by Kim Baldwin
“The keys to the shed and trapdoor are in the desk drawer,” Domino interrupted. “It’s best that you get them.”
Allegro opened the top drawers and quickly scanned for the keys without luck. She had to move the body slightly to get access to the bottom drawer. The keys were hanging on a hook. She passed by Domino on the way out. “Stay with her. I’ll be right back.”
“Of course.”
She went out through the kitchen door, her boots crunching over the broken glass where the window had been shattered. Fumbling for the penlight in the pocket of her coat, she ran to the shed with her gun in her hand. It took only a minute to unlock the door, throw aside the mat, and get through the trapdoor and into the tunnel. She raced the length of it, blocking out the pain in her thigh, and scrambled up the ladder to the vault.
In her line of work, success was all in the details. She remembered the combination; it was one of those things operatives memorized automatically. She spun the dial with the penlight in her mouth, and reached for the lever.
“What the hell?” she said, staring at the empty safe in disbelief.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“He must have changed his mind about driving out here,” Kris said. There was only one place her uncle would keep the Blue Star, she was certain. In his safe. And she knew how to get into it. When he’d told her where the key was, he said it was because he was getting on in years and she was his only family left. Using that information now felt like such a betrayal of his trust. A violation of his privacy. “It’s only a matter of time before he realizes it’s missing.”
“He’ll call the police and they’ll eventually come to the conclusion that someone stole it. Remember when I told you to go to the press? You don’t have to, now. The German will find out you don’t have the diamond this way.”
Kris ran her hand through her hair. “All these lies.”
“I don’t like lying any better than you do,” Mishael said. “Not to people I love. Lying to you is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. But you don’t have a choice. Try to take comfort in the fact that thousands, maybe millions of lives will be saved because of these lies.”
Kris sighed. “I’ll try.”
There was little traffic and they reached her uncle’s quickly and found a parking spot halfway down the block.
“We’ll wait here,” Mishael said. “Please be fast.”
Kris hurried to the door and let herself in with the spare key he’d given her. Using it now felt like another betrayal. “Uncle?” she called out. “It’s me. I thought I’d drop by since I was in the area.”
There was no answer.
“Uncle?” she repeated, louder.
Still no answer. But she could make out the faint sound of the television in his apartment upstairs. He hadn’t heard her and perhaps that was for the best. She could do what she needed to do and be out again without him ever knowing she was here. She went through the reception area to his office. It was dark, but there was enough light coming in through the window for her to do what she needed to do. The key was right where he’d told her it would be, stuck in a book on Dutch art that she’d given him. Kris went to the safe behind his desk. It wasn’t that large, and she had to crouch to open it. She couldn’t see inside the dark interior, she had to reach in and search. Her fingers skimmed over papers then felt velvet. She pulled out the bundle and opened it. The Blue Star, hard and cold, lay in her hand. She closed her fist over it and started to rise, but before she could, she was yanked hard, by her hair, backward. She tried to regain her footing, clutching at her scalp with her free hand, but the grip on her hair was too strong. She was too startled to scream.
“Geben Sie mir das.” a man’s voice said from behind, and then he pushed her head forward, hard, toward the safe.
Kris couldn’t stop herself. Her world went black.
*
“She’s been in there twenty minutes,” Domino said, checking her watch. “And it’s five minutes since we sent the last text message. We have to go in.”
The lights were on in the upstairs apartment. The office remained dark. Allegro’s sense of alarm grew, until her heart was thundering against her chest. “This can’t be good. She would have sent a text back by now, even if she didn’t have it yet.”
They hurried to the door and rang the bell. No answer. It was locked, so Allegro pulled out her Walther and shot the lock.
“I’ll take the first floor,” she told Domino. “You look upstairs.”
Allegro ran down the hallway, through the outer office into the dark room beyond and flipped on the light. She saw Kris’s feet sticking out from behind the desk. Not moving.
“Kris!” A scream of anguish and disbelief. She held her breath as she hurried behind the desk. There was a gash on Kris’s forehead, spilling blood into the carpet. Allegro felt for a pulse. When she found one, she released the breath she’d been holding. She put her hand against Kris’s cheek, and gently swept the hair away from her face. There was no response. Carefully, gingerly, she slipped her hands beneath Kris and shifted so she could cradle Kris in her arms. “Come on, baby. It’s me.”
Finally, Kris began to stir. “Angie?”
“Misha. But right now, I’ll settle for anything.” The heavy weight on her chest lifted, and her thumping heart began to calm.
“What happened?” Kris mumbled.
“I was kinda hoping you could tell me.”
The sound of Domino’s footsteps drew her attention to the doorway. “Her uncle needs to go to a hospital. Whoever did this banged him up badly. They got in and left through the garden. The door is still open.”
“Use the phone on the desk to call 112,” Allegro said. “Speak in Dutch and say you’re Kris van der Jagt. Tell them there’s been a break-in.” While Domino made the call, she asked, “Who did this to you, Kris? Who was here?”
