“Hello,” came a woman’s voice in English. “I’m a friend.”
Toni reached out and clicked on a small wall light. Standing before her, wearing only black undergarments, was the woman who had sat by Petros Caras earlier in the evening. Her body was perfect. Flawless as far as Toni could tell.
“What do you want?” Toni asked her.
“You are an American spy,” she said, her Czech accent flowing freely now.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Svetla Kalina. Before Petros passed out, he told me you worked for the CIA. Is that right?”
Was there any use in denying it? Not really. “What if I am?”
“I am with UZSI.”
“You’re with the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Czech Republic?”
“Yes. I am working on loan with AISE of Italy. They needed someone with Greek language skills. Someone Petros Caras might be interest in.”
“And they couldn’t find any young boys?”
Svetla laughed. “That’s what I was thinking.”
“Why did you break your cover to me?” Toni asked.
The Czech officer looked quickly at the door and then back toward Toni. “I heard some of the men talking. They don’t know I understand Greek. They said they were going to take turns on you before morning and then throw you overboard before we head into Sicily. I couldn’t let that happen.”
Toni swiveled to the edge of the bed. “Petros Caras is crazy. He doesn’t understand what our Agency will do to him and his men. I need to get word to my people. How do you make contact?”
Svetla shook her head and showed Toni the small phone in her hand. “Just my cell phone. But we have to be close to shore to get a signal. However, Petros has a satellite phone. I don’t know where he keeps it at night, though.”
Lifting her right foot into the air, Toni said, “I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help. It’s not like I can sneak around the yacht like this. You have to find the phone and bring it to me.”
“At least three men are awake right now,” Svetla said.
“How many total on the crew?”
“Ten plus Petros.”
“Okay. That’s five each.”
Svetla laughed. “I like your courage.”
“Hey, I didn’t have to sleep with that pig.”
“Good point. But at least he has the penis of a ten-year-old. I could barely tell whether he was coming or going.”
Toni laughed now. She liked this woman. “See if you can find the phone, but don’t get caught. I’ll go look for a weapon.”
“All right. Let’s meet back here in fifteen minutes.”
The Czech officer turned and left her there. Toni shook her head and wished like hell she had an ass like that. She tried to put pressure on her right leg, but it was not going to happen. Pain shot right up to her brain. Lifting herself onto the crutches, Toni made her way to the door, looked outside, and then as quietly as possible headed toward the main lounge. Behind the bar she found a couple of knives. She took the sharpest of the two and slid it into the belt at the base of her back. Then she made her way around the room, checking every possible cabinet and hiding place for either another weapon or the satellite phone. She thought about her assignment and knew that her Agency would not realize she was in real danger for a while, even though she was supposed to call in after getting to the yacht.
She turned and was startled by a man in dark clothing — someone she hadn’t seen before. He came toward her with his gun still in its holster on his right hip, not thinking she was much of a threat. With a quick swivel to her left, she swung the crutch up and caught the man under his chin. He dropped to the deck on his knees, stunned, blood coming from his teeth. She swiftly shoved both crutches into the deck and kicked with her good left foot, catching the man in the nose and knocking him out. Now blood flowed from the guy’s broken nose.
Toni grabbed the man’s gun and checked it out. A 9mm Sig Sauer. She was familiar with this one. She found two more full magazines on the man’s left hip. He should have pulled the gun, she thought. Although the guy didn’t even have a round in the chamber. Can’t shoot someone like that. She slapped a round into the chamber and replaced the knife with the gun in the back of her pants. Then she hobbled forward on the yacht. She guessed the best place to make contact was on the bridge. They had to have all kinds of communications equipment there.
Moving forward on the yacht, she came to a ladder and considered how to get up that. As she stuck both crutches together and hopped up to the first rung, she sensed movement behind her. Before she could turn, something struck her in the back of the head and she collapsed into darkness.
Zendo and his men had traded off sleeping in shifts during the night. Well, Zendo himself had slept like a drugged baby from midnight to four a.m. He was beyond taking watch over a tied-up academic. His only concern was making sure his men didn’t try to go into her room and rape her while Zendo slept. He’d made that very clear to them, even before they got drunk, that he wouldn’t tolerate that. Not that Zendo really cared one way or another if they filled the bitch with their spooge, but he was under strict orders from Petros Caras to keep the woman safe.
Now, the sun still a couple hours from rising, the entire crew was down at the pier in Siracusa’s old town region. Fishing boats were mostly gone by now. Only a few stragglers crept out of the harbor, the gulls circling above like piranhas on bleeding flesh.
Sitting on a huge white cooler, Zendo glanced up as Demetri approached. “Everything set?” Zendo asked.
Demetri turned back toward his men on the dock and watched as they prepared a white, 30-foot fishing boat for departure. It wasn’t a commercial boat. It was one used to take high-end tourists out on a Mediterranean fishing adventure. “Yes. But I wish it was a little bigger.”
“It doesn’t look very fast,” Zendo said.
“That’s not the problem. It has two ninety-horse motors. I’m just not a great seaman.”
“Weather report says calm seas from now until who gives a shit. We’ll be on the big yacht in a couple hours. This boat has GPS?”
“Yeah.”
Suddenly there was a muffled pounding coming from the cooler.
Demetri laughed. “I guess things could be worse. I could be inside there instead of the American bitch.”
“See. Silver lining, my friend.” Zendo got up and grasped a handle. “Let’s go. We need to get moving if we plan on hitting our rendezvous point on time.”
The two of them hauled the huge cooler toward the boat with ease as the woman’s pounding was barely audible. Once they got onto the fishing boat, it took the men just a few seconds to turn over the motors and release the boat from its mooring. Then they slowly cruised out toward the break water, keeping well within the required speed limit.
25
Just ten miles or so to the northeast, Jake and Elisa made their way down a dark pier on the Italian Navy base at Augusta. This section of the base was used to display war ships used during WWI and WWII, with a few used to give Italian tourists rides around the harbor for a small fee.
Jake stopped when he came to a boat painted with the camouflage of the Italian Navy of WWII. It was a MAS patrol boat, orMotoscafo Armato Silurante, a torpedo armed motorboat in the same class as the old American PT Boats. Of course the two torpedo tubes were filled with inert weapons. And the anti-aircraft gun at the stern was inoperable. But it still looked impressive.
“How fast is she?” Jake asked.
“According to our navy it will still do forty-five knots,” Elisa said. “It’s only used for harbor tours now, so we’ll have to use this GPS.” She pulled a portable GPS from her pack.