Blood Trust - Eric van Lustbader [141]
“I should introduce the kid,” he said, as Alli and Thatë came up to them.
“No need.” Annika grinned at Thatë. “He works for me.”
Thatë and Alli got in the front seat with the driver, leaving Jack and Annika standing beside the open rear door.
“One of these days,” Jack said, “you’re going to give me a heart attack with your surprises.”
“God forbid!”
She placed a hand on his arm. It was a spontaneous gesture and yet it set off a fireworks display inside him. She must have somehow felt the ripple because she smiled.
“Oh, Jack, I never want to hurt you again.”
“But you will.”
“Not deliberately, this I swear to you.”
She leaned in and the kiss she gave him was as tentative as that first enigmatic smile. She drew back, but he caught her behind her neck, pulled her to him, and kissed her as he’d dreamed of kissing her in a reality he’d never thought could exist again.
He felt the world drop away from him. All that existed was the two of them, locked together, falling through space and time, back to when they had been together in the Ukraine last year, before the betrayal that was still a betrayal, but on another, slighter order of magnitude. A betrayal that could be forgiven without damages being assessed.
The pines above them shook and shivered, clouds passed by overhead, and the velvet evening seemed to wrap them in its cool embrace.
How quickly hate returns to love, he thought.
As they were about to get into the car, he said, “Annika, about you and Xhafa.”
“Later, my love. I’ll tell you everything.”
* * *
BALTASAR CLOSED his phone and went back to his surveillance of the Dementieva woman.
“Everything all right?” he said to Asu.
“They went into the line of pines.” Asu, the driver, put his field glasses down and pointed.
They were in an armored vehicle similar to the one that had brought Arian Xhafa and the Syrian from the air base to the compound. It was still light enough to see the stand of trees. The pines looked delicate in the gathering twilight, like a Japanese watercolor.
“What are our orders?” Yassin said from behind them.
“The woman is to be taken to the safehouse in the western district of Vlorë. The other three are to be killed.”
Baltasar could feel Yassin’s excitement coming off him in waves.
“Now,” he said. “As soon as we determine—”
At that moment, the huge car slid out from behind the trees and headed off to the east.
“Go,” Baltasar said. “Go!”
Asu started up the vehicle and put it into gear. The advantages of the vehicle were many, including its inch-and-a-half-thick armor plate and its two .30 caliber machine guns, mounted fore and aft, its maneuverability over any sort of terrain, and its storehouse of other weaponry, including tear-gas grenades, a handheld rocket launcher, and a flamethrower. On the other hand, it was noisy, relatively slow, and not as maneuverable as a car on normal surfaces. Even so, Baltasar favored it over the other forms of ground transport at the Syrian’s disposal.
The large car ahead had its head- and taillights on, but Baltasar instructed Asu to keep theirs off. They were phenomenally lucky that the 737 had landed at sunset. Now, in the twilight’s uncertain illumination, they could follow without fear of being detected.
The car bumped down country lanes into larger streets and then took the ramp onto the ring road that circumnavigated Vlorë. There was no telling where it was headed, and Baltasar was anxious not to lose sight of it.
Yassin leaned forward, body as tense as a drawn bow. “We should drive them off the road,” he said.
“Wait,” Baltasar said without turning around.
“And then, as they come out of the car, use the flamethrower to incinerate them one by one.”
Now Baltasar turned to him. “And what do you think the others will do while the first one is roasting, sit on their thumbs and wait to be set afire?”
Yassin grinned. “There’s always the thirty caliber. Poum, poum, poum!”
“All good things come to those who wait, Yassin.” He handed Yassin the specially reconfigured