PRIMAL Fury (The PRIMAL Series) (13 page)

CHAPTER 24

“Put the bitch over there.” András indicated the coffee table and chairs in the corner of his office.

Two men dumped Kalista into the chair and stood on either side of her.

“Untie her hands, you idiots.”

They released her hands and feet. Instantly she recoiled into the fetal position, terrified eyes scanning the room.

“Look at me, Kalista.” András sat on the coffee table in front of her. “I’m going to ask you some questions and if you answer them truthfully nothing is going to happen to you, OK?”

She nodded.

“Some men rescued you from the farm, yes?”

She nodded again.

“Can you tell me about those men?”

“One of them was a German, he was very tall,” she spoke quietly. “The other was Russian, I think. They said they were with Interpol.”

András stood up, walked over to his desk, and returned with a single piece of paper. On it were the faces of the invitees to the auction. “Are any of these men the ones who took you?”

Kalista leaned forward to look, then shook her head. “No, none of these men.”

“Tell me what happened after they took you.”

At that moment the heavy doors to András’s office flew open and Masateru stormed in.

“Why wasn’t I told she had arrived?”

András turned his head and to his surprise Masateru was still dressed in a suit, his hair slicked back. When did he actually sleep?

“I was just about to send one of my men to find you.”

Masateru gave him a look that suggested he did not believe a word he was saying. “Has she told you anything yet?”

“Not really. She says the ones who took her said they were Interpol, but clearly we know that isn’t true.” András walked back to his desk and threw the paper down.

“What about the arms dealer? Did you ask her if she knows him?”

“I did. I showed her his face. She has no idea who any of the buyers are.” András was looking at the screens behind his desk. A frown creased his bullish forehead.

Masateru sat down on the table next to the girl. He took his knife from inside his suit jacket and unfolded it. The tanto blade was jet black; only the razor’s edge was silver, a thin line of cold steel. He spun it in one hand as he slicked back his hair with the other. “What’s your name, pretty one?” he asked.

She stared at him with wide eyes. “Kalista.” Her voice trembled.

“Kalista, what you need to understand is that you belong to us. You are not a person anymore, you’re a thing. An item, a product to be used for whatever we want.”

Tears rolled down Kalista’s cheeks.

Masateru leaned forward until his face was only inches away. He grasped her face with one hand, continuing to spin the knife in the other. “I want you to tell us everything you know about the men who took you. If you don’t, you’re going to find out what happens to an item that is broken, a thing I don’t want anymore.”

Kalista shuddered, tears pouring now. “I don’t—know—anything else.” The words came in sobbing bursts.

Masateru squeezed her face harder, distorting her pretty features. He traced the back of the tanto blade down her cheek. “That’s a lie, my little angel. How about we make you a little less pretty?”

“Where’s the arms dealer?” András was staring at the screen that monitored Bishop and Saneh’s room.

“What?” Masateru released the girl’s face and whirled around.

“Look, she’s alone.” András pointed to the screen. The grainy infrared image showed one body in the bed. You could make out the woman’s long dark hair flowing over the pillow.

“Where the hell is he?” Masateru asked, his eyes darting from one screen to another.

There was no sign of the “former SAS soldier”–cum–arms dealer on any of the other screens.

“I told you they were involved,” snapped Masateru.

András turned to the guards standing on either side of Kalista. “Get everyone up. Search the entire castle. Check the cameras to see where he went. I want him alive!”

The Japanese mobster jabbed his knife in the direction of the screen that showed Saneh sleeping. “Bring that bitch to me.”

CHAPTER 25

Saneh knew something was wrong when the boots echoing along the hallway stopped outside her door. She heard the key in the lock and was fully awake when the door opened and two armed guards strode in. From under the sheets she activated her iPod. The tiny device sent a low-power, short-burst signal out into the cold night air. Her hope: that a waiting sensor would receive it and relay the precoded message.

The guards waited for her to dress as she feigned the clumsiness of a sleep-jumbled mind and struggled with her tracksuit. As she pulled on her sneakers she could hear more boots on the cobblestones outside her room. They were searching for Bishop, she realized.

The guards ushered her from the room toward the elevators. The automatic weapons they carried emphasized the seriousness of the situation, this being the first time Saneh had seen weapons inside the keep. In her head she played out the moves that would transfer one of the guns into her control. An elbow to the throat of one, a savage kick to the side of the other’s knee, then safety off and a short burst to finish the job. Despite the severity of the situation, she felt calm. In fact she almost smirked as the quote on a T-shirt Bishop had given her ran through her head: “I might seem calm, but in my head I’ve already killed you twice.”

They took her up one level and pushed her into András’s office.

“What do you want?” Saneh played the demanding, rich, spoiled woman to the hilt. “If you hurt me, Nigel will be very angry!”

“Where is he?” Masateru barked.

“Why? Has something happened? He went to the gym an hour ago…”

“He’s not in the gym,” András replied coldly. “Please, take a seat.” He pointed to the chair next to the one Kalista occupied.

Saneh looked at the terrified blonde cowering in the chair, then back to András. “I’m not some whore you can treat like this.”

“Sit down,” snarled Masateru.

Saneh dropped into the chair.

“Who are you and Mr. Martin working for?” asked András.

“You already know that,” she replied.