Kris took a couple of deep breaths. “I tried to get the diamond. I had it in my hand when this guy came from behind and grabbed my hair.”
“Did you see who it was? What did he look like?”
“I don’t know. He was behind me. It was so dark. I didn’t see him.”
“Did he say anything?”
Kris reached up with an unsteady hand to touch where her forehead was gashed, “God, my head really hurts.”
“I know. But you’ll be fine.” Allegro gently stroked her hair. “Thank God.”
“Geben Sie mir das,” Kris mumbled.
“What, honey?”
“That’s what he said.”
“In German?”
“Yes.” Kris started to rise, and Allegro helped her into a sitting position, but stayed on her knees beside her.
“The ambulance is coming,” Domino said. She stood at the window, looking out onto the street. “I can hear them.”
“Kris, we have to go, but the ambulance will be here soon. Tell them you called and that your uncle is upstairs, okay?”
“Yes.” Kris put her hand over the wound and winced.
“I have to go now.” But Allegro didn’t get up. They looked at each other for several more seconds, their faces close together.
“Will you come back?” Kris asked. “Will I see you again?”
“I’ll contact you, okay? I don’t know when, but I will.”
“Misha?”
“Yes?”
“For a difficult woman,” Kris said, “You’re very easy to love.”
“I am?”
“Yes, damn you.” Kris smiled, but her eyes were filled with tears. “So please be careful. Even if I don’t see you again, I never want to lose you.”
“They’re almost here, Misha,” Domino warned. “We have to move now.”
Allegro leaned forward and kissed Kris, all too briefly. “In a single week,” she told her, “You’ve given me more reason to live than anyone has in a lifetime.”
They left through the garden door as the ambulance attendants were coming in the front.
*
&
nbsp; By the time they hit the highway, it was after ten p.m., and they were able to make good time in the Audi in the sparse traffic. Allegro’s wounded thigh was protesting, so she took a pain pill and let Domino drive the first stretch. Once they crossed the border and got on the German autobahn, with no speed limit, Allegro took over and pushed the pedal to the floor. She engaged her scrambler and called in to headquarters at one a.m, five p.m. Colorado time. They were ninety minutes from Berlin, she figured.
Montgomery Pierce answered immediately. “Where are you?”
“In Germany.”
“What the hell for?” Pierce shouted into the phone.
“The stone.” Allegro briefed him on what had happened and asked him to get Manfred Wolff’s home address. They were driving, she explained, because they’d decided it would be faster than going by air. They couldn’t take a commercial flight with their guns, and she knew it would be time-consuming to get the right clearances to detour the military plane waiting for them at the Dutch airbase. If Wolff’s latest thug was driving, they’d pass him and be waiting at Wolff’s, since he had a half-hour lead at most. If he’d gone to the airport, he would probably arrive ahead of them, but not by more than ninety minutes or so.
When she’d finished, Pierce gave her Wolff’s address in the city center. “I’ll have a helicopter ready to take you from Tegel airport in Berlin to the American base in Frankfurt.”
“I’ll contact you as soon as we’re ready for takeoff,” Allegro said.
“You had better be sure the diamond is there,” Pierce warned. “We’re out of time. Do you understand that? So far, Operation Vanish is a disaster.”
“It’s not over yet, Monty. I’ll make sure the mole gets the stone.”
“Yes, you will,” he said. “This is not the time to have your first failed assignment.”
*
“I was so busy getting involved in things I know nothing about, I let myself become distracted,” Allegro said bitterly. “This work doesn’t allow distractions or emotional attachments. Now I know why.”
“Oh no. You are not going to look for excuses to run,” Domino objected. “Don’t blame yourself for allowing yourself to be human. I made the same mistake, and I know for a fact running doesn’t work. You think you’re getting further away, when in reality you’re running in circles.”
“What do you mean?”
“That you’re not dealing with any of your issues by leaving them in the dust,” Domino replied. “You’re merely running into the same problems over and over.”
“What problems? I didn’t have any until I let myself get attached.”
“Bullshit. First of all, you have plenty of problems. No one can do what we do and not. When you asked me on the phone in Malta if I thought you were arrogant, I answered honestly when I said no. Because I know for a fact that you’re not. So I know you’re not being conceited when you say that your lifestyle leaves you cold. Which leads me to believe you’re in denial.” Domino let the words sink in before she continued. “Second of all, you didn’t let yourself get attached. It happened because the right person came along and you had no choice other than to lie to yourself. That’s not your style, so don’t start now.”
“I learned long ago that the only way to survive and maintain some semblance of sanity is to shut it all out,” Allegro said. “Let it all go.”
“That doesn’t mean it doesn’t leave scars,” Domino said gently. “That it doesn’t break something in you every time you have to look evil in the eyes.”
“Maybe something does break, Luka. But it heals after a while because it has to.”
“Time alone doesn’t heal. Time makes it bearable. When you break your arm and do nothing about it, eventually with time it will mend, but it will mend crooked and leave you with a lifetime of pain. That’s why you need a cast to help it heal and mend properly.”
