The Einstein Pursuit (39 page)

With nothing to trade for Sahlberg and no idea where to look for Cole, they were forced to strike a new deal with Masseri. They knew they couldn’t put their trust in him entirely – after all, he had double-crossed Cole – but so far he hadn’t led them astray.

He had told them where to find the lab.

He had told them where to find Berglund.

And he had told them where to find Cole.

They hoped Masseri could help them again, which was why they reluctantly agreed to meet him in Prague. The same café as before. This time, the three of them together as the nightly festivities of the Old Town Square carried on around them.

Payne realized this would be a renegotiation, so he did his best to establish his position as one of strength. ‘It looks like you’ve lost your leverage.’

Masseri scoffed. ‘How do you figure that? I still have Dr Sahlberg.’

‘True, but how do you plan to collect? Cole’s not an idiot. He knows exactly how we found him in Rakovnik. If you try to deliver Mattias, he’ll cut you from ear to ear.’

Masseri smiled. ‘In that case, Sahlberg is no use to me. I guess I’ll leave him to rot.’

‘He’s of plenty use to you,’ Payne insisted. ‘He’s the only thing keeping me from leaping across this table and crushing your windpipe. I want him back.’

Masseri smiled. ‘I want double what Berglund was offering. In exchange, I will tell you where I have hidden Sahlberg.’

Payne shook his head. ‘Not a chance. I’m not altering our previous deal. I retrieve Tomas Berglund, and you hand over Mattias.’

‘How do I benefit from that?’ Masseri asked.

‘We’re still going to kill Hendrik Cole.’

All things considered, Masseri knew it was his best option. He couldn’t turn Sahlberg over to Cole. Not now. Not after his double-cross. Cole would kill him on sight. And if he couldn’t strong-arm Payne into paying for Sahlberg – and it certainly looked like Payne had no intention of paying a ransom – then at least Cole’s death would keep him from looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life.

His only other option was to kill Sahlberg, dump his body in the river, and disappear for as long as possible. But as he looked into Payne’s eyes, he knew the MANIAC would stop at nothing to avenge the loss of his friend. Killing Sahlberg would be a death sentence.

‘What do you need from me?’ Masseri conceded.

Jones answered. ‘We need a location. Where would Cole take Berglund for safe keeping?’

‘He doesn’t want to keep him safe. He wants to trade him for cash as quickly as possible. And guess who benefits the most from Dr Berglund’s continued existence?’

‘Harrison Zidane,’ Payne answered.

‘Exactly,’ Masseri said with a smile. ‘If Cole grabbed Berglund, it’s safe to assume that he has every intention of getting the most value for him. And it’s rather obvious Zidane has the deepest pockets and the most motivation.’

‘You think he’s taking him directly to Zidane?’

‘That’s what I would do,’ Masseri said. He leaned forward to make his point. ‘Harrison Zidane is in no condition to stray far from home. Until the hospital he is financing in Como is completed, he needs to remain in close proximity to the laboratory you destroyed or to his villa on the lake. He went to the lab for treatments, but Berglund went to him for checkups.’

Jones considered their options. ‘I’m guessing you’ve seen his place in Como. What kind of security are we talking about?’

‘Zidane keeps his own security force on hand at all times. Ex-Mossad, British SAS, former special forces, and so on. And that’s just to guard his artwork. There’s no telling what changes he’ll make once he hears about Rakovnik. And this time, you won’t have the element of surprise. He and his men will be waiting for your arrival.’

If Cole headed directly to Italy, there was no way for Payne, Jones or Dial to beat him to Lake Como. He simply had too much of a head start. Fortunately, Dial didn’t need to be in Italy to mobilize his troops. He managed that with a phone call.

Though they had no power to make arrests, there was nothing in the Interpol charter that prevented them from observing suspects. At Dial’s insistence, NCB agents from the Milan office were patrolling the waters of Lake Como before the sun came up. And their timing couldn’t have been better. Had they waited even fifteen minutes longer to follow Dial’s order, they would have missed the small powerboat as it slipped into Zidane’s private dock at dawn.

