Kate watched the van drive away before turning to face Gaëlle and Huck and the three Road Runners.
The Road Runners had guns drawn, and Gaëlle and Huck had eyes wide with fear. Dusko moved a short distance from the group and aimed his gun at Kate.
“You really don’t want to do this,” Kate said to the men.
“It’s not a question of what we want,” Vinko said. “We follow orders.”
Kate stared him down. “I’d reconsider if I were you. If you don’t lower those guns, you’ll be killed. We have protection.”
“You don’t look protected to me,” Vinko said.
She stayed stoic. “You’re making a mistake.”
Vinko and Borko aimed. So did Dusko.
Huck took Gaëlle’s hand. Gaëlle squeezed it hard and they both closed their eyes. What they heard next sounded like two sandbags hitting the ground. It took a second for Gaëlle and Huck to realize that they weren’t shot. They turned around and saw that Vinko and Borko were dead on the ground, both shot in the head.
Kate didn’t hear or see the shots, but knew she had Walter, up on a rooftop somewhere, to thank for saving Gaëlle and Huck. She looked at Dusko now. He stood very still, eyes wide, and then toppled face-first to the ground, a knife in his back. Antoine Killian stood a few feet behind Dusko. Kate had no idea how the enormous man had got there or where he’d come from so fast.
“Merci,” Kate said to him.
He nodded and offered her a polite smile. “Je vous en prie.”
She assumed it was French for “You’re welcome” or “No problem.” Antoine stepped up, pulled his knife out of Dusko’s back, and wiped the blood off on the dead man’s jumpsuit.
A black BMW 7 Series sedan slinked around the corner behind Gaëlle and Huck and glided smoothly to a stop beside Kate. Willie was at the wheel and lowered the passenger window to speak with her.
“I’ve got a strong tracking signal on Nick,” Willie said, holding up a tablet device that was plugged into the car’s USB port. “They’re crossing the intersection of boulevard Saint-Michel and boulevard Saint-Germain.”
Kate turned to Gaëlle and Huck, both of whom looked shell-shocked. “It’s all over. You’re both safe now. Thank you for everything you’ve done. Now get out of here fast and maybe go on a vacation for a few weeks.”
She got into the BMW, and it sped away.
It wasn’t until the car was gone that Huck Moseby realized that the fat man who’d stabbed Dusko had disappeared. Now he and Gaëlle were alone with three corpses. Huck didn’t know what had just happened or who the fat man was or who the woman in the car was or who the hell had shot Vinko and Borko. All he knew for sure was that he’d barely escaped death and that Gaëlle was holding his hand.
He looked at her and thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She was literally the woman of his dreams. It was hard to believe that she actually existed.
“If you’ll have me,” he said in French, “I will devote my life to making you happy.”
She smiled. “You have a deal.”
They kissed softly and then walked away, still holding hands.
“The first time we met,” Nick said, buckled in tight in the back of the van, “I’d just emerged from a coffin in a fake diamond vault in Belgium. Now here I am in a hazmat suit, infected with smallpox, and we’re driving through the streets of Paris in a sewer van. Who would have imagined that?”
“You lead a wild, exciting life,” Kate said.
“You do, too.”
“But it’s been much more profitable for you than me.”
“It doesn’t seem like it at the moment,” Nick said.
“I’m sure you’ve been in situations as bad as this.” She glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “How many times have you had a gun to your head or a knife to your throat?”
“This is different. I can talk myself out of those situations.”
“I’ve seen you do it and it was amazing, especially the way you played Dragan. Nobody has ever done that before. It’s not just what you say, it’s also the outrageous risks you take at the same time. You’ve inspired me.”
“Really?” Nick said. “To do what?”
“You’ll see,” she said.
She remained silent as they headed north through central Paris, along much of the same scenic route that Gaëlle had taken with Nick and Kate during their Uber ride. They hit the A1 freeway, taking the ramp for Lille/Aéroport Charles de Gaulle/Saint-Denis. Nick figured they were going to an airport to board Dragan’s private jet for a trip to another country. Suddenly Litija exited off the freeway and drove into an industrial warehouse district miles away from the airport.
“Are we taking the scenic route?” Nick asked.
