Assassins of Athens

by Jeffrey Siger

  He turned and looked at the three uniforms. ‘Call an ambulance for this garbage, but take your time.’ Then he ran back to Lila.

  By the time he got there an EMT team was putting Lila on a stretcher. She was unconscious, and Christina would not let go of her hand. ‘I’m staying with her. Tell the chief we’ll be at Evangelismos Hospital.’

  ‘Anything else?’

  Christina walked beside the stretcher as they carried her to the ambulance. She looked down at Lila and squeezed her hand; then looked up at Angelo and mouthed – but did not speak – the words: Tell him to hurry. It doesn’t look good.

  23

  It all was a blur. Andreas couldn’t tell you where he was or how he got there. But he was sitting outside an operating theater in some hospital somewhere waiting to hear whether Lila would live or die. Or something in between. He wasn’t alone. Her parents sat next to him. They were nice people. Gentle people. The mother cried, the father tried not to. Andreas stared straight ahead at nothing.

  He had no idea how much time had passed when the surgeon finally came to tell them the news. They did what they could to repair bleeding onto her brain. No idea of the extent of the damage. No idea when she would regain consciousness. Should know more in seventy-two hours. There was nothing more left to do than pray.

  Andreas thought he’d said goodbye to Lila’s parents but wasn’t sure. He remembered leaving the hospital and walking past his car. He just kept walking, wandering. He stopped in front of one church, then another. He went into neither. He’d already said all the prayers he intended. Now he was thinking about other things, and a church was not a proper place for those thoughts. He kept walking until he stood on Alexandras Avenue across from GADA Headquarters. He wondered whether this was any more appropriate a place for what he had in mind. He didn’t care. He crossed the street and went inside. Demon was about to get his wish: the times are a-changin. Andreas intended to see to it personally.

  By the time Kouros spotted Demon he knew about Lila. He tried calling Andreas to find out if he still wanted Demon picked up, but Andreas didn’t answer. Kouros decided only to watch him. Demon was sitting in the middle of a busy first-floor university hallway and didn’t look to be going anywhere. They could grab him later, off-campus, where an arrest wouldn’t set off student riots and end Kouros’ career.

  Hours passed and Demon hadn’t moved. He just sat in that hallway reading a book. Every once in a while he looked at his watch and peeked into a nearby office. Three young female cops rotated through the stakeout. It looked less suspicious that way. All any of them had to do was stand still for a moment, and someone hit on her. That sort of kamaki conversation could go on indefinitely without attracting attention.

  Kouros was out of sight, in an empty office in a hall around the corner from Demon, when his cell phone rang.

  ‘Yianni?’ It was not a voice Kouros recognized, yet he knew it was his chief.

  ‘How’s Lila?’

  ‘They’ll know something in seventy-two hours.’ Andreas spoke without emotion. He sounded numb, or in a trance. ‘What have you done with Demosthenes?’

  ‘We’re watching him. He’s inside the university sitting in a main hallway. I think he’s waiting for a phone call.’

  ‘Does he know we’re onto him?’

  ‘Don’t think so.’

  ‘I think I know who he’s waiting to hear from, but those two guys won’t be making any calls for a quite a few years.’

  ‘I heard. Angelo told me. That’s why I didn’t grab him. Figured I’d wait to see what you wanted me to do.’

  ‘You did the right thing. Let’s keep him running around out there. Get back to the office as soon as you can get away. We’ve got things to talk about.’

  Kouros assumed they were things Andreas didn’t want to discuss over the phone. ‘As soon as he leaves, I’ll head back.’

  ‘I’ll be here. Nowhere else to go.’ The phone went dead.

  Kouros took a breath and wondered how he’d hold up if something like what happened to Lila ever happened to— ‘God forbid,’ and crossed himself.

  Demon was tired of waiting for the junkies to call. Either they’d done the job or they didn’t. Good thing he gave them a university number; if the fools got caught, there was nothing to link them back to him but their word. And little good that would do them.

