“Perhaps for you.”
“I wish very much that you would stay.”
“I’m sure I’ll see you soon enough. And not everyone gets their wish.”
He rose. “You will not reconsider? I would like to get to know you better.”
“I need to swim.”
“You can swim here.”
“Good night, Evan. I can show myself out.”
“There are few who would venture to disagree with me.”
“I’m not disagreeing with you.”
“But—”
She stood on tiptoes and pecked him on the cheek. “It’s all in the timing, actually.”
After she closed the door of her villa securely behind her, Reggie spit on the floor and then wiped off her mouth.
CHAPTER
50
YES, Whit, I understand the situation quite clearly, perhaps better than you.”
Professor Mallory sat at his desk in his study at Harrowsfield, attempting to light his pipe at the same time he was clenching the phone against his cheek with his left arm.
“I took the action that I deemed most prudent.” Mallory paused as a string of words came over the line from the obviously upset Irishman.
Mallory finally got the pipe going and took a moment to suck greedily on the stem. He flicked the match out and dropped it on his desk, where it continued to smolder.
“I can’t see where it’s robbed you of any necessary manpower, but if you require reinforcements I can have them to you tomorrow. Yes, yes, well I can do the math too. You have four men for the outside and then the three of you on the inside. If you think that’s insufficient?” He paused and listened some more. “Yes, I have talked to Regina, and no, she doesn’t know about it. What really would be the point? Have the final details been worked out? I see. Projection equipment?” He listened some more. “Yes, I suppose that would come in rather handy. All right. Yes, just let me know.”
Mallory put the phone down and puffed on his pipe. He looked up to see Liza standing by the doorway.
“Problems?” she asked.
Mallory cleared his throat. “Nothing unmanageable. Whit is a bit put out, but he’ll get over it.”
Liza frowned. “We’re too close to D-day, aren’t we, to have anyone put out over anything?”
“It’ll be fine, Liza, don’t worry.”
“And you’re telling me you’re not concerned?”
“I’m always concerned until my people are back here safely. But they have everything under control and the plan is a sound one. In fact, Regina came up with a new wrinkle that I think will work out quite nicely.”
“There is one flaw in your plan,” pointed out Liza.
“No plan is perfect, and we had to put this one together rather on the fly.”
“But they aren’t even aware of the potential pitfall. You know I disagreed with you on that.”
“Without that we wouldn’t have gotten our shot at Kuchin.”
“Yes, but that might be the difference between ‘your people’ coming home safely or not.”
“I am quite aware of the risks,” Mallory said a bit indignantly.
“You are, but they aren’t, not fully.”
“There is inherent risk in everything we do.”
“Sometimes I wonder.”
“Wonder what?”
“We sit here in our cozy old English country house and plan these things and then send them out to execute our plans.”
“They participate in creating those plans.”
“Good night, Professor.”
She left Mallory to angrily puff on his pipe, until he knocked out the wedge of tobacco, stuffed the pipe in his jacket pocket, and sat there moodily in his old leather chair.
Whit sat gazing at the phone. Sometimes he just didn’t get Mallory. No, that was wrong. He almost never understood the man. The professor had handed Whit another task at a critical time in their mission and the Irishman didn’t appreciate it one bit. Babysitting Bill Young was not something he’d signed on for. He pocketed his phone and marched down the hallway.
“Give me the key, Niles,” he said to the man stationed there, and he handed Whit the key.
Niles Jansen knocked on the door and called out, “Away!” Then he pulled his gun and pointed it at the door as Whit inserted the key. The door clicked open and Whit stood just inside the doorway.
Shaw stood against the far wall, staring back at him.
“Ready to let me go?”
“Sit,” ordered Whit.
Shaw looked at the gun pointed at him and slowly walked to the chair and sat down. Whit moved forward a few inches.
“You know, you look familiar,” said Shaw.
“I look like a lot of guys.”
“So what can I do for you?”
“You can tell me what you’re really doing in France.”
“I’m on holiday. Why are you here?”
Whit leaned against the wall. “Lobbyist from D.C. who can scale walls and disarm people? You really think we’re buying that?”
Shaw didn’t say anything for a long moment. “I’m a retired lobbyist. And I was supposed to be returning to the States to be with my son. You obviously had a different idea.”
“You look too young to be retired.”
“I made my money and I wanted out. Is that a crime? Is that the reason you bashed me in the head and are holding me prisoner here?”
“Like you were told before, chill and you’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, but what about Janie Collins?”
“Who?”
Shaw crossed his arms and studied the other man. “What are you planning?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“But you’re working together.”
Whit shook his head slowly. “Again, don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you do. I told Janie I was a retired lobbyist. I scaled her wall and disarmed her. No one else knew about that.”
“Those things are easy enough to find out.”
“No they’re not. And why would you want to find them out?”
“So you’re not going to tell me why you’re here?”
“You first.”
“Then you can just rot in here.” Whit turned to leave.
Shaw hesitated and said, “Take care with Waller, he’s not who you think he is.”
Whit slowly turned back around. “What the hell do you know about it?”
“More than you, apparently. By the way, I just remembered where I saw you. Kayaking. You were tailing us. You’re after Waller, aren’t you?”
“Don’t know what you’re smoking.”
“He’s a dangerous guy.”
“Really?”
Shaw knew he shouldn’t do it, but his concern for Janie overrode his professional instincts for secrecy.
“Waller runs a global prostitution ring. He takes women from Asia and Africa and sells them into slavery in the West.”
