The Virtuosic Spy 01 - Deceptive Cadence (39 page)

“And who did he get it from, Thomas?” Conor smacked a fist into his palm. “Apart from the CID officers at the listening post who got it an hour ago, only the five of us knew it, so there’s a quisling bastard here, somewhere. I know it’s not me, and as you were the first one shot, it’s not likely you.”

“I see where you’re going with this,” Sedgwick said quietly. He stiffly rose from the platform and moved to stand in front of Conor, arms crossed. His cool gray eyes regarded him with detachment, but the muscles along his jaw twitched in a rippling spasm. “I’m the one with the back story, which I shared in a moment of weakness, idiotically enough. I never seem to learn my lesson with you, do I, McBride? You think since I’ve got a history with Dragonov, I must be the one who betrayed the mission, right? What do you figure I’m getting out of it—money or heroin? Or both?”

“Quit actin’ the maggot, you stupid fecker.” Conor gave the agent an impatient shove against his chest. “Sit down. Would I be standing here yelling all this at you if I thought you’d betrayed the mission?”

Sedgwick took an awkward step backward, startled and uncertain.

“Sit down.” Thomas tugged at his arm. “Go on, Conor.”

He ran a hand through his hair, trying to order his thoughts for a coherent argument. Then he took a breath and continued. “Dragonov is damned near impossible to lure anywhere. You told me that on the train the night we left Agra. So if he knew this was a trap, what would ever induce him to walk into it? Why would he risk capture by coming here?”

Sedgwick started to respond, but suddenly his mouth clapped shut. Conor saw he had made the first leap already. He nodded at the agent with a grim smile.

“The answer is simple isn’t it? He wouldn’t. He didn’t. I’ve seen what yoga masters look like, how they move. They’re supple, elastic. The guy Thomas and I met today was built like a brick shithouse, and he had less than nothing to say about Kavita or her ashram. I don’t know who that hairy little fuck is up there, but I’ll bet you twenty million dollars that he’s not Vasily Dragonov.”

“Holy shit, I think you may be right.” Sedgwick’s shoulders slumped. “We got baited by our own trap.”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure I’m right,” Conor said. “Now, while you’re taking that on board, here’s your next item. You were originally going to be with Thomas in this meeting today, and you’re the only one here who would have recognized an imposter on sight. Do you think it’s a coincidence that about three weeks ago in the Mumbai train station, a couple of trained assassins came after you, the only DEA agent who’s ever been in a room with Dragonov? They targeted you that night but didn’t get you. Why do you suppose they didn’t try it again?”

“The strategy changed that same night when we brought you in.” Sedgwick’s face had grown slack. “Coming after me again wasn’t worth the risk if I wouldn’t see him anyway, at least not before the wire transfer happened.”

The three of them looked at each other uncomfortably. “Yeah, the strategy changed,” Conor agreed. “And who, other than us, would have known about that? Walker and Costino. Only the five of us knew the plan. And which one of us didn’t follow it?”

“Costino,” Sedgwick breathed. “You mentioned his earpiece. I wondered why the moron was still wearing it if the radio didn’t work. He’s plugged into a different one.”

“It figures,” Thomas said. “I never could stand the little— ahhh, shit . . . ” His face twisted, and he pitched forward off the platform, arms clutched at his stomach.

Sedgwick and Conor both jumped to catch him before he could fall to the ground.

“Okay, we’ve got you.” Sedgwick’s voice was low, consoling. “No, don’t sit on the ground, Tom. Let’s get you back up onto the platform. There. Can you put your hands down for a minute? I know it hurts, buddy. I’ll be quick, but I need to look.”

The soothing hum of his reassurance ended with a stifled intake of breath. Conor also managed not to cry out, but only because his teeth had clamped onto his lower lip with a force that threatened to bite it in half. With the jacket pulled open, they could see his brother’s shirt was saturated with blood.

In the continuing silence, Thomas bent forward to have a look for himself. He stared at the dark, spreading stain for several seconds, muttered a low oath, and closed his eyes. He put his head back against the cement block of the shrine.

“Doesn’t look too good, does it?”

“It’s a little . . . ” Sedgwick cleared the catch from his voice and started again. “It’s a little messy, no doubt about that. We need to get a real bandage on it. There’s a medical kit in the Range Rover. I’ll run down and get it.”

He stepped back and took Conor by the elbow, drawing him out of earshot. Neither of them could look the other in the eye.