Litija ignored him and proceeded through the rotting gates of a sprawling abandoned factory. The cavernous brick buildings had multiple smokestacks and were tangled in the gantries, pipes, and conveyors belts that ran through them, around them, and over them. She drove into one of the buildings, which was the size of an airplane hangar, and stopped the van.
“Where are we, Litija?”
“At a turning point for both of us.” Her cellphone rang. She answered it and put it on the speaker. “Hello, Dragan. I’ve put you on the speaker and am talking to you in English so Nick can hear you, too.”
“I’m very sorry about what happened to you, Nick,” Dragan said. “But I can assure you of two things. Thanks to your quick thinking, you’ll survive and our project can still go forward as we planned. You’ll be a very rich man when this is over.”
“I like that,” Nick said.
“In a few minutes, you’ll be on my plane and on your way to my lab, where you’ll get the best medical care and you can watch our plans take shape while you recuperate.”
“Recuperate? I thought I was getting the vaccine.”
“You are,” Dragan said. “But not immediately. We need to wait for the virus to multiply in your bloodstream so we can extract a potent sample that we can work with.”
“You’re using me as an incubator?”
“It’s not how I would have liked to do things, but you’re the one who dropped the vial. So we’re turning lemons into limoncello, as they say.”
“Okay, so what’s the delay?” Nick asked. “Why are we sitting in this warehouse?”
“I can answer that,” Litija said. “There’s been a little change in plans, Dragan. I wanted you to hear Nick so you’d know he was with me and that he’s still alive.”
“Smallpox doesn’t kill instantly,” Nick said.
“But I do,” she said. “I will kill Nick unless twenty million dollars is wired to my offshore bank account in the next ten minutes.”
Litija disconnected the call.
Kate and Willie heard every chilling word through their earbuds as they sped along on the A1 freeway. This was an unexpected complication they didn’t need after one too many complications already.
“How far behind them are we?” Kate asked.
“Five minutes,” Willie said.
“Make it two,” Kate said.
Willie floored the gas pedal and wove through the cars in front of them like the Millennium Falcon flying through an asteroid belt. Kate took out her phone and hit the speed-dial key for her father.
“How close are you, Dad?”
Willie leaned on her horn and drove between two lanes, shearing off the side-view mirrors. “Oops. I guess I should have taken the insurance,” she said.
“Ten minutes,” Jake said. “But we’ll make it five.”
“Just sit tight, Nick,” Litija said, aiming her Sig Sauer at him. “Once I have the money, I’ll leave you here. I’ll let Dragan know where to find you when I’m a safe distance away.”
“That could take hours, and I don’t have a lot of hours to spare.”
“It is what it is.”
“I have a better idea. It’s getting stuffy in here. So I’m going to unzip this suit and get some air unless you put that gun down and start driving.”
“If you touch that zipper, I’ll shoot you.”
“That would be stupid, because if you puncture this suit, you’ll be infected with smallpox.”
“There are three problems with your threat. The first is that I’ve been vaccinated against smallpox.”
“I don’t believe you,” Nick said. “So I will call that bluff.”
“The second is that I’m a dead woman anyway, because whether you live or die, Dragan will hunt me to the ends of the earth. But with twenty million, I’ll have a better chance of outrunning him or at least living very, very well until he finds me.”
“That just proves how much you want to live.”
“Which brings me to number three. You don’t want to die. You’d rather take your chances with the virus than risk a bullet in the head from me. Besides, you’ve got nothing to lose in this transaction. What do you care if I walk away with twenty million dollars? You’re going to be a billionaire.”
“Assuming Dragan pays.”
“He’ll pay,” she said. “What’s twenty million against billions?”
“You might kill me anyway just to spite Dragan.”
“Do I strike you as a spiteful person?”
“Isn’t that why you are doing this? Because you’re mad that Dragan killed Zarko?”
Litija laughed. “I don’t care about Zarko. You met him. He was a slug.”
“But you were shaking after Dragan pushed him off the cliff.”
“Because it could easily have been me if I’d been standing there,” she said. “I’m doing this for the money. I want to be rich and far away from Dragan Kovic. The man is insane, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“I noticed,” Nick said.