When this revelation only raised mild interest in Whit’s features, he added, “He was also trying to sell uranium to some Islamic fundamentalists before he apparently killed them all after a disagreement.”
“Terrorists?” exclaimed Whit.
“They probably screwed him somehow and he made them pay for it. He’s a bad guy from top to bottom. And he has an eye for Janie, although I guess now I know that’s not her real name. Whatever you guys have planned, you better account for Waller figuring some of it out beforehand. And you better start worrying that Janie doesn’t disappear before you even get to your ground zero.”
“And why are you telling me this?”
“I think you know why. If he gets Janie it’s all over.”
Whit slammed the door behind him and locked it. Shaw heard the two men outside talking fast. Then he heard footsteps as the men moved off.
He sat down in the chair. His initial instincts had been right and wrong. Janie Collins was not who she claimed to be. But she was not
here to interfere with Shaw’s mission; she hadn’t even known about it, apparently. They’d gotten suspicious about Shaw, but didn’t know why he was here. They had been working at cross-purposes. So now the questions were clear. Why were they after Waller? And how were they planning to do it?
Shaw looked around at the four walls. He needed to get out of here more than ever. He had a sinking feeling that whatever plan they had, it would not be good enough. And chances were very good that Waller would kill them instead.
CHAPTER
51
REGGIE COUNTED off her strokes, flipped, and headed back the other way. She was swimming faster than normal, so much faster, in fact, that she lost count and banged her head on the side of the pool. She floated to the top, rubbed her skull, and looked around. Waller’s villa was dark. She eyed the wall separating the two properties but saw no spies there either. She treaded water for a bit and then swam to the steps and climbed out of the pool. She toweled off, grabbed her phone, and headed into the house. When she glanced down at the phone screen, she caught a quick breath. She had a text message. It was only one word. “NOW.” It was their highest-level alert message.
She walked quickly inside and up to her bedroom, where she made the call.
“We have to meet,” said Whit.
“Meet? When?”
“Right now.”
“It’s one o’clock in the morning.”
“Now, Reg.”
“What’s wrong?”
“A new wrinkle you need to know about.”
“Jesus, Whit—”
“Usual place.” He clicked off.
She threw on some clothes and turned out all the lights as though she was going to bed. She went to the lower level of the villa, opened the rear door, made sure it was clear, and then hurried down the darkened path.
A few minutes later, taking great pains to make sure no one was following her, Reggie arrived at the rendezvous point. A hand on her shoulder almost made her scream.
Whit appeared from out of the darkness, his expression stony.
“What the hell is going on?” Reggie asked, clutching her chest. “Every time I have to sneak out it gives them an opportunity to become suspicious.”
“It couldn’t be avoided,” said Whit as he sat down on the stone bench.
“Okay, it’s obviously important, so tell me.”
“We got new orders from the professor.”
“What?”
“Let me rephrase that. I got new orders from the professor and already carried them out.”
Reggie stared down at him in amazement. “What are you talking about?”
“He ordered us to take your boy out of the equation.”
“My boy?”
“Bill Young.”
“What! You didn’t—”
“He’s okay. We just did a snatch. He’s resting comfortably.”
“Are you crazy? He’s—”
“It wasn’t my call, okay? And the prof didn’t want you to know. But I didn’t like that. So I’m here telling you.”
“Why would Mallory want you to kidnap Bill? He was leaving France.”
Whit looked put out. “I didn’t know that.”
“I didn’t have a chance to tell you.”
“Probably wouldn’t have mattered. The prof wanted him out of the way, and it was probably a good call considering what I just learned.”
“What are you talking about?” Reggie said slowly.
“Your boy’s not what he appeared to be.” Whit paused. “I think he might be a cop or something. Maybe in counterintelligence, Interpol, something like that.”
Now Reggie sat down on the stone bench next to him. “Why?”
“Things he said.”
Reggie looked away.
“You don’t seem shocked by this.”
“I knew Bill had disappeared from his hotel. When I went to check, I saw some men go into his room and take his things. The clerk later told me they had guns.”
“Well, thanks for telling me that.”
“Tell me everything. From the moment you took him.”
Whit laid it all out. He finished with, “He said to be careful whatever we were planning. He said Kuchin runs an international sex slavery ring. He snatches girls from Asia and Africa and sells them in the West. He also attempted to do a deal with some Islamic terrorists, sell them some nukes or something.”
“Wait a minute. Does he know Waller is really Kuchin?”
“Don’t think so, no. At least he never used that name. Anyway, Young said Kuchin ended up killing the Muslims. Guess they had a falling-out or something. But he said Kuchin definitely had an eye for you and to worry about you disappearing before we could make our move. He also said chances were pretty good that Kuchin would figure out at least partly what we were up to.” Whit stopped talking and sat back. “I guess I misjudged the bloke. Turns out we were sort of working on the same side, but didn’t know it.”
“But if he doesn’t know about Kuchin’s past why is he after him?”
“Maybe the terrorist stuff, or the sex slavery ring.”
“And Bill is okay?”
“Except for a little knot on his head, yeah, he’s fine. Tough guy, but then we knew that, didn’t we?”
“I appreciate you telling me, Whit.”
“No secrets, right? But look, Reg, what Young said gave me an idea.”
“What?”
“That Kuchin killed all those Muslims. We can use that to our advantage.”
“How do we do that?”
He sat forward. “Here’s how.”