The Uccello Connection (Genevieve Lenard, #10)

by Estelle Ryan

  Again I remained quiet. Not because I didn’t have anything to say. My throat was too tight with concern over Pink to push any words out.

  “And in case you wonder, I haven’t seen Fradkov in three days. The last time I saw him, he was excited about his plan at last coming together. That’s when I realised I had to act.”

  “But why now?” I didn’t understand. “We captured you yesterday. Why only give us this information now?”

  He pressed his lips tightly together and took a few deep breaths. “I only decided two hours ago to trust you.” He glanced at the clock again. “Time is running out fast and I didn’t know if you were actually going to stop Fradkov.” He huffed a humourless laugh. “I still don’t know if you’ll stop him.”

  “Then give me something I don’t already know. Give me something I can use.”

  Emad thought about this for a few seconds. “Fradkov planned for Doctor Didden to make the polonium-210 airborne, so that it can travel long distances. He wanted to get to each of the cities, but was realistic enough to assume that there will only be enough polonium-210 for five cities. So he chose the cities.”

  “The three countries you mentioned?”

  “Yes. It will be New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Warsaw and Kiev.”

  “I understand the significance of all the cities, except Los Angeles. It doesn’t have the same political power as the other cities.”

  “Fradkov hates Hollywood and everything it represents.” He closed his eyes for a second. I wondered if he’d slept at all in the last thirty-six hours. He sighed and looked at me. “I can’t remember how many times he ranted and raved against neurotypicals. According to him, me and the rest of the world are stupid idiots. Only a select few non-neurotypicals would ever understand his work and appreciate it. He especially loathes how Hollywood is run by and catered for the lowest levels of neurotypicals.”

  He leaned towards me, his expression conveying his alarm. “If you know everything I’ve told you and you managed to stop him, he’ll be coming for you. For you, your team, your family, anyone and everyone who stands in his way.”

  My heartrate increased when I recognised the truth in his expression. I didn’t know what to say to that and looked at Isabelle. She looked as concerned as I felt.

  The door flew open and Manny stepped in. The deep scowl pulling his eyebrows together and the tension around his mouth increased my muscle tension until it felt like my whole body was being strangled. Manny pointed to the hallway. “Doc, we have a situation.”

  Chapter TWENTY-THREE

  “If I get my hands on that motherfucker, he’s dead.” Justine’s angry voice greeted us when Colin, Manny and I stepped from the elevator into the team room. Vinnie was standing by Francine’s desk, nodding at the smartphone in his hand. It was obvious that Justine was on speakerphone. “I swear, Vin. He’s not taking anyone else from me.”

  “We’ll get Alexis back.” Vinnie put the phone closer to his mouth. “And Fradkov will never see the light of day again.”

  Manny stopped next to Vinnie, then looked at the phone. “Stay on the line, Justine.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.” Justine’s tone was hard to analyse. There was so much emotion in those words, it was difficult to identify how much of it was fury, how much fear and how much sadness.

  “Tell us everything.”

  Manny had only told us that Justine had information that we would want to hear. Dread outweighed the curiosity I experienced.

  “That motherfucker Fradkov kidnapped my Alexis. He took her while we were shopping. She was waiting for me outside the fitting rooms in Galeries Lafayette. When I came out to show her the pants I was thinking of buying, she was nowhere to be seen. She does that sometimes, but never when she could have a say over my choice of clothes.” She took a shaky breath. “When I phoned her, Fradkov answered. That evil son of a bitch answered my baby girl’s phone. He told me that he had her and that he would tell me later what he wanted.”

  “When did this happen?” I asked.

  There was a moment of silence. “Twenty minutes ago.”

  “What else did he say?”

  “Nothing. I shouted that I wanted to speak to Alexis, but he laughed and ended the call.” Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat. “I phoned back a million times, but he’s not answering. I don’t know if Alexis is okay, if she’s injured or... if she’s still alive. All I know is that Ivan Fradkov is a dead man.”

  “Where are you now?” Vinnie asked.

