He dropped it on my lap. “There are credit cards and ID in the wallet too.”
I opened the passport and was shocked to see that it was my own. “Where did you get this?”
“Eris took it when you two had that little chat in your condo. At the time we thought it might be preventative, to make it harder for you to leave the country.”
“I’m going in under my own name?”
“Can’t take any chances with customs. Authorities are strict around here.”
I could hardly believe what he’d said. Taking me through customs would be a gift to me, an easy opportunity to break away from them.
As if reading my thoughts, Ward picked up a phone from the table in front of us. It was a large, clunky- looking piece, like a TV remote with an antenna.
Ward noted me looking at it and held it up. “A sat phone. Not too many viable cell towers where we’re going.” He punched in some numbers, waited for a minute or so, and greeted the voice on the other end. “Put her on now,” he said and held out the phone. “Someone wants to say hi to you.”
I snatched the phone from his hand and put it up to my ear. “John Madison here.” I waited but got no answer, only the sound of static across the airwaves. I held the phone out for Ward. “Nothing on the other end. Is this another one of your games?”
Ward grabbed it and almost shouted into it. “Talk to him as you were instructed to do or it will get even worse for you.”
Laurel had to be on the other end. It was a relief to know she still had the will to resist them.
She spoke to me when I took the phone back. “They’re making me talk to you. It’s not my idea.”
“It’s still good to hear you,” I said.
“Your voice is kind of funny. Like there’s a delay between when you say the words and I hear them.”
She’d freak out if she knew how far away I was. “I’m in a very large room on the top floor of the building. It’s cavernous. That must be causing an echo. You holding up okay?”
“Are you serious? Sure, I’m fine. I spend every minute wondering how they’re going to do it. Maybe they’ll do something to make it look like an accident.” Her voice broke off at that point.
“Laurel, if they were going to get rid of us, it would have happened by now. Try to think that way instead.”
I heard her laugh, but it was the kind of response that came from a deep gulf of disbelief and despair.
Ward held up his pudgy hand, indicating he wanted me to stop talking. I ignored him. “It won’t be long now, Laurie. They’re close to getting what they want. And I still have information to trade.”
I didn’t hear her reply because Lazarus yanked the phone out of my hand and gave it back to Ward, who shut it off and put it into the briefcase at his feet. He stood up. “You still have information to trade, do you? I’d like to hear it.”
“I said that to comfort her.”
“For once, I think I believe you. Anything happens in customs or anywhere in the airport and her life is gone. Yours too, of course. Eris has kept her drug supply with her.”
“You’re trying to suggest she’d inject me with heroin in the middle of an airport?”
“She has lots of other effective chemicals. You know what a taipan is?”
“A snake.”
“The deadliest land-based snake in the world. Its venom will shut down your respiratory system in less than a minute. Eris has a supply of it, along with a very effective delivery system.” He brushed off his jacket and fiddled with his tie. “Now, the reason for our visit here. We’re headed to a place called Afyon. Heard of it?”
“No.”
“It’s a famous carpet-weaving town. We’re on a business trip to buy some rare rugs. You can talk knowledgeably about that if you’re asked, can’t you?”
“You’re crazy. This is the middle of a war zone and you’re giving them some cocked-up story about buying carpets?”
“Let me be the judge of that.” Ward shut down any further conversation by walking to the exit. I followed with Lazarus stalking behind.
There was no sign of Shim or the pilots. We’d entered a hangar as I’d suspected and only Eris was waiting for us. She appeared wan and exhausted. Her usually perfect platinum hair was a mess; puffy dark circles ringed her eyes. Had Ward reamed her out for her mistakes? Or perhaps she had a conscience after all. Maybe it cost her something to do harm to other people.
A black Mercedes sedan was parked outside the hangar. But that wasn’t what brought me to a halt. In the mid-distance stood a gleaming contemporary building, international aircraft flanked like the spokes of a wheel around its exterior. Not an army vehicle in sight. Before Eris or Lazarus could lay a hand on me, I grabbed Ward’s shoulder and forcibly turned him around to face me. “This obviously isn’t Baghdad. Where are we?”
He laughed in a mocking tone. “Ataturk International Airport. Welcome to your homeland, Madison.”
Twenty-eight
“We’re supposed to be going to Baghdad, to that address I gave you.”
“You’re complaining about a visit to the land of your birth?”
Lazarus chuckled at Ward’s remark. I told him to eat it. “What’s going on, Ward?”
“Just a short detour,” he replied. “Enjoy it while it lasts.”
Customs went smoothly. I cooperated because of the memory of Laurel’s voice, stretched thin with fear. Nor did I doubt Eris was capable of deploying the poison. I had to find the right opportunity and some way to make sure Laurel was protected before I tried to escape. That meant waiting to make my move when they were distracted or I was alone with one of them.
According to the airport clock we arrived at 10 P.M. At night through the car’s windows I could see little more than quick slices of the city. I thought I glimpsed the dome and exotic spiked minarets of Istanbul’s magnificent Blue Mosque, but that may have been just my imagination.
A couple of weeks before my ninth birthday, Samuel had written to say that he’d be leaving his work site in Mosul to spend a few weeks in Turkey. I pleaded with him to let me join him. Evelyn warned me not to get my hopes up, but, as a surprise to us both, he said yes, I could come. She bought me a book filled with pictures of Turkey and I pored over it again and again until I swear I had all the words memorized. I still remember the image of the green pools of Hierapolis, white marble Roman columns submerged beneath the pond surfaces like watery ghosts from a dim past. Days before I was due to fly over, Samuel wired to say he’d had a change of plans. I felt as though he’d slammed a door in my face. It took me months to recover from the disappointment.
That experience had played a major role in my lack of interest in my birthplace. From then on, it meant little more to me than a line or so on my naturalized American citizenship papers. Added to that was the sour aftertaste of the story I’d been told about the relatives who’d abandoned me. So the burst of pride I felt at seeing Istanbul for the first time, even as a blurred cityscape through a car window, caught me by surprise. And now my first reunion with the country was marred by its brutal circumstances.
The Mercedes eventually pulled up in front of an exceptionally beautiful building of ivory limestone, its facade richly ornamented with sculpture and decorative flourishes.
“The Grand Hotel de Londres,” Ward announced. “We’re stopping here.”
One step into the hotel transported us back to the previous century—elaborate leaded-crystal chandeliers, Victorian wallpaper, golden art deco statuettes poised on either side of a grand staircase. Once a rich burgundy, the velvet upholstery of the furnishings had faded with time.
Ward gave the room a quick once-over when we entered the lounge, glanced at his watch, and barked at Eris, “I don’t see our contacts. I thought they were supposed to meet us here.”
“They’ll show. Must have been held up by the traffic or something,” she said.
“We’re paying them enough to be on time,” Ward snapped. “Let’s get a table then—I’m starving.”
He went over to the bar while we settled into chairs. I saw him talk to the bartender and hand over a sheaf of bills. The room maintained the Victorian theme, so much so that it could double for an English colonial movie set. Live parrots fluffing their brilliant chartreuse feathers swung in bamboo cages. Every now and then the birds
