Last Resort (55 page)

She had no way of knowing then that she was wasting her time even thinking about bribing the old woman, that the time would never come when she'd be able to put her plan into motion; all she knew then was that the small comfort it gave her had calmed her enough for her to fall into an unsteady, dream-ridden sleep.

It was just after eleven at night when David landed at Ninoy Aquino airport.

Pierre was waiting, ready to update him on what had been happening.

"Where's Penny?"

David said, before Pierre could speak.

Pierre blinked.

"Still in the jail."

David's tension seemed to relax for a moment.

"Thank God for that,"

he said, starting to walk on.

"And the DBA?"

They're waiting to talk to you. David, I don't think'

"No, don't think,"

David interrupted.

"I know what you're going to say, that I've got to be out of my mind coming here, but it's too late now, I'm here. Now, I've got to get out to that jail and fast. How long will it take?"

"An hour. Maybe more."

"Where's the money? Did it arrive?"

"It's locked in the boot of the car. They won't arraign her for at least another twelve hours ..."

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'If I'm right about this/ David said,

"they won't arraign her at all. Where's the car?"

"Right outside. What do you mean they won't arraign her? They have to; there'll be hell to pay otherwise. The British Embassy knows she's there."

There's not the time to explain,"

David said, pulling the notes he had made on the plane out of his pocket.

"Right now I want you to go back to the hotel and call these people. Get everything set up, including the plane, and make sure it's ready to fly out at a moment's notice."

Pierre's face had turned white.

"David, you can't'

"Just do it,"

David snapped.

"Now, how the hell do I find this place?"

Tou won't need to worry about that,"

Pierre told him.

"You'll have company. There are two DEA agents in the car. The Manila section of Interpol have managed to get themselves involved too, and so have Narcotics Command."

"Let's all go to the fucking circus,"

David said scathingly.

A few minutes later he wrenched open the front passenger seat of the car and glared down at the DEA agent sitting there.

"Have you got someone watching that jail?"

he barked.

T guess you must be Villers,"

the agent responded silkily.

"The name's Foreman. This here,"

he added jerking his thumb towards the back seat,

"is Bertolucci, like in the movie director. We call him Lucci, or Looch."

"Sure is a pleasure to meet you,"

Lucci grinned.

"Are you in contact with whoever's watching the jail?"

David snapped.

"Sure. You think Mureau's gonna get in there ..."

"It's not Mureau I'm worried about,"

David seethed.

"Now, get on that radio and find out if she's still in the jail."

"She's still there,"

Foreman answered.

"And I think

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we'd better straighten out just who's giving the orders round here,

"cos it sure as hell ain't you, sonny boy'

David was already walking round the car.

"You want to see an innocent woman lose her life, then you just carry on debating who's in charge here,"

he said, getting in behind the wheel.

"Now, which way are we heading? What the fuck ... ?"

he cried as he started to pull away and a Disneyland of police lights started flashing in the rear-view mirror.

"Hit the brakes,"

Foreman said. Then, turning to Lucci.

"Go tell them to cool it or we'll go out of our way to lose

"em and they'll miss out on all the fun."

David threw him a filthy look, then said,

"Why aren't they out there already? The way I heard it, it's their own officers who took money from Mureau ..."

"Which puts your girlfriend back in a hostage situation,"

Foreman reminded him.

"One step out of place and good night, Penny Moon. Least, that's the way we see it. You want to tell me different?"

"No,"

David answered shortly.

"What I want to tell you is why it's so god-damned vital they keep her in that jail till we get there,

"cos if Mureau's up to what I think he's up to, there's every chance in the world we'll never see either of them again."

"Is that so?"

Foreman drawled, his interest perking up.

"D'you hear that, Looch?"

he said as Lucci got back into the car.

"Mr Villers here reckons there's a chance we might never see our friend Mureau again if we don't keep the girlfriend in jail. Now what do you reckon to that, Looch?"

"Reckon it calls for some sort of explaining, Jim, is what I reckon."

Teah, s'about what I reckon too. So hit the gas, Mr Villers, and tell us what you know."

"Before I do that, how about you telling me what kind of jurisdiction you have here?"

"Carte blanche,"

Foreman answered.

"Mureau's our man

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and the Filipinos aren't arguing the point. Turn right out of here. Head up to the next lights, then turn right again. So, what you got that we ought to know about?"

It didn't take David long to tell them what he thought Mureau was proposing to do, and even before he'd finished Foreman was on the radio to the agent watching the jail.

"She still there, Todd?"

he shouted over the static.

"Sure, she's still here. Would've told you if they'd taken her anywhere, wouldn't I?"

"That's just it,"

Foreman said.

"Don't let them take her anywhere. If they try to move her, shoot. D'you get that? Shoot!'

"What, are you crazy?"

David yelled. Tf you shoot, everyone's going to end up dead, including Penny.

If they try to take her anywhere, you just follow. How many men have you got out there?"

"Two,"

Foreman answered.

"Enough for you?"

Before David could answer, the field agent's voice came back over the radio.

"Who the fuck is that, Jim?"

Foreman grinned.

"That's our friend Mr Villers, Todd."

"Then tell him to keep his fucking voice down - it's making the natives nervous."

"Where are you, for Christ's sake?"

Foreman laughed.

"We're parked up in one of those crappy little bicycleand-sidecar affairs right opposite the jail. No one comes or goes without us seeing."

"What about the back? Who's watching the back?"

David shouted.

"No back way in or out,"

Todd answered.

"There's always a back way in or out,"

David roared.

"Get him the fuck off the line, will you?"

Todd grumbled.

"We got us a pretty serious situation here, Todd,"

Foreman answered.

"More serious than I can go into right now. So just do as he says and double-check the back way."

