“Last chance, Michael. Stop the crane. It’s what’s best for you. I promise.”
“Forget it, Kate.”
She stared at me from the catwalk outside the cab door, her auburn hair blown by the wind. She was in some pain, I could see that. Because her left foot had been wounded from the bullet, she carried her weight on her right leg. She was in better shape than Meryem I supposed, but she looked sad — sad and vulnerable. Apparently I had that effect on women.
“He was on that ship in Istanbul, Michael. He was on the ship, but the Dragons moved him once they pinpointed his transmission. It was a PKK op after that. We gave them the layout and the access. They blew it up. Let them claim responsibility if they so chose. After that, it was all a setup. We set you up to find the sphere for us.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I was on that ship too.”
“The scarf?”
“Did you test the blood on it?”
“Didn’t get around to that between people trying to kill me.”
“If you had, you’d have found the blood belonged to me. Six has my DNA on file. I may be a bitch, but I’m not a heartless bitch, Michael. I left something for you on that scarf. Didn’t you wonder why the ship didn’t blow when the timer counted down to zero? I delayed the detonation with a manual override. Gave you time to get out.”
I thought about it.
“And the stuff about the affair? You and my dad?”
“I already apologized for that,” she said. “It was what it was. Please Michael, for your own sake, stop the crane, lower the sphere, and disappear into the night while you still can.”
I looked down at the castle wall. It was going to be close. Really close. I hoped that there was enough slack left in the power cable for what I had in mind, but I wasn’t sure. The sphere was about ten lateral feet from hitting the eastern castle wall and lowering steadily. I felt as if I was swinging the world’s deadliest piñata. I pushed Azad forward in his seat and slumped his heavy right hand over the joystick. Then I looked Kate in the eye and walked straight into her gun.
Chapter 66
I wore my backpack in front of me like a shield, but Kate didn’t fire. I pushed past her, clicking the door to the crane cab locked behind me. It would give me the time I needed. I didn’t bother wrestling Kate for her gun. I just didn’t have the time. Instead, I sprinted for the end of the jib.
“Michael!” Kate screamed after me.
I didn’t respond. I had to leap over Meryem, and then I was too busy running. Once I’d sprinted the eighty feet to the end of the jib, I swung down below the trolley and grabbed hold of the steel cable using the padded nylon strap of my pack. Then I pulled the strap back on itself with my other hand to make a tight noose and let myself fall like a fireman on a pole. I saw a muzzle flash from above, but I didn’t think Kate was trying to hit me, not really.
Shots flew up from the castle floor, but the crane’s boom spun over the wall and within seconds, I, too, had slid down behind the castle wall as the sphere continued its downward path to the deck of the giant catamaran. The sphere touched down with a gentle thud on a thick rubber mat and I slid down right on top of it, the strap of my backpack smoking from the friction. Even as I recovered my balance, I smelled diesel fuel and felt the vibration of the catamaran’s big twin engines.
A crew of four men in oversize rubber gloves and boots detached the sphere from the iron cable. Next they lifted the sphere’s power cable off the deck with two long fiberglass poles and began to cut it with a gasoline-powered, rubber-mounted chop saw, similarly outfitted with long insulating poles. The powerful current arced brilliantly through the sparks, but soon the fat cable was severed and placed on shore. Then the catamaran’s twin engines kicked into gear and we motored off into the night.
It didn’t take long before I felt the adrenaline begin to wane. Not so much because I felt less wired, but because I was beginning to stiffen up a little, especially around my arms and chest where I had taken the hit from Meryem's 9mm. The crew of guys went about their business and I found a seat on deck — a soft, striped lounge chair that I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to leave for the foreseeable future. I rested my tired eyes for a moment before gazing into the smoky sky above.
The boat was the Turk Club party catamaran, the same after-hours disco that I had seen moored alongside the castle earlier in the day. The Turk Club went out every night after the bars closed so the party could continue all night long. I’d messaged its location to Langley as soon as I’d seen what we were dealing with. They’d made the necessary arrangements, and tonight the party catamaran was on a special voyage. Instead of carrying Bodrum’s late-night, hipster tourists, it was carrying the Tesla Device, and instead of touring around the bay it was headed for a rendezvous in international waters with a CIA-tasked US Navy frigate.
In the name of appearances, of course, booming music still rattled the deck and the party lights flashed, the silver Tesla Sphere in the center of it all like a giant glittering disco ball. It made for a surreal scene on the rolling seas, our wake glowing in purple and green and blue behind us.
I had to admit that I was relieved that Kate’s bullets hadn’t found home, but the more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that she had allowed me to escape. It sounded crazy, but if I was to guess, I thought she was trying to apologize and, all in all, I was starting to think that we were about even. I still didn’t trust her, but I’d be a fool not to acknowledge that there had been some kind of partnership there.
About Meryem my feelings were more mixed. I’d liked her, but she had screwed me over, plain and simple. I was fairly certain that we’d never be able to let bygones be bygones if we met again on life’s twisted highway. You never knew, though. Everything could turn on a dime. If I’d been told that Kate would be the one to save me from being buried alive, I’d have laughed.
I didn’t recognize the crew that had cut the cable on the sphere and I didn’t know the captain. All I knew was that I had texted my extraction coordinates to Langley and that they had replied that the catamaran would be rendezvousing with a US Navy frigate at 0500. It was an hour to midnight and it looked like I’d be seeing another Mediterranean dawn. I stretched out on my deck chair and closed my eyes, turning the mission over in my mind.
Sure, there had been some hiccups, but I hadn’t done badly. I’d located the Tesla Device, prevented its use, and though I hadn’t found my father, I’d dealt another blow to those holding him. It was true that my feelings regarding my dad had grown conflicted in the wake of his purported affair with Kate, but I still felt that much closer to getting him back. It might not be a job complete, but it was a job well done. I allowed myself to fall into a well-deserved sleep with those comforting thoughts in mind.
I awoke because I noticed a change in the ship’s movement. We were idling, floating quietly on the sea, the big moon above. I could no longer see the fire on the horizon, and the air smelled salty and fresh. The only indication that anything was amiss was the moon itself. It was still high in the sky. Too high for 5:00 AM. I checked my watch and saw that I’d only been dozing for about an hour. Probably something had changed. They’d debrief me soon enough and I’d find out what. Until then, I decided to close my eyes again. But I didn’t get the chance. The team of four guys who had landed the sphere and severed its electric cable strode toward me. They were in black uniforms now, and it didn’t look as though they were going to let me go back to sleep. Instead, it looked like I was about to get debriefed whether I wanted to or not.