The Captive Girl Page 4

  The Watcher said to take the job. Dan trusted her. He’d seen others like her in action.

  “We need to meet. I have some questions and need some information. If I get the right answers, I’ll take the job. Where are you?”

  “I am in Rome right now.”

  “You live there?”

  “No, but I will be here for the week. I leave on Friday. Of course,” he quickly added, “I can arrange my schedule to accommodate you.”

  “Today is Tuesday. I will meet you on Thursday. Go to the Parco Fabio Montagna. It’s on the via Della Rustica near the ring road, east of the Coloseo. Sit on one of the benches near the highway. A dark blue car will stop at the curb and a door will open. Walk over to the car and get in. And bring half of the money as a deposit…in cash.”

  “That’s quite a large amount of cash to assemble.”

  “Be at the park at 10 a.m. Wait for half an hour. If the car doesn’t come, you can leave. But don’t be late.”

  With that admonishment, Dan hung up.

  Pietro put his cell phone down. He smiled. The gamble had paid off. He sensed this was an assassin, an assassino, of exceptional skills. His employer, Jan Luis Aebischer had burdened him with this assignment and had just put the first part of the job behind him.

  It was a bit over five hours to drive from Venice to Rome. Dan decided he would take the train to Milan and rent a car there under one of his aliases. He’d drive from Milan to Rome and back. There would be nothing to connect him to Venice. He went into his study. In the room, he reached under the center area of his desk. Attached to the underside was a keyboard. He had memorized the physical locations of the proper buttons and punched five in the correct order. A panel on the wall swung open to reveal a closet. In the closet was his weapons collection. Dan grabbed his 9mm. He took two magazines out of a drawer and checked to see that they were fully loaded. After putting one in the weapon and one in his pocket he stepped out of the room and closed the panel. It locked with a solid clunk. Without the code it would take hours to break through to the closet, if one even realized what was there behind the panel.

  Next he went into his dressing room. There he spent the next hour putting on a disguise. When he left he would have dark, slicked down hair, a van dyke style beard, blue eyes, a protruding chin and heavy eyebrows. It was a sinister look, but Dan figured Mr. Conti would expect that. He would try to give him the look of a hitman. Dark slacks, solid shoes and a loose, black jacket over a lighter blue shirt completed his look. The jacket effectively hid the 9mm he would carry.

  The next day, Dan boarded the train to Milan. There he rented a car and drove to Rome. Once in Rome, he checked into a Novotel hotel near the meeting point. It was large, convenient, and anonymous with an easy entrance and exit to and from the ring road.

  The day of the meeting, Dan got up at dawn and drove over to the park area. He found a three-story apartment building with a vacancy. He drove around to the back, parked, and picked the lock on the door. After getting in, he went up to the top floor and found a roof access hatch. It was locked. Dan spent a frustrating five minutes working to open it. The lock finally yielded to his efforts and he went out on the roof. He found a spot and settled down to wait and watch. It was routine sniper practice to survey the area of operation and to make sure Pietro wasn’t being followed.

  Just before ten Pietro appeared in the park, walking to the benches where he had been instructed to wait. After a final check of the area, Dan slipped off the roof and left the apartment building. No one would ever know he had been inside. He made sure the alley was clear when he exited and a minute later, he was on the street driving around to approach Pietro.

  He stopped at the side of the road and, as instructed, Pietro got up and walked over to the car after Dan opened the door. He had a briefcase in his hand. The man got in and sat still with his case on his lap. He didn’t appear to be intimidated but didn’t look directly at Dan. He remembers I told him that he could get killed if he saw my face.

  “You bring the money?”

  “Sì. It’s in my briefcase.”

  Dan pulled away from the curb and drove down the road. He had a car park picked out from the day before. It was five levels high and, since it was attached to a shopping area, was free with no attendant.

  After pulling up to the top level, Dan parked with the car aimed directly at the down ramp.