  “In my fucking car.” It sounded like she hit the steering wheel. “I don’t know where to go. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Give me Alexis’ phone number and I’ll track her phone.” Francine leaned closer to Vinnie’s phone. “My name is Francine and I’ll be right behind you to end Fradkov.”

  “Thank you, Francine.” Justine recited Alexis’ number. “You won’t be able to track it. Alexis turned off the GPS and any other location indicators on her phone.”

  Francine snorted. “Oh, I’ll find that phone. Just give me a... hold on... I got it!”

  “Where is she?” Justine’s desperation was evident in the volume and pitch of her voice. “Where’s my baby girl?”

  “Don’t.” Manny grabbed the phone from Vinnie’s hand and held it close to his mouth. “We’ll handle this. I’m not having senseless citizens running around on vigilante missions.”

  “Fuck you and everyone in your street.” Justine exhaled loudly. “Vinnie?”

  Vinnie lifted his middle finger when Manny held the phone out of his reach. Vinnie grabbed Manny’s wrist and spoke into the phone. “Come to us, Justine. We’ll bring Alexis back and you can join us when we bring Fradkov down.”

  “Where are you?”

  Vinnie gave her Rousseau & Rousseau’s address. He released Manny’s wrist when Justine ended the call and shrugged. “I suppose she’s on her way.”

  “What is the location of that phone?” Daniel walked to Francine’s desk.

  “I think Fradkov might have dropped it in a rubbish bin.” She pointed at the map on her computer monitor. “It’s in the middle of Parc de L’Orangerie and it’s not moving.”

  “That park is huge.” Daniel turned to Claudette. “You, Bonnard, Meslot and Gautier go and look for that phone. I want it back here in twenty minutes or less.”

  “It will take ten minutes just driving there.” I knew this from experience. The traffic in the city centre during the day was bad enough, but on a Friday afternoon it would most likely take them longer.

  “It will take us less than that.” Claudette nodded at the men. “Let’s go.”

  “What can I do?” Isabelle was standing next to Roxy. “Do you need more personnel? Luc?”

  “I’m not going anywhere.” Luc sat down at the round table and glared at Isabelle. “I suggest you sit down as well.”

  She ignored him and looked at me. “Can I help?”

  “No.”

  “What Genevieve means is that she doesn’t want you to put your life in danger.” Roxy gestured at the table. “It might be best if we get out of their way. I wouldn’t mind catching up with you.”

  It wasn’t what I had meant, but I didn’t want to waste time pontificating, not when Isabelle appeared pleased to sit with Roxy, Amélie and Nikki at the table. I walked to my viewing room. I needed to process everything that was happening. Alone.

  “They’ve cleared New York, Warsaw, Kiev and Los Angeles.” Manny walked into my viewing room and sat down on the chair next to me. “Just spoke to the secretary general. They’ve locked down most of the public transport in those cities.”

  “That must be causing a terrible disruption.” Colin sat down on my other side and put a mug of coffee on the coaster next to my keyboard.

  “But it’s better than thousands dying.” Manny slumped deeper into his chair. “Only five of the thirty-eight people from those IP addresses have not been arrested or taken into custody yet. Everyone is being interrogated as we
speak.”

  “This seems too easy,” Vinnie said from the door.

  “It’s not been that easy, big guy.” Manny turned to look at him. “There were scuffles in Birmingham, Marseille and Munich. Four officers and agents have been injured.”

  “What about—” I pressed my lips together in irritation when Manny held up his hand to prevent me from speaking.

  He took his ringing smartphone from his trouser pocket and answered it. He didn’t say much, just listened for almost three minutes. The tension in his body and the concern on his face gained intensity. “There was an incident in Washington.”

  “The bomb went off.” I had surmised it from his side of the conversation.

  “Anyone hurt?” Daniel was standing next to Vinnie.

  “No.” Manny closed his eyes for a second. “They found the dirty bomb, evacuated the station as well as a six-block radius. I doubt they got everyone out, but there was no one in the station when the bomb squad guys started working on it. The idiot working for Fradkov in Washington turned out to not be such an idiot after all.”

  “Roy Young.” I had memorised all their names.

