Jeffrey Siger - Assassins of Athens

Angelo and Christina reached the pedestrian road just in time to see the two turn left onto a side street. Their communicators had been vibrating wildly since they came out of the metro station, but there was no way to slow down to answer them. They turned the corner onto the side street running at full speed, but stopped abruptly and pulled back around the corner. The two men were halfway down the block, on the east side of street, but they weren't running. They were walking toward the corner, looking back and forth. One pointed to a break between two apartment buildings on the other side of the street, but they didn't cross over; just kept heading toward the corner.

'This must be the place they're looking for. We better wait here. If we start down that street they'll make us for sure.' Angelo nodded toward Christina's communicator. 'Let's check in.'

Christina pressed the respond button and instantly heard their chief's voice. 'Where are you?'

'On Dionysiou Areopagitou, a few blocks from the Akropoli metro station. The suspects are on a side street heading south toward Rovertou Galli. I think this is-'

Andreas' voice was deadly serious and loud enough for Angelo to hear him. 'Christina, listen carefully, those two are about to murder Lila Vardi, a white female, thirty-five, short black hair, approximately your height and weight. Stop them immediately. Deadly force is authorized. Do you understand?'

Christina didn't answer. Angelo and she were too busy running toward the two men. The men had reached the corner, crossed to the west side, and started back up the street toward a dark-haired woman standing on the sidewalk looking at her cell phone. Lila had been smiling all day. Why not? She'd finally met a man who put her first, or at least tried to. An American friend once joked that the Greek woman's greatest positive asset was her beauty, and that her greatest negative was her men. She couldn't wait for her friend to meet Andreas. That should change her mind.

The museum was closed today, but an hour and a half ago a major, old-money donor interrupted her lunch with friends with a call insisting they meet immediately at the museum to discuss a new gift. It was an hour-long, all phones off, listen-to-my-brilliance monologue by a very boring man. Thankfully, it was over. She still might be able to catch up with her friends for coffee. The restaurant was nearby, off Dionysiou Areopagitou.

She was a few feet from the museum's front door, headed toward the quiet side street around the corner, when she remembered her phone was off. She found it in her purse and pressed the power button. At the corner she turned left. The pedestrian road was only a hundred yards away.

Lila heard her phone beep to signal it was on, and beep again to signal missed calls and messages. She checked them as she walked. Andreas had called almost a dozen times. She smiled and thought, how sweet. She really did love him. She took a quick look at her messages. There were a half-dozen from Andreas. She sensed something must be wrong and stopped to read the first one:

Killers are after you. Stay where you are. Do not go outside. Call me immediately.

Lila never got to make that call. There was a shout, something struck the back of her head, and she was unconscious before hitting the pavement — lost to what happened next. Christina and Angelo had pulled their guns when one of the men gave a quick jerk of his hand toward the pavement and brought it back up holding a fully expanded, steel baton. Christina shouted 'Police,' but the man swung it anyway. The woman dropped to the pavement.

The two men stood next to her body, as if not sure what to do or aware that police with drawn guns were running at them. Then, like cockroaches in the light, they bolted; heading south and turning right at the corner.

Angelo raced after them, pointing to Lila as he passed her. 'Take care of her.'

Christina dropped to her knees next to the body and felt for a pulse. She called for an ambulance using the code for officer down. It seemed Lila's only chance. If there's one place in Athens where you're likely to find a cop when you need one, it's around the Acropolis. And a guy with a gun and a badge chasing two men and yelling 'Stop those bastards' soon had several pairs of fresh cop-legs running them down. Three uniformed cops caught up to the two over by the Prisons of Socrates. One of the men held a knife and the other the steel baton, but both dropped their weapons the instant the cops drew their guns.

Five seconds later Angelo caught up to them. He stopped only long enough to say thanks to the cops, then turned and drove the side of his steel semi-automatic square into the face of the one who swung the baton, and twice more before the guy went down. The other one he kicked in the balls hard enough to drop him to the ground; then kicked each of them enough to break a rib or two. It was not the most-tourist friendly scene to witness. But Angelo didn't care. These bastards had tried to kill his chief's girlfriend. The chief never told him or Christina, but everyone in the unit knew. And that made her family.

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.

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.