“Don’t play games with me. We know you’re involved.”

“Involved in what? Your security issue? We came here to buy women we can sell to the Arabs. I’m as concerned about security as you are.”

“Enough!” Masateru whipped his knife from his jacket and extended the blade with a flick of his wrist. “It is time to stop feeding us lies. Now you will tell us the truth.”

“That is the truth,” Saneh said, putting a slight waver in her voice. Tears formed in her eyes and she started to shake.

“Do you know this woman?” Masateru grabbed Kalista by the hair and dragged her from the chair. Kalista screamed in pain, reaching up to grab at his wrist. He held the tanto blade to her throat. “Do you?”

“No, no, no!” Saneh screamed hysterically.

“She is worthless to me then.” He made to cut the girl’s throat.

Saneh leaped up with lightning speed and kicked the knife from the Japanese gangster’s hand. He reacted equally quickly, punching her in the face and knocking her to the floor.

She sprang to her feet, lip split and bleeding but ready to counterattack. The two guards unslung their weapons and cocked them, pointing their muzzles directly at the PRIMAL operative.

“Tie them both up,” said Masateru, holding the wrist that Saneh had kicked. “And hurry up and bring me the fucking Englishman.”

CHAPTER 26

TEN MINUTES EARLIER, OVERWATCH POSITION, CASTLE LORAN

Aleks was fighting the dreaded “nod monster.” His eyes were tired and heavy; every few minutes his head would start to drop lower and lower until he awoke with a jerk. He pinched the inside of his hand, trying to break the cycle. He was amazed his body was so willing to sleep when he was damp, cold, and uncomfortable, not to mention that his ghillie suit smelled like a wet dog.

Bishop and Saneh’s low-frequency signal had come through half an hour earlier. It did not mean they were in trouble but served as a warning that the situation could escalate rapidly. Aleks was paying particular attention to the gatehouse located above the castle’s main entrance. It seemed to be the most heavily guarded of all the structures.

He gave the castle another scan with the thermal-imaging scope. No sign of Bishop or Saneh. Fatigue was quickly forgotten as he realized that the number of heat signatures on the walls had doubled. The guards were also using flashlights, clearly searching for someone.

His concentration was broken as his earpiece let off a shrill beep. He glanced at the screen of his iPRIMAL. The precoded message said:

Compromised. Request immediate extraction.

He hit a button on the iPRIMAL and the little device showed him the feed from the radio scanner. The low-frequency signal had originated in the keep.

Aleks gave Kurtz a nudge with his boot. The two of them had been lying side by side for nearly forty-eight hours, one sleeping, the other keeping watch. Kurtz woke in an instant and lifted the shaggy hood of his ghillie suit. “What is it?”

“Message. Saneh and Bishop want out.”

Kurtz lifted the flap of camouflage material that covered his iPRIMAL and read the alert.

“
Scheisse.
” He powered up his own thermal scope and started scanning the castle. “Marked increase in guard activity. What’s it all about?”

“Don’t know. A car arrived fifteen minutes ago. Nothing else.”

“That’s not unusual.” They had logged a number of vehicles coming and going during the night.

“That is what I thought, but in the last few minutes the number of guards has increased and they have been searching with flashlights. Then the message arrived.”

“Guards are definitely looking for someone,” Kurtz observed.

“Do you think the Bunker will have any extra info?” Aleks asked.

“We should know soon enough; the message will have relayed straight through to them.” Kurtz continued to scan. “Did you see that?”

“What?” Aleks asked.

“Look where my laser is pointed. There’s someone on the battlements trying to hide.” The laser designator on their rifles could only be seen by another thermal scope dialed to the exact same wavelength.

“I’ve got it. Someone’s crouched there. It could be Bishop.”

“Looks the right size.”

At that moment both of their headsets started beeping, indicating an incoming call.

Aleks accepted the call and it linked to both of them through the wireless headsets they wore under their camouflage hoods.

“Team, it’s Vance. What’s the situation?”

It was Aleks’s shift so he responded. “About fifteen minutes ago at oh-four-thirty hours a vehicle drove into the castle. The emergency transmission came through just after and now the guards are going crazy.”

“What about Bishop and Saneh?”

“We’ve got eyes on someone attempting to evade the guards on the battlements; it could be him. The transponder is still transmitting from the keep. They could be holding Saneh up there.”

“Any indication of why they requested evac?”

“
Nyet
, just increased activity and the possible friendly on the wall.”

“Roger.” There was a pause. “We’ve activated the recovery plan. Mirza and the team are airborne and on their way. ETA to your loc is twelve minutes.”

Aleks used his fingers to zoom out the map on his iPRIMAL. He could see the icon that represented the PRIMAL CAT. It was moving rapidly toward their location. They were a formidable force, four highly trained commandos delivered by a gunned-up helicopter. The Hungarians were in for a bad morning. “We have them on screen. I’m going to stream my feed so you can see the target.” He married the data link on his scope to his iPRIMAL and added it to a shared menu.

“I’ll take a look,” said Vance. “You and Kurtz are to provide surgical fire support. Make sure nothing gets into the castle until our boys hit the ground. Once that happens, Mirza will have the conn.”

“Affirmative,” Aleks answered.

“OK,” Kurtz confirmed.

“Bunker out.”