Silent Thunder

by Iris Johansen

"Of course, he does. It was bound to be noised about when I started approaching people."

  "He knows, and you're a target. I don't want you taking chances."

  "That's the name of the game. You don't get anywhere if you-" She suddenly realized that Kirov's tone was oddly tense. "What's wrong? Problems?"

  "I don't know. Maybe. But I'll take care of it."

  And he wasn't going to confide in her, she realized. "I'm sure you will." She went back to the business at hand. "I decided right away it was going to take too long to get the same information as Danzyl. I'm taking a shortcut."

  "What kind of shortcut?"

  "I tapped both Danzyl's cell phone and his computer. That way anything he finds out and tells Pavski, I'll find out. So hang up. I may be missing something. I think he's on a trail."

  "Where are you?"

  "Outside the university where Heiser taught. He took a path around the Lit building toward the rear campus. I'm going to follow him." She hung up.

  Move carefully, casually, and hope that Danzyl was so involved that he wouldn't spot her on his heels.

  She shouldn't have worried. Danzyl was standing before a statue of an old bearded man draped in a toga that dominated the garden. He was squatting and taking a picture of the inscription on the base.

  She faded behind a tree and waited.

  Danzyl was pulling out his phone and dialing. "I have it. I'm sending you the picture. Yes, it has the symbol but I can't-Judge for yourself. I think there may be another one." He flinched as he listened to the reply. "Of course, I'll check it out." He muttered a curse as he hung up. He took one more picture and turned away from the statue. A moment later he was striding away.

  She waited until he was around the side of the building before she moved toward the statue.

  The statue was old, mortar crumbling, and the execution of the old man was only mediocre. The figure had his arm raised and he seemed to be fighting off two small, female, birdlike-creatures.

  She looked at the inscription.

  Look not for riches on the surface of life.

  Below it was the numeral letter one.

  And below that was the symbol Kirov had faxed her.

  Yes.

  She took a photo on her phone and sent it to Kirov. A minute later, when she was hurrying after Danzyl, she phoned Kirov back. "Who's the old man in the statue?"

  "Probably someone in Greek mythology. I'll look it up."

  "I'll do that myself. I thought you might know. That numeral one might mean this statue is one of two or three or whatever." She frowned. "Danzyl thought so too. I might have to move very fast from now on. Does the inscription mean anything to you?"

  "No."

  "I'll hit the computer and see if I can bring up anything. I'll be in touch." She hung up. She could either tag along with Danzyl or spend the time researching. She would bet Danzyl was going back to the GRU office and doing the same thing. She'd rather rely on herself than bugging antiquated GRU computer files and Internet connections. She sat down on a bench and reached for her computer. "Okay," she murmured. "What do we know? That symbol-a cross within a circle. Heiser tells his father he wants to go back to the Rioni River, where he visited as a child. A statue set down in the middle of a garden at a university in Moscow. Old. Greek mythology. Let's see what we can do with it…"

  BOSTON

  COPLEY PLACE MALL

  What the devil is happening, Cathy?" Hannah asked as she sat down beside her on the bench outside the Gap. "That telephone call scared the life out of me."

  "I couldn't talk long. I tried to be careful, but I don't know how many bugs they have on me." Cathy grimaced. "Isn't it crazy? I sound completely paranoid, don't I?" She added soberly, "I wish I was paranoid. The alternative sucks."

  "Why are we meeting in a mall? Why couldn't I come to your house?"

  "Because that's what they want. Where's Kirov?"

  "You told me not to bring him. I took a cab to the airport the minute I hung up."

  "Good." She stood up. "Come on, let's walk. I don't have much time."

  "Why not?" She fell into step with her. "For God's sake, what's happening?"

  "That slimeball, Pavski, wants you very badly. He wants Kirov's head, and he thinks he can manipulate you to get it for him. He planted a bug in my living room to see if he could trace you. It's a good thing you haven't been in touch lately." She shot her a glance. "Though I was ready to murder you myself when I thought you were leaving me out of the loop."

