The Pandora Key aka The Hostage Room

35

I WAS CONFUSED FOR ABOUT TWO SECONDS, AND THEN I was mortified by my own stupidity. While I was on the Blackthorne plane, Thorne and Tatiana had had access to my cell phone, my computer, and everything else I’d had with me. And they were spooks. Of course they’d been listening. Probably tracking me, too. No wonder I had never seen anyone tailing me.

Here was one of the problems with being in so far over your head. You didn’t even know what you didn’t know.

Thorne’s gaze shifted to a spot over my right shoulder. “Red.”

I thought he was talking in code, but then a voice came from behind me. “Sir?”

I turned to find one of Cyrus’s soldiers. He looked very young, and he wasn’t called Red because of his hair. It was dark and cut close to his scalp.

“Did you clear the house?”

“Upstairs and down, sir.”

“Excellent. Take care of her, then make sure we stay clear in the back. I don’t want any surprises.”

“You got it, sir.” Either Thorne’s men had learned not to argue with the boss, or he really commanded their respect.

There was a tense moment when I could feel Red behind me and I didn’t know what “take care of her” meant. But all he did was pull my wrists together and secure them with plastic cuffs. He took me over toward Harvey and put me on the ottoman next to him.

“Are you all right?” I asked him.

“Yes. Are you?”

“I’m fine.”

He glanced at Thorne and lowered his voice to lip-reading volume. “Did you get her off?”

I nodded, and he slumped in his chair. It almost seemed as if his concern for Rachel had been the only thing keeping him upright.

An unfamiliar ring tone called out. Cyrus answered a phone he pulled from his gear bag and launched into a conversation in a different language. It was hard and guttural and sounded something like Bo when he spoke to Timon or Radik. Thinking about Bo reminded me that he wasn’t coming and that Thorne knew that, too. As he’d said, he’d been listening. I leaned over to talk to Harvey. “Did you ever reach Radik?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

“I don’t suppose you left a message?” Harvey wasn’t big on those. He shook his head.

No one was coming.

Harvey nodded toward Thorne. “He is here to intercept Mr. Kraft and likely kill him. Once he has accomplished that, he will very likely kill us as well.”

That summed it up.

“What do you think will happen to the video of Rachel’s incident?” he asked.

“It’s not on my list of things to worry about right now.”

“She will not know. Drazen will come for her, and she will not know to run.”

“Rachel takes pretty good care of herself. Right now, I’m worried about our own situation.” Thorne was still on the phone. He’d left my cell sitting on the table next to the portfolio. “He’s been listening to all my calls, so he knows about the money files. He took the key, so he must plan on taking the money, too. That will make a nice and unexpected bonus.”

“Indeed.” Harvey’s chin dropped to his chest, and he looked the way he did when he’d taken too much medication. But after a minute or so, he seemed to wake up. “Yes. He will want the money. That is undoubtedly true.”

“Who wouldn’t want a billion dollars free and clear? He can plow it back into his company.”

“But he must get to it first.”

“He’s got the key. All he needs is the computer, and it’s on the way.”

“Listen to me.” Harvey turned as far as he could toward me, given that his arms were lashed to the chair. “Before she left, Rachel and I talked. I will tell you what I told her.” He took a difficult breath, but one that seemed to calm him. “I am through being afraid. I am through being manipulated. I will do what I think is right, what I think is best.”

He was remarkably composed. It always freaked me out when Harvey was less nervous and more measured than I was. I was desperate to hear more, but my cell phone rang.

Thorne finished his call and radioed for Red. Then he came over, grabbed me, and pulled me over to the couch. The ringing seemed louder than normal. He put a second cell down next to mine, and I understood why. The two of them were ringing, but not exactly together, which made for almost continuous bleating.

“It’s a clone,” he said, “and it’s been most helpful. If you don’t follow the plan, your partner will become another casualty of war.”

The private war of Cyrus Thorne.

Red showed up, and Thorne nodded to him. He walked over and put the barrel of his rifle against the back of Harvey’s skull. The phone kept ringing. I looked at Harvey’s face. He wouldn’t look at me. I could tell he was trying not to be scared, but his chin was trembling. He closed his eyes, and pretty soon, urine started dribbling down the struts of his wheelchair.