“But you still went into business with him. You must be crazy, too.” She picked up her phone and checked it. “The money hasn’t shown up in my account yet. You’ve got three minutes.”
There was a tap-tap on the driver’s side window and Litija went pale. It was Kate, tapping the barrel of her gun against the window.
“Put the gun down or I’ll blow your head off,” Kate shouted through the glass. She was still in her dirty sewer worker’s jumpsuit.
Litija stared at Kate in absolute disbelief. “How did you get here?”
“The same way he did,” Kate said, gesturing to the passenger side.
Litija turned. A man in his sixties stood outside the window, and he was also aiming a gun at her. He had the buzz cut, bearing, and hardened gaze of a soldier. She’d underestimated Nick and Kate. They’d had a second team of professional killers watching their backs. Her inability to anticipate this move demonstrated why she’d always been somebody’s minion. She wasn’t clever enough to lead. It proved to her that this twenty-million-dollar play was her last, best chance at changing her fate.
“You drop the gun,” Litija said. “And the old man drops his, too, or I will kill Nick right now.”
“That would be a mistake,” Kate said. “Because I’m your ticket to freedom and happiness.”
“How do you imagine that?”
“I’ll let you go and tell Dragan that I killed you,” Kate said. “You won’t have your ransom money, but at least you’ll be free and won’t have to look over your shoulder for the rest of your life. Or you can shoot Nick and die right now. Your choice.”
How did Kate know about the ransom? Was the van wired? Was Nick? The fact that she didn’t know the answers to those questions was more humiliating evidence that she was destined to a life of servitude and pocket change, never to leadership and wealth. She glanced at her phone, hoping for a $20 million reprieve from her wretched destiny.
The ten minutes were up. There was no alert from the bank that a transfer had been made, and Dragan hadn’t called arguing for more time. He didn’t pay, and she had the miserable, crushing realization that he never would. He’d rather sacrifice Nick and put off his scheme indefinitely than let her extort a dime out of him.
The bastard.
“You gambled that Dragan’s greed was larger than his ego,” Nick said. “I could have told you that was a losing bet.”
Litija put her gun down on the passenger seat and placed her hands on the steering wheel in surrender.
“You can’t blame a girl for trying,” she said.
Kate stuck her gun in her jumpsuit and opened the driver’s side door. “Come on out.”
As Litija stepped out, a jaunty little Alfa Romeo convertible sped into the building and came to a stop behind Kate. The man at the wheel was as jaunty as his car. He had a big smile and wore a herringbone wool driving cap, a red cravat, and a tweed jacket. He was so British he might as well have draped himself in the Union Jack.
“Hello, luv,” Robin Mannering said. “Going my way?”
Litija looked at Kate. “Where’s he taking me?”
“Out of France,” Kate said. “He’ll set you up with a passport, credit cards, and some cash, and you’re on your way.”
“But we’ll find a decent cup of tea first,” Robin said.
The truth was that he would take her straight to the British Embassy, where she’d be placed under arrest. Her faked death would make Litija the perfect secret informant against the Road Runners and law enforcement’s best hope of tracking down the stolen diamonds.
“Why aren’t you killing me?” Litija said.
“Because I work for Nicolas Fox and he insists that I only kill in self-defense, never in cold blood,” Kate said. “It’s a character flaw that will probably cost him his life one day.”
“That day will come very soon unless you break that rule with Dragan.” Litija got into the car with Robin and they drove off.
Kate climbed into the driver’s seat of the van and looked back at Nick, who’d unzipped his hood and pulled it off his head.
“Did you see Litija’s double-cross coming?” she asked.
“Nope. I must be losing my touch.”
Jake got into the passenger seat and reached over to shake Nick’s hand. “Good to see you.”
“Likewise,” Nick said.
“Your crew is long gone, and Antoine and Walter have cleaned up the mess on the street,” Jake said. “The three bodies will never be found.”
“Vinko, Borko, and Dusko?” Nick said.
“Walter and Antoine took them out and saved our lives,” Kate said. “Your instincts were right.”
“What about Dragan’s two snipers?” Nick asked.
