Iris Johansen - Chasing the Night

His absence made her uneasy. Wrong man? She didn’t think she’d made a mistake about him being one of Rakovac’s men, and Rakovac had recognized the description. Her every instinct had locked in on him as soon as she’d seen him.

But where was he now?

An enemy in view was much safer than one who had fallen from the radar.

Leave the market, let them follow her to a place where she could take them out. She moved quickly through the crowd, dodging between carts and booths.

Yes, they were following.

But she had to get a good distance ahead of them and out of sight.

She was almost running by the time she reached the street bordering the market and started for the far corner.

The gray Mercedes still parked at the curb. Kelsov’s car. No one in it. Dammit, she had told him to go back to the farmhouse.

She ran past the car and down the block. She remembered there was an area of flower shops around the corner. It was much quieter than the market itself and should suit her purpose.

She glanced over her shoulder. They were behind her, running, the man in the yellow Windbreaker Rakovac had called Zeller in the lead, Sminoff following a few yards behind.

She turned the corner. This street was virtually deserted. If there were customers, they must be inside the flower stores. She pressed against the wall beside a flower cart before a shop.

They should be here at the corner in seconds.

Take the first one as he made the turn.

It should startle the second one and give her a few seconds.

She’d need those seconds.

A flash of yellow Windbreaker, and Zeller came around the corner.

She leaped forward and gave him a karate chop to the jugular. As he dropped, she sprang forward.

Sminoff had hesitated as she’d thought he would, but not long enough. He was reaching for his knife.

Her own knife stabbed deep into his hand, piercing it to the bone.

He screamed.

She lifted her knee between his legs, and he bent forward in agony. She struck him in the nose with the ball of her hand, breaking his bones and sending them into his brain.

She didn’t wait for him to drop to the ground. It might be only a few minutes before someone came out of that flower shop, and she didn’t want to have to answer questions.

She ran back onto the main street, then walked quickly toward the Tulskaya Metro Station.

Two thirty-five.

Why didn’t Joe call her? Eve thought in frustration. He’d promised to get back to her as soon as possible after the NSA trace. Catherine was supposed to take the call at two.

Be patient. Sometimes things didn’t go as planned.

With Rakovac things seldom went as they wanted them to.

Two thirty-six.

“You keep looking at the clock.” Kelly nodded. “You’re worried about Catherine. So am I. You should have told me that she was leaving. It wasn’t right for her to just run out on us. Is she supposed to call you?”

“No.” Catherine had asked her not to tell Kelsov about the NSA trace, and Eve had opted to tell no one. Natalie was joined at the hip with Kelsov, and Kelly would immediately try to take over any operation and make it her own. That had been her modus operandi from the instant Eve had met her.

“You’re not telling the truth.” Natalie’s gaze was fixed on Eve from across the room. “Why did Kelsov go with Catherine?”

“I told you that she needed a ride to the city. Don’t worry. He won’t be staying with her, Natalie.” It was difficult to tell only half-truths and still make them comforting. She had never been good at deception. “I’m sure he’ll be back in an hour or so.”

“I don’t want him with Catherine,” Natalie said with sudden fierceness. “She doesn’t care if he’s hurt or not. All she cares about is finding her son.”

“And all he cares about is killing Rakovac,” Eve said quietly. “And that’s all you care about, too, Natalie. So how can you blame Catherine?”

“That’s not all I care about,” Natalie said. “I don’t know if anyone will ever kill Rakovac. Some people are so evil that they kill everything they touch, and no one can stop it.” She was shivering, and she folded her arms over her chest to control it. “I want him dead. For a while I thought that was all I wanted. But that’s not true. I want Kelsov to stay alive. That’s more important. Catherine is going to get him killed.”

“And I’m not worried about Kelsov, I’m worried about Catherine,” Kelly said. “And I have something important to tell her. So tell me where I can-”

“Stop.” Eve held up her hand to stem the flow. “I hope she’ll contact us, but you know Catherine can be obstinate. She didn’t want any of us to be hurt. I couldn’t talk her out of going off on her own.” At least that was the truth. “But the best thing that we can do is to keep working on finding Luke and maybe we can phone her and convince her to let us help.”

“Bull.” Kelly was frowning. “You’re patting me on the head and telling me to go back to work. That’s not the best thing. The best thing is for us to go after Catherine and try to keep her alive.”

“I am telling you to go back to work,” Eve said. “Because that’s our only option to solve the problem.”

Kelly suddenly smiled. “Then I may have it licked.” She flipped down the lid of her computer and gestured to her yellow note pad. “Maybe. It’s less grounded than I usually pull together, but I believe I’ve found it.”

“Licked?” Eve was staring at her incredulously as she stiffened in the chair. “You’ve found your pattern?”

“I’ve found a pattern. Rakovac is complicated, but it was easier when I realized that he has no code or ethic he lives by. His loyalty is to no one, and that was the key.” She tapped the yellow sheet. “So I built a history of the phone calls Catherine could remember and cross-referenced them to the meetings Rakovac arranged around that period.”

Eve jumped up from her chair and was across the room in seconds. She gazed down at the yellow pad. “Show me.”

Kelly tapped the first peak on the graph. “This is the first call from Rakovac to Catherine. He was still at his apartment in Moscow. It’s not really important because he evidently hadn’t arranged any permanent stash for Luke.” She pointed to another peak. “This call was particularly cruel and came shortly afterward.” She pointed to the name underneath it. “Surveillance showed an appointment with Mikhal Czadas on the day before the call at the town of Sergriev. Rakovac had an arms deal with him.” She pointed at another peak. “The next meeting was with Ivan Rithski at Krasnos. Arms deal, again. The same day as the phone call.” She pointed to another peak. “A year later. Rakovac met with James Nordell at Vichaga. Nordell was using him to bribe Russian politicians. A call to Catherine the next day.” She tapped the other names on the peaks of the graph. “It’s the same every time.”

“What are you getting at, Kelly? These are all separate individuals. Are you saying they all had something to do with Luke’s kidnapping?”

Kelly shook her head. “I’ve checked into every one of Rakovac’s customers on these surveillance reports. I investigated them in depth. They were all power houses in their own right. Rakovac wouldn’t have been able to manipulate them, he only used them.” She paused. “Except one.” She pointed to the second peak in the graph. “Mikhal Czadas, a man who was born in the Republic of Georgia and became caught up in all the ethnic madness and guerilla fighting there. He’s a fighter who’s been involved in a dying cause since he was a boy. He hated the Ossetians and the Russians. He never gave up. Therefore, he would always need money. I can see that he might be persuaded to hide Luke away. And he wouldn’t be under suspicion. Rakovac had betrayed Czadas’s cause and gone over to the Russians. It would be assumed that he and Rakovac would only have a guarded relationship.” She shook her head. “But if you study Rakovac’s pattern, that isn’t necessarily true. He has no loyalty and will work with anyone if it benefits him. If he could use Czadas, he’d find a way to overcome any obstacle. He’s a master manipulator.”