The Last Ring-bearer - Kirill Yeskov [119]
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"Dear Jacuzzi, your expression suggests that congratulations are in order."
"It was even easier than I expected – he broke immediately. 'If we let Minas Tirith know about the escaped gondolier, it will demonstrate that you had Tangorn twice and twice let him escape. No counter-intelligence professional will believe in such a coincidence. The way it will look to them is that you're working together with the baron and even had seven subordinates killed in cold blood covering for him. They'll send you to the basement, wring a confession of working for Emyn Arnen out of you, and liquidate you.' This logic seemed flawless to him and he signed the agency agreement. Please tell Makarioni to speed up the work in Barangar – the Gondorian spy station is now deaf and blind… Do you know what he wanted as his fee? It turns out that there's another team working in Umbar now, directed straight from Minas Tirith."
"Ah so."
"Fortunately, those guys aren't interested in Barangar. Rather, they're hunting Tangorn for some reason and have barred the locals from doing so. Their commander is one Lieutenant Mongoose, who carries a G-mandate and is a professional of the highest caliber, according to Marandil."
"Very interesting."
"Marandil had violated his direct order to forget about Tangorn and may be arrested once the lieutenant finds out. The captain wants us to get rid of this Mongoose and his men, just in case. I find this request to be reasonable: we have to protect this scoundrel like the apple of our eye now, at least until Operation Sirocco. In other words, chief, you'll have to ask for the Prosecutor's sanction. Our dearest Almaran is big on law and order and always makes a major stink over liquidations, but he'll have to go along with us here."
"Aren't you afraid that he'll ask you the following question: how long will a man who authorized the killing of a Gondorian intelligence officer live, and what kind of death might befall him?"
"Almaran is a fussy shyster, but not a coward. Do you remember the Arreno affair, when he disregarded both the threats and the pleas of two senators and sent three zamorro bosses to the gallows? In Mongoose's case everything is clear: he's here illegally on false papers and is setting up a kidnapping and a murder. We shouldn't have any problem."
"No problem on that end, true. The real problem is finding these guys."
"Oh, we'll find them!" the Vice-Director of Operations responded with some levity. "We're still masters of this city. We'll find Tangorn in a day or two and use him as bait to pick up those hunting him."
"We'll see."
That last comment proved prophetic. DSD operatives scoured Umbar from stem to stern, but did not find either Tangorn or Mongoose; both lieutenants seemed to have vanished into thin air. By the fourth day of the search it became clear that neither wanted man was still in town; most likely the baron's body was at the bottom of a canal while Mongoose must have already disembarked in Pelargir to report mission accomplished. Well, good riddance, then – Marandil is out of danger, so why poke into all those Gondor-Ithilien messes?
Most interestingly, the Umbar Secret Service's conclusion that Tangorn was no longer in the city was absolutely correct. By that time the baron was long aboard a felucca named Flying Fish which he had chartered to lay adrift about ten miles off Cape Jurinjoy south of Umbar, away from the main sea lanes. The three smugglers crewing the felucca (one Uncle Sarrakesh and two of his 'nephews') found this behavior strange but kept their opinions to themselves, rightly