Andreyev hung up.
Floyd looked at me expectantly.
“He doesn’t want to negotiate. Which means Beth has whatever he wants.”
Floyd clenched his fist. “What? There’s nothing she has that could have provoked all this. And why go after me in Afghanistan? I don’t believe she has anything.”
“I hope you’re right,” I said. “It might help keep your family safe until we get them back. And we will get them back. I promise.”
Chapter 72
I could see Justine standing beside a white Toyota Sequoia as we came in to land at Teterboro Airport, a small facility for executive jets located in New Jersey. Even at a distance, I sensed her anticipation, and shared it. I couldn’t wait to hold her in my arms. In contrast, Joshua Floyd was impatient and irascible, which was completely understandable in the circumstances. I was coming home to someone I loved while his family were in the clutches of evil.
The pilot of the G650 brought the aircraft down and there was the slightest bump when the wheels kissed the runway. We taxied to the stand where Justine waited, and after a quick check by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, we were allowed off the aircraft. I thanked the pilot and co-pilot, and hurried down the airstairs.
“Jack!” Justine ran over.
She looked exhausted, but she was beaming. My own wide smile made my cheeks ache. She rushed into my arms and I held her close. She whispered my name over and over and we kissed again and again.
Joshua Floyd came down the airstairs slowly, a frown on his face. He shivered as he looked around the desolate snow-covered airport. This wasn’t much of a homecoming for a man who’d been through hell, and it was made worse by the absence of his family.
“Justine Smith, this is Joshua Floyd,” I said. “Captain Floyd saved my life.”
Justine shook his hand. “I don’t know how I can thank you.”
“Find my family,” he replied flatly.
She looked at me awkwardly.
“We will,” I assured him.
The back door of the Toyota opened and Mo-bot stepped out. She wore a thick ski jacket, hat and gloves. In contrast to Justine’s elegant trench coat, Mo-bot was dressed for substance over style. She barreled over and gave me a hug.
“It’s good to see you alive, Jack,” she said. “We’re set up at the New York office.”
“This is Joshua Floyd,” I told her.
She and Floyd shook hands.
“We’re going to get your family back, Mr. Floyd,” Mo-bot said.
“Mr. Morgan,” the pilot called.
I turned to see him holding out the flight case Dinara had given me, and ran back to take it.
“Thanks,” I said.
I joined Mo-bot, Justine and Floyd who were heading for the SUV.
“What have you got there?” Mo-bot indicated the case.
“Clothes mostly, some notes, but most importantly a satellite phone,” I replied. “I want you to take a look at it. It was on the aircraft that belonged to the men hunting Captain Floyd. There might be something useful on it.”
“Hand it over,” Mo-bot replied. “I’ve got my laptop and some of the gear in the car. I might as well get to work.”
I put the case down by the back of the Toyota, opened it and took out the satellite phone.
“Iridium 9575,” Mo-bot remarked as I handed it over. “Good phone. Should have a lot of history, unless the last owner wiped it regularly. And even then there are ways to recover data. I’ll get to work.”
She hurried round the Toyota and got in the back seat. Floyd sat beside her.
Justine opened the trunk and I lifted the flight case inside. I closed the tailgate and, as I turned, she embraced me. Her eyes glistened.
“I never want to lose you again,” she said. “Promise me?”
“I’ll do my best,” I replied.
She stared at me, but didn’t say anything. After a moment, her expression softened.
“That will have to do,” she said, before kissing me.
Chapter 73
Beth could hear someone whimpering and, after a few moments, realized she was the source of the pitiful sound. She’d been hanging from the straps around her wrists for what seemed an eternity. She could barely remember her life before the hell she was now experiencing, and when she caught flashes of what once had been, of the children running around laughing, of Josh taking her in his arms, those images caused nothing but pain.
She knew her life was gone. People like the men who’d abducted them didn’t leave witnesses. They didn’t believe in mercy, or in survivors.
They’d beaten her and she’d cursed them and sworn vengeance. Then she’d tried to bargain and negotiate, but they were relentless in their willingness to inflict pain and unyielding in their refusal to listen to her offers. They were only interested in one thing: the Bull.
Beth desperately wracked her brains to try and figure out what they were talking about and why they thought she had anything to do with it, but she came up with nothing. She tried to make them understand, but they didn’t believe her. She’d thought about lying and sending them to some made-up place, but knew they’d punish her more if they returned without the Bull. Even worse, they might punish the children.
The horrific screams and death metal stopped. Beth’s ears throbbed in the silence that followed. A moment later, she heard footsteps and muffled crying. She recognized it immediately.
“Danny,” she tried to say, but the gag muffled her voice.
Her hood was removed and her eyes burned in response to the sudden flood of light. She clenched them tightly shut while someone removed her gag.
“Please don’t hurt him,” Beth pleaded.
“Mom!” Maria screamed, before breaking into sobs.
Beth forced her eyes open. As they became accustomed to the light, she made out her children standing ten feet ahead in the center of what looked like a concrete-floored barn. Thirty feet behind them was a corrugated-steel door. Masked men stood either side of her children, each pressing a pistol to a child’s head.
“Please let us go,” Beth begged, her voice rasping and croaking, broken by all her crying. “I don’t know anything about the Bull.”
She sensed movement and heard steps behind her. She turned her tender head as far as she could to see a middle-aged man in a gray suit step into view.
“We are at the end of our patience,” he said.
“You’re the one behind this,” Beth observed. She recognized his face from the files Jessie Fleming had been studying. “Victor Andreyev.”
The man frowned and Beth immediately regretted revealing what she knew. She had increased the likelihood this man would kill them.
“Where is the Bull?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Beth replied. She was on the verge of hysteria. “I swear I don’t.”
“Your husband took it from an associate of ours in Ukraine,” Andreyev said. “We want it back.”
“I don’t know!” Beth cried.
“Mom!” Danny wept.
“It’s OK, baby. It’s OK,” Beth tried to reassure him, but she didn’t believe her own words.
“The price of your resistance will be a life,” Andreyev said.
“No!” Beth screamed as he nodded at the men holding her children.
Danny and Maria struggled and cried, but the men held them firmly.
“You choose which one dies,” Andreyev said. “Who is it to be? The boy or the girl?”
“I don’t know about the Bull,” Beth whimpered. “I don’t know. I don’t know. Please...”
“If you won’t choose, then they will both die,” he said, and nodded at the men.
Beth screamed and time slowed as she watched the masked men press pistols tight against her children’s temples. Danny and Maria squirmed and cried, but they couldn’t get free of their strong captors.