Akira raised his hands in exasperation. “I don't think I can tolerate this man till tomorrow morning.”
“The look on your face.” Rachel started laughing.
7
It was ten after seven the following morning. As the ferry left the small town of Igoumenitsa, heading west toward the island of Corfu, Savage, Akira, and Rachel stood tensely beside the man while he made the phone call. Savage kept a tight grip on his arm, listening to what he told his superiors.
“Hey, I know it's a mess. You don't need to tell me. But damn it, it's not my fault. My partner followed too close. The Japanese spotted him. Just before we docked at Igoumenitsa. The Japanese ran. It took us a while to find him. By then, the American and Mrs. Papadropolis were with him. They must have been sleeping in one of the cabins. Hey, what was I going to do, knock on every door and say, ‘Mrs. Papadropolis, are you in there?’ The Japanese was obviously the decoy-to check if the ferry was being watched. If everything looked safe, they'd have continued to Corfu.”
The man stopped talking. Savage heard someone shouting from the other end of the phone.
“No, we couldn't stop them before they drove off the ferry,” the man continued.
More shouting from the other end.
“Hey, I'm telling you it's not my fault. My partner's so scared about fucking up he ran. He figures Papadropolis will kill him.”
The man winced, the shouts so loud he held the phone away from his ear.
“Well, it's his ass, not mine. I'm still on the job, but it's damned hard chasing them on my own. I barely caught up to them before they left Igoumenitsa. Heading east on route nineteen. Why didn't I phone you sooner? How was I going to do that and not lose sight of them? I wouldn't even be calling now if they hadn't stopped for gas. I'm in a restaurant down the street. I can see them through the window. They don't realize I'm… Wait a minute. Shit, they're about to leave. Look, I think they're headed for loannina. The Yugoslavian border's less than an hour's drive north from there. Tell everybody to watch the border crossings. Christ, they're driving away! Can't talk anymore! I'll check in later!”
Sounding breathless, the man slammed down the phone.
Savage released his arm.
The prisoner wiped his sweaty brow. He leaned against the phone and trembled. “Okay?”
“Extremely believable,” Akira said.
“And now?” The man looked apprehensive, as if Savage and Akira might kill him after all.
“We relax and enjoy the cruise,” Akira said.
“You mean it?”
“You fulfilled your part of the bargain.”
The man exhaled and straightened. “I think I got Papadropolis off my back. They'll be looking for my partner.”
“Whom they'll never find,” Akira said. “Yes, it seems your worries are over.”
“And ours,” Rachel said. “No one will be waiting for us at Corfu. They'll try to intercept us on the way to Yugoslavia.”
“Where we have no intention of going.” Savage turned to the man. “Just make sure you get back to the mainland as soon as possible. You'll have to pretend you're chasing us. Phone in. Keep giving them false reports.”
“You bet I will. If I don't rendezvous with a team at one of the border crossings, they won't believe my story. But by then I'll have lost you.”
“Exactly.”
“There's just one thing,” the man said.
“Oh? What's that?”
“You forgot to give me my money.”
8
Ninety minutes later, when the ferry reached Corfu, they watched the man drive onto the dock and disappear among traffic.
“He might still betray us,” Akira said.
“I don't think so,” Savage said. “Rachel's instincts were right about paying him. He knows if he tells them where we really are, we'll implicate him. Papadropolis would kill him for taking a bribe.”
“So now we cross to Italy?” Rachel asked.
“Why bother?” Savage smiled. “The Corfu airport won't be under surveillance now. Let's catch the next plane to France. By tonight, you'll be with your sister.”
But Rachel looked troubled.
“Then you and I catch another plane to New York,” Akira told Savage, the sadness in his eyes intensified with anger. “To force answers from Graham. To make him tell us why we saw each other die.”
9
“Excited? Of course, I am. Why wouldn't I be?” Rachel said.
They'd left their car at Corfu's airport, then taken an Alitalia flight to Rome, where they transfered to an Air France jet bound for Nice.
Midafternoon. The weather was magnificent. Rachel had the window seat, and as she spoke, she peered toward Corsica to the west, then down toward sunlight glinting off the Mediterranean.
But Savage sensed she was motivated less by attraction to the scenery than by the need to hide her expression when she answered his question.
“Because back at the ferry you weren't overjoyed when I mentioned you'd be with your sister tonight,” Savage said.
Rachel kept her face turned toward the window. “You expected me to jump up and down? After everything that's happened, I'm drained. Shell-shocked. Numb. I still can't believe I escaped.”
Savage glanced at her hand in her lap. Its fingers were clenched, their knuckles white.
“Rachel…”
Her fist became tighter.
“I want you to look at me.”
She peered closer to the window. “Eager to see my sister? Naturally. She's
She trembled.
“Rachel, please, I'm asking you to look at me.”
She stiffened, then slowly turned in Savage's direction. Her bruises emphasized her somber expression.
Savage reached for her fist, unclasped its fingers, and encircled them with his own. “What's wrong?”
“I keep trying to imagine what's ahead of me. My sister. A happy reunion. A chance to rest and heal. Oh, for sure, I'll be pampered. The best of everything. But then what? A cage is a cage, gilded or not. I'll still be a prisoner.”
Savage waited for Rachel to continue, all the while conscious of Akira, who sat at the rear of the plane,