  “Open it,” he said to Pietro.

  Pietro opened the case and swiveled it towards Dan, still not looking at him. It was filled with one and two hundred euro bills.

  “I didn’t put in the five hundred bills because they are sometimes hard to use and draw attention.”

  “Thoughtful of you. Now give me the details of this job.”

  “Don’t you want to write them down?”

  “No. Just go through the points carefully.”

  “Feriz owns a hundred acres in the mountains east of Gračac, Croatia. It’s set up almost like a fortified retreat.” Pietro handed Dan a photograph. “Here’s a picture of the man.”

  “Why didn’t your boss go to the authorities? The daughter was a minor when she ran away. That has to be illegal in Croatia, it’s part of the EU.”

  “He didn’t know where she was for most of two years. When he finally located her, she was eighteen. Plus, Sadiković pays off the authorities and spreads a lot of money around the local villages. He’s practically untouchable, even for someone like my employer—”

  “Who has a lot of money.”

  “Sì.”

  “Just who is your employer? I’m not sure I want to work for someone so secretive.”

  Pietro shook his head. “No, I’m sorry I can’t reveal his identity. That is why he wanted someone like you, not a common criminal. He has to not be connected to this in any way.”

  Dan gave that some thought. All his instincts were telling him to drop this like a hot rock and move on, but for the woman in St. Mark’s; she said this was what he should be doing. It’s got to be important and it’s got to fit in with what Jane wants me to do…somehow. He was not looking forward to that conversation.

  “Va bene,” okay, he said. “I can understand his desire. Now tell me about the girl. I have to be able to identify her.”

  “Her name is Evangeline. She was called Evie at home.” Pietro handed Dan another picture. “This is the last photo before she ran away. It’s two years old now.” It showed a beautiful girl, with the full face of youth. She had long blond hair, more white than yellow and blue eyes with long lashes. She was standing on a large lawn that looked like it might be part of a fancy estate. Her countenance was almost ethereal, but there was something about her eyes. They had a sad, almost lost look to them.

  Next he handed Dan some stills from a movie. “As embarrassing as this is these might be most helpful.” They showed quite a different looking girl. Her hair, while still blonde, was cut much shorter in almost a punk fashion. Her face had lost its child-like softness. It was now sharper, harder. She still looked beautiful, but had a more angular look now; the soft edges of youth were gone.

  “She has a birthmark, a dark spot on her abdomen. You can see it in one of the photos.”

  Dan shuffled the pictures until he found the right one. “I’m supposed to take time to examine all the girls’ abdomens? Do you have one of her movies? I’m not being prurient, but seeing her in action, how she moves, will help me to identify her.”

  “I told my employer you might want that. He is upset that she is exposed like this, but I told him it might help.”

  “It’s not like I’ll be the first to see her in action.”

  Pietro took a DVD out of his pocket and handed it to Dan. “There are two movies which have her in them on the disk.”

  “Okay. Now I can’t tell you when this will happen and so I can’t tell you when the daughter will be returned. When I contact you again we will meet, me with the girl and you with the other half of the fee.”

  “I will wait to hear
from you.”

  “Have the money prepared the same way as today. And Mr. Conti,” the man turned to Dan, “don’t think about doing anything to interfere with a smooth transfer. That will be a dangerous time for you. If I sense anything wrong, you could die on the spot. Capiche?”

  “Sì, sì. Nothing will go wrong.”

  Dan dropped Pietro back at the park. He then wound his way through some side streets and onto the ring road. After determining no one was following him, he headed for Milan.

  Chapter 8

  ___________________________________

  F eriz Sadiković’s compound was located east of Gračac near the Dalmatian coast. It was secluded and his guards kept anyone from wandering onto his property. According to Pietro Conti, there was only one road leading to his mansion. It went up over a mountain and was barely maintained. It was essentially a long driveway since there was only one small farm on the other side of the pass, on the western slope. The driveway turned off of the road and crossed a ten-foot chasm through which ran a mountain stream. The stream would dry out to a trickle in the late summer but ran wild through the fall and spring. After crossing the bridge and passing through the guard house, you drove a quarter mile to the grand complex.

