Hard Rain

Seventeen

We watched the van move away from us and merge into traffic. ‘I think she liked you,’ I said.

Masters was as angry as I’d ever seen her. ‘Thanks for your understanding.’

I went to put my hand on her shoulder but the move was a little too sudden for my rib, and it let me know in no uncertain terms. I winced.

‘You okay?’ Masters asked.

‘No, as a matter of fact.’

‘Good.’

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘How about you?’

‘I don’t want to talk about it… Jesus, I feel like taking a shower. One day I’m going to even the score with that bitch.’

‘A little tit for tat?’

‘What did you say?’

‘Forget it,’ I replied. I pressed the bruise on my side to see how bad it was. The rib wasn’t broken, but maybe it was cracked.

‘That punch of yours, how’d you do it?’

‘There’s a thing right here,’ I said, touching the skin on her neck below the ear, ‘called the vagus nerve. Runs from the brain stem all the way to the heart. Hit it just right, or squeeze it with a certain wrestling hold, and the heart stops. Dead, if you’re not careful.’

I could see the pulse in her neck and, despite the cold, her skin was smooth and warm. A couple of fine hairs waving in the breeze curled around my finger.

‘It was a lucky punch. I’ve tried it a few times in the past and it’s never worked.’

‘Well, it worked this time. Nice bit of theatre, too,’ she said with a smile.

A vehicle honked its horn close by and spoiled the moment. I looked up and saw Emir’s Renault weaving towards us through the traffic. He pulled to a stop beside the kerb, tyres locked up in the wet road grit. I opened the door for Masters.

‘Where have you been, Emir?’ I asked as I went in behind her.

‘Looking for you, sir,’ he said, instantly on the defensive.

‘You didn’t see us get muscled into a van?’

‘What is “muscled”? Sir, I cannot stop here. I have been driving round and round. But I could not see you.’

‘Don’t worry about it, Emir,’ Masters said. To me, she added, ‘What could he have done about it anyway?’

True, we couldn’t exactly expect Emir to be the cavalry.

‘So what do you think those assholes wanted?’ she asked.

‘You mean aside from Fedai?’

‘Did you buy the whole, we’re-after-an-ex-Mossad-agent shit?’

‘No,’ I replied.

‘If Fedai were ex-Mossad, you’d think the CIA would’ve picked that up when they ran the guy’s background. They’d have put him through the wringer for sure before they let him butler for Portman.’

‘You’d think so, only you’re assuming the CIA wasn’t busy someplace else, shooting itself in the foot,’ I said.

‘So let’s say they are Mossad.’

‘Then the whole hunt-for-a-rogue-ex-agent thing might explain them stomping around with guns in a foreign country, abducting and smooching beautiful military policemen…’

‘Vin — shut up,’ said Masters.

‘Sorry. Okay, whether Fedai is ex-Mossad or not, the fact remains that those people — whoever they are — obviously want to get their hands on him.’

‘Could it be that he has something they want?’ Masters wondered.

‘Such as?’

‘Well, take your initial hunch, the one about Fedai returning to find Portman murdered, seeing the wall safe blown, opening the floor safe and taking off with whatever he found inside it.’

‘Right, that hunch.’

‘Which brings me back to wondering who those people were,’ she said.

Whoever they were, they were interested in Fedai, interested enough to push us around. And that made me interested in them.

‘Excuse, please,’ Emir interrupted. ‘But I think someone behind follow us.’

‘What…? Where…?’ Masters said as we both turned to check our six.

‘A white Hyundai,’ said Emir. ‘Can you see it?’

‘I can see about thirty of them,’ I replied.

‘This one is clean. I turn here, you will see.’

Emir swung into a narrow side street. Several vehicles followed, and one of them was a late-model white Hyundai. And it was dirt- and dust-free — something I had to admit was unusual on the streets of Istanbul.

‘You got it?’ I asked Masters.

‘Yep.’

The vehicle was too far away for us to see who was behind the wheel.

‘What do you want me to do?’ Emir asked.

‘You want to lose them, Vin?’ Masters said.

‘No, let’s talk to them. Emir?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Turn into the next main street. Don’t drive fast. Take it nice and easy.’

‘Nice and easy. Yes, sir.’

Emir did as I asked and turned into the next main street, coming off the gas.

‘Did the Hyundai take the turn?’ I asked him, not wanting to look around and, potentially, give the game away.

‘Yes, he turn,’ Emir replied, squinting into the rear-view mirror.

Up ahead, a streetlight turned red, bringing a block and a half of the traffic behind us to a stop.

‘Let’s go,’ I said.

Masters and I jumped out and ran through the crowd of stationary vehicles. The Hyundai was maybe thirty yards back. As we approached it, I saw two silhouettes in its windscreen. I took the driver’s door, Masters the passenger’s.

‘Hey, look. It’s my favourite crime-fighting duo,’ I said as the window came down.

‘You think you’re so goddamn smart,’ drawled Special Agent Arlow Mallet.

‘And you need to be smart when Howdy and Doody are on your tail,’ said Masters through the other window.

Goddard and Mallet looked angry and self-conscious.

‘You want to tell us why you’re following us?’ I asked.

‘We weren’t following you, Cooper,’ said Mallet.

‘C’mon, fellas. You were either following or blundering — take your pick.’

‘We don’t have to explain anything to you, Cooper,’ Mallet replied.

‘We think you do,’ I said. ‘You keep showing up just a little after the fact. We want to know why.’

‘Blow me, Cooper.’

‘Say, Special Agent Masters. That was quite a show you put on in the park,’ said Goddard with a leer, switching to the offensive.

Mallet took the cue to join in. ‘Yeah, who’d have thought you swung both ways?’

‘So you have been following us,’ I said.

‘Just happened along, Cooper.’ Mallet smiled, which had the effect of further sinking his cheekbones, so that his face reminded me of a deflated football.

Masters was incensed. ‘You saw all that going on in the park, but you did nothing about it?’

‘Next time you’re thinking of putting on a show like that, lady,’ sniggered Goddard, ‘give us a little advance warning and we’ll try and get a webcam on it.’

Masters put her hands on the Hyundai’s roof and balled them into fists.

Mallet inched the Hyundai forward. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, step back from the vehicle,’ he said.

The blaring of horns suddenly entered my consciousness. I hadn’t noticed the traffic snarl we’d caused. Up ahead, the traffic light was green and Emir was parked in the middle of the road gesticulating at the motorists hurling abuse at him for refusing to move.