Hannah was ignoring the fountain and staring at Neeley. It was the first time she saw fear in Neeley and Hannah was immediately worried. Her eyes darted back and forth, scanning the area for the threat that her senses recognized even if she didn't.
"Let's get out of here, Neeley. This place gives me the creeps."
Neeley ignored her and was walking backward away from the fountain, her gaze still focused on the statue. Her head was a jumble of all the things Gant had taught her over the years. She was starting to shake all over and when she turned to Hannah she saw the woman's face was a mask of concern.
Hannah pulled Neeley toward one of the benches arranged in a circle around the little frozen girl and forced her to sit down.
"What's wrong with me?" Neeley could only gasp the question.
Hannah put her arm around the shaking shoulders. "It's the fear you've always run from. You're supposed to be afraid Neeley, so am I. This is a good thing. You're just showing on the outside what's always been on the inside."
"My, God, I couldn't function if I was always like this; how can this be a good thing?" Neeley's teeth were chattering now, making it even more difficult to talk.
Hannah just kept holding her. "Now you see why everyone isn't a professional killer. I guess you did pretty good to get this old without feeling the fear that rules the rest of us."
"But I was this afraid before, the day in the airport, when I met Gant."
“And Gant was there for you,” Hannah said,
Neeley looked up. “And now you’re here for me.”
"Let's get whatever we came for and get out of here." Hannah was trying to be chipper but the effort was wasted on Neeley.
Neeley leaned forward until she was staring at the ground between her feet. She took several deep breaths, then looked up. "OK."
Hannah waved her hand about. "So what did you tell him about this place? What did he think was important enough for you to remember always?"
"You know, typical childhood memories. My grandmother bringing me here, buying me a milk chocolate bar. I would run around and play mostly. Sometimes I'd walk on the rock wall over there in those bushes but I had to stop because it was loose. Some people yelled at me one day and I was mortified.
"Once my grandmother even got upset because I was despoiling the park, as she said." Neeley stopped and looked at the bronze girl. One hand was pulling the basket from the playful goose and the other was thrust forward as if for balance and the fingers were pointing across the park. She followed the tips of the fingers to the low rock wall and stood.
Hannah had to jog to keep up.
"That's where it has to be. I told Gant about my grandmother getting so angry when she found out that I was stashing paper from my chocolate in the loose stones. One day I put a flower in the foil and wrapped it tightly and stuck it there thinking that someday I'd be back. A little time capsule of my childhood. I just hope we don't have to tear the wall down."
But they didn't have to do that at all. Amazingly, the stones and their arrangement were very familiar to Neeley even after so many years. The tightly bound packet was where Gant had left it, close to Neeley's first childhood cache buried under a couple of loose stones. With trembling fingers she opened the foil and looked at the dried flower. Tears dripped down Neeley’s face. Reluctantly she opened the small package that had been on top and extracted two pieces of paper. She read Gant's spidery handwriting.
"Well, what is it?” Hannah asked. “Where’s the tape?"
"It's the rest of the cache report. But there's also a note here. I don't understand."
Hannah glanced around nervously. "OK, good, forget the note. Do you know where the tape is?"
"Yes. This says the bridge from the other half of the report is in West Virginia. Near where his ex-wife Jesse and his son live." But Neeley was more interested in the address written in Gant's hand on the note. There was nothing but the street and a number. "We have to go to some address here in Strasbourg." Her voice had gone cold and flat.
"What?"
"Shit, Hannah, I don't know. It says Rue d'Adelshoffen in Schiltigheim, which is a part of Strasbourg."
Hannah looked up at the overcast sky. "Let's just go to West Virginia, get the tape, make a deal with Nero and forget this note." Hannah reached for the paper just as a shadow fell across the stone wall.
Neeley was facing Hannah, her hand resting on the stone wall. "It's the guy from the bench, isn't it?"
Hannah watched his arrival from behind Neeley's right shoulder. He appeared quite brazen in his approach but then his gun was walking point. "Uh-huh."
Neeley remained perfectly still. "Does he have a gun?"
"Of course."
"Does it have a silencer?"
"Yes."
"Put the paper in your pocket."
Hannah started fumbling along the sides of the tight ski pants. They both heard the sound of the gun's slide being pulled back. Hannah realized the man was staring at her empty-handed fumbling. Before she could throw herself to the ground, Neeley had turned to throw the loose stone that was in her hand as hard as she could in the direction of the noise.
They both heard the light pop of the gun and the bullet pinged the wall, slicing shards of stone, one of which clipped Hannah across the cheek.
Hannah fell to the ground clutching her face. Neeley jumped the wall as the man once more pulled back the slide on the silenced weapon. She snap kicked, catching his wrist and the gun went flying. He immediately assumed a professional fighting posture and easily blocked Neeley's next two kicks.
They circled, each looking for an opening when he quickly reached down and pulled a knife from a sheath on his right calf. Neeley had left her own personal arsenal back in Denver, knowing she wouldn't get it through airport security, and now she regretted not having taken the time to rearm herself here in Europe.
He was stepping forward, throwing his left hand in a jab toward Neeley's face. She took the punch, knowing it was the knife hand that was all-important now. The blow brought a sharp pain, but she caught his right hand in a perfect X block, her forearms crossed. She twisted, trying to disarm him, but he'd been trained well and he slithered his arm out of her grasp, the blade slicing cloth on her arm but not skin.
He slashed, and then continued the move, spinning, swinging a backfist with his left, which Neeley ducked. She hit him hard with her open palm in the chest and heard the air rush out of his lungs. As she went in to finish him off, he jabbed up with the knife, the point piercing her jacket, and causing her to abruptly change course and leap back or be spitted on the blade.
The man straightened and took a deep breath before speaking in French. "No more games."
He pulled a second knife out from behind his back and whirled the two about, the steel glinting. Neeley realized she was finished now. This man knew what he was doing and with two blades it would literally be a process of him whittling her down, a cut here, a piercing there, until he got with a fatal blow or she was so disabled she couldn't defend herself.
Neeley's eyes narrowed. "I'm going to kick your teeth down your throat," she growled in French.
The man smiled, but the smile froze as she leapt forward, feinting, kicking. He backed up to get an angle on her attack and that's when Hannah smashed the stone down on the top of this head from her position on the wall.
The man dropped.
Hannah vaulted off the wall and stared at their attacker. Neeley recovered the pistol and chambered a round, before joining Hannah. She searched his pockets.