The Hadrian Memorandum - Allan Folsom [155]
“They are watching the building.”
Marten looked up. Anne stood in the doorway, her hair twisted up in a bun, her robe pulled around her.
“Two men. Across the street in the park.”
“Two?” Marten said. “A few minutes ago there was only one.”
“Well, now there are two.” Anne was calm and very matter-of-fact. “Ryder needs to know where to meet us before he lands. We won’t be able to communicate once he enters the Lisbon cell phone grid. They’ll have every one of his lines monitored. If he tries to use a landline, they’ll have that covered, too.”
Marten turned back to the phone. “Could you hear that?”
“I assume it was Ms. Tidrow.”
“Hopefully Ryder’s left Rome and is en route here now. See if you can reach him and ask him to delay his landing until I can find a place and time where we can meet unseen. The best would be somewhere at the airport itself.”
“That won’t work. His itinerary has been laid out by the embassy. It means he’s got to at least start to play the game and go to his hotel. After that he can try to make his move. But you can’t just meet. You’ve got to get back to the airport, onto his plane, and out of Lisbon. We have to have Ms. Tidrow and every piece of evidence you’ve got in our custody and safely back in the States. Where you land and where she goes after that, I’ll take care of. Your job is to get you, her, and Ryder onto his plane and airborne as fast as possible.”
“We can’t do this alone. I’m going to need Raisa Amaro’s help. You said to trust her completely. I want to hear it from you again, just to be sure I didn’t get it wrong. Right now everything is going to depend on her.”
“You can trust her with anything, cousin. As I said, she is very smart and very gifted, and also very efficient. She and I go back a long way.”
“I’ll talk to her and get back to you, hopefully with a time and meeting place for Ryder. Then you can pass that information on to him before he lands. If Raisa can’t help, we’ll just have to figure out something else. With luck you’ll hear from me soon.” With that Marten clicked off.
“The old girlfriend,” Anne said with the faint hint of a smile.
“Yes.” Immediately he brushed past her and went to the front window to stand beside it and look out. The man he had seen earlier had moved closer to the edge of the park. Another was a little farther back standing by a decorative fountain, his eyes on the building. Several seconds passed, and he reached up and touched his ear as if he were listening to something. Abruptly he put his hand to his mouth.
“He’s talking to someone.” Anne moved in beside Marten. “If there are two there, there will be others watching the back.”
“You don’t think they’re police,” he said flatly.
“No, I don’t think they’re police.”
Marten crossed to the room phone, picked it up, and dialed 11, the extension Raisa had given him. She answered on the second ring.
“Good morning, Mr. Marten.”
“Good morning, Raisa. I know it’s early, but I wonder if you could come up here right away. Yes, now. It’s important. Thank you.” Marten glanced at Anne and hung up.
7:15 A.M.
99
THE APARTMENT ON RUA DE SÃO FILIPE NÉRI. 7:17 A.M.
An hour and forty minutes of sleep had been enough. Conor White was up at six forty-five. By seven he’d showered and shaved, and then he woke the others. Barefoot and wearing nothing but a bath towel around his waist he’d plugged a team radio unit, a team radio unit, headset into his right ear, tuned to the 171.925 frequency Branco had given him, and listened to the intermittent chatter of Branco’s men watching the apartment at 17 Rua do Almada. Afterward he’d gone into the kitchen and made a pot of coffee. By seven ten he was at the kitchen table making notes on his laptop. Six minutes later he opened a map of Lisbon and pinpointed the U.S. Embassy