Chapter 36
THIRTY-SIX
Steph spun, putting herself in front of Adam. He was injured, and even if she had no weapons on her—
There.
She clocked the shooter down the platform, between bystanders running for their lives. Right away she knew who it was, and why they were here. She would know that ponytail and the set of his jaw anywhere.
“Come on!” Adam shoved her forward, and they joined the crowd heading for the main station building, a redbrick structure on the side of the road. A small mountain town surrounded by snow-covered peaks.
Any other time she might like to stay a few days. Relax in the solitude, or spend some time with a good man who came all this way because he didn’t like what his friend had done.
Too bad there wasn’t time to think about that.
She ducked inside the building, the crowd a bottleneck of people trying to get out the front doors.
Behind her, she heard someone scream and the sound of another person falling.
“We need to draw him away from these bystanders.” She dragged Adam to the ticket counter and kicked the door probably only meant for employees.
The wood splintered around the keypad lock, and the door flung open.
On the other side, two women and a man hunkered down under the counter, wide-eyed at the situation. Steph tugged on Adam’s hand, pulling him to a door at the far end.
Gunshots splintered the plastic window separating staff from customers.
She ducked her head. Adam slammed the door shut behind them.
“Someone after you, or are they after me?” he asked her.
“He’s CIA.”
“So either way?”
“Both. But I’ve worked with that guy before.
He said his name was Jim, but it was years ago.
” She raced down the narrow hall, praying there weren’t more shooters on the far side of the exit door up ahead.
She glanced over her shoulder as she ran.
“I’m guessing he’s after me because he heard I was cut loose. ”
“Charming.”
Steph snorted, slowing at the end of the hall. “Got another pistol?”
“You’re assuming I’m carrying two?”
She stared at him for a second.
“Fine.” Adam drew a .22 caliber pistol from an ankle holster. “Here you go.”
She checked it was ready to fire, safety off. Of course after that apartment in Zurich, he’d figured she would commandeer his weapon, so he’d brought two with him.
“Let me go out first.”
Steph said, “Contact Dan. Get him to pick us up outside.”
She spotted movement behind him, that familiar face and his dark hair pulled back. Jim emerged from the ticket office. She took a stuttering step toward Adam, shoved him back against the wall to her left, and fired two shots. The CIA agent on their tails ducked back into the office.
In a second, he would—
Adam twisted her around, switching places with her. A pale face, and lines of pain around his eyes. He fired twice the second the agent ducked his head around to hit them again.
Steph opened the door and checked outside. When she didn’t see an immediate threat, she hurried out.
Adam came after her, and she dragged a full trash can in front of the door. Wouldn’t buy them much time, but running right into it might slow the agent, if he hadn’t been hit.
They had to get out of here before Adam lost all the fight in him and his injuries forced him to shut down. Adrenaline would only get him so far.
She tipped her head. “Come on.”
“I’m calling Dan.”
“I’ll watch our backs.” She switched places with him, slowing so he could go past her and she could follow.
Glance back.
Keep her attention on the corners of the building.
Each parked car that could have someone hiding behind it, ready to pounce.
The door they’d shoved that trash can in front of…
“Cover!”
Adam dashed between two cars and ducked behind one, holding his phone to his ear. She crouched beside him, breathing hard, and looked back over the hood as agent Jim dashed out of the door. To his credit, he only clipped the trash can, but the unexpected caught him off guard.
She ducked back down. “He’ll find us.”
“Not if we take him out.”
It sounded like a question. “There will be no going back if we kill an agent.”
Steph understood the gravity of what she was saying, tying their fates together. As if they were a unit and she really was part of their team. A team that worked for the CIA.
Yeah, that wasn’t going to get sticky.
“You wanna run, or you wanna take him out?” Adam’s attention shifted. “Yeah, where are—”
Whatever caused him to cut off what he was saying, Steph ignored it. She braced her arms on the hood of the car and fired two shots, hitting agent Jim square in the chest. He fell back against the trash can, surprise washing over his features as he tumbled to the ground.
“We’re coming to you!” Adam nudged her, rising to his feet.
“Go.” She nudged him back.
He ran through the parking lot, threading through pedestrians who had ducked down when that last round of shots rang out.
Someone tried to rush them, a guy in a suit who looked like a commuter headed for work in an office.
She lifted her gun just enough to dissuade him and said, “Back off.” He’d grasp the intention even if he didn’t know English.
Adam kept going.
“Where is he?”
“There!” Adam indicated ahead of them, over at the area where rideshare drivers would pick up passengers. It looked like a bus stop with two benches and a sign post, an island in the center of the parking lot, away from the entrance.
A dark van had pulled up at the stop, and she spotted Dan in the crowd. His arms pulled back behind him by one guy. Another punched him in the stomach.
Adam yelled, “Hey!”
