Chapter Twelve

 

 

Seven miles south of Darmstadt, Germany

September 14, 1:25 p.m.

 

Valery rubbed his beard with his right hand, while keeping his eyes glued to the white-and-blue police vehicles lining up on the shoulder of the highway. Valery’s driver, Borya, had stopped their BMW sedan about a hundred yards away from the bridge, so they would not draw the attention of the police officers still buzzing around the cordoned-off scene of the accident.

“Anything new?” Valery asked Borya, who had just gotten off the phone with Fyodor. He was one of their team members eavesdropping on the police communications through the state-of-the-art equipment at the back of a Volkswagen van parked about two hundred yards up ahead.

Borya said, “Yes. The police found the stolen pink Mercedes near a gas station, about ten miles away from where it was stolen. The description given by the couple seems to match the one of the gas station attendant. The man was Hall. The attendant got into a fight with Hall, mistaking him for a robber. The attendant pulled a gun on Hall, and, of course, Hall ended up wrestling it away from the poor untrained attendant.”

Valery turned his head toward Borya and gave him an inquisitive look. “What else?”

“The police have expanded their search, but they have only hunches of where Hall may be headed.”

“They won’t be able to find him. Hall’s a pro. He’ll activate his network of contacts and disappear,” Valery said. Respect and regret were mixed in equal measure in his cold voice. He admired the way Justin had survived the shooting and had evaded whoever had made the attempt on his life. But Valery regretted the missed opportunity, since Romanov had issued the capture order for Justin and Carrie after Valery had exposed their elaborate scheme of lies and deception. Romanov had been furious about their dishonesty, and he had ordered Valery to bring in Justin and Carrie alive. The Russian oligarch wanted to extract the truth from them, along with their last breaths.

Borya said, “On the good news front, O’Connor’s still in Frankfurt. She’s trying to insert herself in the investigation. The police are not happy about her interference.”

Valery smiled and his gray eyes glinted with a ray of anticipation. “Ms. O’Connor will be our bait. We may not be able to find Justin, but she’ll find him. And she’ll also lead us to our target.”

Borya peered at Valery. “But how do we find O’Connor?”

Valery pointed at Borya’s phone. “Tell Fyodor to continue monitoring the police communications. Sooner or later someone will slip up and say something about her location. Something like they’re glad she’s out of the country, although I doubt they’ll be able to get rid of her that easily. But even if nothing comes through the coms, we’ll find O’Connor.” Valery brought his right-hand index finger to his temple. “We just have to think smarter. She’s trying to be a part of the official investigation, right?”

Borya nodded.

“Since that hasn’t happened yet, she has to be in Frankfurt, negotiating her way in. Whom would she be negotiating with?”

Borya hesitated for a moment. “The chief of police?”

Valery snapped his fingers. “You’ll go a long way. Yes, the chief of police or someone close to him, high up the ranks.”

Borya nodded. “So, we go back to Frankfurt. And we’ll stake out the central police station or police headquarters, whatever they call the offices of their chiefs.”

“Yes. And if the stars favor us, we’ll soon find O’Connor and then Hall.” His eyes glinted again as he thought of the reward Romanov had promised for the capture of the Canadian agents. Half a million dollars was spare change to the oil billionaire. To Valery, that could be his retirement. Or he could own his own private security firm and order other people around. He smiled and gave Borya a gentle pat on the shoulder. “Take us to Frankfurt. And when you talk to Fyodor, see if he has someone he can send ahead of us to keep an eye on the police HQ. He seems to know everyone in the city.”

“I’ll get it done, boss,” Borya said.

He threw the BMW into gear, then reached for his phone.

Valery closed his eyes for a moment and drew in a deep breath through his nose. I can smell you, Justin Hall. I know you can’t be far away. I’ll find you. I promise, I will find you.