"Faro, Portugal."
"Portugal?"
"Is it safe to talk? Are you alone?"
"Yes." The president sat up quickly.
"I don"t have much time."
"Go ahead."
"You know about Theo Haas, about the Berlin police?"
"Of course."
"I didn"t kill him. A young man did. I chased after him. He got away in a crowd. People thought I was running from the murder scene."
"I believe you. It"s alright."
"Just before Haas was murdered he gave me a clue as to where the photographs were or might be. A man named Jacob Cadiz, in the Portuguese beach town of Praia da Rocha. There"s a woman involved."
"I know. Anne Tidrow. Striker Oil. Her father founded the company. For a time she was in the CIA."
"You do your homework."
"I try."
FARO.
Marten turned his back as two cyclists in bright jerseys moved past him to join a group of six other riders waiting at the far end of the park.
"She"s with me now, across the street, with luck renting us a car. Next comes the crazy part. I"m not so sure she isn"t still with the Agency. Her old connections got us out of Berlin and then Germany courtesy of a former operative who arranged for a private plane. We were being tracked, and our pilot may well have tipped off whoever"s on our tail to where we landed. Meaning that at this point, I don"t know who"s who or what"s what with anyone."
"Does Ms. Tidrow know about this Jacob Cadiz or Praia da Rocha?"
"Not yet."
"Can you get rid of her? Go there on your own?"
"That"s part of the problem. She says she"s concerned with her father"s reputation and the reputation of the company. That she doesn"t like where its directors have taken it, especially in Iraq and with the Hadrian company. The photographs and the company"s culpability in the civil war in Equatorial Guinea pushed her over. While we were in Berlin she agreed to meet with Joe Ryder after we recover the photos and tell him what she knows about the Striker/Hadrian situation in Iraq and Equatorial Guinea. That is, if we get them, if they"re there at all. There"s another thing, too. She learned something from a former CIA operative in Germany that shook her up and that she won"t talk about. Whatever it is it may be even more valuable than the photographs. I"d like to think the Agency is very quietly trying to protect its friends at Striker and Hadrian and at the same time trying to prevent what could turn into a major international incident. But somehow I think it"s more than that, and she knows what it is. All of them are reasons why I can"t just walk away from her.
"Then there"s the flip side. It could all be a game just so I"d keep her with me. If so, and she set me up? You understand? We get the pictures, then the CIA swoops in, and she and they and the photos are gone and I"m hung out to dry for the murder of Theo Haas."
"Nicholas, you don"t have to put yourself at risk any more than you already have. Leave her and get the pictures and get out of there."
"I can"t."
"Why?"
"I just can"t," Marten said definitively, then glanced at the old men playing chess and then at the Auto Europe car rental agency across the street where Anne was.
"Does she know of my involvement in this?"
"No."
Suddenly the door to the Auto Europe agency opened and Anne came out. She shaded her eyes from the sun and looked around, clearly wondering where he was. Marten stepped back into the shadow of a large stand of tall conifers that seemed the centerpiece of the park.
"What is it?" Harris said at his silence. Harris said at his silence.
"Nothing." Marten watched her for the briefest moment, then turned back to the phone. "Call Joe Ryder and tell him what"s going on. When I have the pictures, or don"t, I"ll let you know. In the meantime find some place where Anne and I can meet with Ryder that won"t draw attention. A good-sized city somewhere near here would be best. A place we can get lost in if someone"s following us. I know it means pulling Ryder out of Iraq, but he can travel a lot easier than we can."
"It"s going to take a little while to put all this together. Let me call you this time. I don"t like not being able to reach you anyway. Give me your cell number."
Anne crossed the street and was coming into the park. Marten moved farther back into the conifer grove. The last thing he needed was for her to see him on the phone and then to question him about it, wanting to know who he"d been talking to and why. Immediately he turned his attention back to the president.
"Better let me do the calling. I run into trouble, someone else gets the phone, and you call? If it"s the Agency there"s every chance they"ll trace it straight to you even if you hang up right away."
"Give me an hour."
Anne pa.s.sed the old men playing chess and was approaching the trees where he was. She was noticeably concerned and looking around, as if she were afraid that he"d run out on her.
"One last thing." A jagged intensity came into Marten"s voice. "Have you seen the latest regional CIA briefing video on Equatorial Guinea?"
"No."
"Find a way to get it without the request seeming to come from you. Then watch it alone. That"ll answer why I"m doing what I am. You won"t need more."
Anne was almost there, thirty feet away at most.
"I have to go, my friend. I"ll let you know what happens." With that Marten clicked off and slid the phone into his jacket, then walked out from the behind the trees to meet her.
8:53 A.M.
66.
"I trust you got a car." Marten took the initiative the moment he reached her. If she"d seen him talking on the phone or even sliding it into his jacket he didn"t want her asking who he was talking to and why. Better to keep the conversation on her and what was going on and hope she wouldn"t bring it up.
She nodded toward the rental agency. "It"s parked in front."
"No questions about you? Who you were? How long you wanted the car? Where you planned to go?" He started them down the path and toward the street where the rental was.
"I said I was a tourist. I wanted it for a day or two, maybe more. That was it." Suddenly her eyes flashed and she pressed him. Hotly. "Where the h.e.l.l were you? I was looking all over. You were in this rush to get out of Faro, then you disappear into the woods. What were you doing, climbing trees?"
"I was looking for something." Marten glanced around. The old men were still playing chess. Farther down a pair of young lovers lay in the gra.s.s, seemingly with no care in the world but themselves. A man of forty or so in jeans and a light sweater played with a small leashed monkey near the park"s entrance. For now, that was all.
