She nodded."Yes." She leaned her head against my chest."I know what's going to happen, Nick. I'm praying that it does."
"We're leaving in two days," I said.
Chapter 90
THE REEDY MAN in tortoiseshell glasses leaned back against the park bench and looked at me."These prints you sent me-where did you get them from?"
Charlie Harpering and I were old friends. We were sitting in a tiny park across from the courthouse: the historical Five Points inGangs of New York. Charlie had spent many years at the FBI. Now he worked for Homeland Security. It was he who had procured all the files for me.
"Never mind how I got them. What I need to know is if there was a match."
Harpering studied me long and hard. What I was asking him to do-to go around all normal channels and procedures, to give me information that he might not pass on to his boss-was a lot to ask, even of a friend.
"You know, I could screw up a well-earned pension over this."
"Trust me." I gave him a big smile."Retirement's way overrated. This is important, Charlie. Was there a match?"
The Homeland Security man let out a breath. Then he opened his briefcase and set a file on his lap. He nodded."Yeah. There was a match."
He opened a plain manila file. Facing me was a blowup of the fingerprints Yuri Plakhov had faxed me.
"They belong to an Estonian," Harpering said."Stephan Kollich. He came in through JFK on a commercial visa, April twelfth."
April 12. Cavello was sprung from the courthouse six days later.
A wave of validation surged up inside me. Remlikov had been here.
"You'll see he left seven days later." Harpering pointed farther down.A day after the escape!"Back to London. Out of DC."
"And on to anywhere else?" I asked.
"All she wrote, I'm afraid." The Homeland Security man shrugged."At least, under that name."
"Thank you, Charles," I said, tapping him on the chest."Here." I slid over a shopping bag containing the bound Homeland Security files."I won't be needing these anymore."
He tucked the bag between his legs."What the hell are you up to, Nick? You know I did this out of friendship. Anyone else, we'd be in a federal office right now. Who is this guy?"
"Let's call it a career move. We'll try and figure out later if it's up or down."
Harpering sniffed, agreeing."I see what you mean about retirement. Then I might as well take you the distance, Nick-whichever the hell way it goes."
"What do you mean?"
He took two additional sheets out of his case and slid them into the file."Kollich's visa application. For old times. And just for the record, it didn't come via Tallinn, Nick. Estonia. It came from Tel Aviv."
I blinked."Jesus."
"Gets even better." Harpering dropped the file on my lap."Assuming you're trying to find him, of course. Good luck, Nick." Harpering stood up."Give the sonovabitch a shot in the balls for me."
I looked down at the new file. There was an address on the visa application:225 YehudiRoad.
Haifa.
Chapter 91
RICHARD NORDESHENKO WAS contemplating a chess move with his son on the terrace when the doorbell rang.
"Get that for me, Pavel." Mira was out shopping. The boy went to answer the front door.
Nordeshenko was enjoying his new life. He had tossed his cell phone into the sea and let the one or two contacts he still trusted know he was out of business.For good.
Every day he went swimming in the Mediterranean. He picked up his son after school and drove him to chess. At night he took Mira to the fancy shops and cafés in Carmel Center. He tried to put to the back of his mind that just a few weeks before he had gotten away with a crime covering the front page of every newspaper.
"Father! There's a man."
Nordeshenko pushed himself slowly out of his chair and went into the living room. It might as well have been a squadron of Mossad he saw standing there.
"Hello, Remi."
"What are you doinghere? " Nordeshenko gasped. Reichardt. His face went slack and ashen.
"Just a little traveling, Remi. Some sightseeing. Throwing myself on the hospitality of old friends."
He turned to Pavel."Go and look at the board, son. I moved."
The boy hesitated.
"Go and look at the board, I said." His voice was much harsher.
Pavel swallowed."Yes, Father."
The boy left, and Nordeshenko turned back to the man at the door, feeling his every nerve grow tight."Are you insane? Come in, quickly," he said. He looked past Reichardt and up the street."Are you certain there was no tail?"
"Relax, Remi," the South African said."I've come through three countries. I've been doing this as long as you. You've got a nice-looking boy."
"It's notRemi here." Nordeshenko looked at him sharply."It's Richard."
Reichardt stepped in and whistled admiringly at the broad, spectacular view."Business must be good, Richard."
"Business is over," Nordeshenko said."And you better understand one thing clearly-my wife and son…"
"Don't worry," Reichardt said,"I won't be a burden. You said this was the quietest place in the world. It'll only be for a few days. Until the world cools down."
Nordeshenko didn't like this. It violated all the rules of the arrangements. But what choice did he have? There was no way to tie them to the States. No way to tie them together at all.
"All right," he said."Just a few days."
"Thanks," the South African said."But, Remi, you are mistaken on one thing."
"And what's that?" Nordeshenko asked, picking up one of Reichardt's bags.
"Our business." The blond killer sighed."It is never over."
Chapter 92
THE LOUDSPEAKER CRACKLED."Delta Flight 8976 to Tel Aviv is ready for boarding."
I stood there waiting at gate 77, gazing down the terminal. My heart was racing pretty fast. I glanced at my watch. The plane was boarding. I had to get on it, with or without her.
Where was she?
Maybe she had second thoughts. That would be okay, I told myself. She'd be smart to stay out of this. She'd be smart to let me do what had to be done.
"All rows, Delta Flight 8976 to Tel Aviv."
I didn't have a precise plan. I had no idea how I was going to handle it when I got there. How could I? All I knew was that I was going to find Kolya Remlikov and somehow make him tell me where Cavello was. No professional courtesy here-no Geneva convention. I'd put the muzzle of my gun down his throat and cock the hammer. I'd blow off a kneecap if I had to. He would talk. The question was,then what?
A Hasidic family in black rushed past me onto the boarding platform, with loud shouts of relief. They looked to be the last ones on. I scanned the terminal. No sign. I put my travel case over my shoulder and went to board.
It was better this way, right?
Then I saw her. Hurrying toward me. Still a good ways down the corridor.
I felt a warm, glycerin wave of relief surge through me. Who are you kidding, Nick? You wanted her here very much.
Andie was wearing a red leather jacket, her hair tucked under a Knicks cap,Jarrod's cap, a travel bag slung loosely over her shoulder. She looked incredibly beautiful to me. And brave. I knew then I probably couldn't have done this thing alone. I wanted her with me. Andie made me believe it was right.