The Silenced

Chapter 46

“Let me speak to my sister,” Quinn said.

“Where are you?” the Ghost asked.

“Let me speak to my sister.”

“You already spoke to her.”

“And you could have dumped her since then. Let me speak to her, or we abort.”

The phone exchanged hands.

“I’m here,” she said, strain still in her voice, but a little calmer than the last time.

“Still okay?”

“Yes.”

“Good. It won’t be long.”

“All right,” she said. “Jake, what about Nate? Is he—”

Quinn could hear the phone moving again.

“I’m at Waterloo,” the Ghost said. “Bring me the package now and you can have her back. Then we can both move on.”

Quinn’s phone vibrated, indicating a text, but he ignored it for the moment.

“Step two,” he told the Ghost. “Head toward Victoria Station. I’ll call you in five minutes with further instructions.”

“That is unaccep—”

Quinn disconnected the call, then looked at the screen. The text was from Orlando.

Quinn sent her a quick message back.

While he waited for her reply, he leaned toward Mikhail’s phone. “Anything?”

“The Mercedes is moving,” Nova reported. “Hold on.”

Quinn heard Nova speaking in Russian. There was a muffled reply that sounded like it was coming over another phone. When he came back on, he said, “It’s heading west toward Westminster Bridge.”

“That’s him,” Quinn said.

Nova said something in Russian again. Quinn looked at Mikhail, his eyebrows raised.

“He’s checking on the backup cars,” Mikhail said.

Good. That was going to be Quinn’s next question.

Fifteen seconds of nothing, then Nova said, “Have positions on the Audi and the other Mercedes, too. The Audi looks like it’s hanging back to cover the Ghost’s car, while the Mercedes is racing ahead.”

“Any sign of anyone else?” Quinn asked.

“None,” Nova said. “Should we drop the hammer?”

“Soon,” Quinn said.

His phone vibrated again.

The rain had increased, soaking the road and chasing most people off the streets.

“Now,” Quinn said to Petra as they passed Victoria Station.

Ahead, the light was changing. Petra pressed the accelerator to the floor, then swerved the van around a car that was slowing for the light, and raced through the intersection.

“Did they make it?” Quinn asked.

Petra looked in the mirror. “No. There were too many cars between us.”

“Lose them,” he said.

Petra took the next right, then went several blocks before taking a left onto a quieter residential street. As she continued to work her way through the neighborhood, Quinn kept checking to see if the other car had returned, but it hadn’t.

“Where’s our tail?” Quinn asked.

Mikhail spoke Russian into the phone, then looked back at Quinn. “They’ve gone south. Back toward the river.”

Quinn smiled. “And Palavin?”

Mikhail spoke into his phone again, then said to Quinn, “Nearing Victoria.”

“Take us to point three,” Quinn told Petra. He then called Palavin.

“We’re here,” Palavin said. “We’ll park on the north side. You’ll have three minutes to find us, or the deal is off and your sister is dead.”

“I think you misunderstood me. We’re not meeting at Victoria Station,” Quinn told him.

“I’m done playing your games. Come get her and give me my property.”

“Step three. You should write this down. Fifty-one point seven—”

“What the hell is this?” the Ghost said.

“Figure it out,” Quinn told him, then gave him the rest of the GPS coordinates. “You should be able to get there in an hour. I’ll give you fifty minutes. And if you do anything to my sister, I will expose you, Mr. Robb, and you’ll be spending your last years in prison for murder.”

He hung up the phone.

“Well?” he asked Mikhail.

The Russian was sitting across from him, listening to his own phone. “They’re still at Victoria,” he told Quinn. “Wait … they are on the move again.…” There was a pause of several seconds. “Heading … toward … point three.” Mikhail said something in Russian, then to Quinn, “Definitely heading toward point three.”

“Okay,” Quinn said. “It looks like we’re on.”