Elise said, “No. There’s something there.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You’re doing something with your fingers. They’re tapping on your leg.”
Sam played back the recording. His fingers were tapping. “I’m probably frightened.”
Elise turned to meet his gaze. “I don’t think so. There’s a pattern there… give me enough time and I’ll work it out.”
Sam clicked play at the start of the recording again.
He watched it two more times and stopped.
Tom said, “Anyone see anything?”
Sam grinned. “As a matter of fact, I did.”
“What did you see?” Elise asked, her voice a mixture of surprise and almost irritation that Sam beat her to it.
“It’s a secret code. My brother and I used to use it sometimes to communicate secrets in front of our parents.”
“You kept a lot of secrets from your parents?”
Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. What’s strange is that I remember my brother clearly.”
Tom placed a hand on his shoulder. “Do you know…”
“What?” Sam asked. “That my brother’s dead? Yes, Catarina told me.”
Tom made a sympathetic smile. “We’re sorry you had to go through that one again.”
Sam said, “It’s all right. I figure I must have grieved at the time. It was a long time ago now.”
Elise was the first to return to the problem at hand. “How does the code work?”
Sam said, “It links every third letter of the word used when he taps twice.”
“So play the recording again and let’s write it down.”
Sam nodded. Pressed play from the beginning. He slowed the recording down so he could watch each frame. The tapping became more obvious at that speed.
He diligently wrote down every letter.
When it was all finished, Sam said, “I don’t get it… this doesn’t make any sense… it’s just a jumbled mess of letters.”
Elise looked at it and grinned. “Yes, it does.”
Sam said, “It does?”
“Yes. It’s the trail of a data storage site on the internet…”
“But there’s no www. thingy….”
“No. That’s because this is the code at the back of some sort of cloud computing system…”
Elise brought up Google Docs. Applied the code. And received a redirect to the wrong page. She then brought up Dropbox.
Applied the same code.
And unlocked an online hard drive.
Inside were an array of documents, including satellite images of the Durand Line on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
His mind returned to the news article he’d read about the War Crimes Hearing at The Hague and the recent massacre of Pashtuns within the Durand Line. He didn’t read what the International Criminal Court was specifically prosecuting.
Sam skimmed the documents.
There were receipts for AK-47s, M249 light machine guns, and RPGs. Attached were photos of two men shaking hands. One was Craig Martin, director of the CIA, and the other was Igor Mihailovich, the current boss of the Russian Bratva.
At the end of it he stopped.
Sam swore loudly and said, “Quick. We need to get this to The Hague right away!” He checked his watch. “We’d better get moving. We only have twelve hours to go.”
“Agreed,” Elise said.
In the cockpit, Matthew said, “I heard you. I’m setting a course for the Netherlands.”
Sam felt good. He was finally getting somewhere. He’d found answers, and now he was going to extract the ultimate revenge on the person who had betrayed him the most.
Everything was finally going to be okay.
Until his cell phone pinged with a text message. Only, it wasn’t his phone. It was Andre’s.
Sam opened it.
It was a single picture — of Catarina tied up — and a message…
CALL ME IF YOU WANT THE GIRL TO LIVE.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Sam pressed the call back number.
“Mr. Reilly. I’d like to start again… I kind of feel like you and I got off on the wrong foot after… you know… you killed my best contract killer — and you know how hard a professional like that is to replace!”
Sam asked, “Who are you?”
“My name is Igor Mihailovich. I work for the Bratva…”
“What do you want?”
“The simplest thing you will ever need to do.”
“And what’s that?”
“Simply stay away from The Hague for the next twelve hours.”
“Then what?”
“We release Catarina. In fact, I’ll sweeten the deal. How about I tell you where we’re keeping her, and you come get her?”
“Go on… I’m listening.”
“We’re keeping her at the Ivangorod Fortress. You remember where that is, don’t you?”
Strangely enough, Sam did. “All right. If I come and get her, you’ll let her go?”
“Sure. It’s impossible for you to get there and to The Hague in time.”
“Okay. I’m coming. I’ll turn around and head to the Ivangorod Fortress. Don’t you dare hurt her.”
“I won’t… that is to say, I won’t if you come and get her in time.”
“I’m on my way.”
Tom said, “You can’t negotiate with a terrorist. You can’t possibly be thinking about doing what he says, do you?”
Sam set his jaw firm, the lines around his face darkened with determination. “Actually, I’ve got another idea…”
Chapter Fifty-Eight
The Tahila cruised up the Narva River along the Russian border with Estonia. Beyond the windows Sam saw the city of Narva, proud and cold and prosperous. They were running the ship in stealth mode, camouflaged from prying eyes.
At least that’s what the crew said. Sam had to take their word for it. To him, it just looked like a ship.
Sam sat in the mission control room surrounded by more high-tech gear and gadgets than he’d ever seen in his life. There was SONAR and all kinds of depth sounding equipment, as well as incredibly sophisticated navigation devices and computers that looked like flat boxes, so unassuming that Sam assumed they had more power than he could fathom.
Amid all this a huge golden retriever minced through the chairs toward Sam, tongue lolling.
Tom laughed. “See? You think you’ve never been here before, but dogs never lie. Caliburn knows you. Goes straight for you.”
Sam reached out a hand and stroked the strong head. “Smart dog. Good judge of character.”
Tom glanced at Genevieve and laughed. “Yeah, you have no idea.”
A woman sitting behind one of the non-assuming computers tapped furiously at some keys. Her dark hair only seemed to accentuate her exotic, purple eyes. This was Elise, the Tahila’s tech goddess. She’d been responsible for navigating them to the train on its way to The Hague and she’d been instrumental in getting them back alive.
Tom looked over at her, ruffling the dog’s ears. “Hey there, beautiful. How are we doing?”
Elise laughed in disbelief. “Oh! You hear that, Sam? Looks like amnesia’s catching.”
Tom rolled his eyes, pushing away the dog’s enthusiasm. “Oh, stop. Sam, tell them to stop”
Elise tapped some more keys, then pivoted the computer on its turntable so the rest of the crew could see. “All right. Gentlemen. Now. Tell me, who’s the best?”
Sam leaned forward. He had to admit. It looked like Elise was the best.
On the screen was a 3D outline of an imposing looking fortress. It looked vaguely familiar. He squinted at it. “What’s that?”
“Ivangorod Fortress.” Elise gestured at the screen. “Used to be an ancient castle, established in 1492 by Ivan III. Big year in the history of the world, it seems. Now it’s a national monument and a Russian museum.” She drew on a tablet and zoomed in. It looked even more imposing. “That’s where they’re keeping her. When they told you to come for her, that’s where they’ll be waiting.”