Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Catya was an assassin, not a negotiator. She hoped like hell she could learn fast. She had hoped Madison’s captors would have brought her out with them.
Now she and Atkins were out in the open, potential targets for a sniper who could be perched on one of the surrounding buildings with a rifle, waiting for his cue to shoot them.
Yeah, she was an assassin, not a negotiator, and these people were pissing her off.
“Who has the disk?” the man in the middle asked.
“Could be me,” Catya said.
Atkins lifted his chin. “Or me.”
“Or it could be on its way to the British Prime Minister.” Catya planted her fists on her hips. “You won’t know until you release the girl.”
The man doing all the talking so far snapped his fingers.
Two more men came out of an alley, with a smaller person between them. The person wore jeans and a Trinity sweatshirt. She had a cloth bag over her head, and her hands were tied behind her back.
Each man held one of her arms, alternating between dragging and half-lifting her off the ground as she kicked and twisted in an attempt to free herself.
The men stopped when they were abreast of the three men there to trade for the disk.
“Show them,” the one in the middle ordered.
One of the men holding onto the young woman whipped the bag off her head.
A young woman with dark blond hair blinked at the people gathered around in the market square. She had duct tape across her mouth.
When she spotted Atkins, her eyes widened, and she tried again to break free of the grips on her arms, all the while making noises behind the tape over her mouth.
When she realized the men holding her wouldn’t release her, tears streamed down her face.
Atkins stepped forward.
The two guys flanking the one brought their guns out into the open.
Atkins froze. “Let my daughter go.”
“Give us the disk,” Middleman said.
“Not until my daughter is free and out of range of your sniper,” Atkins said.
“Then I guess you won’t get your daughter. You have exactly five seconds to produce it, or I start by shooting your daughter’s toes, one at a time, until she doesn’t have anymore,” Middleman sneered. “Do you know how hard it is to walk without toes? That is if she doesn’t bleed to death first.”
“I won’t give you the disk until she’s freed and out of danger,” Atkins said.
“That’s too bad.” Middleman jerked his head toward the man on his left. “We’ll start with her right foot.”
The man bent and grabbed Madison’s right foot.
She kicked hard, hitting the guy in the nose.
The man cursed and clamped a hand over his nose, blood running down his chin. His eyes narrowed, and then he punched Madison in the gut.
She grunted, doubling over as much as she could.
Meanwhile, the guy with the broken nose gripped her leg and yanked off her shoe, tossing it to the side.
Atkins started forward.
“Easy, Atkins,” Ace said. “Don’t get too close. It’s bad enough they have your daughter too close for me to get a good bead on them. Don’t add to the interference.”
Atkins stopped, his hands at his side, fists clenched. “Let her go,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Disk.”
“The girl,” Catya said, moving closer but still far enough away to distract without being caught. “If you want to retain leverage, take me in trade for the girl. Once the girl is safe, we’ll give you the disk.”
“No,” Atkins said. “Take me.”
“Who has the disk?” Middleman demanded.
“The girl is freed first,” Catya said.
“And if you hurt her again, that disk goes straight to the PM,” Atkins said.
“We’ll see.” Middleman tilted his head toward the man between him and the guys holding Madison. “Shoot her toe. Just one for now.”
Catya cursed under her breath and murmured into her mic, “They’re threatening to shoot Madison, one toe at a time, if we don’t give them the disk.”
“They’ll kill you all if you give it now,” Fearghas said.
“This is bullshit,” Atkins said and lunged for the man with the gun, disturbing his aim at Madison’s foot.
Middleman hit Atkins with the butt of his handgun.
Atkins fell to his knees.
Madison struggled against the hands holding her back from going to her father.
Middleman and his other sidekick pulled Atkins to his feet and pressed a gun to his head.
Movement out of the corner of her eye assured Catya that Fearghas and Jasmine had left their hiding place and were coming up on her right, strolling across the market square, hand in hand.
The two men closest to Catya tensed, turning the barrels of their handguns toward the couple making their way through the market square.
Jasmine leaned into Fearghas and said something.
Fearghas laughed.
They took their time crossing, stopping to stare up at the statue where Dmytro sat.
“Look,” Atkins said. “You have me now. We’ll give you the disk as soon as you release the girl.”
“Why should we when we have you and your daughter?” Middleman said. “Give me the disk.”
“Why make this harder than it has to be? You can have the disk. Just let her go,” Atkins said.
“Search him,” Middleman said.
The man who’d been tagged with shooting Madison’s toes and Middleman’s other sidekick converged on Atkins. One pressed a gun into his back while the other went through the pockets of Atkins’s jacket, pulled the jacket off and went through his trousers.
“You’re not going to find it,” Atkins said.
The man pulled out the MI6 agent’s wallet and dumped the contents, ripping the wallet apart while searching for a hidden compartment. When that didn’t yield the disk, he removed Atkins’s shoes one at a time and even pulled off his socks.
Finally, the man straightened.
“Where’s the disk?” Middleman demanded.
“I told you. I’ll give it to you when you release the girl,” Atkins said. “You’re wasting time.”
“I’ll decide when I’m wasting time,” Middleman said, his voice tight and angry.
“I can’t shoot him,” Ace said. “The girl and Atkins are too close. I have my sights set on their sniper. He’s in position, but I can’t tell who he’s aiming at.”
The drama had gone on too long already. “Let the girl go,” Catya said.
Middleman motioned toward the two men closest to Catya. “Grab her.”
Catya pulled her handgun and aimed it at the man nearest to her. “I wouldn’t do that.” She glanced toward Middleman. “You’re wasting time, and my patience is getting thin. We know you have a sniper ready to fire. So do we. Your men are surrounded. Even if you have more hiding nearby, we have just as many armed and ready to open fire.”