  “Yes, him. Like we found out, he was in the army and from his social media it’s easy to see how pissed off he is with the government. What we didn’t find out is that he had training and quite a bit of experience in explosives when he was in Afghanistan.”

  “His bomb had a trip switch.” Daniel winced.

  Manny nodded. “The bomb squad guys saw it, but it was too late. It detonated.”

  “Did it disperse the polonium-210?” Amélie asked from the team room. She was standing behind Vinnie and Daniel, but didn’t look worried at all.

  “Yes, but they were prepared for it.” Manny got up and looked past Vinnie and Daniel. “They had some kind of suction system going to act like a huge vacuum cleaner in case the thing went off. It was running when the polonium-210 was airborne. The bomb squad people were all wearing masks. They reckon that most of the polonium crap was sucked up and they’ll spend the rest of the day making sure the area is completely clean before they allow anyone close.”

  Amélie folded her arms. “It wasn’t a good plan.”

  “What do you mean?” Manny scowled at her.

  “It would’ve been more effective had it been put into the water supply.”

  “That was Fradkov’s previous attempt.” Roxy narrowed her eyes. “They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing hoping for different results. I suppose this is more confirmation that Fradkov is insane.”

  I shook my head in annoyance. “That is not the definition of insanity or any way to diagnose Fradkov.”

  “Well, I think we all agree he’s completely bonkers, Doc.” Manny frowned when Tim’s voice sounded from the team room. Vinnie and Daniel walked back into the room and I saw Tim’s face on Francine’s computer monitor.

  “Hi, everyone. I have a Madame Justine with me.” He glanced away from the camera. “She...er... doesn’t have a surname.”

  “I choose not to give you my surname.” Justine’s face appeared in the corner of the screen at the same time as Tim leaned away and glared at her. “Am I coming to you or are you coming to me?”

  “I’ll come for you.” Vinnie didn’t even bother to move closer to Francine’s computer. He looked at me. “You can convince the old man that Justine is trustworthy.”

  I walked to the team room just as the elevator doors closed behind Vinnie. Everyone turned to me. I pointed at Luc’s face, then at Manny’s. “Your anger at me is misplaced. Your energy would be best spent on finding a strategy to deal with Fradkov when he makes contact. Justine can be trusted. Her need to avenge the deaths of her sons and their wives won’t allow her to betray the trust of people helping her. She won’t reveal anything she learns here today.”

  “You sound very sure, Doc.”

  I thought about it carefully. “I am.”

  We stood in silence for a few seconds. Then Isabelle shrugged. “Does it really matter who joins in? We need to stop Fradkov’s plan. The treaty is going to be signed tomorrow. It has taken us months of intense negotiations to get to this point.”

  The elevator doors opened and Justine walked in, followed by Vinnie. She was wearing jeans and a maroon knitted sweater, a thick blue winter coat draped over her arm. Her steps slowed down when she noticed Isabelle. “Isabelle Godard?”

  “In the flesh.” Isabelle got up and shook Justine’s hand. “I’m so sorry about your granddaughter. You need to know that the people in this room are the absolute best at what they do. If anyone will get Alexis back, it will be them.”

  “Thank you.” Justine turned to Manny. “You’re the big boss around here? Tell me where that phone is. Where my granddaughter is.”

  “I tracked the phone to Parc de L’Orangerie,” Francine said before Manny could answer. “We have people there now to retrieve it.”

  “What about my granddaughter?” The tension around Justine’s eyes and mouth increased.

  “I searched all the cameras in the area, but couldn’t find anyone fitting Fradkov’s or Alexis’ descriptions.” The regret on Francine’s face was genuine. “There isn’t a camera aimed at the location of the phone, but I checked all the cameras in the immediate area. There were too many people walking along those paths between the time Fradkov took Alexis and the time I located the phone. I think Fradkov paid someone to dispose of the phone. I doubt he or Alexis were anywhere near the park.”

  “Fuck!” Justine walked to the table, sat down, but got up immediately when the elevator doors opened.

