Three Jack McClure Missions Box Set (113 page)

BOOK: Three Jack McClure Missions Box Set
7.57Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

“He sent cash over as a binder. Two months’ worth.” The manager shrugged his negligible shoulders. “Before that, this space just gathered dust. Though I advertised heavily, I couldn’t give it away. In my business when cash speaks, I listen.”

McKinsey looked around the space. “So what was going on down here?”

The manager shrugged.

McKinsey stared at him. “You’re a real font of knowledge, aren’t you?”

“You never got curious?” Naomi said.

“I was paid a lot of money not to be curious. A stipulation from my tenant.”

Naomi tapped a pen against the side of her smartphone. “So, basically, they could have been auctioning off little girls down here and you wouldn’t know about it.”

The manager gave no indication that he knew anything.

“We came down here through the restaurant,” McKinsey said.

“There’s a back entrance,” the manager replied. “I was told to keep the lights off in that area.”

“So where is everyone?” Naomi said.

“They must have moved out late last night. I was here until closing—around midnight—and I didn’t see anything.”

“Of course you didn’t,” McKinsey muttered.

The manager leaned forward. “Pardon?”

“How do we get into this space behind the glass?” Naomi said.

“Like I said—”

A little yelp exploded from the manager’s mouth when McKinsey smashed the glass with his elbow, then began to pick out the remaining shards from the frame. Naomi trained her flashlight on the interior. It was a perfect square, small, airless. A faint but unmistakable sickly sweet scent came to her.

“It smells like death in there,” she said.

The manager whimpered. He held up his hands. “I don’t want any trouble.”

“Too late for that,” McKinsey said as he watched Naomi carefully climb through the shattered window. “What have we got?” he asked her.

“A whole lot of nothing.” The beam of her flashlight lit up the corners of the space. “Odd, though, the floor in here is wooden planks.”

“An older part of the subbasement,” McKinsey offered.

“Right.” Then the beam came to rest. “Hold on a minute.” Crouched down, she snapped on a pair of latex gloves.

McKinsey leaned in. “Whatcha got?”

“One of these boards has something on it.” She played the beam directly on it. “I think it’s blood, Pete.”

Lifting an adjacent board, she played the beam of light into the space beneath. She bent her head down for a better look, and coughed heavily. “Fresh blood.”

14

The sword hung in the sky, glittering, remote. It revealed itself through a rent in the thick cloud cover, a sword full of blue-white stars. Jack took a deep breath of the humid air. It was filled with strange scents, just as the night was filled with strange sounds.

Behind him, the jet crouched, having landed on a runway Jack had no doubt was not on any map or near any inhabited area. It was silent, dark. Just beyond was the verge of a thick evergreen forest, its canopy, like groping fingers, mimicking the rough-hewn tors of the Korab mountain range that rose ahead of them. Somewhere up there was Tetovo, impregnable, teeming with Xhafa’s men, bristling with high-tech weaponry.

They were in western Macedonia, behind enemy lines. Their world had contracted into a red zone, a potential killing field. It was essential, Paull had told them just before landing, that they keep this in mind every minute of the day and night until such time as they made it back here and the plane took off.

While Paull broke out their weaponry and outerwear for the trek, Jack took Alli aside.

“I really need you to keep an eye on the kid.”

She looked at him with her clear eyes. “You don’t think I killed Billy, do you?”

“Don’t be absurd.” He took a breath. “But what I can’t figure out is why you lied about Arjeta Kraja. You obviously did know her.”

“Billy introduced her to me.”

“Did you think you were protecting her?”

“After they showed me what had happened to Billy I knew her life was in danger. I thought if no one knew about her involvement then maybe she had a chance to stay alive, but if all of a sudden cops and Feds came after her I knew she wouldn’t survive the next twenty-four hours.”

“So you knew about Dardan.”

She shook her head. “Neither Billy nor Arjeta mentioned him or the sex slave auction. I had no idea about that place.”

“Why would your uncle have a take-out menu from First Won Ton? And why was spicy fragrant duck with cherries circled in pencil? Cherries. It’s possible he knew about the Stem.”

“Honestly, I don’t know what to think.”

“You know him better than I do, better than almost anyone.”

“Actually, no.” Alli looked pained. “My parents would take me to his house, but he rarely spoke to me. I got the impression he didn’t like kids, including his own daughter.”

“He had a daughter?”

