Джеймс Паттерсон - Lost

Janine’s younger sister, Tasi, who didn’t have her sister’s organizational skills or street smarts but who was as pretty as any twenty-year-old in the city, said, “What about me? Am I okay to work here?”

Hanna looked at the poor, silly girl who didn’t have the common sense to know when her life was in danger. “No, Tasi, I’m going to need you to come with me.”

“To the United States?” It was clear the girl thought this might be a joke.

Hanna nodded.

The young woman smiled, revealing perfectly straight white teeth. “You need me to help you on your trip?” Tasi couldn’t hide her excitement.

Hanna said, “I’ve decided to take Josie with me. You’ll be an excellent nanny.”

It all seemed to make sense to the young woman at that point. She bounced up and down for a moment, clapping her hands. All Hanna could think was that Tasi was too naive to stay here alone. And she certainly didn’t believe Tasi was capable of keeping her daughter safe. That’s why she was going to bring Albert too.

Hanna found her brother in the back room. She said, “I’ve decided to take Josie and you with me on the trip to Miami.”

Albert looked up from the magazine he was reading and said, “I thought you said there’d be nothing for me to do in Miami. This sounds fishy to me.”

“Alexi has asked for collateral if I’m leaving the country. He made some veiled threats against you and Josie.”

“Take Josie. That’s perfect. Besides, if I don’t have to worry about you two, I can eliminate a lot of our problems here in Amsterdam.”

Hanna liked his optimism, but she wasn’t about to let her crazy brother go running around Amsterdam murdering Russians.

Before an argument developed, Josie walked into the room. Albert adjusted immediately. He was always careful not to let his niece overhear anything about their business.

Hanna looked at her daughter and said, “How would you like to go on holiday?”

The young girl widened her eyes and asked, “Where?”

“Miami, Florida, in the United States.”

“Is that near Disney World?”

“How big can Florida be? When we’re done in Miami, we’ll go to Disney World.”

Josie turned to her uncle and said, “Mom won’t go on some of the wild rides.”

Albert said, “I know, she’s not much fun.” He winked at his sister, then looked back at Josie. “But I’ll take you on any ride you want.”

Josie said, “Do you think we’ll be able to see an alligator in Florida?”

“I guarantee it. They have whole farms of alligators there. Some of them even do tricks.”

Josie tilted her head and said, “That’s not true, is it?”

Albert raised his right hand and said, “I swear.”

At that, the girl excitedly bounded out of the room.

Hanna looked at her brother. “I guess that means you’re coming. I should get Josie to ask you to do things more often.”

Chapter 58

HANNA DIDN’T WANT to take any chances, so she decided to leave for Miami out of Paris. She, Albert, Josie, and Tasi took the train to France. The entire trip, Albert conducted his version of countersurveillance by roaming through the cars, making certain no one was following them on the train.

Hanna, Albert, and Josie had fake passports that identified them by different names. Tasi used her regular passport. No one would recognize her name or suspect her of anything.

Hanna wanted to let down her guard for just a moment and enjoy the train ride. She wanted to appreciate the scenery and think about the future. She was starting to believe they had a future. But she just couldn’t relax.

Josie and Tasi were oblivious as they searched their phones for information on Florida and Disney World. It made Hanna smile, seeing Josie so excited. It was a childhood Hanna would’ve liked. All that mattered to her was Josie’s happiness.

Albert came back to the car.

Hanna snapped, “Sit down. You’re making me nervous.”

“Rostoff won’t be happy we slipped away from Amsterdam.”

“All will be forgotten when we pay him. The Russians will help us in Miami because they need our load. It will all work out. So just sit down and relax.”

He plopped into the seat facing the girls and Hanna felt like they were a little family.

Fifteen minutes later, two young men came into the car and sat near the door. They smiled and nodded when Hanna and Albert looked up at them, the only other people in the car. One of the men lowered the wide window, and the noise of the train boomed through the car. Cool air rushed in.

Albert gave Hanna a look.

She said, “No, relax. They’re just passengers.”

Albert sat for a minute more, then stood up and casually strolled down the aisle. The girls, who were facing forward, were still engrossed in their phones. They couldn’t see the new passengers without turning around.

Albert headed toward the loo at the far end of the car. As he passed the men, he said, in Dutch, “How’s it going?”

The thinner of the two, a man about twenty-five years old, answered, “Good, and you?”

Hanna heard the slight Russian accent in the greeting. Damn. Albert was onto something.

Her brother turned just as the man stood and popped open a switchblade.

Albert moved like lightning as he parried a blow, then threw his elbow into the young man’s clean-shaven jaw.

His head twisted, and a tooth flew out of his mouth and bounced off the seat. A line of spittle with blood in it streaked across the clean tan wall.

Somehow, Albert ended up with the knife in his hand.

Hanna watched, stunned, wondering how she could help. The girls were still in their own little world, and the sound from the open window had drowned out the commotion.

Albert moved again before the second man could draw a weapon. He put the point of the switchblade to the man’s bearded throat and took a small automatic pistol from him. Albert turned to his sister, winked, and smiled.

The young man’s eyes were wide. The neatly trimmed beard made him look like a boy pretending to be a man. So did the ease with which Albert had disarmed him.

Albert put the pistol to the man’s head and gave him an order in a low voice.

The bearded man helped his dazed Russian friend up and Albert escorted the two of them to an electrical and maintenance closet wedged next to the restroom. Albert said something else, opened the locked closet door with the first man’s knife, and forced the two inside.

Thirty seconds later, he flopped, exhausted, into the seat next to Hanna.

She said, “How do you know they won’t scream for help?”

Albert tapped the pistol in his waistband. “I explained that if they didn’t keep quiet until I told them they could come out, there would be plenty of air holes in the door. Young pretty boys aren’t used to people fighting back. We’ll be fine.”

Hanna had known her brother was tough, but this was spectacular. He looked like a movie spy. How could she not feel safe traveling with him?

Chapter 59

Miami

I’D BEEN BURNING up my contacts trying to keep an eye on everything that came through the ports in Florida. The problem was that Florida, being a long peninsula, had a lot of damn ports. I didn’t even bother to consider what would happen if the ship came into a port outside of Florida.

It was easy to get overwhelmed with data and details, and this was where my background in sports came in handy. If I viewed major cases the way I used to view football games, I kept a better attitude and was able to manage each task that popped up a little more easily.

This wasn’t a game, but that’s how cops have to look at major cases. Every cop has some form of psychological trick to help cope with the stress that gets piled on us from all sides by the administration, the public, and our own natural desire to make arrests in every case. Not to mention the stress that comes from department infighting, though in my experience, the hardworking cops who want to solve cases don’t care much about promotions or office politics.