'Anything else?'
Christina walked beside the stretcher as they carried her to the ambulance. She looked down at Lila and squeezed her hand; then looked up at Angelo and mouthed — but did not speak — the words: Tell him to hurry. It doesn't look good.
23
It all was a blur. Andreas couldn't tell you where he was or how he got there. But he was sitting outside an operating theater in some hospital somewhere waiting to hear whether Lila would live or die. Or something in between. He wasn't alone. Her parents sat next to him. They were nice people. Gentle people. The mother cried, the father tried not to. Andreas stared straight ahead at nothing.
He had no idea how much time had passed when the surgeon finally came to tell them the news. They did what they could to repair bleeding onto her brain. No idea of the extent of the damage. No idea when she would regain consciousness. Should know more in seventy-two hours. There was nothing more left to do than pray.
Andreas thought he'd said goodbye to Lila's parents but wasn't sure. He remembered leaving the hospital and walking past his car. He just kept walking, wandering. He stopped in front of one church, then another. He went into neither. He'd already said all the prayers he intended. Now he was thinking about other things, and a church was not a proper place for those thoughts. He kept walking until he stood on Alexandras Avenue across from GADA Headquarters. He wondered whether this was any more appropriate a place for what he had in mind. He didn't care. He crossed the street and went inside. Demon was about to get his wish: the times are a-changin. Andreas intended to see to it personally. By the time Kouros spotted Demon he knew about Lila. He tried calling Andreas to find out if he still wanted Demon picked up, but Andreas didn't answer. Kouros decided only to watch him. Demon was sitting in the middle of a busy first-floor university hallway and didn't look to be going anywhere. They could grab him later, off-campus, where an arrest wouldn't set off student riots and end Kouros' career.
Hours passed and Demon hadn't moved. He just sat in that hallway reading a book. Every once in a while he looked at his watch and peeked into a nearby office. Three young female cops rotated through the stakeout. It looked less suspicious that way. All any of them had to do was stand still for a moment, and someone hit on her. That sort of kamaki conversation could go on indefinitely without attracting attention.
Kouros was out of sight, in an empty office in a hall around the corner from Demon, when his cell phone rang.
'Yianni?' It was not a voice Kouros recognized, yet he knew it was his chief.
'How's Lila?'
'They'll know something in seventy-two hours.' Andreas spoke without emotion. He sounded numb, or in a trance. 'What have you done with Demosthenes?'
'We're watching him. He's inside the university sitting in a main hallway. I think he's waiting for a phone call.'
'Does he know we're onto him?'
'Don't think so.'
'I think I know who he's waiting to hear from, but those two guys won't be making any calls for a quite a few years.'
'I heard. Angelo told me. That's why I didn't grab him. Figured I'd wait to see what you wanted me to do.'
'You did the right thing. Let's keep him running around out there. Get back to the office as soon as you can get away. We've got things to talk about.'
Kouros assumed they were things Andreas didn't want to discuss over the phone. 'As soon as he leaves, I'll head back.'
'I'll be here. Nowhere else to go.' The phone went dead.
Kouros took a breath and wondered how he'd hold up if something like what happened to Lila ever happened to- 'God forbid,' and crossed himself. Demon was tired of waiting for the junkies to call. Either they'd done the job or they didn't. Good thing he gave them a university number; if the fools got caught, there was nothing to link them back to him but their word. And little good that would do them.
He watched two pretty girls toy with some young guys hitting on them. He decided to see Anna. Yeah, that meant Efisio would find her for sure. But so what? He'd have to get rid of her soon anyway; the kid, too. Couldn't have a hooker and her bastard son tied to him any longer.
Andreas spent fifteen minutes explaining to Kouros what he had in mind. It wasn't complicated, just risky. Sort of like setting off a nuclear explosion inside a cookie jar and hoping no one noticed it was your jar.
Kouros' only question was whether he could use that Laurel and Hardy line again. 'I don't want to think of the mess we're in if this goes wrong.'
'I don't want to think about what happens if it works.'
'When do you talk to Tassos?'
'After he deals with the Sardinians. If he can't…' Andreas rubbed his eyes, 'and they snatch the family, there's no chance of pulling this off. None.'
'When do you think we'll know?'
'Don't know, but my guess is soon. Nothing we can do until then, except keep an eye on the cast of characters.' Andreas looked at his watch. 'Do me a favor, will you, and drop me off at the hospital. I left my car there.'
'Sure.'
'Any more word on Demosthenes?'
'Just that he went to Anna's and back to his apartment.'
'Probably led Efisio's boys right to her. Keep an eye on her, too. No other woman's going down because of that miserable bastard.' Andreas clenched his fists. 'So help me, god.'
A strange prayer for what he had in mind. It was a beautiful day to be on the ocean. All the blues of the sea against the pale blues of the sky ran in one direction, and the greens, whites, and tans of southern Sardinia's shoreline in the other. The Ginny Too traveled south, passing near enough to shore to see the ancient watchtowers that once served to send word of invaders from the sea. Some say the sea was never friendly to this island and that was why so few chose to live by its edge. Today, it was building codes that kept construction inland and away from corrupting the beauty of this shore.
They dropped anchor a few hours before sunset off the town of Pula, just south of Sardinia's capital, Cagliari. Two inflatable boats, tenders to the Ginny Too, immediately left for shore. One held five men, and the other carried two children, a woman, and two men. The one with all men reached the dock first; four jumped ashore and the fifth moved the boat to idle nearby. Three of the men ran toward the parking lot at the end of the dock, the fourth helped the woman, children, and one man out of the second boat.
As soon as all were ashore, the boats sped back to the Ginny Too and the people hurried toward three all-black Hummers idling in the parking lot. The party from the second boat got into the middle Hummer, two men jumped into each of the others, and the three sped off from the port.
They wound through the local streets in crisp, military-convoy fashion. At a main road they turned left, and at another turned right toward Is Molas. Two miles later, in the middle of a modern, campus-style science and technology research center, they turned left onto a dirt road and into the enchanted 270-square-mile Sulcis National Park. A mountainous place of rock and granite, filled with holm oaks and centuries-old cork forests, it was as wild and beautiful a place as one might imagine within view of the sea.
Ten minutes later, just over the crest of a hill, a gate blocked the road. One man got out and opened it, while another scanned the road behind them. Within thirty seconds they were moving again, deeper and deeper into the Sardinian forest. 'Can you believe how dumb those assholes are?' Efisio sounded on the verge of orgasm. 'They have no idea what they're doing.' He was holding court for the four others in the Jeep. Another five men were in the Jeep behind him.
'They're acting like tourists on holiday.' He rolled his hands as he spoke. 'Cruising so close to shore you could drive alongside them almost all the way down from Porto Cervo. And, now, they're on a dirt road heading into the middle of a forest.' He shook his head. 'Whoever's in charge of their security is an idiot. Or an amateur who thinks a Hummer makes them safe.' He patted the rocket propelled grenade launcher lying across his lap. 'This should make those Hummers really hum.'