  He watched two pretty girls toy with some young guys hitting on them. He decided to see Anna. Yeah, that meant Efisio would find her for sure. But so what? He’d have to get rid of her soon anyway; the kid, too. Couldn’t have a hooker and her bastard son tied to him any longer.

  * * *

  Andreas spent fifteen minutes explaining to Kouros what he had in mind. It wasn’t complicated, just risky. Sort of like setting off a nuclear explosion inside a cookie jar and hoping no one noticed it was your jar.

  Kouros’ only question was whether he could use that Laurel and Hardy line again. ‘I don’t want to think of the mess we’re in if this goes wrong.’

  ‘I don’t want to think about what happens if it works.’

  ‘When do you talk to Tassos?’

  ‘After he deals with the Sardinians. If he can’t …’ Andreas rubbed his eyes, ‘and they snatch the family, there’s no chance of pulling this off. None.’

  ‘When do you think we’ll know?’

  ‘Don’t know, but my guess is soon. Nothing we can do until then, except keep an eye on the cast of characters.’ Andreas looked at his watch. ‘Do me a favor, will you, and drop me off at the hospital. I left my car there.’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Any more word on Demosthenes?’

  ‘Just that he went to Anna’s and back to his apartment.’

  ‘Probably led Efisio’s boys right to her. Keep an eye on her, too. No other woman’s going down because of that miserable bastard.’ Andreas clenched his fists. ‘So help me, god.’

  A strange prayer for what he had in mind.

  It was a beautiful day to be on the ocean. All the blues of the sea against the pale blues of the sky ran in one direction, and the greens, whites, and tans of southern Sardinia’s shoreline in the other. The Ginny Too traveled south, passing near enough to shore to see the ancient watchtowers that once served to send word of invaders from the sea. Some say the sea was never friendly to this island and that was why so few chose to live by its edge. Today, it was building codes that kept construction inland and away from corrupting the beauty of this shore.

  They dropped anchor a few hours before sunset off the town of Pula, just south of Sardinia’s capital, Cagliari. Two inflatable boats, tenders to the Ginny Too, immediately left for shore. One held five men, and the other carried two children, a woman, and two men. The one with all men reached the dock first; four jumped ashore and the fifth moved the boat to idle nearby. Three of the men ran toward the parking lot at the end of the dock, the fourth helped the woman, children, and one man out of the second boat.

  As soon as all were ashore, the boats sped back to the Ginny Too and the people hurried toward three all-black Hummers idling in the parking lot. The party from the second boat got into the middle Hummer, two men jumped into each of the others, and the three sped off from the port.

  They wound through the local streets in crisp, military-convoy fashion. At a main road they turned left, and at another turned right toward Is Molas. Two miles later, in the middle of a modern, campus-style science and technology research center, they turned left onto a dirt road and into the enchanted 270-square-mile Sulcis National Park. A mountainous place of rock and granite, filled with holm oaks and centuries-old cork forests, it was as wild and beautiful a place as one might imagine within view of the sea.

  Ten minutes later, just over the crest of a hill, a gate blocked the road. One man got out and opened it, while another scanned the road behind them. Within thirty seconds they were moving again, deeper and deeper into the Sardinian forest.

  ‘Can you believe how dumb those assholes are?’ Efisio s
ounded on the verge of orgasm. ‘They have no idea what they’re doing.’ He was holding court for the four others in the Jeep. Another five men were in the Jeep behind him.

  ‘They’re acting like tourists on holiday.’ He rolled his hands as he spoke. ‘Cruising so close to shore you could drive alongside them almost all the way down from Porto Cervo. And, now, they’re on a dirt road heading into the middle of a forest.’ He shook his head. ‘Whoever’s in charge of their security is an idiot. Or an amateur who thinks a Hummer makes them safe.’ He patted the rocket propelled grenade launcher lying across his lap. ‘This should make those Hummers really hum.’

  Everyone in the Jeep laughed.

