"I am not sure, Madam. A while."
Selena looked over at Nick and rolled her eyes.
"All right. I'll come down and get it."
Selena put the receiver down.
"What was that about?"
"That was the desk. Someone left a message for me."
"How could anyone leave a message? Nobody knows you're here."
"It's probably a mistake."
"Have them send it up."
"They won't do it."
"Why not?"
"The desk clerk made a lame excuse about being busy."
"I'll go down with you."
"Don't bother. It will only take a few minutes."
Their room was in the short part of an L shaped corridor. Selena came out of the room and started for the elevators, around the corner of the L. She turned the corner and saw a man and a woman waiting for her.
She had time to think I've seen them somewhere when the woman jabbed a Taser into her side. Selena convulsed. The electricity ripped through her, short-circuiting her nervous system. She collapsed onto the floor, twitching.
"Quickly," Katerina said.
Dimitri was a large man, a typical Spetsnaz soldier, bulked up and strong. He picked Selena up and headed toward the fire stairs at the other end of the corridor.
Back in the room, Nick was having second thoughts about letting Selena go down to the desk alone. Something wasn't right. Who would leave her a message? No one knew they were in Egypt.
His left ear began itching.
Shit, he thought.
Nick got up and left the room, running. He turned the corner of the L in time to see a man and a woman at the far end of the hall, opening the door to the fire stairs. The man carried Selena in his arms. Her arms and legs dangled loose, her head lolled.
"Hey!" Nick yelled.
He ran toward them and drew his pistol. They turned toward his shout.
Dimitri dropped Selena, reached inside his jacket and pulled out a pistol.
Nick fired, the sound rolling down the narrow confines of the hall like thunder. He missed and fired again and missed again. Bright flame leapt from the muzzle of Dimitri's gun. The bullet ripped through Nick's jacket sleeve and burned across his arm. Katerina ducked through the open door into the stairwell and disappeared from sight. The door slammed behind her.
Nick squeezed off two more shots. A red blotch blossomed on Dimitri's white shirt. He staggered back against the wall and fired. The round passed close enough to feel it go by. Nick shot him again. Dimitri dropped his pistol and slid to the floor, leaving a wide smear of blood on the wall behind him.
Quick footsteps sounded in the hall.
"Nick."
Ronnie had heard the shots and come running. His pistol was in his hand. He looked at the carnage, at Selena lying on the floor. She was conscious, struggling to regain control of her body.
"Taser," she managed.
"Shit, man, what happened?"
Nick holstered his gun.
"This guy grabbed Selena. There was a woman with him. It was that couple we saw at the temple."
Someone opened a door to a room down the corridor. Ronnie turned, pointing his pistol.
"Get back in your room," he shouted. The door slammed shut.
"We'd better get out of here, fast," Nick said. "This place is going to be swarming with cops any minute."
"You're hit," Ronnie said. There was blood on Nick's sleeve.
"Only a scratch."
They picked Selena up and went through the door into the emergency stairwell, guns at the ready. There was no sign of Katerina.
"Can you move yet?" Nick asked.
"If you hold me up."
Nick and Ronnie held her between them and started down the stairs.
Muscle control began to come back. They still had to support her. She kept a grip on Ronnie's arm.
Nick took out his phone and punched in Harker's code.
"Nick."
"Director, we have a problem. We need out of here yesterday."
Elizabeth wasted no time asking why.
"Can you make it to the embassy?"
"We're still in Masrá Matruh and the embassy is in Cairo. We wouldn't make it. Every cop in a hundred miles will be after us."
"Are you wounded?"
"No."
"How about the airport?"
"They'll have it covered by the time we get there."
"All right. Can you get to the harbor?"
"I guess we have to."
"Go to the harbor and find a boat. Head out from land and call me. I'll see what I can do."
"Copy that." Nick disconnected.
Ronnie looked at him with a question.
"She said find a boat."
They reached the ground floor. Nick cracked open the stairway door. Two cops armed with M16s were talking with the desk clerk. As Nick watched, they ran to the elevator.
"Clear." He looked at Selena. "Can you walk now?"
"I think so. If I lean on your arm."
No one was looking in their direction.
"Let's go."
They entered the lobby and hurried to the entrance and out the glass doors. Taxis were lined up outside. They got into the first one.
"Take us to the harbor," Nick said.
"You like souvenirs?" the driver said. "My brother has a shop. Real antiques. You will like."
"Just the harbor," Nick said. He handed the driver a twenty dollar bill. "No souvenirs. Get us there fast and there's another one of these for you."
That was all it took. The taxi pulled away from the hotel, into heavy traffic. Nick thought he'd seen it all when it came to the insanity of taxi drivers but the Egyptian cabbie set a new standard.
The driver wove in and out and pulled into opposing traffic to pass, squeezing back to the sound of horns and squealing brakes at the last moment before a head-on collision. More than once Nick was certain they were doomed. They reached the harbor and pulled to a stop. Selena sat rigid in the backseat, clenching the cracked vinyl. Ronnie's reddish-brown skin had gone pale. The driver turned to Nick and beamed at him. Several of his teeth were missing. A single gold crown gleamed in the ruin of his mouth.
"Very fast, no? You are happy?"
Nick forced himself to unclench his hands. He took out another twenty and gave it to the driver.
"Very fast, yes."
The driver handed Nick a card. "My brother's shop. You must come."
They watched him drive away.
"I thought we were going to die," Ronnie said.
"He almost hit that bus head-on," Selena said. "We were doing at least sixty."
"He got us here ahead of the cops. Let's find a boat."
It was late afternoon, almost evening. The sun was moving toward the horizon in a gaudy display of orange and red and gold. A cooling breeze had begun off the Mediterranean.
"Look for a boat with some range," Nick said.
"How about that one?"
Selena pointed at a fishing boat converted for tourists. The high bow and tall cabin were still the same, but the winches and nets had been replaced with tables and chairs under a faded green canopy.
A sign on the pier advertised sunset cruises. A foreign couple stood by the sign. The man was arguing with an Egyptian wearing a dirty billed cap decorated with gold braid.
As they came close, the man threw up his hands in disgust.
"Let's go, my dear. I'm not going to pay a hundred dollars for an hour on this miserable excuse for a boat."
The Egyptian made an obscene gesture and called out in Arabic as they walked away.
"What did he say?" Nick asked Selena.
"It wasn't nice. You don't want to know."
The Egyptian captain watched them coming toward him.
"You do the talking," Nick said. "Tell him we want a private cruise. Tell him we'll pay him in American dollars. Haggle with him on the price but not for long."
The Egyptian smiled at them, hopeful.
"Sunset cruise, very beautiful evening."
Selena began talking to him in Arabic. He looked surprised that she could speak his language. He answered her. Selena shook her head and replied. The captain said something else. Selena turned to Nick.