The agents watched as three men stealthily made their way from the water to the house. The first was the driver of the boat. The second was Tomas Berglund. The third – the injured man pushing Berglund as he stumbled up the steps to the villa – was Hendrik Cole. They were greeted by a throng of security personnel, each carrying the kind of firepower seldom seen on men protecting exclusive waterfront estates.

‘They’ve arrived in Lake Como,’ Dial told Payne and Jones as he disconnected the call from the Milan office. ‘They’re at Harrison Zidane’s house. And your informant was right about the guards. The property is protected by at least ten heavily armed men.’

‘I’d prefer heavy men with no arms,’ Jones cracked.

‘Me too,’ Payne admitted.

Dial frowned. ‘Guys, I’m worried about your safety here. If you approach from the front, the guards can take you out long before you reach the shore. Not to mention anyone who happens to be in the water at the time.’

‘Who said anything about the front?’ Jones asked as he pulled out his tablet computer and showed Dial several images of the back half of Zidane’s property. It consisted of a sheer rock face that extended several hundred feet in the air and protected the villa like a castle wall.

Dial looked at him like he was crazy. ‘You can’t be serious.’

Jones deadpanned. ‘I’m always serious.’

Zidane’s villa on Lake Como abutted the steep slopes of the Italian Alps. Cut into the rock, the house perched magnificently above the water’s edge. The location offered stunning views of the lake. It also made the estate inaccessible from the rear.

At least for
most
people.

Thanks to satellite images from Randy Raskin, Payne and Jones realized that the security detail at Zidane’s house was focused on the lakefront. The guards kept a watchful eye on the water, but they left the back of the property – the sheer cliffs of the mountain – virtually unattended.

Jones decided this was the best way in.

Plus, it would be a hell of a ride.

Payne stood at the edge of the Boeing C-17’s cargo ramp and peered out into the night sky. Had it been a few hours later, he would have been able to see the curvature of the earth from this height.

‘You remember how to do this?’ he teased.

‘Like riding a bike,’ Jones replied.

‘Since when do you ride a bike at thirty thousand feet?’

‘Okay, it’s nothing like riding a bike,’ Jones admitted. ‘It’s a hell of a lot longer fall to the pavement.’

While on active duty, they had often used HALO jumps – High Altitude Low Opening – to infiltrate hostile territory. This dangerous maneuver allowed them to deploy from more than five miles above the lake – far too high for either them or their aircraft to be noticed by guards on the ground. They would freefall to the top of the mountain peaks before opening their chutes at the very last minute.

If all went as planned, they would be able to halt their descent somewhere on the rock face above the house. From there, they would anchor climbing gear and make their final approach by means of a rappeling line. It was exactly the type of high-risk, high-reward endeavor that Payne and Jones had come to miss as civilians.

The light in the cargo hold flashed green, and Payne looked at Jones. It was now or never. They only had a small window of opportunity to make their jump before the C-17 had to reroute back to Aviano Air Base. They wouldn’t get a second chance. Their current heading could be explained as a training exercise. A second pass would draw the attention of the Italian air force.

They stepped off the ramp and plummeted into the void.

Adrenalin surged through their systems as they fell faster and faster. By the time they reached terminal velocity, the muscle memory they had honed during their countless previous jumps kicked in. They tucked and rolled as needed, correcting their course to stay on target.

At five thousand feet they released their chutes. There was a sudden jerk as their parachutes filled with air, followed by a graceful glide to the rocky cliffs below. This was the part that Jones had been waiting for.

They skimmed the rock face below as they descended, searching for anything that would serve as a foothold or any place they could anchor a clip. After several hundred feet, they finally managed to land on the vertical wall.

As they secured their climbing rigs a few hundred feet above the property, Jones could only grin. He hadn’t been entirely sure that they would be able to cling to the smooth slope of the mountain, even after their fall had been dramatically slowed by their chutes. For a split second, he found himself wondering if the hard part of the assault was already over.

‘What are you smiling about?’ Payne asked.

Jones laughed. ‘I honestly didn’t know if we’d be able to stop up here. I was afraid the wind off the rock face would take us out over the house.’