  With his stable of girls, his drugs and a constant stream of guests, Feriz did not often leave his compound. Occasionally he would attend an awards ceremony where he usually won an award for some piece of dubious work. At these times he would be accompanied by one or more of his glamorous “stars” who had gotten sober enough for the event. He had begun to think of himself as a true artist of the post-modern, anything goes age. If it feels good, do it; if it feels good it’s okay and no one should interfere. The soft morals and lack of principles espoused in modern culture fit perfectly into Feriz’s work. And his work made him a great deal of money.

  After getting home, Dan checked in with Marco who now saw his role almost as caretaker of Dan’s property. He had done so well, using only two of his closest companions, that Dan had increased his pay to two hundred and fifty Euros a week. That amount gave Marco a sizeable boost to his income with enough left over for his two helpers. He let Marco know that he would be gone for a few weeks and would contact him if he was going to be away longer.

  There was nothing left now but to pack and head out to Gračac. He assembled some changes of clothing, including what he referred to as “civilian” outfits as well as his tactical clothes. A ghillie camouflage suit which allowed him to weave local vegetation onto it was added to the pile. After pondering his selection of long guns, which included an M16 and M4 military assault rifles, an MP5 submachine gun, a reworked civilian Remington 700 SPS chambered for .300 Win Mag, and an M110 semi-automatic sniper rifle also chambered in .300 Win Mag. In that caliber, Dan had sub-sonic and supersonic loads. The Remington was bolt action with a five-round magazine. The M110, being semi-automatic and equipped with a twenty-round magazine, was more versatile than a bolt action, having the ability to put a large number of rounds down range rapidly in a fire fight. One drawback was that the cartridges were ejected with some force and were often flung far away, making them hard to retrieve when the shooter wanted to clean up his site. There were arguments among shooters about decreased accuracy, but Dan had sent the M110 out to be blueprinted and had tested its performance to his satisfaction.

  He selected the M110 with a suppressor and supersonic rounds along with the M4. He included his CZ 75 9mm with a sixteen-round magazine. The gun was steel and absorbed recoil better than some lighter weight models. The barrel was set a bit lower which reduced the flip that occurred with each round and increased rapid-fire accuracy. Three weapons, each one geared for a certain job, each one proven and reliable. The collection required three different calibers of ammunition but they were the right tools for each job. After some consideration, he put a few other assault items in the bag along with a combat first aid kit and zipped it up.

  I’ll take the Range Rover. Better choice if I have to use bad roads going in or out of the area. Dan owned the SUV as well as a Peugeot 607 Executive Sedan. The Peugeot was a plain looking business sedan that Dan had modified with custom suspension, brakes, and a supercharger added to the V-6 engine. The result was a boring looking car that didn’t stand out but would outrun most anything on the road including the powerful and flashier S500 Mercedes. The Range Rover had a compartment built in underneath the rear seat. After releasing a hidden latch, you could fold the seat forward to access a space large enough to hide an adult. It was useful for any hidden cargo he might need to transport. There was no issue within the EU but going beyond those countries involved border crossings with varying degrees of security checks. Dan put his mission gear, ropes, tape, first aid kit, rations, weapons, and ammunition, into two packs, separating the weapons from the rescue and first aid gear. They would go in the hidden compartment when he left. The CZ would be kept closer at hand, under his seat.

  Dan’s villa and grounds were equipped with sophisticated security including normal and infrared cameras mounted outside. Inside he had installed cameras throughout the house so any intruder could be tracked through the rooms. Along with reinforced doors and windows, he placed low-tech monitor strings across each entrance, almost invisible lines that would indicate if anyone had opened a door. The cameras would tell the tale, but if they failed, or were defeated, the filaments of line would give evidence of any intrusion. Dan could remotely monitor the cameras to check on the property both inside and outside. He mentioned his security in a general sense to Marco to forestall any idea he might have of going into his home while Dan was gone.

