“I’m fine, Tom,” Anna repeated.
The IPS terminal had exploded just before her car passed it, wreaking havoc and bringing traffic to an immediate halt. Caught accelerating into the melee, her driver had rear-ended a taxi despite his best efforts. Double black eyes from the exploding air bag left her with a racoonish look, prompting Dugan’s unwanted solicitude. She’d insisted on returning to HQ, and the paramedics hadn’t argued, having had more serious injuries to attend.
Destruction of the terminal halted efforts to stop the trucks. The police were searching, but she knew they’d find an abandoned truck and cold trail.
“Harry, where’s Lou?” she asked. “He and Ward should be here by now.”
“He called. They stopped by New Scotland Yard. Didn’t say why. I’ll give him a call.” He was raising his phone when Lou walked in with Ward.
“Christ,” Ward said. “Anna, are you—”
“I’m fine.”
“Welcome to the Elephant Man Club,” Dugan said, earning a glare from Anna.
Dugan ignored the glare and turned to Ward. “So, Jesse. Did the police have something?”
Ward glanced at Lou.
“Metro arrested Alex Kairouz at Heathrow with $12 million in cash and negotiables,” Lou said. “He confessed to engineering the attacks. Says he panicked at your arrest and decided to escape.”
“Bullshit. How can anyone believ—”
Lou held up a hand. “There’s more. He also confessed to killing Sutton and setting the firebombs in the office to cover it. Metro confirmed Sutton’s death.” Lou paused. “And he named you as coconspirator, Tom.”
“Braun coerced him. He’s trying to save Cassie. Who can blame him when we screwed up by the numbers? Did you tell that to Scotland Yard?”
“I did,” Lou said. “But his story’s tight. Says he ordered Braun to grab Cassie for fear Mrs. Farnsworth wouldn’t play along. He speculates Braun didn’t bring her to the plane because he had an observer who saw the police and warned him off. Rubbish, but credible.”
“We need to talk to him,” Dugan said.
“We did, Tom,” Ward said. “When he learned we’d lost Cassie, he said, ‘It’s always been up to me — tell Thomas I’m sorry,’ and asked to return to his cell.”
“Christ on a crutch. Am I under arrest, Jesse?”
“Of course,” Ward said, nodding toward Reyes, “you’re in Panamanian custody. And Agent Chesterton was most creative in explaining to the Financial Crimes folks at New Scotland Yard both the arcane aspects of international law that allowed you to be in Panamanian custody on British soil and just how they should go about requesting transfer of custody.”
Lou Chesterton smiled. “I also assured our law-enforcement colleagues we’re keeping close tabs on you and that you had information that is key to our operation. How much time that buys us, I don’t know.”
Dugan shot Lou a grateful look.
“All right, let’s get cracking,” Anna said. “Parallel objectives — thwart the attacks and find Braun and Cassie. Tom, you’re our ship expert. Thoughts?”
“I’ll have Mrs. Coutts check the off-site backups, but I’m sure they’re compromised. That leaves my week-old position report and some educated guessing.
“Braun’s departure,” he continued, “suggests imminent attacks, say within two days. If I exclude Panama and Malacca and draw circles around other choke points with a radius equal to two days’ steaming time, we have probable attack-ship envelopes. With the old report, I’ll try to weed out tankers that can’t possibly have reached these areas.”
Anna nodded. “A short list, like before.”
“More like a ‘much-longer-than-I-want list.’ Working with week-old data will complicate things.” He sighed. “But I don’t have a clue what else to do.”
Anna nodded. “Get started straightaway. Tell Harry what you need. This will be our ops center. The IT people will have us up and running within the hour. Braun’s escape was improvised, and he’s probably reassessing. We’ll keep pressure on. I released his photo, along with Farley’s and Cassie’s, to the media. Moving will be difficult.
“He’ll be close,” she went on. “We’ll check rentals and utility hookups in a fifty-mile radius and cross those against known aliases and family and associates for Farley and Sutton.”
Anna saw skepticism. Ward voiced it.
“That’s a big area, Anna. There must be a thousand possibilities.”
She sighed. “Several thousand. We best get started.”
Braun opened the pantry. “Bloody fuck all.”
“Here either,” Farley said, standing in front of the open refrigerator.
Braun cursed Sutton as an incompetent fool. First the balls-up about renting the safe house and now this. How difficult could it be to lay in food and supplies? He now understood Sutton’s sudden insistence on sabotaging Kairouz’s computers via phone link. He’d put off stocking the safe house and intended to do it while Braun and Farley were in the office. He must have been sweating bullets while he sabotaged the computers, rushing to finish so he could get away and stock the place before they arrived. He died before he had the chance, and now Braun regretted not killing the fool slowly.
Braun sighed. “I’ll go to the market we passed. But let’s check the news first. Assuming that bloody idiot actually got the cable connected.”
They moved to the living room and turned on the television.
“…Alexander Kairouz was taken into custody at Heathrow.”
Braun smiled.
“Kairouz’s daughter is missing, abductors thought to be Karl Braun and Ian Farley, whose photos are shown here along with the girl’s. Anyone seeing…”
“Bloody hell,” Farley said as Braun’s smile faded.
“We’ll adapt,” Braun said. “You stay here. I’ll disguise myself and go. But first, let’s take care of the girl.”
Cassie lay in her silver cocoon on the bedroom floor as they transformed the big closet, taping film to the walls and ceiling and spreading it on the floor, covering that with a rug. Finally they lined the door and hung a film curtain inside, a barrier when the door opened.
Farley carried Cassie in, and Braun squatted on the closet floor beside her as Farley unwrapped the girl. A bloody implant. He fingered her scar. It was deep, but he could get it. No need to rush. They’d be here a while. If she became a great liability, he’d have his fun and slit her throat. He ripped the tape off her mouth and rose, leaving her bound and unconscious.
“I’m going to get ready. Stay in the bedroom and call me if she wakes.”
“There ain’t a telly in the bedroom. I’ll hear her fine in the living room.”
“So might the neighbors, you bloody fool,” Braun said.
“Oh, all right, but at least let me watch the porn on your laptop.”
“Just at the best part,” muttered Farley as Cassie whimpered.
“Wher… where am I?” she asked as he pushed through the silver curtain.
“In the bosom of your new family.”
She lowered her voice. “I have to pee.”
“Go ahead,” he whispered back, laughing as he left.
He exited the closet to come face-to-face with a stranger, and his hand flew to his shoulder holster.
“It’s me, you idiot.”
Farley stared. Black hair, not blond. Gray at the temples with a salt-and-pepper mustache. Oral inserts made Braun’s face fuller.
“Bloody magic.”
“I’ll bask in your admiration later, Farley. Is she awake?”
“Yeah.” He smirked. “Said she had to piss. I told her go ahead.”
“Brilliant. Did you tell her you’d clean it up? She’ll be in there several days. Get a pot from the kitchen and a toilet roll from the bathroom.”