“If it’s not Kraft, get rid of the call. If it is, you know what to do.”

Thorne flipped open both phones at the same time, and the incessant ringing stopped. He put one to my ear and the other to his.

“Alex Shanahan.”

“Max Kraft.”

It was a relief to hear his voice. I needed something to be easy.

“I’m glad to hear from you,” I said. “Are you all right?”

“Fine. Tell me where you are. I’ll come to you.”

I gave him the address and directions from the turnpike, which was how he was coming into town. “How far out are you?”

“Half an hour.”

He waited a beat, and I knew he was giving me a chance to warn him off.

“Park a couple of blocks away,” I said. “And come to the back door and knock. I’ll be waiting for you.”

Thirty minutes seemed like thirty hours. I didn’t want Harvey soaking in his own piss, but the most they would let me do for him was get towels from the bathroom and try to clean him up. Red cut off our restraints. Harvey held out his arms, and I pulled him up.

“I want you to listen to me.” He braced himself against my arms and leaned closer. “I believe you can survive this.”

Cyrus had dug out Lyle’s microcassettes and settled down with his own little player and earbuds to listen to what his late partner had said about him. Red was assigned to watch us, which meant there was at least a third person in the house.

“I have an idea,” he whispered, holding my arms as tightly as he could. “And when I see the opportunity, you will know. You must take it.”

His grip was not strong. I managed to transfer it to the handles of the wheelchair so I could work on drying his pants, not easy since he still had them on. The most I could do was dab at them with a towel. He didn’t seem the least bit embarrassed to have me do it. When I was done, I kept a hand towel for myself, folded the rest, and put them in the seat of his chair.

I transferred his weight back to me and eased him down into the chair. “What about you?”

“One of us has to stay.”

“For what? To be killed?”

He didn’t answer. As I wiped off my own hands, I saw that he was actually serious. “Harvey, I’m not leaving without you.”

“You must.”

“No.” I leaned down with the hand towel to dry the underside of the chair. I wanted to appear busy so Red wouldn’t tie me up again. Cyrus, who would know better, seemed riveted by the Blackmon tapes. “Why would you even consider something like that? Why would you ask me to consider something like that?”

“God granted me this opportunity. I know it. I promised myself that when it came, I would not turn away, and I will not.”

“Whatever it is you have in mind, let me do it. You’re too weak. I’ll have a better chance than you would.”

“No.”

I had already wiped every inch of the chair’s undercarriage. I sat down next to the right wheel and started on the spokes. “This is all because of Rachel. She’s got you all confused. You don’t have to prove yourself to her or to anyone else.”

“I have done many things for Rachel, some that she deserved and many that she did not. But this I am doing for myself. Now, please, for once, just this once, do as I ask.”

He didn’t sound like himself, he didn’t look like himself, and I had the sick, panicky feeling that the Harvey I knew was already receding from my life. I reached over and adjusted his towel. “Harvey-”

“Sir?”

It was Red, holding his fingers to one ear. Thorne took out his own earbuds. “What?”

“He’s here.”

Harvey leaned down and whispered, “Listen for your chance. When it comes, take it.”

Thorne was on his feet, gathering his weapons. He also grabbed a radio and mounted it on his ear. It had a small, graceful microphone that arced out in front of his mouth. The two men escorted me to the kitchen and took up positions on either side of the door. It was dark and quiet. The porch light was on. I heard footsteps on the other side of the door, then the knock.

Thorne nodded to me.

The blood rushed to my face and seemed to pool there, throbbing with each beat of my heart, because all Thorne wanted was Kraft and maybe the money. If Kraft had Vladi’s computer with him, he would have them both, and he wouldn’t need Harvey and me anymore. “Who is it?”

“Kraft. Open up, goddammit. Let me in.”

I unbolted the door and opened it. He brushed past and into the kitchen. When he turned and saw the two weapons pointed at him, he looked surprised, and then he looked disappointed, and then he looked at me with such deep loathing I could feel it on me like a wet sheet.

“I’m sorry.”

Red reached out for his bag. Kraft tried to fight him for it. Thorne stepped up and whacked him in the temple with the butt of his rifle. Kraft went down and stayed there.

Thorne grabbed the bag and left Red with Kraft.

“Come to Daddy,” he said, and then held it up to look at his prize. “Finally.”