One of the guys turned to them.
Steph broke away to the right, so she didn’t get Adam in her line of fire, then skirted around a car and squeezed off a shot. She’d be out of bullets in a second, and if the sirens in the distance were anything to go by, the local police would be here around the same time.
One man fell back, stumbling to the open door of the van. Another took his place, and two of them shoved Dan toward it.
Dan planted his feet and swung out at one of them, taking the guy off his feet with a powerful blow to his chest. Then rounded on the other guy and caught a right hook to his jaw that had him shaking off the surprise.
Adam fired at the man to Dan’s left and caught the side of the van when the guy moved at the last second, shoving Dan forward.
She aimed at the front right tire and hit.
The van engine revved. It pulled away before the door was even all the way closed.
Steph spotted a guy hiding behind his Peugeot taxi and ran to him, tugging the money Ice had given her out of her pocket. “Follow that van!”
The guy stared at the money.
She tried again in German and managed to get the point across. She opened the back door behind the driver, and Adam got in on the other side.
“Go!” she yelled to the driver.
He peeled out like this was the NASCAR starting line, and Steph and Adam leaned back in their seats. She looked at Adam. “You good?”
“I will be when we get Dan back.”
“Awful lot like when Kai was taken.”
Adam flinched. “You think it’s the same people?”
“Vesper?” Steph shook her head. “Maybe, but she’s more hands on. Why wouldn’t she be here? Unless she’s in the front seat of that van.”
“I’m gonna kill her.” Adam glanced over. “Sorry.”
The driver followed the van around a sharp corner.
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”
“She’s your sister.”
Right. Ice had probably told them all what she said. “Guess that’s a reason to dump me off on a train.”
“You mean leave you to die? You’d have woken up drowsy and been shot before you knew what was happening.” Adam lifted his chin. “I’m not choosing sides, but what he did was wrong.”
Steph wasn’t ready to defend Ice, pointing out that he’d probably done what he thought was right.
The driver gripped the wheel with both hands, raced around another corner, and muttered something to himself.
“Guess we found the local daredevil.”
Steph said, “As long as we get Dan back.”
The driver said something. It took her a second to decipher it. “Airport?”
She got a nod, and he repeated the word. “There must be a local small airport up here,” Steph said. “The kind wealthy skiers use to get to their favorite resort.”
“Ever been skiing?”
She shook her head. “I went to an all-girls boarding school in Canada. Lived there from kindergarten through when I left and went to college. The CIA paid for all of it.”
“Seriously?”
“It was the deal my father made with them for providing information they wanted. As soon as I was old enough to be recruited, the deal went out the window. They transferred him to a secure facility I’ve never been able to find and refused to let me see him.
I was told that if I didn’t comply, they would renege on the deal to keep him captive but leave him alone, and they would take all the information they wanted from him whether he chose to give it or not. ”
“That’s who has him now?”
She nodded. “That’s why I need to make things right.”
“I’ll help you.”
“Seems like you’re the one who needs help right now.” She planned to figure out how to convince the CIA to put him back in his cell and leave him alone. But right now, a life was in danger and she could do something about it.
Steph was about to pat the driver’s shoulder when the van turned onto a single-lane road at the break in an aging brick wall covered in moss.
He hit the brakes at the last second and pulled up to the opening, stopping the car across the lane where the turnoff was.
Adam said, “Guess this is where our ride ends.”
“I gave him two thousand Euros! This is daylight robbery.” She reached for the wad of cash on the dash, but the driver slapped her hand. She pointed his gun at him. “Thief.”
Adam had his door open. “Come on!”
She raced to catch up, leaving the back door open out of spite. The car engine revved, and he sped away. Adam jogged down the lane.
Steph huffed. “We’re completely exposed out here.” Nothing but a rolling hill, a single lane with deep green grass all around. Everything was damp, even the heavy air under the gray clouds. “It’s gonna rain. I don’t even have a jacket.”
She tried to catch up with Adam, who was apparently a faster runner than her in open country, rather than in a short hallway.
His pace picked up from a jog to a full-out sprint.
He crested the hill, and she managed to get to the top before he set off again like she hadn’t been going full speed to catch up.
In the valley below was a white house, surrounded by a short picket fence.
Sheep grazed to the left, but the house itself seemed unoccupied.
Behind it, she spotted the tail of a helicopter.
The van raced around the house.
“They’ll take off before we get there!” No matter how fast he could run.
Adam stumbled and fell to his knees.
She ran to him. “Are you okay?”
He didn’t answer. She grabbed the phone from his offhand and used the camera to get some shots of the chopper, zooming in to try to catch the tail numbers. Just in case the information might help them find their friend later.
The helicopter lifted off the ground and flew away. Too far for them to reach the vehicle, or anyone inside. Too far to help Dan.
Adam gasped. “He’s gone.”