Jeffrey Siger - Assassins of Athens

Curiosity always was one of Andreas' weaker — or stronger — traits, depending on whether curiosity killed the cat. Or, satisfaction brought it back.

'Forty FUCKING million euros!' He'd made up his mind. Demon was feeling the pressure. Kostopoulos was doing things they'd not expected. He had to be stopped. And quickly. It wasn't just the Old Man who was pressing him. There was unhappiness throughout the pack. He had to keep the old lions in line. They were his future. He smiled. Make that a pride of lions. Yes, he had to keep the pride of his old lions intact. He enjoyed smiling at the little jokes he made in his mind. They helped keep him calm, too. Which was what he must remain if he hoped to survive being dumb enough to meet alone with a psycho-killer-kidnapper.

He looked at his phone again. The message read, 'Four. Plaza opposite Hadrian's Arch. Wear PAOK hat backwards.' The message came in at three-thirty. Not sure if it meant today or tomorrow. He made it here with only seconds to spare. Finding the Arch wasn't the problem. It's been standing in central Athens for almost two thousand years as the symbolic entrance to the city, and the square across the avenue marked the start of today's main pedestrian walkway into the area of the Acropolis. The problem was finding the hat. PAOK was a team from northern Greece with legendary, insane fans. They regularly started fires inside their basketball stadium to celebrate, and no one seemed to notice or care except those charged with carrying fire extinguishers. Come to think of it, no surprise he picked that team's hat.

Demon stood by the front of the square looking up and down the street. He walked twice around the square's dominating statue of actress Melina Mercouri, one of Greece's more modern symbols, and stared back into the square. Maybe it's tomorrow. The phone beeped once and another message appeared: 'Syndagma to Omonia. NOW. Nice hat.' Demon looked around, but people were everywhere. He could be any of them. Syndagma to Omonia made no sense. Why not say one or the other? Then it hit him. The message was about metro stops.

Demon ran to the metro entrance closest to Parliament and in two stops was in Omonia. As he was coming up to the square from the platform below, he noticed another message on the phone: 'Piraeas.' It was Athens' port city and as far south as you could go from Omonia on the old electrikos train line, with its almost two dozen stops between Kifissia on the north and Piraeas. 'Shit, the mother fucker's playing with me.' But he got on the train.

In Piraeas the message was 'Larisis,' which meant switching to another train and heading for the railroad station northwest of Omonia that linked Athens to the rest of Greece. He was not going to leave Athens, no matter what the next message said. Or so he kept telling himself. He didn't have to decide, because at Larisis the message switched him back to the metro and back to Omonia station, two stops away. In Omonia there was no message waiting for him. He looked around. No one seemed to be paying attention to him.

Demon checked the phone to make sure there was cell service and looked around again. That's when he heard the beep and saw 'Kifissia.' That meant switching for another ride on the electrikos; this time as far north as the line ran. He'd been traveling for hours and now was the height of rush hour; he was pissed, but made it.

One stop later, as people pressed into the car, a little guy who'd been standing nearby bumped into him. The man turned as if to say 'excuse me' but what Demon heard was, 'Drop the hat, follow me,' in a voice unmistakably Efisio's.

Demon froze. He watched the little man walk to the doors and step off the train, never looking back. Demon pulled off the hat and rushed to follow him, pushing and shoving passengers out of his way. He even knocked a woman to the floor also trying to reach the doors. But he made it.

He looked around for Efisio and saw him walking slowly toward the exit at the center of the platform. This was Victoria Station, and they were headed up to the street. Demon thought, if you were looking for a neighborhood in which to meet someone you might want to kill, without shaking up the locals, this was a very good choice of metro stop. Demon didn't smile at that joke.

Once on the streets, Demon stayed twenty yards or so behind Efisio. A few blocks from the station, on Feron Street just past Aristotelous, Efisio stopped beside a parked black Fiat. Two men were in the front seat and the engine was running. He waited until Demon was next to the car before opening the back door. 'Get in.'

Demon didn't see a choice. One way or the other, this was the end of the line for him if he failed. Kouros was with the surveillance team watching Demosthenes' apartment when the first message was intercepted. It set off a mad scramble: Andreas sent a male-female team dressed as tourists running off to photograph everyone around the square across from the Arch; two cops watching Demosthenes' apartment were ordered to drop everything and follow him; and Kouros was told to get back to headquarters immediately.

By the time the Syndagma to Omonia message came through, two more cops in plainclothes were sitting in a blue OTE telephone repair van next to the Arch. They were told to hustle over to Syndagma and follow the suspect, now wearing a black and white PAOK cap.

They saw Demosthenes running toward the metro entrance and followed him to Omonia. That's where they almost lost him. He was headed out of the station but unexpectedly turned and went back in, trapping the two cops on a crowded, ascending escalator. By the time they started back down, Demosthenes was out of sight. They split up to look for him and, when the message came through that he was headed to Piraeas, only one cop was close enough to catch the train.

Andreas kept his fingers crossed they wouldn't lose him in Piraeas. No way to get more people from his unit there in time, and he couldn't risk involving local cops. They weren't trained for this sort of thing. Then he saw the next message: Larisis. What a break. Demosthenes was headed back north and into their waiting arms.

A new team picked him up at Larisis and followed him to Omonia.

There was no new message at Omonia. Demosthenes was in the middle of the platform looking around. Maybe the meet was here? Finally, a new message, Kifissia was the next destination. Perfect. They followed him to the new platform. One cop walked to where the car behind Demosthenes would board, the other to where the car in front of him would be. Neither wanted to risk spooking him by getting too close. There would be plenty of time to move closer later. Kouros stuck his head into Andreas' office. 'We lost him.'

'What!'

Kouros stepped inside and closed the door. 'He got off at Victoria.'

'Victoria? I didn't see Victoria on any message.'

'Me either.'

Andreas smacked his fist on the desk. 'Someone must have made contact with him on the train.'

'That's what Angelo thinks. He saw a man bump into him while the train was stopped at Victoria. Seconds later, Demosthenes was gone.'

'Why didn't someone follow them?'

'Christina tried. It all happened so fast. She'd just moved into his car from one in front when she saw Demosthenes trying to get off. She tried getting to the door but he pushed her out of the way, she tripped and… well, by the time she got to her feet the doors were closed.'

'And what the hell was Angelo doing while all this was going on?'

'He was in the car behind, watching Demosthenes through the door.' Kouros looked down at the floor. 'Said he'd been watching the hat. When he didn't see it he got out and pushed into Demosthenes' car. By the time he found the hat on the floor and figured out what happened, the train was moving.'

Andreas stared out the window. He was angry but didn't want to show it. 'Pretty slick.'