I turned to see the taxi draw up back beside the first of the doors and Marina get out.
Karminian would be watching her now. I stepped back, hit the door with my shoulder, timing it to coincide with the noise of the taxi engine starting up, and half-fell, half-stumbled into the dimness of the interior of the stadium.
I was beneath the seats and I moved along the passageways, working my way back toward the main entrance to the stadium. I could hear the sharp sound of Marina’s heels clicking along the concrete flooring up ahead and I saw the arrow directing spectators to Row B. I followed it, moving slowly now.
As I passed Row A I cut up and out onto the seating area. Almost creeping, crouched low behind the rows of seats, I peered over at Marina’s figure as she stood alone, waiting in aisle B.
I gazed across the thousands of empty seats, looking for a figure, but there was only silence. I stayed crouched behind the seats, peering out through a small opening between two of them.
He had been terribly clever, cautious and fearful up to now, and he would continue to be.
I could see Marina, now beginning to pace up and down, her eyes scanning the empty stadium. He might be anywhere, waiting, watching.
Then, suddenly, I saw him, a small black shape half-way across the stadium, making his way along the passageway where the seats sloped down to the edge of the field.
Marina hadn’t seen him yet, and he was still pacing nervously. It was only when he drew near that she saw him and whirled to wave at him.
I saw her glance around quickly, and I knew she was trying to spot me.
Knock it off, I hissed inwardly. You’ll get him suspicious.
She waved to him again, and now he was mounting the steps from the lower seats, taking them in bounds.
He was fairly tall, black-haired, with the gaunt, cadaverous kind of good looks that make women feel protective.
Marina rushed over to him and I noted that he took the bag first and then embraced her.
“Anton,” I heard Marina say. “I’ve done what was best for you.”
I saw him frown at once. She’d have him on guard and running with talk like that. It was time to move and move fast. I didn’t know how true that was as I leaped over the seats and headed for them.
He whirled and saw me at once. He turned to Marina and his arm shot out. I saw her recoil as the slap struck her face and echoed like a small shot in the emptiness of the stadium.
“Bitch!” he shouted at her.
“No, Anton, no!” Marina cried but he was off and running.
I was moving through a row of seats to cut him off when we suddenly had company. I saw the evil face of Rashid first as he appeared at the top of the sloping ramp between the rows of seats. Then I saw the other four, moving in from all sides. My first thought was to wonder how the hell they knew we were there, but I tossed aside speculation for action.
Karminian saw them also, and I caught a glimpse of Marina’s shocked face.;
I was closest to him, and I reached out and grabbed his arm.
“Stay with me,” I hissed at him.
He paused a second, and I thought he was going to go along. Instead, he turned and kicked out, his ascetic face livid with rage. The blow took me by surprise and I felt the sharp, stabbing pain in the groin. I went down on one knee.
“Come back, you damn fool,” I yelled at him. “I want to help you.”
He wasn’t listening. He was running, leaping over seats, twisting back and forth, racing up and down aisles.
One of the Rifs was coming across to cut him off, the jeweled, curved, Moorish dagger in his hand.
I couldn’t let Karminian be killed. He was my only key to this. If he got away I’d find him again, somehow. Dead, there’d only be the Rifs left, and they, I knew, would fade away like a desert mirage.
Another Rif, the tall one, was coming up behind to box Karminian into a corner where two aisles bisected.
I went after Karminian as he started to leap over seats and I forced him to turn and head back toward the Rif with the unsheathed dagger. As he neared the Rif, I vaulted over a row of seats and put myself between the Arab and Karminian.
Seizing the moment, the fleeing informant cut off to the other side and streaked up the aisle.
Snarling, the Rif brought his dagger around in a sharp arc at me. As it curved through the air, I dropped level with the top of the seats and saw it come down to slice through the wooden seats in a shower of splinters.
I popped up, grabbed the Rif’s arm before he could draw it back again and yanked him forward. As he toppled over the back of the seats I chopped him with a karate blow that came up to shatter his Adam’s apple. He gurgled once and collapsed at my feet.
I made a grab for the dagger as it fell from his hands. I missed and it slipped under the seats. This was no time to try to find it.
The other Rif, the tall one, was only a few feet from me and I saw him hesitate, wondering who to go after.
I made up his mind for him by moving toward him.
He turned on me, drawing his own dagger.
Beyond him, I saw Karminian’s form catapulting seats and racing down aisles, eluding the other Rifs.
I jumped two seats into one of the aisles and raced for the exit when I heard Marina scream. I’d lost sight of her and expected she had fled in the confusion and the melee, but now I saw Rashid throw her to the ground.
I shifted direction and went for him. He turned from Marina to me.
The tall Rif was coming up behind me, dagger in hand.
The other two, I saw, were zeroing in from the sides.
I halted, half-crouched, feeling like a deer cornered by a pack of wolves.
Rashid drew his dagger and started for me, but the tall Rif called out, and he halted.
“No, do not kill him,” he commanded. “I want him and the girl alive.”
I breathed an inaudible sigh of relief, straightened up and let my muscles relax.
The other two Rifs were pulling Marina to her feet now, and I saw her face, white, terror-stricken, strained.
I felt the point of the dagger in the small of my back, and I was surrounded in seconds.
The tall one holding the dagger against me only gave me a passing glance and I saw his eyes were riveted on Rashid.
“So, Rashid, son of a mud-caked pig,” he snarled. “You killed Karminian, did you?”
I watched Rashid’s eyebrows go up in protest. “But I did kill him, I tell you,” the Rif answered excitedly.
“You not only lie, you persist in maintaining the charade,” the tall one shouted. “Your lying tongue will not wag again.”
He motioned to the other two Rifs who started for Rashid, daggers drawn.
Rashid’s evil face had broken into a mask of abject terror. He backed up, flung down his dagger and fell on his knees.
“I beg you to believe me,” he croaked.
“I believe my eyes,” the tall Rif spat out, nodding again to the othed two.
Rashid got up and turned to flee with a long moan of terror. The other two took after him, and I saw Marina’s wide, round eyes looking at me, a frown of incredulity on her face.
My eyes, narrowed, returning her gaze, told her to keep her mouth shut. I knew damn well what she was thinking, that I knew the explanation, that I could prevent this miscarriage of justice.
Not me, sister, I said inwardly. It’s nothing more than his past evils catching up with the bastard.
I heard Rashid scream, a high-pitched scream cut off by a bone-chilling gurgling sound followed by a sickening half-scream, half-groan.