and peeled away. We didn’t pass another car for at least three miles.
A few miles after that he pulled over and made a call.
“He’ll be at the same air strip in two hours,” Alik said.
I looked up at the streaming grey clouds. Rain had started falling again. “Any other options?”
“Ferry will be rough. And it takes a long time. And we still might have to wait two hours.”
“All right, let’s get close and find someplace quiet to pull over and wait.”
Thirty minutes later we parked in a small clearing, shielded from the wind gusts. Raindrops hammered the roof.
“Your money,” Alik said.
“What about it?” I said.
“You left it behind.”
“Figured that might keep them out of our hair. Plus, the whole thing with Chris threw me off. The whole time, I thought there was something different about him. Figured him for a merc, you know. Guy like us. Goes into business doing security work.”
Alik nodded and said nothing.
“Turns out he was more. I mean, I see why he never let on. But, damn, what are the odds?”
Alik shrugged. “I guess we need to call Frank now.”
“Why?”
“Because of what Kostas said about notifying people if something happened to him. I still can’t believe you pulled the trigger after that.”
“As opposed to what? Being his bitch?”
“But now they might come after us.”
“No one’s coming after us.”
“How can you be certain?”
“Because Kostas was bluffing me.”
“You know this how? The way he smiled or blinked or held his hands?”
“Nothing that scientific,” I said. “Just a guess.”
“I’m calling Frank.”
“You can’t call him.”
“Yes, I can.”
“What are you gonna tell him? About all this?”
Shaking his head, Alik slammed his fist into the steering wheel. “Shit, I can’t tell him.”
“If they come, they come, Alik. We’ll deal with it then.”
A while later we received the call from Alik’s friend. We ditched the car at the gate and were airborne ten minutes later. The flight wasn’t smooth, but we made it back.
Isadora spoke for the first time when we were back in her uncle’s car. All she said was she wanted to go home. Esau’s house wasn’t safe, but she wouldn’t hear our argument. I offered her a pistol, but she refused. Feared that in her current mental state, she might do something stupid. I told her I’d come by in the morning to check on her.
The cafe was wrapped in police tape. They spotted us when we arrived, pulled us inside, asked us a bunch of questions. We stuck to a story of heading out for a fishing trip that was canceled due to the weather. Took some time to get back home. The local cops seemed to accept our story and let us go up to the apartment.
I staggered into my room and collapsed on the bed. Slept straight through to the next morning. After waking, I fixed a pot of coffee, drained a mug, then set off to see Isadora, like I promised. Found the front door unlocked and the house empty. She left a note saying she couldn’t stay around any longer and had gone home, wherever that was.
For three days, Alik and I were prisoners in the apartment. The police were in and out. Repairmen came along and replaced the front window. We grew so bored that we went down and cleaned the cafe up after Esau’s death was ruled a suicide and the cops were done with the place.
Almost a week later, we’d reopened the cafe and let the old guys in to hang out and play their game. I was sitting by the front door, drinking coffee and eating eggs and lamb when a familiar face showed up. Almost too familiar. Thought I was looking at Esau’s ghost.
The guy pulled the door open, stopped and looked at me. “You the guy that got the cafe up and running again?”
I nodded.
“Jack?”
I nodded again.
“Heard about you from Esau’s niece.”
“That’s great,” I said. “Who are you?”
“Nic,” he said. “Esau’s brother.”
“Twins?”
“Nah. Couple years apart. At this age, doesn’t matter much.”
“Thought his brother was dead.”
“That’s our older brother. He was a couple years older than me.”
“You here to collect his things?”
Nic shook his head. His gaze danced around the place. “Esau left this to me.”
<
br /> “What’s there to leave? The bank’ll probably take it soon.”
“Why? Did he have debt I don’t know about? Wouldn’t the lawyer have known?”
“Debt? This was his debt. This and the house. He had nothing.”
Nic laughed. “Son, he owned this place and the house free and clear.”
“Son of a bitch,” I muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing.” I stood. “Let me show you to the office.”
Later that day, after the old men had gone home, and Nic had a handle on things, I retreated to the terrace and caught the final rays of the sun before it dipped behind the buildings. I stared out at the water, watching the colors shift and soften to black.
The door opened behind me. Soft footsteps crossed the tiles toward me. They echoed off the walls. A hand touched my shoulder. Squeezed gently. I looked down at the long, slender fingers. Lavender enveloped me.
“I had to come say goodbye,” Isadora said, stepping around my side, dragging her nails across the back of my neck. She sat in the chair opposite me.
“I’m glad you did.” I held her gaze for a second. “Where’re you going?”
“Away, for a while. Then hopefully back to school.”
“I have something for you. Wait here.” I headed inside, up the stairs, into the apartment, then back again. She was sitting in the same spot and smiled when I stepped outside.
“What is it?” She pointed at the bag I held.
“Something for you. It’s what was left over from the money…” I didn’t finish the sentence.
Isadora did. “You got for Kostas.”
I nodded. “How are you doing with that?”
“It’s not easy. Bad dreams every night. But, it is what it is. Right?”
“Suppose so.” I handed her the bag.
“How much is it?”
“Enough to get you started at school.”
She set it on the table and stood and fell into me. Her arms wrapped around my neck. Her fingers ran through my hair. Her lips met mine. I held her there for a long minute. Neither of us wanted to let go. I wasn’t sure what we represented to one another, but it felt good. She released me. I collapsed in my chair. She backed away, smiling.
“Now your turn to wait,” she said.