I

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'OK, you got it. But you tell that bastard from me he ain't in no position to kick ass around here'

"Over and out, Todd/ Foreman cut in and threw the radio back on the dash.

"We'll check in again five minutes before we get there,"

he said to David,

"but if there's anything to report we'll know about it. You tooled up?"

"No/ David answered, swerving to avoid an oncoming truck.

"Sort it, Looch,"

he said.

"We run into Mureau out there this guy's gonna need all the protection he can get."

Then, to David: The others keeping up?"

"They seem to be/ David answered, glancing in the rear-view mirror. His adrenalin was really pumping now and he was glad when the car fell into silence. He wanted to concentrate on this miserable excuse for a road, because the way they were going there was every chance they'd end up over a cliff. The bright lights and bottlenecks of Manila were behind them now and the lack of street lights and moonless sky were making the route as hazardous as any he'd ever driven.

They sped on through the night, passing derelict garages, convents and villages. The higher they climbed, the denser the forest became. The winding road narrowed to a single track. Overhead sharp tongues of static flashed across the sky. David's hands were tight on the wheel; his face was pale and his limbs rigid with tension. His mind was racked with thoughts of Penny. The crazy thing was that the closer they got to her the more jittery he felt at seeing her. He just prayed to God that she wasn't in on this with Mureau. But surely to God she'd never have agreed to being locked up in a festering hole just to humour Mureau? And it was even less likely that she'd put her sister's life at risk by not co-operating with the DBA. But they hadn't got there in time, had they? The outfit Mureau had bought himself had got there first, so there had been no opportunity to tell Penny who was really holding her sister and that there was no chance in

433

the world any harm was going to come to Sammy.

"Shit!"

he swore, fighting to control the wheel as the car bounced up over a rock.

Take it easy/ Foreman muttered. Then, glancing at his watch, he reached for the radio.

"You there, Todd?"

he said.

"We're here/ Todd answered.

"Where are you?"

"Just coming up over the hill. We can see the lights of the town now. Be with you in about five. Any action

your end?"

"Dead as a doornail."

Foreman hung up the radio and looked at David.

"Could be you're wrong/ he said,

"and he's not planning on coming for her tonight."

"That's your problem/ David answered. T'm here to buy her out of that jail, then we're out of here. You want to wait around to see if he shows, that's up to you."

"She's the bait, Villers. She's gonna have to stay."

"Could be he's long gone/ David said.

"Could be. But we need her in that jail a while longer yet."

David didn't argue. He knew the only reason he was getting the DEA's co-operation here was because of their chances of capturing Mureau.

"This it?"

he said a few minutes later as they bumped up over a mound in the road and turned into a rutted main street of the third world.

"This is it/ Foreman confirmed.

"Police station's down on the right. Look out for the Holy Trinity Dental Clinic

- it's right next door."

David had slowed the car now and as Foreman gazed warily around the shadowy shop fronts and deserted food stalls he reached for his gun.

"Where is everyone?"

he murmured.

"It's a rucking ghost town."

David's blood pulsed thickly through his veins as he glanced in the mirror to see the other vehicles turning into the street.

"What's it normally like out here?"

he said.

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'Heaving. But hell, it's nearly midnight; could be they've all gone off to grab some sack time."

"Lights're on in the police station/ Lucci said.

"So someone's at home."

"Like to know who,"

Foreman commented, priming his gun.

There're the boys,"

Lucci said, pointing to a bicycleand-sidecar, half hidden in shadow.

The money's in the trunk,"

David said, pulling the car to a halt on a dusty patch of land in front of the station.

"I'm going round the back to let her know we're here. Pay whatever it takes and follow up with the keys."

Foreman turned to Lucci and rolled his eyes.

"Go tell the boys to stay put and cover our asses,"

he said.

"All looks pretty quiet to me, but they're a bunch of bandits no knowing what might happen in there."

As the Interpol and NarCom vehicles pulled in around them Lucci got out and trotted towards the sidecar. David and Foreman moved to the front of the station.

"Any trouble afoot, we'd have been warned,"

Foreman said softly.

"But no point taking chances. Get going. We'll follow up once we know what's what inside."

David was about to break away, when a uniformed officer joined him.

"Oriel Maralit, Narcotics Command,"

the officer told him. "The cell's out the back."

David nodded, then ran silently past the seething gutters and disappeared into the black hole of the side alley, Maralit close on his tail.

A dim light seeped into the darkness at the far end of the alley. David moved swiftly, fleetingly wondering if he should have picked up the gun Looch had prepared for him. When they reached the yard Maralit flicked on a torch and slid the beam over cracked, mouldering walls.

"Far corner,"

Maralit whispered, pressing ahead.

In the torch beam David could see the barred window and ran towards it. The stench hit him, making him gag.

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The beam slithered on to the gate and David's heart stopped. The gate was wide open; the cell was deserted.

He spun round as someone ran into the yard.

"She there?"

Lucci shouted.

"The place is empty/ David shouted back, his voice strangled by fury.

"The boys have gone. No sign of

"em/ Lucci told him, coming to check the cell for himself.

"Must've gone in

pursuit."

David bolted back round to the front of the station. Foreman was coming out.

Lucci dashed to the car and started shouting into the radio.

"Place is deserted/ Foreman told him.

"Jesus Holy Christ!"

David seethed, banging his fist into the wall.

"How the fuck did this happen? You just called in five minutes ago."

T'm aware of that, son/ Foreman responded tightly. He turned to Lucci.

"Any luck?"

"Nothing/ Lucci answered.

NarCom and Interpol officers were swarming over the police station. Maralit had gone inside to join them.

"No sign of the girlfriend?"

Foreman said to David.

"She's gone/ David confirmed through his teeth.