“Caroline.” Alli’s eyes lost focus as she allowed memories to surface. “Caro was a strange girl.”

“Strange how?”

For a moment, Alli seemed lost in thought. “For one thing, she wasn’t interested in normal sorts of things—you know, music, movies, talking on the phone, clothes shopping, boys.”

“So what was she into?”

Alli shrugged. “Who knows. Secrets?”

“Secrets?”

“Yeah, she was always disappearing—no one knew where she went, not Uncle Hank or her mom, Heidi. It would drive them crazy, especially Uncle Hank, who likes everything done his way. I’m guessing that’s why Heidi left.”

Jack considered for a moment. “Do you have any idea what happened to Caroline?”

“No. It was like she disappeared off the face of the earth. One night she walked out of the house and never came back.”

“How old was she?”

Alli bit her lip. “Thirteen, maybe. That was nine, ten years ago.”

“So she’d be twenty-two, twenty-three now. And nothing since then?”

Alli shook her head. “She could be alive or dead, no one knows.”

“Someone must know,” Jack said.

“Do you think her disappearance is relevant to Billy’s murder?”

“I don’t know,” Jack said. “But I keep coming back to that take-out menu you found in your uncle’s study.”

“It seems both irrelevant and somehow important. I mean, he wouldn’t be caught dead eating Chinese take-out.”

“Which is why it’s sticking in my mind,” Jack said. “Anomalies are always important.”

Alli stared at him for a minute. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m wondering if there’s a link between the Stem, that take-out menu, and Caroline.”

“You think Caro was kidnapped and auctioned off?”

“I’m wondering if that’s the direction your uncle is going in.”

“But if he knows about what was going on at the Stem, why didn’t he have it shut down?”

“That’s an interesting question,” Jack said.

Alli dug in her pocket. “Maybe this will be of some help.” She handed over the cell phone. “I also found this in Uncle Hank’s study.”

Jack was about to open it when Paull came up to them.

“Okay, we’re all set. You need to get into your mountain gear.”

Jack pocketed the cell as he took a look at the forbidding mountains. “How are we getting up to Tetovo?”

Paull drew out a map covered in clear waterproof plastic and opened it. He clicked a pen flash and pointed. “This is the best route, according to our geotech boys.”

Jack nodded. He didn’t bother studying the map because he wouldn’t be able to make sense of it. “What about the kid?”

Paull’s eyes were dark and hooded. “We can’t trust him to go any farther.”

“You can’t just cut him loose out here in the middle of nowhere.”

“He stays with the plane until we get back,” Paull said curtly.

“That would be a mistake.”

They all turned to see Thatë standing behind Paull.

“Get back,” Paull flared.

Alli held up a hand. “Hold on a minute, you two.”

Paull’s head swiveled around and he glared at her. “Listen, missy, Jack may cut you an unreasonable amount of slack, but as far as decisions here are concerned—”

“Thatë’s been here before,” she said. “He knows the mountains, he knows this area of Macedonia.”

Jack turned to the kid. “Is that true?”

Thatë nodded. “I lived in the mountains for eighteen months before I came to Washington.”

Jack beckoned him with a finger and the kid joined their circle.

“Show him the route we’re taking, Dennis.”

When Paull made no move, Alli traced the route on the map.

Thatë shook his head. “There are at least two good reasons why this route will get you into trouble. The first is here.” His forefinger stabbed out. “This village, Dolna Zhelino, belongs to Xhafa. If we go anywhere near it, he’ll know within an hour that you’re coming.”

Paull rolled his eyes.

Jack said, “What else?”

“The route takes you along this ridge above the Vardar River.” His fingertip traced a line. “Here.”

“It’s the most direct route,” Paull said. “Otherwise, we’ll waste time going miles out of our way.”

“It will be a waste of time,” Thatë said, “once you’re buried in a rockslide.”

Paull made a noise in the back of his throat. “Alli, take the kid back inside the plane.”

When the two had mounted the folding stairs and vanished into the jet’s interior, Jack said, “What’s your problem, Dennis?”

“My problem is this kid.”

“Really? He’s already proven useful.”

“Why the fuck should I believe anything he says?” Paull’s eyes engaged Jack’s. They had dark circles under them. Lines of tension scored his face. “My sense is he’s working for Xhafa, and if he is, he’ll lead us right into a mortal trap.”

“What if he’s telling the truth?”

