When I came back a couple hours later she was gone. The landlady — knew nothing, nor, as I said, did the police. There was no sign of a struggle. She was just gone.”
“What do you think happened to her?”
“She followed her father here to Moscow, I have no doubt about it. Neither does the CIA,” Jacqueline said. She brushed a strand of hair off her forehead.. “I hated to bring this news to you, Colonel, because I know how it will affect your investigation. But the Americans are very keen on getting Elizabeth home safe’. After all she was sent over to help stop her father, at your government’s request. And in the past few weeks working with the girl — she’s only twenty-three — I became very fond of — her. So it’s become personal with me.”
“Amazing,” Chernov said. “In any event we can all agree that Kirk McGarvey has come here to assassinate one of our presidential candidates.”
“That’s still a matter of speculation, actually,” Jacqueline said. “Elizabeth is traveling on her own passport. The name McGarvey is not very common, so I’m wondering if any of your people have heard anything. I assume that you’re watching the border crossings, trains, planes, buses, car rental agencies, hotels, things like that.”
“To my knowledge her name has not shown up on any of our surveillance reports. But if I hear anything I’ll contact you at your embassy, Mademoiselle Belleau,” he said. “I would ask that you let me know in turn if she shows up at her own embassy or yours.”
“I’ll inform the Americans, I’m sure they’ll be happy to help out.”
Ten minutes later Captain Petrovsky telephoned Chernov from Militia Headquarters in the old City Soviet Building.
“We may have something, Colonel.”
“What is it?” said Chernov, his mind still on the French woman. Her coming here had disturbed him. It was something outside his control, something unexpected. He didn’t like that.
“A Mafia boss, his money man and two of his bodyguards were gunned down about a half hour ago. The only reason we got it so fast was that one of General Mazayev’s people happened to be out there and called me direct.”
“Where did this happen?” Chernov demanded with his full attention now.
“That’s the thing, we should have known. At the Grand Dinamo. It’s inside the stadium, not two thousand meters from the flea market.”
“That’s it. Did anybody see anything?”
“Not the murders, but about the same time a man came out of the club, jumped into a blue BMW and took off. But it wasn’t his car. The general description the valet provided more or less fits McGarvey.”
“All right, put out an all-points bulletin for that car.”
“I sent the bulletin before I called you. If that car is still in Moscow we’ll find it.”
“Don’t screw it up this time, Illen,” Chernov warned quietly.
“No.”
McGarvey parked near a metro station around the corner from the Bolshoi Theater at 7:20. Taking the satchel with him lie found a public phone inside the station and despite the risk that the phone was being monitored for international calls, he used his Allain credit card to reach Otto Rencke. He figured that the staff at the Grand Dinamo would have been confused for the first few minutes by the theft of the car out from under their noses, and when they had gone looking for their boss, but instead found his body and those of his accountant and bodyguards, they might have panicked. It would take them time to get organized and even more time to decide what to do. The loss of a member’s car was nothing in comparison to the murders. But sooner or later they would realize that the two events were connected and they would do something. They’d either call the Militia, who might put two and two together in due time, or they’d put the word out on the street, which would be a lot faster.
“Hiya,” Rencke answered cautiously on the first ring.
“Have you heard from my daughter?” McGarvey asked.
“Oh boy, Mac, am I ever glad you called, because you’ve gotta get out of there right now. Whatever it takes, just run to the embassy and everything can be worked out.”
If the line was clear and Rencke could talk, he was supposed to respond that he’d heard from Elizabeth and everything was fine. But he hadn’t, and he sounded all strung out.
“I’ll come for you when I can.”
“Noo, Mac,” Otto cried. “You don’t understand. The line is clear, I’m okay, but it’s Elizabeth. Something’s happened. Something terrible.”
A cold fist clutched at McGarvey’s heart. “What’s happened?”
“Elizabeth is there in Moscow. Chernov picked her up in Riga, which means Tarankov’s probably got her, and is going to use her for bait.”
McGarvey closed his eyes. “Christ, Christ,” he said softly, as he tried to get ahold of himself. He opened his eyes. “I can’t talk very long, but from the beginning, Otto, what the hell is going on?”
“Call me from the embassy, please. Just get out of there.”
“Goddammit, Otto!”
“Oh shit, oh shit. The field officer Ryan sent over to look for you was Elizabeth. She’s working for the CIA now. She was with the DI, but Ryan recruited her to help find you. So she came to Paris but the SDECE picked her up, and she and Jacqueline Belleau were assigned to stake out your apartment.”
This wasn’t believable, and yet McGarvey knew goddamned well it was true. Ryan was capable of all of it. McGarvey held the phone so tightly his knuckles turned white, but if anyone passing in the busy station noticed anything they gave no sign of it.
“Mac, are you still there?” Otto asked fearfully.
“I’m here.”
“It took Elizabeth a couple of weeks, but she started surfing the net and she found me. She just put it together, Mac. I swear I was hammered right to my knees when she showed up.”
“How did she find out about Riga?”
“I told her,” Otto wailed. “I don’t know why, but you were walking into a trap by calling Yemlin. Chernov had his phone bugged and when you made the call it was traced~I had to stay here, so Elizabeth and Jacqueline took off for Riga. They were just supposed to warn you that Chernov was on his way. But Elizabeth got caught, and Jacqueline saw it all.”
“You shouldn’t have told her about Riga,” McGarvey said softly.
“I know that now, but there was no other way, Mac. Believe me, if I could rip my heart out I would.” Otto was practically in tears. “Just go to the embassy, Mac. Please, God, just do that for me. Once I know that you’re clear I’ll call Murphy and he can tell the President. Between the political pressure from Washington, and Jacqueline slowing Chernov down there’s a chance this’ll all turn out okay. But you’ve got to get out of there, Mac. Right now.”
“Now what are you talking about?” McGarvey demanded.
“Jacqueline convinced her people to send her to Moscow to work with the police commission—”
“Does she know who Bykov really is?”
“Yes. And so does the CIA, I think, but nobody’s going to do a thing until you get out of the way. Once you’re safely in the embassy Tarankov will have no reason to hold Elizabeth, and he’ll let her go.”
McGarvey’s head was spinning. “I don’t think so.”
“Yes, Mac. At this stage in the revolution the man would be a fool to alienate the West over a simple kidnapping.”
“He doesn’t give a damn about us. In less than two days he’s going to be running this country. It’ll be his finger on the nuclear triggers and all the Ryan’s of the world won’t give a damn. They’ll sacrifice my daughter’s life without batting an eye.”
“Dammit, Mac—”
“Get out of (here right now, Otto. I’ll catch up with you as soon as I can.”
“I’m sorry, Mac. I’m sorry—”
“It’s not your fault. Just get out of there while you can.”
McGarvey broke the connection, and for several minutes he was unable to do anything but sit there conscious of his beating heart, conscious of a tightness in his gut. He could see Elizabeth two Thanksgivings ago.