“They couldn’t see what happened from where they were,” Jake said. “They were watching avenue Denfert-Rochereau and I was watching them. They left their positions as soon as they saw Litija drive off in this van. They probably assumed the mission was accomplished and are now on their way out of the country.”
“We should be, too.” Kate picked up the cellphone, hit the speed dial, and waited. Dragan answered on the first ring.
“Have you come to your senses?” he asked.
“That’s hard to do when your brains are splattered on a wall,” Kate said. “Litija is dead.”
“Well done,” Dragan said. “How is Nick?”
Nick spoke up. “Eager to get to you as fast as possible.”
“How much time do you have left on your battery, Nick?”
“Maybe five hours,” Nick said.
“No worries,” Dragan said. “We’ll have everything ready for you when you arrive.”
Dragan gave Kate directions to the terminal and hung up.
“Wherever Dragan’s lab is, we’ll be there five hours from now,” Kate said to her father. “You’ll strike two hours later.”
“You mean I’ll come and get you,” Jake said.
“I mean blow the place up,” Kate said. “Reduce it to ash. Make sure Dragan and his virus do not get out.”
“That was the old plan,” Jake said. “But things have changed now that you two are going to be inside.”
“Not the way I see it,” Kate said. “Do you have a set of our earbuds?”
“I do, but I hate wearing them,” Jake said. “They are too much like hearing aids. They make me feel old.”
“When you’re within striking distance, the three of us should be able to communicate with one another,” she said.
“See you in seven hours,” Jake said, kissed Kate on the cheek, and got out.
Kate drove the van out of the warehouse, past Willie in her BMW and the Renault that Jake had driven, and headed for Charles de Gaulle Airport. Willie and Jake would be close behind them, bound for the private plane that they also had on standby.
“We’re in this together again,” Nick said.
“We are always in it together, even when we’re apart.”
“Not to be overly unmanly, but the moment I escaped from you that first time in L.A.,” Nick said, “I regretted it two minutes later and was tempted to let you catch me just so we could be together.”
She looked at him in the rearview mirror. “Really?”
“Really.”
Kate was pretty sure she believed him. “I had no clue.”
“Would you have done anything differently if you knew I was enamored with you?”
“No,” Kate said. “Zip up your hood, we’re almost there.”
Damn! He was enamored with her way back then, she thought. It was enough to get her doing a happy dance. She wouldn’t, of course, because she was the job. Still, she could happy dance in her mind.
Nick secured himself in the suit again as they reached the general aviation area of the airport and the private terminal. She drove through the gates, escorted by a security officer on a golf cart, onto the tarmac beside the black private jet. She backed up so the rear of the sewer van was as close as possible to the open hatch at the front of the plane. Kate didn’t want Nick in his biohazard suit to be visible for long. Fortunately it was dawn on a Sunday and the odds of anybody being around to see him were slim.
Daca and Stefan appeared in the plane’s open hatch. She recognized them as the same two men who’d followed them in Sorrento and later took them by boat to Dragan’s villa. She got out, held her Glock down at her side, and walked to the back of the van.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” she said. “I’d appreciate it if you’d open the van and help Nick into the plane.”
“We’d rather that you do it,” Daca said.
She shook her head and aimed her gun at them. “I want to see that you’re unarmed and I want you out of the plane so I can check it out.”
“You can trust us,” Stefan said. “We’re on the same side.”
“Is that why your three buddies just tried to kill me?”
Daca nodded acknowledgment. The two men got out of the plane, and Kate stepped aboard. She quickly checked out the cabin and then watched from the hatch as the men opened the van, helped Nick out, and guided him to a seat on the plane. Kate took a seat near the cockpit, and Daca secured the hatch. They had only about four hours left on Nick’s battery.
“Let’s go,” she said to the pilot. “The clock is ticking.”
Kate didn’t lower her gun until they’d taken off. She didn’t think Daca and Stefan were dumb enough to start a shoot-out in the confines of a pressurized airplane. But she didn’t turn her back to them, either.
Daca and Stefan stayed as far away from Nick as they could get, not that it would protect them from infection if he decided to open his suit or if he tore it somehow.
“Could somebody flag down the flight attendant?” Nick asked. “I’d like some peanuts and a Bloody Mary.”