“Jack, he has no incentive to tell the truth and every reason to make sure we wind up dead.”

*   *   *

Inside the plane, Alli sat down in the seat nearest the door. After a moment’s hesitation, Thatë sat beside her.

“Dennis Paull.” She shook her head. “What a dickwad.”

He laughed. “You’re not afraid of anything, are you?”

“Shit,” she said. “I’m afraid of everything.”

“You’re lying.”

She laughed softly, mocking him.

“Then you hide your terror well.”

“I’ve had a lot of practice, believe me.” As if realizing she had possibly revealed too much, she launched into another topic before he could respond. “What were you doing up in the Tetovo area?”

Thatë stared straight ahead. “I was sent by the people who trained me. Russians.
Grupperovka.
” His eyes cut to her briefly. When she gave no visible reaction, he said, “You know that word?”

Alli nodded. “Yeah. Mobsters, whole families of ’em.”

He appeared somewhat surprised. His eyes reflected the dim lighting of the jet’s interior, turning them as glassy as marbles.

“I’ve been to Moscow,” she said. “Why did the
grupperovka
send you here?”

“To train with Xhafa’s freedom fighters.”

Alli was aware of the slight hesitation; she didn’t need to see his face to know that he was lying.

*   *   *

Paull shook his head. “What gives me pause is why you and I aren’t on the same page.”

“I have a feeling about him, Dennis.”

“Jack, he’s the fucking enemy.”

“If you believe that, then kill him. Right here. Shoot him in the back of the head like the Russians do. If he’s the enemy surely he deserves nothing less.”

The two men stood toe to toe, their eyes locked, their wills silently battling. The spangled sword was gone. In its place was a sky compressed into layers of low cloud. A chill wind whipped through the trees, causing a great rustling, as if an armada of insects was moving through them. Paull had flicked off the pen flash. There was almost no light. The thick air made it seem as if they were on the ocean floor. Somewhere, not far off, an owl hooted.

“I’m not giving in, Jack. And I’m not going to kill him,” Paull said. “We’ll let him go when we get back here. Until then, the pilot and crew are more than qualified to keep him under wraps.”

Jack took a step closer, his voice lowered. “You said you trust me. Well, I have a feeling about him, Dennis. I think he can help us get to Xhafa.”

“That’s why we have a geotech department.”

“Has any one of them been to Macedonia, let alone anywhere near Tetovo?”

“Not necessary,” Paull snapped. “They have computers—”

Jack leaned in. “Dennis, don’t you get it? Computers don’t mean shit out here. This is the wilderness, this is a zone that’s redder than red. Don’t you think the SKOPES unit relied on computer-compiled data?”

Paull’s mouth was a stubborn line. “I can’t hear you.”

“You haven’t been in the field for years, so don’t be a fool, Dennis. Fate has given us an edge the SKOPES unit never even dreamed of, and you want to ignore it?”

Paull’s mouth opened to reply, then he shut it with a snap. He let out his breath slowly and deliberately, as if he were mentally counting to ten to calm himself down.

“This is so fucked, Jack.”

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.”

Paull looked as if he wanted to hit Jack. “We follow my route. Period.”

“You’re not thinking straight, Dennis.”

“He stays right here with the plane.”

Jack read the stubbornness on Paull’s face and understood that his boss needed to feel in charge. This was his first field mission in a number of years; he was understandably nervous. He’d worked hard on the details of his chosen plan; deviating from it now would seem rash and dangerous to him. He couldn’t win this fight. Pushing Paull further now would only damage their relationship.

“Whatever you say.”

Paull’s finger pressed against Jack’s chest. “This is on you. If he steps out of line, my men have orders to subdue him but not to harm him, because you’re the one who’s going to put a bullet in the back of his head.” He glared into Jack’s face. “Are we clear?”

“Absolutely, but Alli is coming with us.”

Paull hooked his thumb over his shoulder. “Do you really think I’d risk the life of my friend’s daughter?”

“She’ll be a help to us,” Jack said. “She brings unique—”

Other books

The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman
House of the Rising Sun by Kristen Painter
Wickedly Charming by Kristine Grayson
Eye of the Storm by C. J. Lyons
Rubicon Beach by Steve Erickson
Snake Ropes by Jess Richards
Rugby Flyer by Gerard Siggins
Cinnabar Shadows by Lynn Abbey
Rebel Baron by Henke, Shirl