“You’ve done this before,” Bobby said.
“Just once or twice.”
The climbing rope contained knots at eighteen-inch intervals for better footing and reduced slippage. It also contained a grappling hook.
“Stand to my left,” Luo said. “Five paces away.”
Bobby traversed the cliff to Luo’s left.
Luo stepped two feet away from the cliff. It was the farthest he could go without losing his balance. He measured two feet of rope beyond the grapple. He swung the rope to his right side, built momentum, and heaved it high over the cement railing on the deck below the castle tower. The grapple clanged over the handrail. Luo yanked on the rope. The grapple made a scraping sound, and then silence. Luo pulled the rope taut.
The grapple didn’t budge.
Bobby channeled all his energies into his ears. Prayed he didn’t hear footsteps because of the noise the grapple had made. Luo stood motionless, too, looking at Bobby. Luo had told him he’d been a soldier. The certainty with which he’d measured the rope, the confidence with which he’d thrown it, the success he had in sticking it on the first try, all left Bobby wondering exactly what he’d done as a soldier. Bobby had heard of Black Berets, Russia’s most elite policemen, the special unit within the FSB. It consisted of the most highly trained operators in the country. Bobby was starting to think Eva’s father was one of those Black Berets. Who else could find a dead girl, throw a boomerang with the precision of a bullet coming out of a rifle in a marksman’s hands, and feel equally at home on land and ice?
Luo handed Bobby the rope.
Bobby gripped the rope above one of the knots. Placed his left foot flat against the wall, pushed his body out, and followed with his right foot. Put one hand in front of the other and stepped up. Repeated the process. By the third step he’d developed a cadence. Pull, step, pull, step.
He raced up the remainder of the cliff. Continued up the castle wall to the top. The observation tower loomed in front of him like a giant chess piece. He grabbed the cement handrail and hoisted himself up and over. Rolled onto the cement floor. Sprinted twenty paces toward the first surveillance camera. Pulled the can of paint from his jacket pocket and sprayed the lens with orange paint. Crept along the wall to the second camera and did the same.
An old wooden door that looked like it had been borrowed from some medieval castle led inside the tower. It beckoned to him. Eva was somewhere on the other side of that door.
Bobby lifted the latch and pulled.
The door opened.
A surge of hope enveloped him. He considered going inside but reason asserted itself. He closed the door quietly. He would wait for Luo, as was the plan.
Eva was close.
Soon he would see her face. Soon she would be with him.
CHAPTER 44
Luo couldn’t believe his eyes. Adam had scampered up the cliff as though it were even ground. In all his years training and working with the Black Berets, he’d never seen anything like it.
As soon as Adam jumped over the castle wall, Luo took his turn. In training, he’d timed out as one of the fastest free solo climbers in his class. No harness, no safety rope. He enjoyed the exhilaration of the free solo climb. He’d also stayed in shape and prided himself on having lost no more than a step or two during the twenty-four years that followed. But after watching the kid scale the wall, Luo felt slow and old. In fact, he felt strangely human, as though the boy were a different species.
It took him two minutes to climb the wall. Adam helped pull him over the guardrail. Luo’s biceps burned and his knees ached.
A glint shone in Adam’s eyes. “The door’s open,” he said.
Luo had longed to hear those words, but now that he did they filled him with dread. It was a trap, he thought. He and the boy had been blinded by optimism.
Why wasn’t a guard stationed at the back full-time? Why hadn’t security seen Adam when he climbed the wall, no matter how quickly he moved? Why hadn’t they sent someone to investigate? Why was the door to the tower open if the owner was holding a hostage inside? At a minimum, an open door increased the risk of suicide, if nothing else.
But it was too late to change plans now. They were committed.
They raced to the door. Adam grasped the door handle. Luo tapped him on the shoulder. Motioned for him to wait.
Luo lifted his left pant leg. Removed the gun from the holster and affixed the sound suppressor from his pant pocket. The boomerang was his favorite weapon, but he wasn’t an idiot. He’d bought the gun at the sporting goods store. Only idiots brought boomerangs to a gunfight.
Luo nudged Adam aside. He opened the door with his gun raised. Glanced inside.
A stairway led downward. A light shone through the window of a door twenty-five to thirty steps below. The stairwell was silent.
They entered the Swallow’s Nest.
Luo led the way. When they reached the bottom step, they ducked into opposite corners of the door well to avoid being seen. Luo raised his head slowly until his eyes could see through the window. It was the size of a book.
A hallway awaited them on the other side. Luo glanced in each direction. His line of sight was limited by the size of the window but he didn’t see anyone.
He glanced at Adam and put a finger to his lips. Adam nodded.
Luo cracked the door open.
A drumbeat sounded in the distance. They weren’t real drums. They lacked the percussive echo of the live instrument. No, it was a musical recording. Someone was listening to music in a large interior room, Luo thought, directly across from them. He recalled storming the home of a leader of the Chechen rebels on Lake Kazenoi. It didn’t have a tower like the Swallow’s Nest, but the bedrooms had remarkable views. Rich people were obsessed with views because they made their fortunes in the city. They thought that by looking at nature they could become one with it, which was absurd.
The bedrooms with the views were on the opposite side of the hallway, facing the lake. The living room, kitchen, and dining rooms had to be on lower levels.
Luo pointed at Adam with his index finger, then patted his own hip. Stay close to me, he mouthed.
Adam nodded again.
They slipped into the hallway. Wall sconces in the shape of Siberian tigers illuminated their path. The tigers’ eyes glowed orange. The hallway appeared to form a rectangle around the perimeter of the third level.
Luo edged toward the music. Horns had joined the drums to create an electric sound. There was a Polynesian flavor to the beat. It rose to quick peaks and then relaxed for a moment, only to intensify again. Luo glanced behind him to make sure Adam was following. The kid was hugging the wall, knife in his right hand. Luo doubted the kid had ever sunk metal through flesh. But if Eva’s life were at stake, he didn’t doubt the kid would have the gumption to do it.
They approached the first bedroom. The strip beneath the door was dark. The lights were off. Luo grasped the door handle, turned it slowly, and burst inside.
Rich furnishings made of wood and olive fabric filled the room. The bed looked like a glamorous tent, with four polished mahogany posts. It was perfectly made. A wall of glass faced the lake. Expensive-looking artwork filled the walls. Luo caught a glimpse of the bathroom through an open door. Everything was in place. There was no sign of disruption. No evidence of anyone living there.
They proceeded to the second bedroom. It was similar to the first one, but the furnishings looked sleek and modern, the kind his hockey teammate from Sweden had in his room. Luo closed the door. They continued forward toward the end of the hallway where it turned right to proceed along a perpendicular wall.