Deadlock

He's a little too bar¬baric for them.'

'Then I can see why you consider them friends. Why didn't you get them to rob our trucks?'

'I couldn't trust them. But I had them do their part.' 'The killings?'

'No, I did that, but of course I'll give them credit.' 'Or blame. You don't think the U.N. is going to sit still for this, do you?'

'No, but this country is still barbaric in many ways. The civilized world doesn't always know how to handle barbarians, and the U.N. is nauseatingly civilized. There have been bandits wreaking destruction here for centuries. Very few are brought to justice because they know these mountains.' He smiled. 'I hate to disappoint you, but there won't be any cavalry coming to your rescue.'

'You're the one who will be disappointed. Westerners don't just disappear without a cry being raised.'

'I'll take my chances.'

'Why? It's crazy that you-' She stopped as fear surged through her. 'Where's Joel? What have you done with him?'

'Nothing yet. He's just been placed in the hut next door. I thought it more convenient.'

'Convenient for what?'

'Persuasion.' He squatted beside her, and his hand wrapped around her throat. 'For him. For you.'

'Don't touch me.' She moistened her lips. 'I told you that I don't have what you want. Did you check the basement of the museum?'

'Yes, we went immediately to search it. There was no hammer, though the other tools were of Russian make.' His hand tightened on her throat. 'A conspicuous absence, wouldn't you say?'

'I thought they were garden tools. They appeared to have been used. They might be. There was nothing of value in that museum. You have to be wrong.'

'I could be. But my employer believes it was there before your ar¬rival. He said he was absolutely certain it was. That makes it necessary for me to make very sure. He said to explore every option… exten¬sively.'

'We don't know anything about any hammer.'

'You'll have to convince me.' He drew even closer to her, his blue eyes glittering in his long face. 'And I'm going to be very hard to con¬vince.'

'Use a lie detector. Give me truth drugs.'

'There are ways to beat both of them. I'm an old-fashioned man. I believe traditional methods are best.' His voice was soft. 'Shall I tell you what I'm going to do? I'm going to take your friend Joel Levy and hurt him beyond your ability to imagine. When you think he's had enough, all you have to do is tell me what I want to know.'

Panic.

'What big eyes you have,' Staunton said. 'You're frightened. It's an awesome responsibility to have the power to stop another's pain, isn't it? Tell me now, and we won't start it.'

'Why Joel?' she asked hoarsely. 'Why not me?'

'Your turn may come. I believe this will be much more effective. Besides, I've always found that torturing women has bad side effects. For some reason, it's regarded as particularly heinous and rouses opin¬ion against you. Seems unfair, doesn't it? Sexist. But if by chance you ever got free, I'd be hunted down without mercy. No, you'll tell me where it is after a few days of our persuading Levy.'

'I can't tell you,' she said, agonized. 'I don't know anything about it.

'I almost believe you. But I have to be sure.' He rose to his feet. 'I'm going into Levy's hut now. Borg is waiting for me. Don't try to leave. There's a guard outside, and my bandit friends are camped a short distance from here in the hills.' He drew a machete out of the holster at his hip. 'I think I'll start on his fingers first. You'll be able to hear him screaming.'

'Don't do it. There's no sense to it. He doesn't know anything. I don't know anything. Please.'

'You're begging?'

'Yes,' she said unevenly. 'Don't hurt him.'

He was staring at her. 'You feel things with such intensity. What a delight you'd be to break. Begging is always satisfying, but it's not enough.' He headed for the door. 'If you're stubborn, we'll have to move on to the bigger stuff soon. Then I'll bring you in to watch.'

'But we don't know anything.'

He was gone.

Dear God in heaven. Panic was flooding through her. It was a nightmare. How could she stop it? How could she convince him? Why wouldn't the bastard believe her? Maybe he was bluffing. Maybe he only wanted to scare her.

And then she heard the first scream.

TWO

Two weeks later Kabul, Afghanistan

'THE DIRECTOR CALLED AGAIN,' Ralph Moore said when Ted Ferguson came into the hotel room. 'He wanted to know why he couldn't reach your cell phone. I told him there must be satellite inter¬ference.'

'Good man,' Ferguson said. 'Not that he'll believe it.' 'You should have taken the call.'

'And what was I to tell him? That we still can't find Emily Hud¬son and Joel Levy? I told him that yesterday and the day before. How the hell could he expect the CIA to find them when the military and U.N. are coming up zero? Even if we knew where they were, these damn blizzards would keep us from moving on them.' He scowled. 'I'll be lucky to have a job when this is over.'

Moore shrugged. 'The Company is having tremendous pressure put on it by Congress and the media. You know that, Ferguson.'

'I know that we're drawing a blank. Why aren't our informants able to give us information? It's as if Hudson and Levy dropped off the face of the earth. If they're not dead, why haven't we had a demand for ransom? All the forensic evidence around the trucks indicated that it was a probable bandit hit.'

'They probably are dead.'

'Then show me the bodies, dammit. Let me turn the Marines loose on whoever did it.'

'And get you off the hook.'

He nodded curtly. 'I'm as mad as anyone else at the murder and abduction of American citizens, but I won't be made the bad guy. I have to get them out of Afghanistan or show the world they're dead.'

'I've called MI6 in London, but they still don't have any leads,' Moore said. 'None of their Middle East informants have come up with any info. We may be out of luck.'

'No way.' He dropped down in his chair and reached for his phone. 'I can't give up yet. Is John Garrett still living in London?'

Moore straightened in his chair. 'Garrett?'

'Is he?'

'As far as I know.'

'Then get me reservations there in the next few hours.'

'Garrett won't help. He stopped doing jobs for us three years ago. And you can't rely on money. He's got money to burn these days.'

'Tell me something I don't know. Smuggling evidently pays exor¬bitantly well,' Ferguson said grimly. 'But he'll do this job. I'll find a way to make sure he does. I need him. He spent years in Afghanistan when he was a kid and has kept his contacts. And he knows those mountains like the back of his hand.'

'I'll bet you don't get him. He was royally pissed at us after Colombia.'

And who could blame him, Ferguson thought. The whole sce¬nario had gone wrong, and the CIA had been forced to leave Garrett to fight his own way out of a very sticky situation. Well, maybe not forced, but he'd regarded Garrett as expendable at the time. 'I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.'

'What?'

'How the hell do I know? I'll decide that on the way to London.'