He managed with great difficulty to trip the lever locking the garrote, but, when it was free, he decided that it had been an exercise in futility.
This guy is dead.
He looked down at the man's face. There was no sign of life.
What the hell!
He pressed with all his weight on the man's abdomen and felt the expulsion of air from the man's lungs. But there was no sign of breathing.
Castillo inhaled deeply, then bent over the man, pinched his nostrils closed, and exhaled into his mouth.
There was no reaction.
Castillo pressed on the man's abdomen again and sensed again an expulsion of air. And then there was a sucking sensation. A small, short suck. Then another, a little greater. And then, all at once, a large intake of air.
And a gasping groan.
I have absolutely no idea what to do now.
The man thrashed around, clawing at his throat.
"Just breathe, that's all. Just lie there and breathe," Castillo ordered.
It sounded as if the man was trying to say something.
Castillo sensed someone behind him and quickly reached for the Micro Uzi.
"I'll call for the police and an ambulance," Otto Gorner said, softly.
"No police. No ambulance," Castillo said. "Get Sandor Tor over here."
Gorner looked as if he was going to argue but then said, "My cellular's next to my bed," and went back into the apartment.
The security man tried to sit up.
Castillo pushed him back down.
"Stay there," he said. "Help is on the way." [FOUR] Danubius Hotel Gellert Szent Gellert ter 1 Budapest, Hungary 0150 7 August 2005 "What did you shoot them with?" Sandor Tor asked.
He was squatting beside the second intruder, who was sitting against the doorframe.
Castillo said, "A.22 pistol."
"You are either a fool or have a lot of faith in your marksmanship," Tor said. "Where is it?"
"On the dresser in my bedroom," Castillo said and pointed.
Tor walked to the bedroom. Castillo followed him. Tor picked up the pistol.
"Okay," he said. "A silenced.22 pistol."
"Suppressed," Castillo corrected him without thinking.
"Very few newspaper publishers know the difference, much less how to use one of these…certainly not as well as you did."
"If you're waiting for me to respond to that, don't hold your breath," Castillo said.
Another burly, middle-aged Hungarian came into the bedroom. He carried a ten-liter red plastic gas can. Castillo saw that he was wearing rubber gloves.
"There's two more of these in the stairwell," the burly Hungarian announced.
Tor nodded.
"Does that suggest anything to you, Ur Gossinger?" Tor asked.
"Plan C," Castillo said. "If they couldn't snatch Ur Kocian-Plan A-or something went wrong and they had to kill him-Plan B-then they were going to torch the place in the hope that it would destroy Ur Kocian's files."
"You think they thought Ur Kocian was here?"
"Otherwise, they would have gone to the Telki Private Hospital. I think they were watching this place and saw the lights in the apartment and decided he was here. Maybe they saw Max on the balcony. When he didn't take his usual midnight stroll, they decided to come after him."
"Certainly they knew he was in the Telki Private Hospital," Tor argued. "Why would they think he was here?"
"But they didn't know how badly he was hurt. It made more sense for them to come here in case he was here than to try a snatch at the hospital where he might not be."
Tor looked at Castillo carefully for a long moment, then turned to the man holding the gas can.
"Rakosi, leave us alone for a minute, please," he said. "See if you can find anything in their pockets. See if we can tie them to a car anywhere around here."
"I saw an Uzi in the sitting room?" Rakosi questioned.
Tor looked at Castillo, who, after a moment's hesitation, nodded.
Tor waved his hand at Rakosi, ordering him out of the room. Then he walked to the door and closed it.
"Ur Gossinger, we are both very concerned about Ur Kocian's safety. I can do my job better if I am not in the dark." He paused and waited until he understood Castillo was not going to reply, then went on: "Forgive an old policeman for not believing you are who you say you are, Ur Gossinger."
Well, he had to be told sooner or later.
"I'm an American intelligence officer."
The nod Tor made automatically told Castillo he wasn't surprised.
"CIA?"
Castillo shook his head. "No."
Sandor Tor visibly didn't believe that.
"And what is your interest in Ur Kocian?"
"Right now, to keep him alive," Castillo said, and then, gesturing for Tor to follow him, added, "Come with me, please."
Castillo led him into Kocian's bedroom and pointed to the photograph of Eric Kocian holding his mother's and his uncle Willi's hands.
"That's my mother as a girl. And," he went on, pointing to the pictures of him holding his mother's hand, "that's her as a young woman and me as a boy."
Tor looked at the photographs, then at Castillo, and pointed to the photo of Castillo with the newly awarded medals on his tunic.
"And you were a soldier. So was I."
"I am a soldier. Lieutenant colonel."
"I suppose that would explain the marksmanship," Tor said. "But this raises more questions than it answers."
"When there is time, I will try to answer those questions. But for now, my government is interested in what Ur Kocian has learned about the oil-for-food scandal."
"Enough, obviously, for those involved to send these scumbags to kill him."
"First to find out how much he knows and then to kill him."
"He told me that the night they tried to kidnap him on the bridge," Tor said.
"He tell you anything else?"
"He said he had files here in the apartment."
"Did he say where?"
Tor shook his head. "He said he didn't want me to know."
"Well, he can tell us in the morning."
"And how are we going to protect him after that?"
"In my business, there are times when you have to trust your gut feeling about somebody," Castillo said. "And tell him things that just might come around and bite you on the ass."
"I know," Tor said, simply. "And what is your gut feeling about me?"
"In a couple of hours, an airplane will land at Ferihegy Airport. After we get Ur Kocian out of the hospital here, and he has his files, I'm going to take him to Argentina in it."
"Argentina is halfway around the world," Tor said. "It must be quite an airplane."
"A Gulfstream III," Castillo furnished.
Tor nodded his recognition of the airplane.
"Why not to the United States?"
"Two reasons. One, that Ur Kocian doesn't want to go to the States, and, two, I think we're going to find what we're looking for in southern South America. And maybe three, I think I can protect him better there than I could in the States."
"That doesn't seem reasonable."
"I think I may be able to get word to whoever is trying to get to Ur Kocian that it no longer makes sense to try to get his information or kill him because the information is now in my hands."
"I will ensure that Ur Kocian gets safely from the hospital to here and then to the airport."
Castillo said, "What would it take to get you to come to Argentina with us?"
Tor met Castillo's eyes.
"You would not have to ask permission to do something like that?" Tor said.
Castillo shook his head. "Will you come with us?"
"Of course."
"What are we going to do about the police?" Castillo said.
"Nothing. If my people can find their car-and I think they will be able to-we will put the bodies in it, take it into the woods, and burn the car with them in it."
"And that'll be the end of it?"
"We will hope so." [FIVE] Danubius Hotel Gellert Szent Gellert ter 1 Budapest, Hungary 0550 7 August 2005 "Why does finding you awake and dressed at oh-dark-hundred and with an Uzi on the coffee table make me uncomfortable, Charley?" Colonel Jake Torine asked as he and Fernando Lopez walked into the living room. And then, as Max trotted in, showing his teeth, he exclaimed, "Jesus Christ!"