  Claudette rushed into the team room, followed by Bonnard and Meslot. The elevator was too small to hold more than three people. Claudette walked straight to Francine, holding a phone in her hand. She handed it to Francine. “It was in the rubbish bin, just like you said.”

  Francine took the phone and activated the screen. “Oh, goodie. Not password-protected. Hmm. Interesting.”

  I stepped closer when Francine held the phone out to me. There was only one icon on the home screen—the message icon. A little red number one on it indicated a new message. I took the phone from Francine and tapped the icon. The message opened and I inhaled sharply.

  “What is it?” Justine rushed towards me, but Vinnie caught her arm and held her back. She put her hands on her hips, her thumbs pointing to the back. She was ready for combat. “What’s on that fucking phone?”

  “Only a text message. No photo. It only says, ‘Genevieve, phone me.’” I swallowed. Fradkov had known I would have access to this phone.

  “Are you going to phone him?” Amélie asked.

  I nodded my head without looking up from the phone. My finger hovered over the number while I forced Mozart’s Symphony in D major into my mind. Months of dealing with the fallout from Fradkov’s last plan as well as looking for him had led us here. I was a tap on a screen away from speaking to the man who had unnerved me with the surprise phone call and before that had taken up most of my mental energy for far too many months.

  “Give me a sec, girlfriend.” Francine took the phone from me and tapped the back of hers against it. “I’ll track the call and hopefully get a location on him.”

  I took the phone back and took three deep breaths. No one was speaking. For that I was grateful. Another deep breath and I called the number that had sent the SMS. I immediately turned on the speakerphone. It rang only twice.

  “Doctor Genevieve Lenard.” Fradkov’s quiet voice triggered an immediate response. I forced the fear to the back of my mind and stared at the phone. “It gives me such joy to speak to you again.”

  “Why?”

  “Why is it a pleasure?” He laughed. “Oh, because I’m like a cat. I like to play with my prey before I destroy them. And you’ve proven to be a lot more fun to play with than my usual prey.”

  Daniel held up a piece of paper with Alexis’ name written across it. I nodded. “Is Alexis with you?”

  “She is.” He paused. “
Say hello to the nice lady.”

  “Fuck you, you motherfucking fucker!” A pained scream followed Alexis’ outburst. Something that sounded like a scuffle came over the speaker. My heartrate increased and I had to concentrate to even out my breathing.

  “Well, there you have it.” Fradkov cleared his throat. “She is quite a feisty little kitten.”

  “What do you want?” I had to determine his end goal.

  “You.”

  “You can’t have me.”

  “Then I’ll just kill the kitten after I’ve blown up the world.”

  “We’ve located your polonium-210 bombs. Your plan will no longer work.”

  Silence followed my statement. Going on Amélie’s and Emad’s accounts of conversations with Fradkov, I wondered if I’d succeeded in angering him. Were the lengthy silence an indication of the level of his fury?

  “All of them?” His question was almost a whisper. Yet he sounded relaxed.

  “Yes.”

  “Hmm. That’s not good.” It was there. Barely audible, but the tension that tightened his vocal cords was there. I closed my eyes to listen even more carefully to his next words. “You’ve destroyed my plans twice now. Twice. How dare you of all people do this to me? I wasn’t surprised when Doctor Didden and the Mister Cassel escaped. What else can you expect from these neurotypicals? They can’t see the bigger plan. But you? You?” Not once did he raise his voice. If anything, he sounded more unperturbed. More dangerous. I had just taken away his hope to gain the territory in Siberia. That would enrage him. He sighed as if bored. “If you ever want to see this beautiful young girl again, you will come to me. I want you, Doctor Genevieve Lenard. And I want you alive. I will phone you with instructions.”

  I inhaled to very clearly tell him that I would never work for him, but he’d already disconnected the call. Sounds erupted around me. Justine was arguing with Manny and Vinnie, Roxy and Amélie were talking to Daniel. I didn’t move.

  I thought about everything I’d heard and ignored the feelings of frustration and helplessness threatening to overwhelm me. I would’ve been able to learn so much more if only I’d seen Fradkov’s face during our conversation.