"Looking for what?"
"Huh?" he brought his attention back to her.
"You said you were looking for something. What was it?"
"Garlic."
"Garlic?"
"Ornamental garlic plants, Tulbaghia violacea Tulbaghia violacea. They"re growing here somewhere. I smelled them, I just couldn"t find them."
Anne was incredulous. "We"re trying to get out of here and you"re looking for plants?"
"You may remember that flora interests me a great deal. It"s my profession. The reason I was in Bioko. It"s also a world I"d be very happy to get back to, and the sooner the better. So yes, garlic. You don"t believe me, take a deep breath, tell me what you smell."
"You"re serious."
"You act as if I"m making it up. Go ahead, sniff."
"Oh, for Christ"s sake."
"Sniff."
"f.u.c.k," she said and then inhaled.
"What do you smell?"
"Garlic."
Marten grinned. "Thank you."
9:30 A.M.
The car was a silver Opel Astra with an automatic transmission. Marten took the N125 highway toward Portimo, some forty miles west. If Hauptkommissar Franck had put out an EU all points bulletin to apprehend Anne, or if her bank accounts were being electronically monitored, so far nothing had happened in the short time since she"d used a credit card at the car rental agency. And if whoever was following-CIA operatives or Conor White and maybe this Patrice-they hadn"t made themselves known either, at least that he was aware of. Still, he kept close watch on the rearview mirror.
"Okay. There"s just the two of us, we have a car, and we"re on our way," Anne said abruptly, the light banter of before gone. "Where the h.e.l.l are we going?"
Marten knew he had stalled as long as he could. "Rental agent give you a map?"
"Yes."
"Open it and look for Praia da Rocha. It"s a beach town near Portimo."
"Praia da Rocha."
"You know it?"
"No."
"Neither do I."
9:35 A.M.
67.
LEARJET 55, ON APPROACH TO FARO INTERNATIONAL.
AIRPORT. AIRSPEED 190 MPH. ALt.i.tUDE 2,420 FEET.
SAME TIME.
After thirty years of police work Hauptkommissar Emil Franck"s connections across Europe ran deep. Some were legitimate, some criminal, others somewhere in between. Marten"s Cessna had barely touched down at Faro when Franck learned about it from the Policia Judiciaria at the airport, who quickly made several calls spreading the information. It worked like a charm.
A cousin of Judiciaria police inspector Catarina Melo Tavares Santos was a desk employee of the Auto Europe branch in Faro"s Montenegro district. Santos"s physical description of Anne Tidrow fit perfectly with the woman who had rented a silver Opel Astra barely half an hour before. She"d had to wait fifteen minutes until her supervisor went on break before she could access the rental records and confirm the ident.i.ty of the Opel"s renter. At the same time, she noted the car"s license number, then went outside, clicked on her cell phone, and spoke directly with her cousin. It was Inspector Santos who was on the phone with Hauptkommissar Franck now.
"New silver Opel Astra, four door, license number 93-AA-71," Santos said, Santos said, "rented in Montenegro at 8:57 A.M. by one Anne Tidrow of Houston, Texas. Marked down for an open-ended rental. Suggested time frame, twenty-four to forty-eight hours." "rented in Montenegro at 8:57 A.M. by one Anne Tidrow of Houston, Texas. Marked down for an open-ended rental. Suggested time frame, twenty-four to forty-eight hours."
"Destination?"
"None was given, sir."
"Obrigado, Inspector," he said. "Obrigado." "Obrigado." Thank you. Thank you.
Franck clicked off and looked at Kovalenko. "They are thirty minutes to an hour ahead of us," he said with a quiet confidence that bordered on condescension. "A car will be waiting when we touch down. I suggest whatever call you need to make, you do it now. Moscow must be waiting to hear from you."
"Yes, Hauptkommissar, they must be." Kovalenko"s eyes zeroed in on Franck"s. "Breathlessly."
9:43 A.M.
PORTIMO. 10:18 A.M.
Marten turned the Opel south, circ.u.mventing the city. He"d judiciously watched the rearview mirror for most of the trip. If they were being followed there was still no sign of it. Nor had there been any close-in air traffic, helicopters or civilian aircraft, to suggest they were being watched from above. Satellite tracking was always a possibility via the car"s GPS system, but satellite operators would have had to have been alerted, and that was something that took time and required several layers of authorization before it would be put into effect. The thing was, at this point, they seemed to be ahead of their pursuers, and so the complications almost didn"t matter. He was too close to the end to do anything but go for it and hope everything worked out. Still, he knew he had to be ever cautious of Anne and remember how much was at stake all the way around. If he could wish for anything now it would be a gun, the more powerful the better.
10:20 A.M.
The distance from Portimo to Praia da Rocha was short, two miles at best. They were traveling south under a high sun. Mist rolling in from the sea intensified the brightness and gave everything a dangerous glare, making it hard to see without squinting. To their left was the wide estuary of the Rio Arade that flowed from the inland mountains to Portimo and from there into the Atlantic between Praia da Rocha on the western sh.o.r.e and Ferragudo on the eastern. They were almost there, and Marten felt his pulse rise in antic.i.p.ation. All they had to do now was drive into the city and, with luck, locate Avenida Tomas Cabreira and then this Jacob Cadiz at a livros usados livros usados, which Marten had roughly translated as a used-book store.
10:32 A.M.
Avenida Tomas Cabreira turned out to be Praia da Rocha"s main drag. It was jammed with hotels and shops and restaurants and overlooked jagged sea cliffs and a beach far below that was dotted with rows of bright umbrellas and an uncountable number of semi-dressed beachgoers.