  Dan knew Marco had already noticed the array of outside cameras and must have concluded the house was well monitored. His cover story about being a security consultant would explain much of the gear, but Dan guessed Marco thought he was something more than what he claimed to be.

  He was ready to go. But there was one more thing he had to do and he didn’t look forward to it.

  Chapter 9

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  D an sat down on his couch, poured himself two fingers of bourbon, Knob Creek Limited Edition. Jane had introduced it to him at the safe house in New York. After taking a sip, he punched the speed dial for Jane’s number on his secure phone.

  “Are you back home?” Jane asked when she picked up the phone.

  “Yep. Did you get much blowback from the operation?”

  “No, not like Mexico. Some people think it was a mob hit because he was striking out on his own. All in all a good operation, even if it had to be at close range.”

  “

  Are things more settled now at HQ?”

  “If you mean regarding our work…yes.”

  “Well, something’s come up here that I want to let you know about.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “I’m going on an assignment—”

  “I haven’t given you one. What are you talking about?”

  “It involves rescuing a teenager from a porno ring.”

  There was a long silence on the other end. Finally Jane spoke, “Are you freelancing? That isn’t going to work. We talked about that.”

  “Not exactly freelancing.”

  “If I didn’t assign the mission, it’s freelancing. You can’t be doing that.”

  “Hear me out. There are extenuating circumstances.”

  “Like you’re being paid a lot of money?”

  “More than that.”

  “So you are being paid a lot of money. How much?”

  Dan took a breath. This was not going to sound good.

  “Let’s just say it’s a lot. But that’s not why I took the job. In fact I wasn’t planning on taking it at first.”

  “Then they upped the offer? Is that how it worked?”

  “No, Jane. And I don’t like the assumption behind your question. Will you let me explain?”

  Jane was silent. Dan took a sip of his whiskey.

  “I’m all ears,” s
he finally said.

  Dan proceeded to tell her how the man, Pietro Conti, had approached him and that he decided he wasn’t interested.

  “Then a woman in Venice connected with me. She’s a Watcher, like Tlayolotl and the woman in Mexico City. She found me in St. Mark’s Plaza. Don’t know how. I know this sounds unreal but she knew of the man and his offer. She knew about the girl. She said it was important that I take the assignment as there was a greater darkness to uncover and attack. In short, this job fits into our overall mission, even if it isn’t on your radar yet.”

  There was a moment of silence before Jane spoke.

  “You’re going off on some wild rescue which doesn’t contain a hint of fighting terrorists. Dan this isn’t about forces of darkness and light, this is about killing the bad guys, the terrorists and their helpers, in order to cripple their efforts before they strike.”

  “That’s just how the watchers speak about what we do. Tlayolotl spoke of it. I told you he said we were a part of a larger battle going on and you needed to understand that, broaden your thinking.”

  “It’s just mumbo jumbo the way—”

  “Damn it, Jane! It’s not. I saw it, I experienced it. I’m alive because of it.”

  “Exactly what ‘it’ are you talking about?”

  “The existence of a spirit world and people who can see that dimension. These people can help to guide us. I need you to see that. I thought I had shown you how they helped me survive in Mexico. Just the fact that I survived should give some credence to it.”

  Jane sighed. Dan could hear it over the phone. “I believe you experienced what you spoke about. I’m just not ready to assign the terms to it that you do. I think of our mission in more concrete ways. We find bad actors, we take them out.”

  “And that’s my point. I’m running into these people everywhere. First in Mexico, now in Italy and they seem to be able to help me…want to help me, want to help us, target the bad actors. Isn’t it worth a try? They helped before, they can help again.”