  "Things were… difficult."

  "Tell me about it. They haven't been too good here either."

  "How do you know he planted a bug?"

  "George Preston told me he did it." Her lips twisted. "It was George who did the dirty work."

  Hannah stared at her in shock. "What? Why?"

  "Pavski had a hold over George. The NSA created a go-to list several years ago, and George's name was on it."

  "Go-to list?"

  "A blackmail list. When a prominent figure got into trouble that might mean damage to his image, the NSA stepped in and did a cover-up. But that also meant they could go to that person when they needed help in any area. When he first came to Washington, George was drinking and in a car accident that seriously injured a bystander. It could have ruined his career. The NSA stepped in and took care of everything and sent George on his way."

  "And the NSA gave this info to Pavski?"

  "No, four years ago the computer go-to list was stolen from the NSA data banks by a geek named Thomas Carwell. He now lives in a palace in Iran and sells information to the highest bidder. Anyone with the money can get whatever information they need."

  "And Pavski wanted to get a hold over us and found George Preston on the list."

  "That's what George told me."

  "Christ."

  "But Pavski read George wrong. George went along with him until he could figure out what to do, but when the chips were down, he told me what was happening." Her voice was uneven. "Pavski was talking about taking my kids. George couldn't stand the thought of anything happening to them."

  "The kids?" she whispered.

  "Pavski told George that he'd be doing me a favor by persuading me to get you to come out of hiding. He said that he wouldn't have to move on the kids if he got his hands on you."

  Hannah felt sick. "Ronnie and Donna? Jesus, no wonder you're scared."

  "And mad as hell." Cathy's lips set. "How dare that mad dog threaten my kids?"

  "You were right to call me back. I'll deal with it."

  "I've already dealt with it. Did you think I'd draw you back here to offer him a trade? I may be as ferocious as a mother bear with her cubs, but I wouldn't do that to you." Her lips tightened. "He killed my Conner. He wants to hurt my kids. We have to take him down."

  "The kids come first. How have you dealt with it?"

  "I packed them up and sent them to stay with a good friend of mine, Miriam Frey. I told her what was happening, and she agreed to help. God, do I owe her." She added bitterly, "Sweet Jesus, if you could have seen me smuggling the kids out of the house the night George told me about this mess. I was jumping at every shadow. He was sure the house was watched, and he didn't know how long I had before Pavski would act. I had to get them away from me somewhere they'd be safe. But I don't think anyone saw me take the kids out of the house to Miriam's place."

  "Pavski will find them, Cathy."

  "Do you think I'm stupid? I know that. George has hired bodyguards to set up security around the house. But we have to stop Pavski before it gets that far."

  Hannah was silent a moment. "You're trusting George Preston a good deal."

  "And you're afraid he's still playing ball with Pavski?" She shook her head. "He's not trying to trick me. I believe him, Hannah. He didn't have to tell me anything. He could have just stepped back and let it happen."

  Hannah nodded. "My suspicious nature. Nothing seems to be what it seems now."

  "That's why I called you on Conner's cell ph
one. The authorities gave it to me with his personal effects. I wasn't sure I wasn't being monitored by Pavski or Bradworth or whoever. No one would monitor a dead man's phone."

  "Very smart. But you almost gave me a heart attack."

  "I had to let you know what was happening. We don't have much time to get Pavski. I want my kids home and safe."

  "They will be." She reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "Nothing will happen to them."

  "You're damn right it won't." Her hands clenched into fists. "I hate not being able to be with them. It's driving me crazy." She drew a deep breath. "I have to get going. I made sure I wasn't being followed, but I'm not taking any chances. If you want to get in touch, call me on Conner's phone." She turned away. "And you'd better get in touch with me. We have to do something to put an end to this." She glanced back over her shoulder. "Be careful, Hannah. Keep safe."

  "I will. Take care of yourself." She watched Cathy move swiftly toward the escalator. Cathy's shoulders were square but rigid with tension, and she was clearly having to use all her strength to hold herself together. And why not? she thought in frustration. A man who would threaten children was outside both Cathy's and her experience.