“I don’t think they make casts for these kind of breaks.”
“They do. I found mine, and now you have, too. Don’t run from her, Misha.”
They arrived at Wolff’s apartment a little after two, and parked on the next block, facing the building, where they had a clear view of the entrance. It wasn’t a large complex, and they knew he was on the second floor, so it was a fairly safe assumption that the single lighted window they were looking at was his. There was no one on the street.
“I bet the bastard’s up ogling his loot, or waiting for it to arrive,” Allegro said.
Domino looked out the front window, scanning the exterior. “Doesn’t look like there’s much security here.”
“Good. It’s not like we have time for an all-nighter. I’ll get my gear on.” Allegro stuck her Walther in the back of her waistband and dug through her duffel bag for her ski mask, lock-picking tool, and Bluetooth earpiece. She adjusted the Bluetooth and dialed Domino’s number. “See you in a few.”
“Yes, you will, slick.”
Domino remained in the car while she got out and went to the main entrance. Allegro used her long pin to open the door, and checked the immediate area for security cameras. There were none. “It’s clear,” she relayed to Domino.
There was an elevator down the hallway to her left, but she bypassed it to take the stairs. Before she got to the second floor, she paused to pull her ski mask over her head and draw her gun. The hallway to apartment 223 was empty. She crept along it, listening for noise. A hint of light spilled out from under Wolff’s door. She peered through the peephole. Though the view from this side was distorted, she could see there was no one directly opposite, no movement at all.
She slowly turned the knob to see if it would make noise. It didn’t. Allegro used the pick again to open it and slipped inside. She was in a hallway, with doors leading off either side. The last one on the right was open; it was where the light was on. She took a few steps forward and the floor beneath her squeaked. She froze. A man’s voice demanded to know who was there. She saw a shadow disturb the light in the last room, so she quickly opened the nearest door and disappeared inside.
“Mutter?” the man called, addressing his mother.
Allegro looked around the room she was in. It was very dark, but she could make out a figure in the bed and a wheelchair, nearby. She stood behind the door, her back pressed up against the wall, as the heavy footsteps came down the hall. The door opened, shielding her. A stockily built man stepped into the room and paused for several seconds while Allegro held her breath. Apparently satisfied that nothing was amiss, he closed the door again and retreated back down the hallway.
She remained where she was for a few minutes. Then she opened the door and crept out. She peeked into a living room. Wolff was in front of the fireplace, closing the screen, his back to her. The diamond was nowhere in plain view. He turned off one lamp and moved toward another, to the right of the fireplace.
Allegro crept up on him as he moved to extinguish the second light. She clamped one hand over his mouth, while the other pressed the end of her gun beneath his chin. “Where’s the stone?”
Wolff tried to scream, but she only tightened her grip, and shoved the gun harder against his throat. “Try that again, and I’ll shoot. Do you understand?”
He nodded, his nostrils flaring as he breathed loud and fast through his nose in his panic. She wrestled him to the chair in front of the fireplace and pushed him down into it. Releasing her grip on his mouth, she kept her Walther on him and stood in front of the chair.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Let’s not bother with introductions. I’m going to ask again. Where is it?”
Wolff had his hands on the armrests, and he started to push his bulk out of the chair, trying to rise, but she put her hand on his shoulder and shoved him down roughly, then cocked her gun. “What stone? What do you want?” His voice was getting higher by the second as his fear rose.
“Has he delivered it to you yet, or not?”
“I think you’re talking to the wrong person.”
“And I
think you’re fucking with the wrong person. Is it here yet, or not?” She placed the Walther, with its silencer, against his knee. “You know what’s great about this gun?”
Wolff didn’t answer, but she could see he was starting to sweat. His face glistened with it.
“I can give you an extra asshole and nobody needs to hear a thing.”
“It’s not here yet,” he said hastily, as the sweat really began to pour.
“Are you sure?” she asked. “I find it hard to believe that you were about to go to bed if you’re expecting company. I’d be all nervous anticipation if it were me.”
“He’s going to bring it to me tomorrow.” Wolff’s slight hesitation was all she needed to hear. “He did not get back until very late,” he added, looking away. “So we agreed that he would bring it to me tomorrow.”
“We have two problems,” Allegro said. “One problem being that you’re lying. Second being that my ass is too close to the fire and it’s really starting to get on my nerves. I tend to get irrational when things get on my nerves. Now I want you to choose your next words very carefully, because I feel that irrational streak coming up. Where is the diamond?”
“I told you I won’t have it until tomorr—”
She pulled the trigger and shot him in the knee before he could finish. He sprang out of the chair from the pain, clutching at his knee, and starting to scream, but she’d anticipated that and had her hand over his mouth quickly. She shoved him back in the chair.
“I don’t have anywhere I need to be,” she said calmly. “I can go on putting holes in you all night. And when I’m done with you, there’s always your mother.”
Tears ran down his face. He was clearly in agony. He cursed at her in German between gritted teeth.