Alan Furst: Spies of the Balkans

Zannis looked at his watch, 3:39, and settled down to wait. This was a meeting, of course, and somebody was going to show up, sooner or later. If he was dumb enough to walk past the idling Skoda, they’d get both of them. If not, just the German, though Saltiel would likely take off after the second man. Woman? Maybe, anything was possible.

3:48 A.M. Hurry up, you bastards, have your fucking meeting and let me go home to bed . After arrest, and a trip to the police station, where they’d get what they could, then run him back to the ship. After all, he hadn’t done much-entered Salonika without having his passport stamped. No point in keeping him. The German consul would squawk, Vangelis would be irritated, the hell with it.

4:00 A.M. What was the German doing down there? Was there a way through to another street that Zannis didn’t know about? Oh, a fine thing that would be! I stood there in the rain until dawn but I never saw him again . Zannis sighed, shifted from his wet foot to his dry one, and thought about Roxanne, about making love, which was what they did. Sure, a restaurant now and … Suddenly, his mind snapped back to full attention.

From the other end of the street, at the corner of a distant alley, headlights-no car yet, just beams probing the mist. What? Could you get through down there? Zannis didn’t know, but obviously somebody did because the lights swung left into the street and now pointed directly at him. He scurried along the iron shutter to the opposite corner and wound up facing the Skoda. What would Saltiel do? Nothing. The lights stayed off. Good, Gabi, that’s the way .

And next , he thought, addressing the unseen driver of the car, you’ll turn into the alley . It was a Renault sedan that muttered past him, going very slowly, but his prediction was off. The Renault paused at the alley, moved forward a few feet, and backed in. Clever , Zannis thought, ready for a fast getaway. What was this? Another murder in the alley? Was it cursed? Was this long, boring, stupid night going to end in melodrama?

Whatever happened down there didn’t take long. It happened in the alley and it happened quickly and it happened where Zannis couldn’t see it. A car door slammed, an engine roared, and the Renault reappeared, taking a fast left turn into the street and speeding off. Zannis squinted into the rain, trying to see through the cloudy rear window-someone in the passenger seat? No, he didn’t think so. As he hurried down the steps from the loading dock, he watched the Renault as it flew past the Skoda. Count: one, two, three, four; then the Skoda’s lights came on and Saltiel made a nice easy turn and followed the Renault, which had turned east up the deserted corniche.

As Zannis approached the alley, the German came out. They stopped dead, facing each other, maybe thirty feet apart, then the German, like Hamid the moneylender, went scuttling back down the alley. Heading for the wisteria vine? No, he had a better idea, because by the time Zannis entered the alley, he’d disappeared. The magic German. Where? Zannis trotted along the sheer wall, very tense about some sort of unseen cover at his back, very certain that he was about to be shot. But then, just at the foot of the alley, a door. A door that, he guessed, would lead into the office of the warehouse. Had he forgotten it? Had it even been there, back then?

Walther. Yes, the time had come, work the slide, arm it, assume Gabi kept it loaded, assume he’d put the bullets back in the clip when he’d got done hanging up his picture. For he’d surely un loaded it, knowing full well that banging loaded weapons on hard surfaces wasn’t such a good idea-the very least you could hope for was embarrassment and it got quickly worse from there. Grampa! The cat! No, Gabi had done the right thing because Gabi always did the right thing. No?

Zannis closed the umbrella and set it by the wall, freed the Walther’s clip, found it fully loaded and locked it back in place. Then he stood to one side of the door and, making sure of his balance, raised his foot and kicked at the knob, intending to make it rattle on the other side. No bullets from inside so he reached over, turned the knob, and opened the door. Unlocked. Always unlocked? Unlocked at the moment. Keeping to the cover of the wall as much as he could, he swung the door wide, waited a beat, then rushed in low, Walther pointed ahead of him.

He’d expected an office, and hoped for a telephone. Right, then wrong. It was an office, open to the warehouse floor-filing cabinets, two desks, and an old-fashioned telephone, no dial, on the wall. But the line had been cut a few inches below the wooden box. Cut years ago? Or thirty seconds ago? He didn’t know. But he did know where he was-the Albala spice warehouse. The air was thick with scent; a dense compound of fennel, opium poppies, foul silk cocoons, and Mediterranean herbs; sage and thyme and the rest. Stacked in burlap-covered bales and wooden crates out in the darkness, ready to be shipped.

He listened for a time, but heard only silence. Then waited, hoping his eyes would adjust to the darkness but the only light in the warehouse seeped through closed louvers, set high on the walls. One hand ahead of him, he moved forward, but he knew it was hopeless, he wasn’t going to find the German crouched behind a bale of fennel. So he returned to the office, took hold of the door handle, and slammed it shut, then walked out into the darkness, making no attempt to move quietly.

Something moved, something much bigger than a rat. The sound, weight shifting on boards, came from somewhere above him. He waited, changed gun hands, and wiped his sweaty palm on his pants leg. Again he heard it, almost directly above his head. So, the second floor. How did one get up there? No idea. He reached in his pocket, lit a match, discovered he was in an aisle with stacked bales on both sides. Lighting a second match, he saw what looked like a stairway on the far wall.

It wasn’t a stairway but a wooden ramp and, when he got there, he found what he was looking for. At the foot of the ramp was a metal cabinet with a lever affixed to one side. He pulled the lever down and the lights went on. Not a lot of light, a few bare bulbs in outlets screwed to the boards of the ceiling, and only on the first floor, but enough. Whatever was up there moved again, fast, running, then stopped.

Zannis was finding it hard to breathe-how the hell did people work in here? — the air was so charged, so chemically sharp, his eyes were watering and he had to take his glasses off and wipe away the tears. Then, in a crouch, he scurried up the ramp and dove flat at the top, his head just below floor level. Quickly, he raised up to get a look but, even with some ambient light from the first floor, the gloom at the top of the ramp quickly faded into darkness. He sniffed-this place was really reaching him-then spoke, not loud and not angry, in German. “Sir, please come out from wherever you’re hiding, and let me see your hands. Please. You won’t be harmed.”

That did it.

Running footsteps on the far side of the second floor, then a series of thumps punctuated by a cry of panic, and, after a few beats of silence, a moan. Using two matches to reach the opposite wall, Zannis realized what had happened. There was another ramp over there but, if you didn’t want to use it, there was an alternative; a square cut in the floor with a narrow and very steep set of stairs, almost a ladder, that descended to the floor below. The German’s descent had clearly taken him by surprise and he was lying face down with his head on the boards and his feet on the steps above-Zannis saw that he was wearing green socks-briefcase still clutched in one hand. Carefully, Walther still held ready for use, Zannis walked down the stairs. The German said something-it sounded as though he were pleading but his voice was muffled and Zannis couldn’t make out the words. He checked for weapons, found none, then took the German under the arms, turned him over, hauled him upright, and managed to get him seated on a step. For a moment he just sat there, eyes shut, nose bleeding, then he pressed a hand to the center of his chest and said, “Hospital. Hospital.”