Divide and conquer - Tom Clancy [85]
Several minutes after they spoke on her cell phone, Orlov called the phone registered to Odette Kolker at her apartment. It rang a dozen times and no one answered. Orlov hoped that meant she had taken the American with her. Twenty minutes later, he called back again. This time a man with a slurred voice answered. In English. Orlov looked at the readout on the telephone to make sure he had the correct number. He did. The woman had left without the American.
"This is General Sergei Orlov," he said to the man.
"Is this Mr. Battat?"
"Yes," Battat replied groggily.
"Mr. Battat, the woman who rescued you is my subordinate," Orlov went on.
"She has gone out to try and apprehend the man who attacked you on the beach. You know who I am talking about?"
"Yes," Battat replied.
"I do."
"She has no backup, and I'm worried about her and about the mission,"
Orlov said.
"Are you well enough to get around the city?" There was a short delay.
Orlov heard grunts and moans.
"I'm on my feet, and I see my clothes hanging behind the door," Battat replied.
"I'll take one step at a time. Where did she go?" Orlov told the American he had no idea what Odette's plan was, or if she even had one.
Orlov added that his team was still trying to get into the hotel computer to find out which rooms were occupied by single males. Battat asked Orlov to call him a taxi, since he did not really speak the language. Orlov said he would do that and thanked him. He gave Battat his telephone number at the Op-Center and then hung up. Orlov sat still.
Save for the faint buzz of the fluorescent light on his desk, his underground office was dead silent. Even space was not this quiet.
There were always creaks as metal warmed and cooled or bumps as loose objects struck equipment. There were sounds of coolant moving through pipes and air rushing through vents. And every now and then there was someone talking in his headphone, either from Earth or somewhere else in the ship. Not here. This was a lonelier-feeling place by far. By now, Odette had probably reached the hotel and gone inside. He could phone her and order her back, but he did not think she would listen. And if she was intent on going through with this, he did not want to rattle her. She needed to know she had his support. Orlov was angry at Odette for having disobeyed orders and lying to him. His anger was tempered by an understanding of what had driven the woman. Her husband had been a loner as well. A loner who had died because of someone else's carelessness. Still, she would not stand in the way of Orlov's job. And that job was not just to capture or kill the Harpooner. It was to make certain that Odette did not end up like Viktor.
Baku, Azerbaijan Tuesday, 10:31 a.m.
There was a great deal of traffic, and it took Odette twice as long as she expected to reach the Hyatt Hotel. She parked on a side street less than a block from the employees' entrance. She did not want to park out front. There was still a sniper out there somewhere, the person who had shot the American diplomat outside the hospital. The killer might be bird-dogging the hotel for the Harpooner. He might have seen her car at the hospital and could recognize it again. It was a sunny morning, and Odette enjoyed the brief walk to the front of the hotel. The air tasted richer and seemed to fill her lungs more than usual. She wondered