Page 100 of The Devil's Ransom

“Three dead Russians, a dead Serbian, and some guy without any identification.”

Knuckles handed me a passport, and Brett looked at it, saying, “That’s the guy who took the shots at us in Korcula.”

I said, “Great. Well, it looks like someone else was better with a gun than you guys.”

Brett chuckled and said, “Anything down below?”

“An exit to the shore and another body. Veep, check that guy at the bottom of the stairs.”

He left and I surveyed the damage, saying, “I’m so proud. We found the next safehouse. A little late, but at least we can say we were right.”

Knuckles said, “Too bad we wasted our timeline staring at a house full of dead guys.”

“I know.” I went to the guy without identification and rolled him over. He was swarthy, with black hair and a face tan that didn’t fit, like he’d just shaved off his beard.

I said, “This one had nothing?”

“Nope. His pockets are completely empty.”

I went to the Russian, his face obliterated, and said, “This one?”

“Had all sorts of shit, including a bunch of receipts from Zagreb, Korcula, and Liechtenstein.”

“Liechtenstein? As in the country?”

“Yeah. Just pocket litter, but it was there. He’s also got visas in the passport from the same place. Just like the other Russian over there.”

One of Creed’s hits on Branko had been in that country, and this guy was Russian. Not too hard to figure out who he worked for, but it was good to know where Andrei was located.

I looked at the picture in the passport Knuckles had given me, since the face on the body was beyond recognition. It was the man from Mali Ston. The one who’d tricked us with the surveillance detection route.

Veep came back up and said, “Serbian passport, but nothing else.”

“So, we have two dead Serbians, three dead Russians, and one unknown?”

Knuckles said, “Yeah, looks that way.”

I shook my head and paced a bit, then said, “The fucking Afghans have Branko.”

Knuckles said, “What? Where did that come from?”

I pointed at the unknown and said, “He’s Badr 313. He’s Afghan. They ambushed the Russians here and took Branko.” I circled, still thinking, saying, “They must really, really want that treasure.”

Knuckles looked first at Brett, then Veep, then Jennifer to see if anyone else in the room could make sense of what I was saying. He finally said, “You’re going to have to connect those dots here.”

I said, “Those two Serbians are part of Dark Star. Computer geeks. They were here in the safehouse. We know for a fact that”—I checked the passport—“Nikita here had Branko under control in Mali Ston. We saw him take him away. Now, they’re all dead, and we have a guy in here without any identification, whichmeans someone was left alive after the fact to clean his body. His alone. Who would do that? Not any Russians or Serbs, because they would have cleanedallthe bodies.”

I paced a bit, now convinced. I said, “No, the Afghans found this safehouse somehow, just like we did, and they waited for the Russians to show up with Branko, and when they did, they ambushed the team, killing all of them. Since Branko’s body isn’t here, and every swinging dick in this adventure is chasing him, he’s the key. And it’s the Afghans, I’m sure.”

Jennifer looked amazed at my analysis, saying, “Wow. That was impressive. Why can’t you do that when the air-conditioning breaks in our house? Instead of making things worse by bashing everything with a hammer?”

Brett said, “I have to say, that was Perry Mason impressive. You’ve convinced me, but so what? The sun’s setting and we’re about to turn into pumpkins soon.”

I said, “Veep, you got that cloned phone from Branko?”

He nodded and brought it over. I said, “You know how AirTags work? I’ve never used one.”

He said, “Yeah, you mean that tag Creed found early on?”

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