"Dolina, ihr Vater ist auf der ophone," said the bar maid.
'Dad.' Dolina knew what that meant. She rinsed the two glasses in the clear water sink and set them on the draining board. "You'll cover for me? He's a wee bit of a talker."
"Ja," the girl said eagerly, removing her Heidi apron.
Dolina went into the back office.
Thankfully the manager was in a meeting and the room was vacant. On the desk in front of the dome window the telephone's line 2 was lit with a red light.
Dolina picked up the receiver and depressed the lit button. Her heart was racing. For the section chief to call her could only mean something urgent, an action she would be asked to take that was outside her normal duties.
"Hello?"
"Are you alone?"
That raspy voice. It was 'Dad,' alright, the newly appointed chief of Section E-3. "Yes," she said, "and the door is closed."
"There is a subject of prejudice who we believe is either going to leave the resort by personal vehicle or by skiing the slopes to the Gipfelstrasse. Now, pay close attention. His name is Ricklen Cruor. He is known among his colleagues and clients as Sanguineus. You have not been briefed about him, but you've seen him in the bar, according to D'Arc and Edmund. Tall, dark haired, dark blue eyes, handsome devil."
"Yes, I've seen him. With a pretty short-haired woman, young, slim. I don't know her name. And he is acquainted with Isabel Montoya."
"The woman you described is Tertia Fontenay. Now, this is important. This man Sanguineus is going to sneak away with Fontenay. One of our men who was to compromise Sanguineus, and bring Fontenay to a safe room, has not reported to D'Arc. The two subjects of prejudice are on the loose. We have men going down the slopes in case the subjects take that route. But here's what I need you to do. The subjects may commandeer a vehicle. Fontenay's car is missing. Sanguineus came to the resort with her, so if they eschew the slopes they'll have to grab a vehicle. Or take the shuttle, which isn't likely. We need a description of the vehicle, and the license plate number if you can get it. Go out to the parking area. Immediately. There are security cameras there but the video is shitty quality and we've got to be sure about the make and model. Use your cell phone to pass on the information to D'Arc. You have his number?"
"Yes."
"Go!"
Dolina put back the receiver.
She stared out the window at the late afternoon vista of light snowfall and powdered trees. When she made up her mind her heart rate returned to normal and she smiled a stubborn smile. In her head there was an appealing echo: "If you would be so kind.. "
Dolina went to the employee break room and put on her jacket, sockcap, and gloves. She went purposefully out to the front veranda and down the steps to the walkway leading to the VIP parking lot. But her thoughts were on the ski rental shop.
She could see the shop entrance ahead and to the right, the path that curved around to the gondolas. It was nearing the dinner hour and only a few guests were trudging up the path; most were coming back down with their skis on their shoulders, red-cheeked and breathing out clouds of steam, talking and laughing. Amidst the group going up the path were Sanguineus and the slender woman, Fontenay. So, her intuition was not mistaken!
Dolina hurried up the steps toward the ski shop and over to the path.
"Mr Cruor!" she called out.
Sanguineus turned, a hand on Tertia's jacket sleeve, and wondered at the anxious look of Dolina. He sensed strongly that she wanted to help him. It was there in her eyes and in the firm set of her mouth. It was the expression of one who intends to rectify a wrong.
Sanguineus was intrigued. He recalled what Rolgo remarked, about not knowing who it was that the CIA had placed at the resort. The gunmen were French and Corsican thugs. But the CIA operative would be someone quite different, someone whose appearance was so expected, so conventional for his or her position, that no suspicions would be roused. He smiled.
"What is this about?" said Tertia. "What the fuck is SHE doing here?"
Dolina came up to them. She gave Tertia an appraising glance, then started to speak to Sanguineus. But he interrupted her.
"You're with the CIA," he said, not caring who might overhear as the small crowd straggled past.
Dolina was momentarily nonplussed. Then she breathed a steamy laugh and said, "Well that simplifies things! They're after you. I'm sure you know who I mean, even though I don't!"
Sanguineus took a step closer. "Hired killers from the Napolitano syndicate," he said. "Your boss has some kind of financial caper going with the French underworld, involving some Russian and Syrian connections. They want this young woman here dead, and me along with her. That's the long and short of it."
Tertia glared at Dolina. "I've got a gun in my pocket aimed at your belly button, and if I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!"
Sanguineus squeezed her arm. "Cool it. She's a friend."
"There are some men," Dolina said in as calm a voice as she could manage, "I don't know how many, on the slopes. I was told to get a description of the car you hijacked, if that was your plan. But I see it's not! Those men will be waiting for you if you try to ski down to the highway. Take a car! I'll give a false description. Trust me!"
Sanguineus looked up at the gondola boarding platform, thirty yards away. The sun was about two hours from going down behind the mountain peaks to the west.
In ten minutes Rolgo would be making the emergency medivac call. It was a difficult but not overly long ski to the copse of firs midway down the extreme trail. There would be at least three thugs somewhere in that area. Did one have a modified speargun, or was this to be an open murder without any attempt to make it look like a ski accident? A sniper rifle? It would be a chancy shot at targets moving erratically.
Sanguineus pictured in his mind the adjacent slopes that he had memorized; the cross-trail skiing that he had explained to Tertia and Rolgo, an evasive maneuver that would take him and the girl over a dangerous snow dune to the expert trail. Risky, but they couldn't very well ski right up to the copse where the thugs had almost certainly stationed themselves.
To hijack a vehicle would require hot wiring, a technique with which Sanguineus was sufficiently skilled, but which the opposition would be expecting. More than likely there was a thug lurking near the lots, ready to pick them off.
No, Sanguineus had settled on the ski run, basing his hope on the thugs being surprised by the evasive maneuver. It was essential that the helicopter arrive before the thugs could react to the evasion and come after them. There would be few if any skiers on the expert trail that late in the day. The thugs, if given the opportunity, would not hesitate to go on the chase and fire at him and Tertia as soon as they were in range.
Sanguineus said to Dolina, "Tell your contact that we've stolen a car, or truck. Pick one out and give him the description. Hopefully the thugs on the slope will be called off. Later you can suggest that we apparently changed our mind and went the ski route instead. Will you be so kind--?"
Dolina felt her heart swell with a mysterious affection. "Yes!" she said emphatically. "Good luck!"
As it happened, Sanguineus and Tertia were the only passengers in the gondola.
The little glass-walled compartment swayed gently on its descent toward the lifts and the yellow flags atop the plexiglass poles that marked the start of the advanced, expert, and extreme trails.
They counted six skiers preparing to make runs. A group of twenty or so were waiting for the gondola.
"Remember," Sanguineus said, "crouch and swerve as crazily as you can and still follow me closely. Spray the snow as high and thick as possible when swerving away from the direction of the trees, to make any sniper shots more difficult. I'll try to keep myself between you and the tree line, but I don't expect that to be the case very often. When you see me do a ninety to the right, follow suit. And watch for the snow dune. It's going to be a long drop down."
Tertia was leaning back with her elbows on the railing. Her pose was one of nonchalance, but the sheen of her amber eyes gave her away.
"What if I get hit?"
Sanguineus shouldered his skis. "I won't leave you there," he said as the gondola swayed to a halt. "I'm your bodyguard."
No comments:
Post a Comment