  The driver said, ‘I know where they must be headed. It’s a farmhouse inn about two miles from where we turned onto this dirt road. This is the only way in. And the only way out.’ He smiled.

  Efisio also smiled. ‘Amateurs.’

  S’Atra Sardegna was a beautiful place to eat, everything organically grown and raised. But Tassos wasn’t headed there for the food. Once Ginny agreed to take the fight to the kidnappers, Tassos made sure the Ginny Too was visible from shore. That’s how the professional soldiers on board picked up two Jeeps shadowing them down the coast.

  The soldiers also arranged for the drivers and Hummers. Tassos was wary of bringing locals into their camp – blood being blood, as they say – but the major called and convinced him to trust them. The men on board worked for the major, and the ones in the Hummers weren’t locals; they were ex-Italian Special Forces who helped clean up the island in the nineties and loved Sardinia so much they stayed. He’d ‘worked with them before’ and could ‘vouch for them.’ Tassos certainly hoped so, because the plan was tricky enough without having someone betray them from within.

  There was no sign of the Jeeps since a half-mile after the gate. His guess was they’d set up an ambush to catch them on the way back. That was the smart play. His was smarter. The only part he really didn’t like was bringing Ginny and the kids along. But in these days of high-resolution digital photography, dressing someone up to look like the family wouldn’t fool anyone. At least not with the potential imposters he had to work with.

  The inn was just up ahead. Time to get started. The first Hummer moved over so the second could pass. All three stopped. Tassos got out. The family and driver proceeded to the farmhouse. All four would check into a room and wait for word. If word didn’t come by a certain time, a helicopter would lift the family out to safety, or try to. And that was the easy part of the plan.

  Efisio was getting edgy. It was way past sunset and still no Hummers. Aside from some old, fat farmer in a beat-up pickup truck, nothing had come from the direction of the farmhouse in hours. It was almost ten, and there was only a sliver of moonlight to see by.

  He set up at a spot where the road climbed and narrowed to barely wide enough for a Hummer to pass. His men were deployed behind boulders running down from him on his side of the road. On the other side of the road, the right side coming up from the inn, was a steep drop and certain death to anyone in a tumbling vehicle.

  It was perfect. Like shooting fish in a barrel, which was precisely why Efisio was here and had the only RPG launcher. This was neither a fish hunt nor target practice. He planned on taking out the front of the first Hummer. That would block the rest. His men and their AK-47’s would shoot out the tires of the other two. A Jeep was in position to block any attempt to retreat down the hill. Every man was instructed not to shoot to kill until the family was located. He wasn’t about to screw up a forty-million-euro payday by killing a target.

  Once they had the kids, everyone else was dead. There was no reason to keep them alive, except, of course, for the very pretty wife. He took another look at her on that camera that caught them getting into the Hummer. Maybe he could have a little fun with her before sending her back to plead with her husband to save their children. Why not?

  ‘Efisio, do you hear that?’ It was a muffled shout from the man furthest down the hill followed by the unmistakable roar of a big engine.

  ‘This is it, get ready. And no one shoots at anyone until we know where the family is. Understand!’ There were mumbled responses but Efisio knew they’d heard him.

  Flashes of bouncing light intensified and came more frequently. The Hummers would be here any minute. Efisio positioned himself behind a granite boulder in such a way that he could nail the first one at point-blank range and still have cover from the explosion. It was forty yards from where he was to where the first Hummer would appear. He’d fire when it was ten yards away. No way he could miss.

  The first one came roaring around the turn, headed straight for him with blinding roof lights angled front and left covering every inch of ground it approached. Efisio took careful aim and prepared to fire the instant those first lights appeared in his sights.

  But that never happened. Every light went off, every sound stopped – except for a single slamming door. That’s when Efisio realized there was only one Hummer and – ‘Shoot, shoot to kill! It’s A TRAP!’ he screamed.