  But not out of Kirov's. Kirov knew the nature of the beast.

  He would come if she called him.

  And if she called him, she would be doing exactly what Pavski wanted her to do. He wanted Kirov dead, and she would be bringing him out into the open and setting him up. She couldn't do it.

  The children. Innocent. Helpless. Prey.

  Jesus.

  She reached for her telephone.

  Kirov picked up on the second ring.

  "Goddamn you."

  "Hello to you, too."

  "Where are you?"

  "I'm in Boston." She steadied her voice. "Pavski is setting up a trap for you. Well, you and me. But I seem to be of minor importance at the moment."

  "Not to me. Why the hell didn't you wait and talk to me instead of bolting?"

  "Cathy asked me not to-I'll tell you later." She paused. "If you choose to come."

  "I'm on my way. When I tracked your cab to the airport, I figured you'd be on your way to your sister-in-law. She was the only one who could make you jump and run. And you wouldn't answer your cell phone, dammit. Where can I reach you once I land in Boston? You're staying away from your condo, right?"

  "Right. I'm at Copley Place Mall. I'll meet you at the Chili's Restaurant. Call me when you get in."

  "If you'll answer your phone," he growled.

  "I'll answer my phone." She hung up.

  Kirov was blazing angry.

  Hannah instinctively tensed, readying for battle, as she watched him walk in the restaurant door. She'd been prepared for irritation, not thunderclouds and lightning. She'd never seen Kirov angry before.

  "Talk to me." He sat down across from her. "Tell me why you walked out of that hotel without a word to me. Didn't it occur to you that I might think something was just a little amiss?"

  "I promised Cathy I wouldn't tell you or anyone else that I was coming here."

  "I would have thought you'd be able to trust me by now."

  "Don't be an ass. She was scared, and she wouldn't have asked it if it hadn't been important to her." She met his gaze. "And she has a right to be scared. If she didn't, I wouldn't have called you. I don't like the idea of asking you to come and risk Pavski-" She drew a deep breath. "But I did ask you, and now I have to deal with it. So just shut up and let me-" Her hand clenched on her coffee cup. "It's the kids, Kirov."

  He went still. "Cathy's children?"

  She nodded jerkily. "And Cathy is trying to work through it but she's scared. I'm scared."

  "Does Pavski have them?"

  "No, Cathy says they're safe for the time being. I don't know if she's right. It sounds to me as if-"

  "Start at the beginning. How do you expect me to sift through all that guilt and nail biting you're throwing at me?" Kirov interrupted as he motioned for the waitress to fill her cup. "And stop worrying until there's something to worry about. We'll work it out."

  His bluntness was oddly more comforting than gentleness would have been. He was working, thinking, cutting through all the chaff.

  She lifted the cup to her lips. "I don't bite my nails." She smiled slightly. "And I won't feel any guilt at all if you keep on barking at me." She quickly filled him in on what Cathy had told her and ended with her primary concern, "How far do you think we can trust George Preston?"

  "I have no idea." He grimaced. "That's not the answer you wanted to hear. It's the best I can do. On the surface it seems as if he's now playing it straight. On the other hand, it could be some elaborate double dealing."

  "He has control of the kids. He arranged for bodyguards for them. Which means he could call them off if he's the one paying their salary."

  "Then it behooves us to make sure that there's other protection."

  "You can't go near them. That's what Pavski wants."

  "Then I'll make sure not to give it to him." He stared her in the eye. "Trust me. I won't let anything happen to those children, Hannah."

  Warmth moved through her, and for the first time since she'd met Cathy today, the panic subsided. "I do trust you. That's why I called you." Her lips twisted. "Even though I knew it was going to put you at risk."

  "Guilt?" He smiled. "Now, let me think how I can use that."

  "I'm the one who is using you. Now, how can we safeguard the kids?"

  "I'm working on it." He looked down into his coffee. "Except for the children, this may not be an entirely bad thing."

  "I can't see how it could get much worse."

