Page 91 of The Devil's Ransom

He focused back to the tunnel entrance, waiting. After five minutes he began to relax, and then the light was blocked by someone coming down.

He saw Shakor enter the main chamber and snapped back into the corner, his spine against the rock, getting out of view. But now he couldn’t see what Shakor was doing. Was he coming up the stairs? If he did, he’d walk right by Branko’s table.

He panicked, running to the elevator, jamming the button over and over. The elevator opened and he entered, hitting the button for the lobby level, a full seven floors above.

He crammed his body into the corner of the elevator, next to the buttons, jamming his finger into the close-door one. It finally slid shut, and he rode up to the top. He exited, walked into the lobby, and went to the concierge, saying, “Could you get me a cab? I’d Uber, but I don’t have my phone.”

“Where would you like to go?”

“The old town. The quicker the better.”

Chapter52

Shakor came back to the house in a rage. He ran up the steps, saw Ghulam and Karim standing over the dead body of Din, and shouted, his anger spilling out.

Ghulam said, “Where is he?”

“I don’t know. He got away. Din is gone?”

“Yes. He’s gone.”

Shakor looked around the carnage and said, “Who are these people, and how did they do this?”

“It’s the Americans. It’s always the Americans.”

Shakor took a breath, calming down. They’d lost Din, but had killed all three of the intruders. That was something. He walked to Nikita’s body and said, “It’s not the Americans. These men aren’t American.”

Ghulam said, “Whoever they are, they deserved to die. They were protecting the man who has the treasure.”

Shakor said, “They were after the treasure as well.” He glanced around the room and realized he’d fixated on the results of the gunfight, not on their next moves.

He said, “Get some security on this house. Karim, go out front. Make sure we aren’t about to get attacked.”

He left and Ghulam said, “We need to avenge Din.”

Shakor said, “How do you expect to do that? Look around you. We killed all three men. What we need to do is find the treasure.”

Ghulam nodded, but said nothing, and Shakor began to thinkhe didn’t believe in the mission. All he wanted to do was lash out. Shakor knew what had happened to Ghulam at the hands of the Americans, and understood his pain, but that wouldn’t help here.

He said, “Ghulam, look at me. I’m sorry about Din, but we need to find the treasure, and I need to trust you. You and your skill. This isn’t a blood vengeance thing. There are no more men to kill. There is only one to find.”

Ghulam nodded and said, “Okay. But this is an American thing. I just know it.”

“Maybe it is, maybe it’s not. But we need to find Branko. Today.”

Ghulam said, “How? How are we going to do that? We don’t have the resources of the United States. We can’t track a beacon that we’ve shoved up his ass. He’s gone.”

And then there was a scratching behind the couch. Both men whipped around, putting the barrel of their guns on the sound. Bogdan stood up with his hands raised, one streaked with blood. He said, “Don’t shoot. Please don’t shoot. All I do is get places to stay. I have nothing to do with this.”

Shakor had forgotten about Branko’s other men. He said, “Where’s Drago?”

Bogdan pointed to the stairwell and said, “He’s there. He’s dead.”

Shakor went to the landing and saw Drago’s body. He said, “Come out from behind the couch.”

Bogdan did, saying, “Please don’t shoot. I don’t know anything. All I do is purchase the places to stay.”

Ghulam said, “He’s lying.”

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