“I didn’t think it was as bad as that.” Sedgwick stared up at the tops of the trees.

“It’s about fifty kilometers to Srinagar?” Conor kept his eyes focused on the ground and kicked at a root with the toe of his boot. “How long will that take?”

“On these roads, about an hour and a half, give or take. We can’t waste any more time. There’s Celox in the med kit, a coagulating powder. It won’t solve the internal bleeding, but it will help, at least for a while. Wait here with him. I won’t be long.”

Conor watched him go, staring down the path and through the trees to the road in the distance. He walked back over to Thomas and pulled his brother’s jacket more tightly around him, raising the zipper up to his chin.

“How’s she cuttin’?” He tried to inject some lightness into the question.

“Better,” Thomas said, with a quick, unconvincing nod. “It’s easing up now.”

“Good.” Conor smiled at him. He gave his brother a gentle cuff against the side of his head and sat down next to him.

The door inside his head shuddered, but the lock held.

37

S
EDGWICK
RETURNED
WITHIN
MINUTES
,
RUNNING
UP
THE
PATH
with the medical kit and a fresh shirt he’d grabbed from one of the duffel bags. As he began to clear away the blood, Conor took his brother’s hand in a wrestling hold, feeling its iron grip as Thomas stifled a gasp and braced against the pain. Once the wound was packed with the coagulating powder and dressed with a thick, clean bandage, Conor finally broke the silence. “What are you going to do?”

Sedgwick ignored the question. He took a package from the medical kit and ripped it open, removing a square of transparent adhesive.

“This is a morphine patch for the pain,” he murmured to Thomas, pressing it on next to the bandage. “There’s a big stack of them in the kit, so don’t be afraid to yell for more. You should feel it working in a couple of minutes.”

Conor waited until he’d again zipped up his brother’s jacket before trying again. “Sedgwick—”

“I’m going to help you down to the Range Rover and then go back up the trail and—”

“Bollocks,” Thomas hissed through clenched teeth. His face was running with perspiration. “You’re coming with us.”

“I’m not.” Sedgwick closed the kit with a decisive snap. “Walker doesn’t know about any of this. I can’t leave him stranded, not realizing one of his partners is an enemy.”

“What if it’s both of them?” Thomas argued. “You’ll only get yourself killed.”

“Tom, we both know it’s not.”

With the morphine patch beginning to provide some relief, they got Thomas down the remaining section of trail without stopping again. The Range Rover had not moved an inch. Costino hadn’t even tried to make it look like he’d followed Walker’s directions.

Conor folded down the rear seats to make a flat surface and scrambled inside, arranging duffel bags to serve as bolsters. He looked through the open hatch in the rear where Thomas sat, gray-faced and trembling, and saw Sedgwick was struggling to conceal his distress.

“I’m afraid it’s going to be a bumpy ride, my friend. Don’t forget about the pain patches. I’ll follow as soon as I can and catch up with you in Srinagar.”

With a faint smile, Thomas held out a hand and shook his head. “I don’t think I’ll be around when you get there. Shake hands now. Don’t be mad if I couldn’t wait for you.”

“Tom, for God’s sake,” Sedgwick pleaded in a shaky whisper.

“
Síocáin, mo chara
,” Thomas murmured. “It’ll be all right.” In the back of the SUV, Conor fell back on his heels, stunned by his brother’s tranquil voice and its resemblance to the intuitive echo that had traveled inside him for so long. He felt a hopeless, impotent rage flood over him. Grabbing one of the duffel bags, he slammed it against the back of the driver’s seat and struggled for composure, digging his fingers deep into the heavy canvas. After a moment, he exited through one of the rear doors and stood at a distance, watching and listening.

Thomas took Sedgwick’s hand in a fierce clasp. “Promise me you’ll take care of yourself.”

“Don’t worry about me. By the time I get back up there, CID probably will have it already solved.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Thomas pressed his thumb against the agent’s wrist and ran it up the inside of his arm. “Promise me you’ll take care of yourself, brother.”

Sedgwick’s face juddered with emotion. “How can I? We both know I’m no good at it. I need the crack of Thomas McBride’s fist on my jaw, keeping me honest.”

Thomas grinned, raising his hand to form a fist. He faked a quick jab, but then his face grew thoughtful. He repeated the movement slowly until his knuckles gently connected with his friend’s chin.

