Jeffrey Siger - Mykonos After Midnight

Suit yourself, thought Andreas.

They got off the elevator, nodded to the guard, and walked down the hall toward Maggie sitting in a chair at the end of the hall. As soon as she saw them she jumped up and hugged them.

“He’s so excited that you’re coming.”

“Where’s the other guard?” said Andreas.

“Spiros thought one was enough.”

“Bastard,” said Andreas.

“Just take it easy in there, please. The doctors don’t want him getting worked up.”

Andreas nodded.

“And whatever you do, don’t make him laugh. Thankfully, they didn’t burn his face, but he’ll be in pain if he starts to laugh.”

“I’ll let Yianni do all the talking. That should keep things from getting funny.”

“Like I said, guys, don’t make him laugh.”

“Can we go in now?” said Kouros.

“First, we need to go into that dressing room to cover our street clothes and hair and put on a mask.” She pointed at a door to the left of a pair of large, swinging doors marked BURN UNIT. “It’s to prevent infection.”

They dressed as Maggie said, walked into the burn unit, and stopped outside a room on the right at the far end of the hallway.

“This is his room.” She led them inside. The lighting was dim and the only sound a distinct background hum punctuated by an occasional ping. Tassos lay on his back hooked up to intravenous lines, monitors, a tube down his nose, and more tubes coming from beneath a cover over his body.

“You look like shit,” smiled Andreas.

Maggie shot him a look.

“Sorry, I was told not to make you laugh.”

Tassos struggled to say, “Never have before, so, don’t worry about starting now.”

Kouros said. “Glad you’re feeling better.”

“When I heard what you did to those bastards I felt better real fast. Thanks.”

“No need to,” said Kouros. “You’d have done the same for us.”

Tassos was quiet for a moment. “The doctors told me that if you hadn’t gotten to me when you did I might not have made it.”

Andreas and Kouros looked at their feet.

“But I don’t believe him. I think he was just trying to make you two fuckups look good.”

Andreas and Kouros burst out laughing.

“Stop that this instant. All of you.”

“Easy, my love, I’m feeling no pain.” Tassos’ voice sounded stronger, less struggling.

“They gave me some really good meds. Besides, the doctor told me I was lucky getting my burns the way that I did. If I’d been electrocuted or caught in a fire, I’d be in much worse shape. Hard as that may be to believe.”

“You really do look great,” said Andreas.

“Now I am worried. So, quick, before the nurse throws you out of here, tell me what’s happening. Maggie’s already told me about Teacher and the mysterious caller. My guess is the caller was my contact at Europol covering himself by acting as if he were a third party. He’s been involved in some, shall we say, unorthodox arrangements over the years, but if he were involved in what’s going on with Sergey he never would have left that message.”

Andreas quickly briefed him on what they knew and what they’d done.

“Boy, now you’re the ones playing with fire. Let’s just hope Teacher doesn’t figure everything out.”

“You’re beginning to sound like Lila.”

The door swung open, and a figure in the doorway waved at them.

“It’s time to go,” said Maggie.

“Damn these rules,” said Tassos.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be back as soon as the doctors say that we can,” said Kouros.

“And next time I’ll bring Lila.”

“Give her my love.”

They all blew kisses to Tassos and left.

As they walked up the hall Andreas said, “He looks better than I thought.”

“You really perked him up.”

Andreas nodded. They walked through the swinging doors, headed toward the dressing room, when a man hurried out of the dressing room. He didn’t bother holding the door open for them.

Malaka, thought Andreas. As he reached for the door handle one word raced through his mind: flowers.

He swung around looking for the man. “Yianni that’s the guy from the elevator with the flowers. Get Maggie back to Tassos’ room and don’t let anyone near that dressing room. Keep everyone away. It could be a bomb.”

Andreas ran down the hall to the elevators and asked the cop, “Did a tall guy just get on the elevator?”

The cop gestured no.

“Get down inside that burn unit, last room on the right, and ask Detective Kouros for instructions. And hurry.”

The cop ran down the hall.

Andreas thought, if he didn’t take the elevator…the stairs! Andreas ran back down the hall and stopped twenty feet before the burn unit at a door on the left marked STAIRS.

He opened the door. No one was inside and he heard no one on the stairs. Up or down, which way did he go? Andreas bolted down ten steps and stopped.

If it’s a bomb, how would he know when to set it off unless he knew we were inside the dressing room? For that he’d need a visual on us.

Andreas raced back up the steps and slowly pushed open the door. He peeked across the hallway. The man needed a visual on the room…a visual on the room. There it was. A linen closet across the hall.

Andreas carefully slipped out into the corridor making sure the door made no sound as it closed. He crossed quickly to the far wall and hugged it as he moved toward the linen closet with his gun in his left hand.

Please, God, don’t let him have a deadman switch on that detonator. He looked at the hinged, far side of the door. It angled in a bit, enough to mean the door was open slightly on the side closest to Andreas.

Andreas crossed himself with his right hand, edged up flush with the doorjamb, and kicked at the bottom of the door two feet up from the floor with enough force to send a soccer ball sixty yards.

He heard the grunt before he saw the man stumbling backward toward the rear of the closet, a cellphone in his hand. Andreas stuck his gun between the man’s eyes and with his free hand motioned for the phone. The man winced and handed Andreas the phone.

Andreas had cuffed him by the time Kouros found them in the closet.

“The bomb squad is on the way.”

“Who’s with Tassos?”

“The cop from the elevator. I told him to shoot anyone he doesn’t recognize trying to get into Tassos’ room.”

“Do you know this guy?” Andreas grabbed the man by his hair and lifted up his head.

“Yeah…from the video. He’s the tall one of the two who murdered Christos. Where’s your buddy, asshole?”

“You’re wasting your time. He doesn’t speak Greek. That’s why he didn’t give me his floor number on the elevator when I asked for it.”

“Lucky break for us that you remembered.”

“Tell me about it.” Andreas crossed himself. “Get someone over here who speaks Polish. I want to know where his buddy is. And how he knew we’d be here this morning.”

“He won’t talk,” said Kouros.

“Just make sure the interpreter doesn’t have a queasy stomach.”

Andreas patted the man’s cheeks. “A man who was about to blow up a hospital filled with sick and injured people will talk. Believe me, he’ll talk.”

***

Sergey looked at his watch. He should have heard by now. Tassos Stamatos’ girlfriend always was at the hospital by now. All the man had to do was get close enough to her to leave the flowers, blow her away, and get out in the confusion.

Then her cop friends would know he meant business.

He’d better not have fucked things up.

Sergey looked at his watch again.

At worst, there was the back-up plan.