“Our desk manager entered your room with the police. There was a man in your suite named Jenner with a cut to the head,” the clerk said apologetically. “They would like you to return here to get your information, a statement, I think you call it. They have many questions about what took place and about an incident that happened nearby.”
“Of course, I’ll be happy to cooperate with the authorities. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“Thank you, Mr. Kwan.”
“Thank you.” Eddie dialed another number. When it was answered, he said, without preamble, “Tiny, file a flight plan out of the country. I’ll be there as quickly as I can.” He didn’t wait for the pilot’s reply before cutting the connection and dialing again. As he listened to the ringing over the line, he knew that there was no way Kovac would remain in the city—or in Italy, for that matter—so there was no reason for him to wait around for the police to pick him up.
“Hello.”
“Chairman, it’s Eddie. Kovac has kidnapped Max.”
A heartbeat passed before Juan responded. “What about his son, Kyle?”
“I think the little punk was in on it.”
CHAPTER 20
“HOLD ON ONE SECOND,” CABRILLO SAID, GETTING his mind around the situation.
He was alone in his cabin. His desk was strewn with paperwork that had gone ignored too long. He hit the intercom button for the communications station in the Op Center.
“Yes, Chairman,” the night-duty supervisor answered at once.
“What’s the status of Max Hanley’s radio ID chip?”
Each member of the Corporation had a locator microchip surgically embedded in the leg that beamed a faint signal to the constellation of communications satellites circling the globe. Powered by the nervous system, with an occasional transdermal boost of electricity like with a pacemaker, the devices allowed Juan to know where any member of his team was at all times.
“I’m not getting a signal. Hold on. Here we go. The computer says his transponder stopped working eleven minutes ago, about two miles from the hotel where he was staying with his son. Eddie’s is working fine. I show him in central Rome, about a quarter mile from the Colosseum.”
“Thank you.” Juan released the intercom and spoke into his desk telephone, a modern instrument disguised to look like a Bakelite phone from the 1930s. “Max’s transponder’s out.”
“I already figured it would be,” Eddie replied.
“That’s how they tracked you to Rome, isn’t it? Kyle Hanley was chipped when he was in Greece. And they took the precaution of sweeping Max in case we did the same thing.”
“They probably carved it out of his thigh, in whatever vehicle they used to make their getaway.”
“But even the best chips can only give you a rough approximation, they aren’t as powerful as GPS,” Juan said.
“That’s why I think Kyle helped them. When they ambushed us in the hotel’s elevator they brought Max and me back to the suite. Kyle didn’t look all that drugged to me. I think he came to during our flight from Crete and was faking it for the last part of our trip. He was left alone for a few minutes in one of the bedrooms while we spoke with Dr. Jenner. Supposedly, he was unconscious, but if he was awake he could have called Kovac, or someone else in the movement, and given them the name of the hotel and the room number.”
“So Kovac tracked him to Rome using a radio tag and Kyle guided him to the exact location.”
“That’s the only way it makes any sense.”
“Just spitballing here, but what about Jenner? He could have blown our location to the Responsivists.”
“He could have,” Eddie agreed, “but I could tell he hates them the way a drug counselor hates crack.
Also, you didn’t see the way Kovac pistol-whipped him. No, Jenner’s definitely on our side on this.”
“Like I said, just throwing it out there.”
“You know, Juan, they took a hell of a risk to get the kid back. Doesn’t make any sense if Kyle’s just some low-level believer.”
“Then he’s somehow involved in whatever they’re planning.”
“Or at least exposed to the information at the retreat,” Eddie said.
“They snatched him back to keep operational security absolutely airtight.”
“If they’re at this level of paranoia, there’s no way they will let Linda into that compound.”
“I already scrubbed her mission. We learned that Kovac was aboard the
Eddie thought about this for a moment before saying, “I was with Kovac for only a minute before I escaped, but I could see that. The guy looks like Boris Karloff, with crazier eyes. I just thought of something. Kovac said that Severance gave him explicit orders not to kill Jenner. I don’t understand the reasoning behind that, but why would they leave Jenner behind and snatch Max?”
“They don’t know if Kyle talked to him during the time he was with us.”
“No. What I mean is, why not simply kill them both? They had the opportunity, and it would have been a lot easier.”
“Same reason. They need to know if Kyle talked.”
“Max is in for a rough time, isn’t he?”
“Yeah,” Juan said softly. “Yeah, he is.”
“What do you want me to do?” Eddie said after a lengthy pause, as both men thought about the implications of Cabrillo’s answer.
“Meet the
“You’re still going to the Philippines?” Eddie was surprised.
“I have to,” Juan replied, resignation in his voice. “We need some sort of leverage over Severance if we’re going to get Max back.”
“It’s going to take the better part of a day just to get you there. God knows how long to find something, even if it exists. Do you really think Max can hold out that long?” Juan’s next words were as much for his benefit as they were Eddie’s. “You don’t know this because Max never talks about it, but he spent six months as a POW during his second tour in Vietnam. The stuff they did to him during his confinement defies belief. He’ll hold out. Of that, I am certain.”
“Juan, that was forty years ago. Max isn’t a young man anymore.”
“Surviving torture isn’t about your physical strength. It’s about how tough you are mentally. Do you think Max has lost any of that? If anything, he’s tougher now than he was then. And he knows that we will do whatever it takes to get him back.”
“How did he get out of it? Was he rescued?”
“No. During a forced march to a new location, he and two buddies jumped their guards. They killed four VC with their bare hands and vanished into the jungle. Only Max found his way to an American firebase.
The other two are still considered MIA.”
JUAN WAS ON THE WING BRIDGE of the pilothouse just after dawn the next morning to watch the sun reveal the principality of Monaco and the city of Monte Carlo perched on rocky cliffs over the warm Mediterranean. One of the last functioning monarchies in the world, the tiny state had been ruled by the Grimaldi family for more than seven centuries. Only Japan’s Chrysanthemum Throne was longer lived.
Monaco was long a playground for the world’s elite and its harbor was carpeted with gleaming luxury yachts, many over a hundred feet in length, several approaching three hundred. Juan spotted the
From within the inner harbor, he saw a sleek speedboat rocketing toward the ship, where it lay at anchor a mile from the coast. Harbor authorities had already been informed that the ship’s engine was disabled and the crew