“If you believe it’s there, then it will be. Kavita said as much: ‘something of us remains, always.’ So, now. Promise me.”

“Oh, goddammit.” Sedgwick’s voice disintegrated. He gave Thomas’s shoulder a squeeze and turned away. “Yes. I promise. Get in the fucking car. I’ll see you in Srinagar.”

When Conor had finished settling Thomas, he closed the rear hatch and joined Sedgwick at the trailhead. The agent’s washed-out eyes, veiled beneath a tangle of hair, were red with emotion.

“He’s nearly out, now,” Conor said. “That’s the morphine working, I hope?”

“Probably.” Sedgwick’s brow furrowed. “Are you okay? You look like shit.”

“I had the same thought, looking at you.”

They shook hands, wordlessly communicating what they couldn’t bear to mention.

“We’d better get going,” Conor said. “Good luck up there.”
 

“One thing,” Sedgwick said. “If I don’t show up in Srinagar by tomorrow at the latest, either alone or with, well, somebody—”

“I know. You don’t have to say it.” Conor nodded. “We’re on our own. If ever there were a case for plausible deniability, I’d say this is it. The DEA has never heard of us, there was never an operation to bring in a Russian arms dealer, and none of this ever happened as far as they’re concerned. Suits me fine. I’ve never heard of them either, Walker and Costino. That’s my story for Frank. I wish it were true.”

“So do I,” Sedgwick said. “Oh, son of a bitch, what now?” A large black sedan had appeared around a bend in the road above them. It successfully navigated the curve but then hit the icy stretch and began skidding. It missed the Range Rover by inches and slid sideways as it passed them before coasting to a stop farther down the hill, against a snow bank.

“Those don’t look like CID officers,” Sedgwick observed with hollow weariness.

“No, and those are big fucking guns.” Conor eyed the two men, armed with AK-47 rifles, as they struggled to exit the car. “Looks like Dragonov sent his entire gang to India. What’s the plan?”

Sedgwick bit his lip and gave a quick glance toward the Range Rover. “Lead them away from the SUV. Come on, up the trail. If Tom is still conscious, let’s hope he knows enough to stay in the car.”

They had a good head start and were able to race well up the trail before their pursuers reached its entrance. At a spot where the terrain rolled in a series of undulating dips, Sedgwick grabbed Conor’s arm, forcefully swinging him off the path. Sailing out of control, they stumbled and rolled down an incline before coming to a stop under a thicket of fir trees.

“What the hell.” Conor struggled to raise himself, but Sedgwick pushed him back onto his stomach.

“Shut up. We’re in dead ground.” He threw himself down onto the snow next to him. “The rise in the hill hid us. Lie still and let them go by. If they run far enough up the trail before doubling back, we might shake them, and if we have to shoot it out, it’s better if they’re not between us and the road.”

Conor’s legs twitched at the forced immobility. He had moved well beyond any sense of fear where his own life was concerned. The only thing he could concentrate on was the single-minded goal of saving his brother’s life. He had no time for this shite.

He also had no choice but to comply, as Sedgwick’s hand remained locked against the back of his neck. No doubt the agent sensed his desperation.

The wait wasn’t long. Within seconds, they heard the muffled thump of the Russians pounding up the trail, joined soon after by their panting voices, first at a distance and then closer as they came over the rise in the hill. Responding to Sedgwick’s urgent pinch, Conor tried to make himself even flatter against the ground. The Russians continued without pause and without glancing either to the right or left. Their retreating footsteps were still faintly audible when Sedgwick released his hold and delivered a succinct command. “Run.”

They clawed their way up the incline to the trail and headed back toward the road, moving as quietly as haste allowed. They raced past the trailside shrine and seconds later heard the sound of voices raised in agitation. The Russians were already doubling back.

“We’re not going to make it,” Conor gasped. “We’d better take cover. What about the shrine?”

“Too late to go back to it. There.” Sedgwick pointed his pistol at a large boulder just ahead of them. “Get ready to fire as soon as we’re behind it. We need to pin them far enough back to have a chance against those AK-47s.”

Conor’s boots slid out from under him as he made the tight turn and fell into position, but Sedgwick was a step slower. The two rapidly approaching figures saw him before he had time to disappear behind the boulder. He took advantage of their momentary surprise to fire a series of random shots and then dove as the answering volley commenced. He landed next to Conor with an explosive gasp of pain.