Payne could only shake his head. ‘Now you tell me.’

‘I didn’t want to scare you.’

Both men knew that gliding down to the villa under a parachute would have led to a slaughter –
their
slaughter.

‘Next time, I’m planning the mission.’

‘Next time?’ Jones said as he set an anchor in the rock. He tested it to make sure it was secure. ‘Let’s hope there
is
a next time.’

‘There will be,’ Payne assured him, suddenly all business.

Jones nodded in reply. He grabbed a small infrared flashlight and aimed it at the hillside on the other side of the lake, where the third member of their team lay in wait.

Rappeling down the sheer face of the mountain would require Payne and Jones to use both hands on the line. While in motion, their rifles would be slung over their shoulders and their pistols would be holstered. If they were spotted, they would be defenseless – save the possibility of swinging wildly to dodge the gunfire from below. To counter this disadvantage, they needed a sniper on the opposite side of the ravine to cover their approach.

Though they would have preferred Hulk or Rhino watching their backs, neither man had the long-range shooting ability of Masseri, who had willingly volunteered his services. They didn’t trust him, but they ultimately decided to accept his offer, knowing full well that he was highly motivated to kill Cole and as many of Zidane’s men as possible. After all, if Tomas Berglund didn’t walk out alive, Masseri wouldn’t see a payday of any kind.

Masseri was watching the slope above Zidane’s house through his night-vision scope. Jones’s flashlight wasn’t visible to the naked eye, but the optics on Masseri’s sniper rifle picked up the flash as if it were a standard bulb. He watched Payne and Jones begin their descent before he fixed his crosshairs on a guard at the front of the property.

He waited. And waited.

Until the time was right.

Then he squeezed the trigger.

The guard’s head exploded like a water balloon, spraying those around him with a colorful burst of blood. The other guards scrambled for cover as they fired wildly toward the lake, unsure where the shot had come from. Two seconds later, Masseri added to their confusion by killing another, this time with a shot to the neck.

The men were well trained and well armed, but they were unprepared for this type of assault. One by one Masseri took them down, smiling as he did. Even firing from the opposite bank across the windswept lake, his accuracy was flawless.

By the time Payne and Jones had landed on the roof, Masseri had eliminated five of Cole’s men. As reinforcements poured from the house, Payne and Jones shot at them from above while Masseri continued to pick them off from a distance. Caught in the kill zone between three experienced shooters, Cole’s guards were hopelessly outmatched.

Payne watched as one overwhelmed henchman literally spun in circles, aimlessly shooting in all directions. Like a well-armed Tasmanian devil, the soldier tried to inflict as much damage to the surrounding area as he could. Unfortunately for those around him, he managed to shoot not one, but two of his fellow guards. In the end, a member of his own team took out the spastic shooter. It was friendly fire that had become defensive fire, a necessity of the moment.

When the carnage ended, fourteen men lay dead on the patio.

‘I think someone made it back inside,’ Jones pointed out.

‘I saw him too,’ Payne replied.

They dropped to the patio below and surveyed the damage. If the satellite images and the NCB patrols were correct, the security force was comprised of fifteen men. That left one still unaccounted for. One guard and Cole, along with Zidane and Berglund. Even if Cole could fire a weapon in his condition, Payne liked their odds much better now than he had done a few minutes before.

Payne and Jones stepped inside the house cautiously, one scanning high and to the right, the other covering low and to the left.

The house was warm and inviting. In the main sitting room, two massive, overstuffed leather couches were arranged around a driftwood coffee table. A mahogany bar stood in the corner. Row after row of top-shelf liquor was displayed in glass cabinets on either side. Above the fireplace was a projection screen that spanned the width of the chimney. Beyond that, tall bay windows looked out across the length of the lake.

‘Here,’ Jones said as he aimed his rifle at the floor.

Behind the farthest couch lay the final guard. He was struggling for breath, a gaping hole in his back where Masseri’s bullet had torn through him.

Jones crouched low and pressed a finger to the man’s neck, checking his pulse. A moment later he shook his head.

Payne nodded and stepped deeper into the house.