Jake laughed and said, “That’s a lot of numbers. I can barely remember my banking pin number.”
“Your intelligence report says you have a photographic memory.”
“Near photographic,” Jake corrected. “And I’ve been drinking a lot lately. I can hardly remember the last time I changed my underwear.”
They had been traveling a back road, nothing more than a narrow one-lane that had switched from dirt to pavement. Now they reached the main road to Hamar, and Jake hoped the police had stopped traffic. But they hadn’t, because cars flew past heading toward Lillehammer. They picked up speed on the wider road.
Finally, Petrova said, “We have the general area figured out. Thanks to the computer box on the car you stole from the train station in Sweden. As I’m sure you know, many of these new cars have black-box-like computers that not only tell you where your car is now, but also where you have been. They’re not perfect, though. We know you went to the hospital in Falun, for instance, before following my men to Lillehammer. It did read a turn somewhere along the way, yet that is not very precise. That’s when you dropped off the gems. We’ll go there now.”
Damn it. Jake knew he should have disabled that system on the car he had acquired. Still, Petrova could know the general area, but finding the gems there would be harder than in the Arctic.
33
The Bell 407 had swooped down from the mountains, banked to the west and slowed above the lake, waiting for the boat to appear. They had to be in front of the boat, Anna thought, peering through her binoculars to the north.
“Anything?” Kjersti asked her.
Just as she asked the question, a boat appeared in the distance. “There,” Anna said. “Moving at a good clip.”
Kjersti powered up and pushed the stick forward. The Bell responded, sending them toward the lake surface. She pulled back and leveled off fifty feet from the water, cutting the distance to the boat in a hurry.
Anna called in their position across the radio and waited for response.
Nothing.
She called in again.
Finally, she got a response from the police boat, saying they were perhaps ten minutes back.
Ahead the boat saw them and slowed down. Kjersti slowed also and eventually hovered to the side of the boat, which had come to a complete stop now.
“Two little people aboard the boat,” Anna said, her eyes focused through the binoculars.
“You sure?” Kjersti asked.
“That’s all I see. Unless there’s more hiding under the seats.” Anna got on her radio and relayed this info to their police boat.
Jimmy McLean nudged forward, his head between Anna and Kjersti. “Drop me down onto that boat, ladies. That’s my target there. Gary Dixon.”
“I can’t do that,” Kjersti said. “We’ll wait for the boat.”
They didn’t have to wait long. Moments later the police boat cruised up alongside Victor Petrova’s speedboat. Anna watched as the little men raised their hands and a police officer boarded them. He checked the men for weapons and then searched the rest of the boat. Then the police officer raised his hands in frustration.
“What’s going on?” Kjersti asked.
Anna asked over the radio.
This time Toni Contardo answered. “They aren’t armed,” she said. “Say the boat is Victor Petrova’s, but they were just out for a little ride.”
“Right,” Anna said. “They must have stopped somewhere to drop off Petrova and the others.”
“You mean Jake,” Toni said.
“Of course. Jake and more of those little people.”
“Pull over to that bank,” Toni ordered, her arm waving to the nearest lakeshore, with a field where the chopper could land. “I’m coming with you.”
Anna knew better than to argue with Toni. “Fine.” She clicked off the radio and said to Kjersti, “I hope she has some idea where they are.”
McLean leaned back in and said, “Let me at Dixon. I’ll make him talk.”
The two boats went ashore and then Kjersti set her chopper down in the field a short distance away. Jimmy McLean and Velda Crane got off and went to interrogate the two men from the boat. Meanwhile, Toni Contardo and Colonel Reed ran across to the helo and got aboard.
After putting on a headset, Toni said, “Let’s go. How much fuel you have?”
Kjersti checked her fuel gauge. “Depends on where you want to go.”
Anna turned to the back and said, “Do you have any idea where they might be going?”
“No,” Toni admitted. “But let’s get to the Hamar airport and top off the fuel. Maybe the Brit will have some luck with our little friends.”
They lifted off the grassy field and flew toward Hamar. Kjersti was familiar with the area and had flown into that airport before.
Once they got to the airport and waited for a fuel truck, Toni went off and made some phone calls. Kjersti went into the operations building to find some bottled water and something to eat for them.
Alone in the helo, Anna got out of the front and went to the back with Colonel Reed.
“You sure you have no idea what Victor Petrova has planned?” she asked the colonel.
The colonel, looking tired and depressed, ran his fingers through his short hair, his eyes avoiding contact with Anna. “I have no clue,” he said. “I’m sorry I got the two of you involved.”
Anna shrugged. “We’re adults. This is my job. Jake is another story, though. He trusted you. But you lied to him.”
“Don’t you think I know that? But I had to. If that virus got into the wrong hands…”
God, she felt like shit. Maybe she should make the guy sweat more, thinking this was still about the virus. And she believed that he believed that was the reason for the whole mission.
The colonel continued, “Jake will kill me. Do you think he’ll kill me?”
“Literally?” she said. “Probably not. Might kick your ass, though. Do you have a good dentist?”
He looked concerned and afraid.
“I’m kidding.”
Toni and Kjersti both showed up at the same time; both carrying bags of food and water. The colonel and Anna got out while the truck topped off the fuel.
Kjersti had two bags full of chips and other goodies from the machines in the operation building.
“Did you wipe them out?” Anna asked.
Smiling, Kjersti said, “Didn’t have any change so I picked the lock.”
The fuel truck left and the four of them started back toward the helo. Anna pulled Kjersti back and let the others continue on.
“What’s up?” Kjersti asked.
“We need to tell Toni about the gems,” Anna said.
Kjersti nodded agreement. “Better now than later.”
When they got to the chopper, Toni was on the phone, more listening than talking. Then she hung up.
“Good news or bad news?” Anna asked Toni.
“Jimmy McLean. Said they dropped Victor, Jake, and a few more little people with two Swedes in identical Volvo sedans. But he had no idea where they were going. He didn’t even think Victor knew. Not yet anyway. Said that Jake had stashed the metal box somewhere.”
“Of course he did,” Anna said. “He would have never brought them to Petrova’s mansion. He would have wanted some leverage.”
“Them?” Toni asked. “You mean the virus.”
Anna and Kjersti exchanged glances. Letting out a deep breath, Anna said, “There is no virus.”
“What?” Toni looked dumbfounded.
Colonel Reed had been sitting calmly in his seat, and leaned toward the door now. “What do you mean no virus?”
Anna quickly explained what they had really found in the Arctic, how the bullet had broken open the box, which allowed them to take the train at that point, and how Jake had only told Anna and Kjersti just before they had split up in Sweden. When she was done, Colonel Reed looked genuinely relieved. Toni seemed profoundly pissed off.