Maybe he’s lost it, Hawke thought, reaching for his gun.
Then Eden pulled out the Glock from the shoulder holster beneath his Savile Row suit and dropped the man in less than two seconds with the classic double-tap.
Or maybe not…
Eden holstered the weapon before the man’s body had even hit the floor and turned to Hawke and the others. “He was going to ruin this wonderful Tintoretto with that blood dreadful Vityaz,” he said coolly. “I’m just not having it.”
Mazzarro clasped his face with his hands in horror and began to mumble in Italian.
Karlsson looked from Eden to Lea and whispered: “Is this guy for real?”
“You’d better believe it, laddo.”
Karlsson shook his head. “You kill the guy because he’s an asshole, not to save the artwork…”
Eden looked him in the eye. “That artwork is over two hundred years older than your country.”
“Hey…” Karlsson replied, totally untouched by the remark, “all I can say is you’re one hell of a shot.”
“It’s time to leave, people,” Hawke said.
As he spoke, several more armed men burst into the chamber, fanned out and drew closer to them. They were led by a man who was at least seven feet tall. The pistol in his hand looked like a little toy.
“Who the hell is that?” Hawke asked as they began to retreat.
Eden watched the men as they got closer. “His name is Kosma Zhuravlev, a former KGB agent. He’s worked for Vetrov in one capacity or another for years. He’s known to break necks with his bare hands. We don’t want to talk to him today — let’s go.”
Outside, St. Mark’s Square was buzzing with tourists as they made their way hurriedly across it.
“This place is heaving!” Karlsson said.
Eden frowned as they hurried Mazzarro along through the tourists. “My concern is that innocents are going to get killed if those maniacs decide to open fire on us.”
“But what do they want with me?” Mazzarro mumbled in English. “I still don’t understand…”
“You don’t want to know,” Lea said. “But it ain’t a game of poker and a quiet glass of Amaretto.”
As she spoke, Hawke turned to see where Kosma and the others were.
“They’re keeping their distance, but still behind us,” he said.
“We’ll lose them up here,” Lea said.
“Just keep moving, everyone,” Eden said. “We need to lose them before returning to the hotel.”
Then, the unexpected happened, taking even Hawke by surprise. In a fraction of a second a man stepped out ahead of them from behind a colonnade — he was armed with a knife and looked like he knew some moves.
It was Kodiak.
He moved in a flash, grabbing hold of a young American woman who was taking a picture of the Doge’s Palace. He put the blade to her throat. A young child screamed, sending dozens of pigeons into the sunny air, and nearby tourists panicked and stumbled away from the man with the knife. A middle-aged man with an ice cream pulled out a camera phone and started to record. Lea watched Hawke move his hand slowly to his gun.
“Just let her go, Kodiak!” Eden said, quietly and in control.
Hawke cursed himself for not thinking about anyone being ahead of them, least of all this maniac.
“Give me Mazzarro or she dies,” the Russian said. A wicked smile danced on his lips. “You know I’ll do it.”
Eden stepped forward, his hand now moving inside his jacket.
“Make another move and…” He drew his finger across his throat to simulate the method of execution.
Lea watched Eden freeze in his tracks and drop the gun. Hawke followed his lead.
“Now… give me Mazzarro.”
Hawke looked at Mazzarro — he was sweating profusely and his hands were shaking. “I…I…” was all the Italian could manage as he stared at the horror right before his eyes.
“You have to go, Dario” Eden said. “I’m sorry, but we can’t let an innocent young woman die like this.”
Mazzarro saw the woman squirming in the assassin’s arms, terrified, and immediately knew his predicament. He agreed to walk over to Kodiak.
Then in a flash the Russian assassin pushed the sobbing woman away and greedily grabbed the Italian, now holding the shining blade at the Egyptologist’s throat instead.
“Now get back, or I slit his throat.”
Eden and the others took a few steps back as Kodiak moved slowly away and climbed on board a motorboat moored beside the square. A second later he was steering the boat out into the Grand Canal.
Hawke spun around to confront Kosma and the other men but there was no sign of them.
“They’ve just disappeared into thin air!” Lea said.
“We need to split up,” Eden said, thinking fast. “Lea and Brad — go after Mazzarro and do everything in your power to get that man back to us. It’s imperative Vetrov doesn’t get his hands on him because he’ll torture him for what he wants and then kill him. Hawke and I will go to Mazzarro’s office and retrieve the notes he told us about — presuming Maxim Bloody Vetrov hasn’t got there first as well. Then we’ll try and take out Kosma if we can find him.”
Hawke wasn’t too happy about watching Lea run after Kodiak and Mazzarro with Bradley Karlsson, but he knew she and Eden had a long relationship and lots of experience, so he followed her lead, stopping only to kiss her.
“Just make sure you get that bloody map back!” he said.
“That’s the plan, Joe, and just you make sure you don’t get your stupid eejit head blown off when you’re going after that Russian oaf, right?”
Hawke agreed that was a good idea and watched as she and Karlsson sprinted toward the boats moored on the side of the square. He hoped it wasn’t the last time he would see her, and turned to join Eden in their pursuit of Kosma and the notes.
The sun streamed through the blinds and cast striped shadows on the cornflower blue wall of the hotel room. Scarlet squinted in the glare as she disconnected her phone and turned to Alex and Ryan.
“Not great news, chaps.”
“Oh God,” Ryan said. “What now?”
“That was Richard. They’ve lost Mazzarro.”
“Well, where did they have him last?” Ryan said.
“Don’t be so bloody juvenile, Ryan,” Scarlet snapped. “Those Russian bastards just took him. This isn’t a game.”
“Oh, it’s not a game, eh?” he said, the anger in his voice rising. “Funny that, because I thought my girlfriend getting blown apart right before my eyes was exactly that, a fucking game.”
“Guys!” Alex pushed her wheelchair between them, sensing the rising tensions in the room. “This situation is getting out of control, right? We all feel it. We lost the map in Berlin and now we’ve lost Mazzarro, but we’re not going to let them win! You can’t let them make us turn on each other and fall apart like this. We have to stick together.”
Ryan and Scarlet stared at each other for a few seconds, and then each of them backed down.
“I need a drink,” Lexi said, opening the mini-bar.
“Sorry, Alex,” Ryan said. “It’s just that we’re really getting our arses kicked right now and we’re not used to it.”