Chasing the Night - Iris Johansen [102]
She’d need those seconds.
A flash of yellow Windbreaker, and Zeller came around the corner.
She leaped forward and gave him a karate chop to the jugular. As he dropped, she sprang forward.
Sminoff had hesitated as she’d thought he would, but not long enough. He was reaching for his knife.
Her own knife stabbed deep into his hand, piercing it to the bone.
He screamed.
She lifted her knee between his legs, and he bent forward in agony. She struck him in the nose with the ball of her hand, breaking his bones and sending them into his brain.
She didn’t wait for him to drop to the ground. It might be only a few minutes before someone came out of that flower shop, and she didn’t want to have to answer questions.
She ran back onto the main street, then walked quickly toward the Tulskaya Metro Station.
Two thirty-five.
Why didn’t Joe call her? Eve thought in frustration. He’d promised to get back to her as soon as possible after the NSA trace. Catherine was supposed to take the call at two.
Be patient. Sometimes things didn’t go as planned.
With Rakovac things seldom went as they wanted them to.
Two thirty-six.
“You keep looking at the clock.” Kelly nodded. “You’re worried about Catherine. So am I. You should have told me that she was leaving. It wasn’t right for her to just run out on us. Is she supposed to call you?”
“No.” Catherine had asked her not to tell Kelsov about the NSA trace, and Eve had opted to tell no one. Natalie was joined at the hip with Kelsov, and Kelly would immediately try to take over any operation and make it her own. That had been her modus operandi from the instant Eve had met her.
“You’re not telling the truth.” Natalie’s gaze was fixed on Eve from across the room. “Why did Kelsov go with Catherine?”
“I told you that she needed a ride to the city. Don’t worry. He won’t be staying with her, Natalie.” It was difficult to tell only half-truths and still make them comforting. She had never been good at deception. “I’m sure he’ll be back in an hour or so.”
“I don’t want him with Catherine,” Natalie said with sudden fierceness. “She doesn’t care if he’s hurt or not. All she cares about is finding her son.”
“And all he cares about is killing Rakovac,” Eve said quietly. “And that’s all you care about, too, Natalie. So how can you blame Catherine?”
“That’s not all I care about,” Natalie said. “I don’t know if anyone will ever kill Rakovac. Some people are so evil that they kill everything they touch, and no one can stop it.” She was shivering, and she folded her arms over her chest to control it. “I want him dead. For a while I thought that was all I wanted. But that’s not true. I want Kelsov to stay alive. That’s more important. Catherine is going to get him killed.”
“And I’m not worried about Kelsov, I’m worried about Catherine,” Kelly said. “And I have something important to tell her. So tell me where I can—”
“Stop.” Eve held up her hand to stem the flow. “I hope she’ll contact us, but you know Catherine can be obstinate. She didn’t want any of us to be hurt. I couldn’t talk her out of going off on her own.” At least that was the truth. “But the best thing that we can do is to keep working on finding Luke and maybe we can phone her and convince her to let us help.”
“Bull.” Kelly was frowning. “You’re patting me on the head and telling me to go back to work. That’s not the best thing. The best thing is for us to go after Catherine and try to keep her alive.”
“I am telling you to go back to work,” Eve said. “Because that’s our only option to solve the problem.”
Kelly suddenly smiled. “Then I may have it licked.” She flipped down the lid of her computer and gestured to her yellow note pad. “Maybe. It’s less grounded than I usually pull together, but I believe I’ve found it.”
“Licked?” Eve was staring at her incredulously as she stiffened in the chair. “You’ve found your pattern?”
“I’ve found a pattern. Rakovac is complicated, but it was easier when I realized that he has no code or ethic he lives by. His loyalty is to no one, and that was