Steve Martini - Guardian of Lies

Nitikin watched in stark silence as Alim pulled something from his belt. There was a spray of red from the man’s head, followed a second later by the report of the shot as the man’s legs turned to rubber and he collapsed to the ground. Alim quickly turned the gun on one of his other followers. This time the man ran as fast as his legs could carry him to the tree, grabbed the ramrod, and raced toward the hut as if he were running an Olympic trial.

Yakov turned to Tomas. “Try and hold on. One moment. It’s coming.”

“Hurry!” cried Tomas.

Nitikin opened the door, struggled to run in the heavy lead suit and meet the man with the ramrod partway. He was maybe thirty feet from the hut when a loud hum and a brilliant cobalt flare enveloped him from behind. The man running toward him tried to shield his eyes from the flash with his free hand, but it was too late. Nitikin knew instantly that both Tomas and the man with the ramrod were dead. It was but a matter of time. He wondered if the lead suit and the distance he had put between himself and the device in the seconds before the dragon whipped its tail might have saved his own life.

Just before seven in the evening, Herman and I meet for dinner in the covered patio downstairs at the Sportsmens Lodge.

Herman has checked the public hallway outside our rooms. There was nothing emitting a signal, no listening devices or micro-cams installed, though Herman’s room was bugged and his phone tapped.

Herman brought with him the encrypted cellular phone. He’s found a place to hide it inside the wall behind an air-conditioning register over the bed in his room.

I spend a few minutes in a crowded section of the bar with one ear covered by my hand, the other pressed to the phone talking to Harry back in San Diego.

Harry tells me that he stopped in to see Katia at the hospital in the early afternoon. The sedation had worn off and, according to Harry, she seemed more alert. But still she did not communicate. Harry has found a local neurologist to examine her and perform the duties as treating physician. According to the doctor, Katia is suffering from severe depression in addition to the physical trauma. He explained that this was not unusual given all that she has been through. Harry tells me the doctor is treating her with antidepressant medication and that the marshal’s service is examining every pill and keeping a close eye on her through the hospital staff.

“Considering the fact that Templeton thinks you helped her plunge the knife into Pike, I suppose you can’t blame them,” says Harry.

“I know the phone is encrypted, but maybe we can find something a little less titillating for the government for you and me to talk about.”

“How about the items in question?” says Harry. He means Katia’s camera and the pictures from Colombia.

“Give us time. We just got here.”

“You said less than a week and you’d be back,” says Harry.

“I said I would try.”

“Did you call her mother’s cell phone?” I ask him.

“I did. I called twice this afternoon. I couldn’t understand the Spanish message, but it was the same as all the other times when I called. The message came on after one ring, which I am guessing means the phone is turned off. I’d say she’s not there. Where are you? It sounds like a party,” says Harry.

“I’m in the bar downstairs at the hotel.”

“I thought so. You owe me a vacation when you get back,” he says. “By the way, I’ve run into a snag with the nurse you wanted to hire. The hospital says the doctor’s fine, but they’re not sure about the nurse. They’re worried about liability. They say if she screws up and the patient suffers, they’re afraid the hospital may be on the hook.”

“What did you tell them?”

“I told them the nurse is just gonna hold Katia’s hand, talk to her in Spanish, and maybe slap the marshal once in a while. I promised them that she wouldn’t be dishing up any meds or doing any surgery, at least not right away.”

“And what did they say?”

“What does any hospital say? They have to check with the administrator who in turn will call the local legal brain trust, which means that by noon tomorrow we’ll be told that the nurse is out.”

“Stop with the negative brain waves,” I tell him. “We could always dress her up in civilian clothes and call her a relative. If the nurse won’t do it, we can find a Spanish-speaking female PI. We just want a warm body in the room, somebody to keep an eye on Katia.”

“Three shifts a day?” says Harry. “That’s a lot of relatives for somebody who’s in the country on a visa.”

“Yeah, well, it is Southern California, and we are only ten minutes from the border.”

“If I listen to you, Rhytag’s gonna have half the local nurses’ registry on ice with immigration within a week. Let me think about it,” says Harry.

“Where are you right now?” I ask.

“If you really want to know, I’m in my backyard standing under a tree in my underwear.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I wish I was. I tried to call you twice. Your phone was turned off. I was on the john when you called. I thought it best that I step outside since half the federal workforce is listening in every time I pass gas or flush the toilet.”

I tell him about the rooms being wired and the attempt by the feds to grab the phone at the airport.

“Don’t change the subject,” says Harry. “You’re still the one down there in a bar with all the squealing voices in the background, while I’m standing around my yard in boxer shorts.”

“I’m just telling you to keep an eye on your cell phone. They’ll snatch it if they can.”

“At the moment it’s tied to a string around my naked neck,” he says. “You know, the thought has crossed my mind that for the moment at least, I don’t need your help to send Rhytag up the flagpole. All I have to do is sit in the conference room and let them listen to one half of an encrypted telephone conversation. And I don’t need a phone to do it.”

“I understand. You’re not happy. I owe you big-time when I get back.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” he says. “I’m not trying to put any pressure on you. It’s just that if you’re not back here by next Tuesday, the FBI’s gonna be digging up your backyard with a backhoe looking for Nitikin’s bones in the barrel right next to the one holding Jimmy Hoffa. So if you treasure your tulips, you’ll be here.”

“What you’re saying is, don’t waste my time talking on the phone.”

“Right.”

“It’s been fun. Let’s do it again tomorrow night, same time, same place. Wear clothes,” I tell him.

“Leave your phone on,” says Harry.

I punch the button and the line goes dead. The last thing we need is a ringing telephone in the air-conditioning duct over Herman’s bed.

We finish dinner and trek back toward our rooms.

“Be sure and bring your set of picks.”

“Already got ’em,” says Herman. “In my pocket.”

“Ten o’clock sharp. Let’s put the phone back behind the register just in case we run into problems. It’ll be safer there.”

We split up just outside the door to my room. I kill twenty minutes running an empty shower, then leave the noise from the television on until nine thirty, when I turn off the lights and sit in the dark in the chair against the window, the curtains drawn. Every few minutes I check to see if there are any new vehicles parked on the small lane at the back of the hotel. I can see only part of the road, but there is almost no traffic on the narrow stretch of pavement that flanks the zoo. I hear a faint scratch like fingernails brushing the other side of the door to my room. I check my watch. It’s ten o’clock on the dot.