  But they’d lost their night vision to the Hummer’s blinding lights and fired wildly into the dark in the direction of the slamming door, giving away their positions to five men flanking them from above with unimpeded sight and night vision goggles. The kidnappers’ spray-and-pray approach to marksmanship did not serve them well in this fight. Three died instantly from precisely placed sniper rounds. Six others were badly crippled from less accurate but more than adequate bullet placement. The tenth, and only uninjured kidnapper, dropped a grenade launcher and fled up the road away from the Hummer the moment the firing started.

  Efisio could hear his men’s screams. He was frantic. These were no amateurs. He had to get away. He ran on fear and adrenaline without stopping. He had no idea where he was, but when he heard no sounds and saw no lights behind him he felt calmer. He had to get his wits back. He had to get out of here.

  There was a farm gate up ahead. He remembered seeing it coming in. Something to do with food for the inn’s restaurant, one of his men had said. Parked next to it was the pickup that passed by earlier. It looked like the driver was asleep inside. He crept closer and heard snoring. What a break. He flipped open his stiletto and moved up along the driver’s side. One quick jab to the throat through the window and that fat farmer was gone.

  Shit, the driver’s window was closed almost to the top. No problem; he’d just pull open the door and stick the blade in his neck before he knew what hit him. Efisio grabbed the door handle and yanked.

  ‘Surprise.’

  That was the last word Efisio heard before the shotgun went off in his face.

  Within an hour every trace of what just happened was gone. The major was right about those guys. The dead kidnappers disappeared, the crippled found their way to the welcoming arms of Italian police, and no one said a word about the unscheduled celebratory fireworks festival in the park.

  Tassos was particularly happy that none of his men was hurt, though the one who drove the Hummer and pulled off the distracting door slam did catch a ricochet in his ballistic vest. Tassos was sorry he missed the actual battle, but he knew he was too old for that sort of thing. He was far better suited these days to supporting roles, like scout, backup – and old, fat farmer in a pickup truck.

  24

  Andreas fell asleep in a chair next to Lila’s hospital bed, where he’d been holding her hand and talking to her. He’d read somewhere that might comfort her, help to bring her back. He didn’t talk about anything in particular; just whatever came into his head. Andreas missed her.

  He sensed light in the room and slight pressure on his shoulder. He opened his eyes. It was Lila’s mother.

  ‘Morning, Chief Kaldis.’

  He stumbled to get up. ‘Morning, ma’am.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘For what?’

  ‘For being here for our daughter.’

  Andreas nodded. He wanted to say all of this was his
fault, but didn’t. He had a tough enough time as it was dealing with the guilt, and he couldn’t bear the thought of turning her parents against him, too. He promised himself to tell them some other time.

  ‘The nurse said there is a message for you at her desk. The caller said to give it to you when you woke up.’

  ‘Thank you.’ He put out his hand. ‘Goodbye.’

  She took it and looked in his eyes. ‘This is not your fault,’ and kissed him on both cheeks.

  Andreas left quickly. He didn’t want her to see his tears. Like daughter, like mother.

  On the way out he picked up the message. It was from Kouros.

  ‘Hi, Yianni.’

  ‘How’s Lila?’

  ‘No change. Thanks for asking. What’s up?’

  ‘Tassos called this morning. He’s been trying to reach you all night. I told him what happened and he said he’d pray for you both.’ Yianni paused.

  ‘That’s nice of him.’

  ‘Good news. Efisio and his boys are no more.’

  ‘That’s terrific. What happened?’

  ‘Tassos made me promise I’d let him tell you himself. He sounded like a rookie talking about his first collar. Really excited.’

  Andreas felt a slight grin, his first since … ‘Can’t wait.’

  ‘But you better hurry, before it starts sounding like a winning version of three hundred Spartans fighting a million Persians at Thermopylae. And since Tassos says he was the only Greek in the fight, we know who’s getting the King Leonidas part.’

  Andreas laughed. ‘And there’s no one to challenge his story.’ He paused. ‘Thanks, Yianni.’

  ‘For what?’

  ‘For making me laugh. I’ll call him right away. And, if he says it’s a go with the plan, we hit the Angel Club. With luck, this afternoon.’