Page 129 of Hold On

Foster sounded pissed off. Ren could guess why.

“What was it aboutstaying under the radar and recuperatingthat you didn’t understand?”

Ren counted to three. Not slowly. “That’s what I was doing,” he said quietly. Marco was back cooking on the other side of the kitchen. “I don’t know how but they found out I had a brother and that he was running an archaeological dig at Asquith Hall. The dig asked for volunteers and two of them turned out to be working for Levan. Guy called Herb and a woman called Irma. May or may not be their real names. The Council for British Archaeology might have details on them, assuming they weren’t lying when they signed up. They confirmed I was there and a tracker was put on my bike. I took a friend out this afternoon…” It felt like days ago. “…and we were followed. They engineered a collision. We were thrown into a van and taken to the house I gave details of. My friend has a broken leg. I hid him in the attic space behind a load of Christmas decorations before escaping over the roof and down the drainpipe.”

“Christ!”

“Tengiz is here. I don’t know the other guys. Four or maybe five others. Plus fucking Herb and Irma from the dig. But Levan is coming.”

“How do you know?”

“I talked to him on WhatsApp.”

“Right. That’s good.”

Ren frowned. Why was it good?

“ETA?”

Ren swallowed hard. “No idea. What’s yours?”

“Ninety minutes. We can’t use the local police. We need an armed response unit.”

Ren groaned.

“You’re okay, though? No injuries?”

“I’m okay, but Dominic isn’t. They could find him at any moment. I…Oh.”Shit.Ren swallowed hard when he realised the consequences of him not being found.

“You have to get back into the house,” Foster said.

Ren bristled even though that was the conclusion he’d come to.

“If they discover you’re missing and Levan is told you’re not there, he’s going to turn round and fly back and this is our chance to get him. Can you get back into the house?”

Fuck!Because Foster wasn’t thinking of anyone else but Levan. “I can try. Check private jets coming into local airports from Tbilisi. Look for helicopter rentals or cars to anywhere near here.”

“We’re already on that.”

Marco tapped Ren on the shoulder.

“Hold on,” Ren said to Foster, as he looked up at Marco.

“One of the waitresses has just told me there’s a group of four men come in asking to eat. They’re talking in a foreign language. I was winding down service but…”

“Serve them. Please.” Ren swallowed hard. “Can you find out what car they were driving?”

Marco walked away.

“Who do you think it is?” Foster asked.

“It could be Tengiz. It might be Levan. There were two white vans and one silver car on the drive when I left the house. I thought the car was a Mercedes S-Class but I could be wrong.”

Marco came back. “They’re in a silver Hyundai Genesis.”

The two cars looked similar.

“Is there a way you can take a look at them without them seeing you?” Foster asked.

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