Carolyn Keene - Greek Odyssey

Nancy slipped off her blue headband and gave it to Mick. “Use this on his arms.” A moment later Spiros’s wrists were bound, and he was sitting on the stone pedestal of one of the windmills, with Nancy and Mick standing on either side of him.

For several minutes no one spoke. Then Spiros said urgently, “Please. We must leave here—right away. We are all in danger.”

“The police will be here any minute,” Nancy said. She caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. “This must be them now.”

Turning her head to peer around the side of the windmill, she heard a sudden cold click, then felt a small solid object against her temple.

Nancy drew in a sharp breath. She had heard that sound before. It was the sound of a cocked pistol—and it was pressed against the side of her head.

Her heart began to hammer in her chest, and she thought, One move and I’m dead.

Chapter Fifteen

“Don’t move,” said a man with a deep, accented voice, as if he were reading her mind. Nancy didn’t dare turn to look at him.

In the next instant she heard the metallic sound of another gun being cocked, and her heart sank. Mick was in danger, too!

Loud male voices growled in a language Nancy didn’t understand. When she dared to glance slightly toward her right, she saw that Spiros was arguing with one of the terrorists, the scar-faced man. From studying the photos, Nancy remembered that his name was Mashti.

The other two, Shara and Rashid, stood nearby. The pistol at Nancy’s head was held by Rashid, while Shara had her gun trained on Mick.

Spiros waved off Mashti defiantly, then pointed at Nancy. “Ask her,” he spat, switching to English. “She can tell you where your passports went.”

Nancy felt her mouth go dry as the muscular Mashti lunged toward her and yanked her arm.

“Hand over the passports—now!” he demanded.

“I don’t have them,” Nancy said. She wasn’t about to let them know that Bess was on her way to the police station with them at that very moment.

“Ah, but she can get them,” Spiros objected.

Infuriated, Mashti kicked up a puff of dust, then pressed his face close to Nancy’s. The hair on her neck stood on end as his hot breath brushed her skin. “You are going to get those passports for me—if you want to live.”

Nancy saw a sudden movement behind him, and she realized that someone was coming. The police—at last, she thought.

A moment later she gasped in horror as she recognized George.

“There you are!” George cried. “Bess told us you were up here guarding—”

She stopped short, taking in the situation. “Whoa!” Kevin said, stopping next to her.

Mashti pulled out a revolver, whirled, dropped to a crouch, and trained the gun on Kevin and George. “Stop!” he shouted.

George and Kevin froze, their faces reflecting total shock. Quickly Mashti corralled them against the wall of the windmill so that they stood beside Nancy and Mick. One by one the terrorists patted down Nancy and her friends. Nancy suspected they were searching for weapons or the forged passports. They found nothing.

After a heated argument with Spiros, Mashti pulled Nancy away from the wall of the windmill.

“You will get the passports back,” he ordered, shaking his fist in her face. “Bring the passports to the cave on Dragonisi—you know the one. You have three hours. Be there by six o’clock, or your friends will die.” Then he backed away.

For a moment Nancy couldn’t believe her eyes. The terrorists were letting her and Mick go free!

Then her heart sank as she saw them nudge George and Kevin with their guns, pushing them toward the stairs. They were going to use George and Kevin as hostages!

This can’t be happening! Nancy thought. Tears filled her eyes as George flashed her a look of desperation, then turned away. Nancy watched, horrified, as the three terrorists descended the stairs, hurrying George and Kevin along at gunpoint.

“He says that he has forged passports many times in the past, but never before for anyone he thought was dangerous,” Zoe murmured. “With him, forging is an art, like the miniature statues he makes.” In a small, hot room of the police station, Zoe was translating Spiros’s statement.

“The terrorists had heard of his reputation, and they threatened to kill him if he did not do as they asked,” Zoe went on. She seemed disappointed in her family’s friend, and Nancy didn’t blame her. She guessed that it was an art to recreate something as intricate as a passport, but that didn’t justify breaking the law.

Zoe and Officer Rossolatos had helped move things along quickly. Spiros was under arrest. Two men had been sent out to search Mykonos for the terrorists and their hostages—just in case they hadn’t left the island yet. And the police chief had put in a call to Interpol, the international police network. The police would take action once Interpol arrived.

Officer Rossolatos allowed Nancy and the others to listen in while Spiros confessed to opening the hotel safe, stealing the passports, and altering them.

“This is all your fault!” Spiros scowled at Nancy. “If you had not stuck your nose in this business, your friends would be safe. I knew you were going to be a threat when Dimitri told me you had been in my studio. That is why I tried to frighten you while you were swimming.”

“ You were the man with the spear gun!” Nancy said as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

“Why didn’t you back off when you still had the chance?” Spiros asked her. “I warned you!”

“Nancy isn’t scared off by threats,” Bess said, coming to Nancy’s defense. Her eyes were red from crying.

But maybe this time I should have been, Nancy thought. She sank back in her chair, a sick feeling in her stomach. Spiros was right. If she had backed off, her friends’ lives wouldn’t be in jeopardy at this moment. What if the terrorists made good on their threat? Solving one case just wasn’t worth two precious lives.

Once Spiros’s statement was complete, Nancy, Bess, Zoe, and Mick were dismissed. “Thank you for your cooperation,” the police chief said in a matter-of-fact way. Nancy had the feeling that he didn’t understand how serious the situation was.

“What’s going to happen to my friends?” she asked him anxiously. It was almost four o’clock. Minutes were ticking by, and George and Kevin were still in the hands of the terrorists.

Officer Rossolatos intervened, speaking to his supervisor in Greek. Then Rossolatos turned to Nancy and said, “We will send an Interpol agent who matches your description to the cave. She will trade the forged passports for your friends. Of course, after the trade, a team of officers will surround the terrorists. The criminals will surrender—if they want to live.”

“And what if they refuse to release George and Kevin?” Nancy asked, blinking as her eyes filled with tears.

“Please,” said the officer. “You must trust us to handle it.”

That’s no answer! Nancy wanted to shriek. A wave of guilt washed over her as she thought about the terrible situation she had gotten her friends into. She wished the police would use her instead of a decoy, but she knew they would never agree to it.

Turning to Bess, she asked, “Do you still have my hat?” Nancy had given her orange cap to Bess before she and Mick rode off after the terrorists on Naxos.

“Sure,” Bess said. She was still carrying the tote bag she’d had on Naxos. She reached into it and pulled out Nancy’s fluorescent orange cap.

Nancy handed the hat to Officer Rossolatos. “I had this on when I first ran into the terrorists. The decoy might want to wear it.”

“Thank you,” he said. “We will contact you as soon as your friends are in our custody.”