“Bravo,” Braun said. “Is this where I’m overcome by gratitude and tell all?”
Lou looked at the others and jerked his head toward the door.
“ETA on the chopper?” he asked in the hall.
“Fifteen minutes,” Anna said. “Will he make it?”
“Probably,” Lou said. “Not that it matters much now.”
She nodded. “By the time he gets out of surgery, we’ll be up to our bums in lawyers. And it may be too late anyway.”
“Unless he has a change of heart,” Lou said, “near-death experience and all. Pity we can’t ask, seeing as how we must help the locals prepare a landing area for the chopper.”
Lou turned to Dugan. “Can you ask him, Tom? Now mind you, he’s not to be mistreated — though he may well claim you did, there being no witnesses and all.”
Anna objected. “It should be one of us. Tom’s not a trained interrogator.”
Ward shook his head. “No, Anna. Lou’s right. Braun’s not worried about us, but Tom’s a credible threat.”
Anna looked at Dugan. “Can you do it?”
Dugan’s eyes left no doubt. “Oh yeah,” he said softly.
Reyes spoke for the first time. “May I suggest that it may seem more credible to Braun if it appears that Señor Dugan has slipped away to question Braun on his own?”
Moments later, Anna cleared the house by requesting all the local police to help cordon off the landing zone. As people trooped into the street, Ward hung back a bit, his hand on Dugan’s shoulder. They locked eyes.
“I guess sometimes maybe it has to be red is positive and black is negative,” Ward said.
Dugan nodded, and Ward moved off with the others.
“Where did everyone go, and what are you doing here?” Braun demanded.
Dugan locked the door and squatted by Braun, forearms across his knees. He smiled.
“I slipped back for a chat about the next attacks. It’ll help at your trial.”
“What trial? Kairouz confessed. Worry about your own trial, you idiot.”
Dugan changed tacks. “Think of the thousands that will die.”
Braun’s laugh finished in a bloody cough.
“They mean nothing to me,” he said as he recovered. “You look ridiculous, squatting there like some movie cowboy. Say something appropriate. Yippee tie yie yay, perhaps?”
Dugan rose and grabbed Braun’s ankles, jerking the man from the wall so fast his head bounced on the hardwood. Dugan ripped the tape off the wound and got in Braun’s face.
“Yee haa,” he said, spraying spittle. “How’s that, asshole?
“You’ve fucked me all right,” Dugan continued. “Maybe a little too hard. I got nothing left to lose. You think I give two shits about your evil masters or your motives. News flash. I don’t. I can use info about the attacks to save my own ass. If you won’t provide it, I’ve no reason to keep you alive. I’ll watch you drown in your own blood, then slap the tape back and sit you up. There’s no downside, Karl. I can’t be any worse off than I am.”
Braun gasped, and Dugan patted his shoulder.
“I know it hurts. And I want you to know, I’m still open to a trade. But don’t take too long, because you’re looking a little blue.” He paused. “What was that phrase you like? Oh yeah. Tick. Tick. Tick.”
Braun’s lips moved. “O… OK,” he said.
“Great, Karl. Let’s start easy. How many more attacks? I’ll say numbers, and you nod or shake your head. OK?”
Braun nodded.
“Here we go. Three or more?”
Braun shook his head.
“Good,” Dugan said. “Two more attacks?”
Again, Braun shook his head.
“Great, Karl. So there’s one more attack?”
Braun nodded. Eyes closed. Face a blue mask. Dugan slapped his cheeks.
“Stay with me, Karl. Where?”
Braun’s lips moved, and Dugan put his ear close. “Is… Is… Ista…”
“Istanbul? The Bosphorus Straits?”
Braun managed a nod.
Dugan slapped him harder. “What ship? What load port? Talk to me.”
Braun opened his eyes and tried to speak as frothy blood whistled from his wound. “O… o…” he began. His head fell to one side.
Dugan slapped the tape back and dragged Braun upright just as paramedics entered the house. Dugan ran outside.
“One more attack,” Dugan shouted over chopper noise. “Istanbul.”
Anna shouted back. “We’ve good news too. Alex survived, but he’s in serious condition.”
Dugan closed his eyes and nodded as Ward gripped his shoulder. He opened them to see paramedics rush Braun to the chopper.
Anna had called in their own chopper, and as they flew back to Thames House, Dugan’s thoughts turned eastward to Istanbul, city of thirteen million astride the winding Bosphorus.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Dugan looked up as Anna entered the waiting room.
“How’s Braun?” he asked.
“Still under from the surgery,” Anna said. “And Alex? What’s the doctor say?”
“That he’s lucky to be alive,” Dugan said. “The activation bulb in the sprinkler head he rigged the rope to fractured and set off the sprinklers. They got to him fast, but we won’t know about brain damage unless… until… he wakes up.”
“Have you been in?”
Dugan shook his head. “Visitation’s limited. I didn’t want to deprive Cassie and Mrs. Farnsworth of any time in case…”
Anna nodded, and Dugan fell silent, composing himself before continuing.
“Thank you for Gillian. She couldn’t bear being locked away now.”
Anna shrugged. “She was bringing the gun to us, and it accidentally discharged.”
“You’re OK with that?”
“When the law is at odds with justice, I’ll take justice.”
“Thank you,” he said again. Then added, “I have to get to Russia.”
“Why? It’s up to the Russians and Turks now.”
A known target had cut Dugan’s list to six ships, and he’d called each with news of the office fire and updated their positions in the process. Only the M/T Phoenix Orion, loading crude at Novorossiysk, Russia, was close enough. Braun’s ‘”O… o…” had meant “Orion.”
“Someone has to protect Alex’s interests. Liability from the Asian Trader alone could ruin him, and you can count on the underwriters denying claims on the premise of criminal activity.”
“But what’s that have to do with the next attack?”
“Because he’ll need all his assets to survive this. Orion is a profitable ship, and I need to be on the ground to persuade the Russians not to impound her after they stop the attack. And there’s the crew. Remember that school incident? The Russians killed half the kids along with the terrorists. You think they care about our crew?”
“But what can—”
“Ingratiate myself. Offer advice. Whatever. I’ll play it by ear.”
Ward walked in during Dugan’s discourse and was nodding.
“Can you even get there in time?” Anna asked.
“I need help,” Dugan admitted. “Commercial flights are via Moscow with long layovers, but it’s only five hours by business jet. The airport is daylight only, but if I leave by eleven, I’ll be there at dawn.”
Anna stared. “Aren’t you forgetting something? You’re still in ‘Panamanian custody,’ and even if you weren’t, with Alex’s confession, Scotland Yard considers you a suspect. We can look the other way, but neither Jesse nor I can openly provide transport.”
Ward cleared his throat. “I don’t think the Panamanian custody thing will be too big a problem. Being a good cop, Reyes has figured out where the bodies are buried. He’s sticking to Braun like glue. He seems to have lost interest in Tom.”