  "Pavski's getting ready to set a trap. When you're concentrating on capturing the enemy, it takes the focus away from a possible trap laid for you."

  "And how are we going to trap Pavski?"

  "By using his trap against him." He was frowning. "But the bait has to be too tasty to resist. He has a possibility of getting the information about how to find the cradle from Danzyl in Moscow. He may want me dead, but he wants the cradle more." He thought about it. "We'll have to use the Silent Thunder. If we can lure him to the sub, he'll be out in the open, and we can get him."

  "He'd never risk going down that hatch."

  "We may get to him before he leaves the dock. All we need is to bring him out in the open. Even if he's on the pier, I have a chance at him. Guns aren't my weapons of choice but I'm a very good shot."

  "I imagine you are," she said absently as she thought about it. "It would be risky." But hope was beginning to stir within her. "We can turn this mess around?"

  He smiled. "And upside down. If we work it right."

  "How do we do it?"

  "We pull in all the help we can get from both solid and questionable sources." He reached for his phone. "And we start with a few telephone calls…"

  She shook her head. "What would you do without that cell phone?"

  "Perish the thought." He made a face. "I don't even like to think about it."

  Kirov received a call from Eugenia four hours later. "I've got it, Kirov. It's all coming together."

  "What have you got?" He put the phone on speaker for Hannah.

  "There were two statues given to Russia by the Greek government in 1937," she said. "It was supposed to be a gesture of enduring friendship."

  "What does the other statue look like?"

  "No photos. It's not here in Moscow. Evidently we're lucky it was even entered into the historical art archives. It wasn't an important art object. But since it was Greek, I searched the Greek art Web sites. I went after the symbol first and hit a bonanza. It's the identifying mark used by sculptors in an artist colony near Athens. They've been signing their work with it since 1924." She paused. "And the figure is supposed to be Phineas and the Harpies. According to mythology, Phineas was saved from the harpies by Jason and the Argonauts. He was grateful and told Jason where to find the Golden Fleece. But Jason had to travel to Midia in Thrac
e to ask Phineas."

  "So?"

  "According to the transcript of Heiser's last conversation with his father, he mentions taking his father to the Rioni River when he came back."

  "Eugenia, a hell of a lot of intelligence manpower was spent in that area because of that one casual reference. Including mine. It was wasted effort."

  "Because you weren't looking at it the right way. You weren't tracing a link with mythology. The people in that area claim that the Golden Fleece was based on fact."

  "Fact?"

  "For centuries the farmers in that area would wash their sheep fleeces in that river and others to catch the gold washed down from upstream deposits. That's where Jason supposedly found his Golden Fleece."

  "And you think the second statue is there?"

  "Maybe. There's a chance. But I'm betting on Midia. I think Heiser was mentioning the Rioni River to give his father a frame of reference to think Golden Fleece. Midia was once the city of Salmydessus in ancient Thrace. Jason had to go there to get the answer to his quest. Everything centers around Phineas and the place he lived." Eugenia was speaking quickly, her voice vibrating with excitement. "Don't you see? What other city would be such a likely candidate to get that second statue? I can't find any reference to Midia's receiving it, but I'd bet I'll find it there." She added, "I'm on my way now. I'll call the artist colony in Athens and see if they have a record of where the second statue went, but I'm not waiting for an answer. Danzyl is sharp. He'll figure all this out too. I have to get there before he does. I'll call you when I find it." She hung up.

  Hannah shook her head. "Damn, she's good. But it's still a long shot."

  "Eugenia doesn't think so." Kirov smiled. "And she has excellent instincts."

  "Well, her instincts are telling her that Danzyl could beat her to the punch." She shivered. "And you said Pavski has already told him to remove her as an obstacle."

  "That won't be easy to do. And I couldn't stop her now if I tried. Didn't you hear her voice? She's alert, excited, on the hunt."

  Yes, Hannah had detected all of those emotions in Eugenia's tone. She had never heard her sound more vibrantly alive.

  She just hoped she'd stay alive.

  God, he was bored.