Middleman glanced up, his gaze going to the rooftops closest to him, including the Belfry.
Ace hid well. He couldn’t be seen from the ground where they were standing. Middleman’s gaze swept the nearly empty market square, landing on Fearghas and Jasmine. Moonlight glinted off the guns they’d drawn and pointed at the men surrounding Middleman.
Dmytro stepped out from the other side of the statue, carrying a submachine gun.
Catya gave him a second to digest the predicament before continuing, “You can take the disk and walk away, or we can all start shooting, and you’ll fail in your mission. I’m betting someone put you up to getting that disk. If you live through this standoff and show up emptyhanded, what will your boss have to say?”
After a long moment, Middleman jerked his head toward the men holding Madison. “Release her.”
The two men hesitated.
“Now,” Middleman barked. “We have her father.”
The men released Madison and gave her a little push toward Catya.
Madison stumbled several steps forward and stopped, looking back at her father. She tried to say something, but the tape over her mouth garbled her words.
“Go,” Middleman said. “Before I change my mind.”
The girl shook her head, tears slipping down her cheeks.
“Please, Madison,” Atkins said softly. “I’ll be okay as long as you’re safe.”
When she still didn’t move, Atkins said. “Go!”
Madison glared at Middleman and cursed behind the tape over her mouth.
“Come on, Madison,” Catya urged. “The sooner you’re safe, the sooner we can get your father away from these people.”
The girl looked once more at her father. Tears streaming down her cheeks, she staggered blindly toward Catya.
Catya aimed her gun at the men closest to her until Atkins’s daughter made it to her. Then she pushed Madison behind her and backed out of the square.
“Wait,” Middleman called out. “What about the disk?”
“The girl isn’t safe yet,” Catya called out. “I won’t leave my man behind. You’ll get your disk.”
Catya continued backing away until she reached the alley she’d emerged from what felt like a lifetime ago. Once they were out of range of handguns and a sniper’s rifle, she turned and hurried Madison away, stopping in front of a nightclub still open and blaring music.
Catya unsheathed her knife and cut through the zip-tie securing the girl’s hands behind her back.
“This is going to hurt you worse than it hurts me,” she told Madison as she peeled a corner of the tape from her cheek and pulled it across her mouth.
The young woman gasped, her eyes filling. “My father?—”
“We have to trust the others to keep him safe. Right now, you’re the one we need to secure.” She nodded toward the door of the nightclub. “Let’s get inside.”
As she cleared the door, Catya said into her mic. “She’s safe.”
“Thank God,” Atkins breathed.
“Time to give them the disk,” she said.
Madison touched her arm, her eyebrows forming a V. “He doesn’t have the disk,” Madison said. “They searched him and didn’t find it.”
“They didn’t look everywhere,” Catya said. “Atkins, the disk is in the collar of your jacket. I slipped it through the seams while we were on the train between Brussels and Bruges. Give it to them and get the hell out of there.”
“Roger,” he murmured, his voice barely audible against the loud music. “For a moment, I thought I’d lost it.”
Catya cupped her hands over the radio headset to block out the music.
“My partner tells me my daughter is safe.” Atkins’s voice sounded in Catya’s ear as the MI6 agent let Middleman know his daughter was safe.
“No,” Atkins said. “My partner is not coming back. She doesn’t have the disk. I do.”
“Be ready,” Ace warned the others.
“Ready.” Fearghas’s lilting Scottish accent reassured Catya that he was still there and not being held hostage. She wanted more than anything to go back out to the square and join the fight, if there was to be one.
“They want to test the disk to make sure we didn’t give them a phony,” Atkins reported. “They’re pulling out a laptop and loading the disk.”
Silence stretched in Catya’s ear.
“They’re satisfied,” Atkins whispered. “So, now, you can go your way, and we’ll go ours.”
“Not so fast,” Middleman’s voice sounded at a distance.
“Fuck,” Ace said. “They have a gun to Atkins’s head. Looks like they’re going to use him as a shield to get out of the square.”
Catya cursed softly.
“What?” Madison leaned close. “What’s going on?”
Catya held up a hand for silence as she strained to hear what was happening.
“Moving closer,” Jasmine said.
“They’re heading out of old town,” Fearghas said. “Going in the direction of the train station. Following.”
“Their sniper disappeared,” Ace said. “I’m coming down.”
“Four of their guys dropped back,” Dmytro said. “Get down!”
“Ace, find that sniper,” Fearghas said, his voice strained. “These guys are shooting at us. We don’t need bullets coming at us from behind.”
“They’re getting away with Atkins,” Jasmine said.
“Then let us take care of their expendables,” Dmytro said. “Moving forward, cover me.”
Catya’s heart leaped into her throat. Middleman had at least eight of them to Ace’s team of four. She needed to be out there.
Her gaze went to the young woman her MI6 father had fought so hard to rescue. She’d be lucky to see her father alive again.
“It’s my father, isn’t it?” Madison asked. “What happened?”
Catya wouldn’t lie to the girl. “They took him hostage and left.”
Madison’s eyes widened. “We have to help him. They’ll kill him.” She started for the door, bumping into a couple staggering drunkenly.
Catya caught her arm. “He wanted you to be safe.”
“I can’t stay here knowing he’s in trouble.” She shook free of Catya’s hand. “I’m going, with or without you.”
Catya would have to tie the girl up again to keep her at the nightclub. The best she could do would be to stay with Madison and make sure she didn’t get in the way if bullets started flying. Her team had moved out of range of her headset. If she could get closer, she might come in range again. And maybe, just maybe, Catya could be there to help keep Fearghas from getting killed.