Carpathian (54 page)

Pete slowly lowered his legs and placed his feet in the cold water that was slow to drain from the floor. The large Romanian thug stepped back and held the stall door open.

“Running into you was fortunate—we don’t have to scour the hotel looking for you. Now we will find your little smart-ass friend, who I want to speak to very badly.” The man gestured for Pete to step out of the stall. “Come, I have instructions to take you to a place where you can do no more damage to Mr. Zallas’s hotel. Please come with us.”

“Pete didn’t know how the rest of the field teams did this without getting into as much trouble as he and Charlie Ellenshaw did the few times they had been allowed out of the complex. Now here he was being taken away by two very large Romanian men that looked as if they ate Ph.D.’s for breakfast, and on top of that he was now barefooted.

He knew Charlie would never let him live this down.

*   *   *

Jack and Sarah had just turned the corner of the lobby when they saw the person they needed desperately to speak to. She was the one employee who looked as if she wasn’t happy about Zallas and the way he ran things. As they didn’t know how close her operations partner, Janos Vajic, was with Zallas, they could only hope that the general manager of the resort, Gina Louvinski, would be approachable with their rather bizarre request.

Jack took Sarah by the arm and moved toward Gina, who was instructing one of her staff on something. She looked up and saw them approaching and hurried the employee off. The general manager looked around nervously for a moment and then smiled as Jack stepped up to her.

“Colonel, I would have thought that you and Miss McIntire would have found a safer holiday weekend somewhere else.” She looked around with the false smile still on her face. “I mean with the trouble from Mr. Ryan and all, I thought staying someplace else may have been preferable to … certain things.”

“You’re blathering, Ms. Louvinski. What made you think we would be leaving? Because of a small altercation? No, we have business here and we think you’re the only one that can help us.”

Gina looked around nervously. She nodded her head at Janos as he walked past on the far side of the hotel. He moved on without a second’s thought to the two people she was speaking to.

“Help you do what?” she asked without really moving her lips or breaking her fabricated smile.

“My friend here thinks your resort is going to blow up or something and she would like to look at your original geology reports on this land the resort sits on.”

Gina was shocked Jack had said all of that in one breath.

“I guess that took you a little off guard,” Jack said with a little smile. “But I had to get your attention. Ms. McIntire here needs to see the original geologist’s report on the valley.”

“Ms. Louvinski, the entire Patinas area is getting severe and continuous movement in an area not known for seismic activity,” Sarah said, cutting in. She quickly explained the situation.

The general manager was speechless. She looked from Sarah to Jack and that look was a lost one.

“Uh, uh, those plans and reports would be in Mr. Zallas’s engineering office adjacent to his own. He would never allow an outsider.” She thought for a second. “Not even me, anywhere near there.”

Jack smiled, taking Gina by the arm, and then he and Sarah walked her clear of a few of the guests as they made their way to the restaurant.

“Look, we can do this now and maybe stop something terrible from happening, or we can wait until we can contact NATO command in Germany and have this whole area sealed off, but that would take time, Ms. Louvinski, time we don’t have.” Jack looked around with the smile still on his face and then he looked back down at the general manager. “We have a selfish reason for asking this. We have friends lost on that mountain somewhere and we don’t know where they are or if they need help. We can’t look for them or help them with this seismic event hanging over our heads.”

Gina swallowed and looked around. The surroundings seemed unfamiliar as her heart raced. She knew these people were serious but she also knew that Zallas would kill her if she allowed them access to his office.

“I’m sure if you explain to Mr. Zallas your suspicions he would—”

“Your boss is a criminal and our original intent was to prove he is an antiquities thief and to discover where these artifacts were coming from. Now that has to take a backseat to what my geologist friend here has discovered.”

“You are police?” Gina said as she involuntarily took a step away from the two Americans.

“No, not exactly,” Sarah said as she closed the distance between herself and Gina. “My friend is telling the truth. We need to see the geology report and we need to see it soon. Mr. Zallas would not allow that, so you have to, or you will be just as responsible as your employer if what I’m sure is happening, happens.”

Sarah’s words hit home but Gina was still frozen because of her fear of Zallas. Without a word Gina turned and pushed her way past Jack and then brushed by an approaching Ryan without taking notice to him.

“Well, that didn’t go at all well,” Jack said.

“What did you expect,” Sarah said, “with that bare-my-soul tactic of yours? You could have been just a bit more subtle, GI Joe.”

“Well, we don’t have a lot of time here, we have to—”

“Boy, do I look and smell that bad, or did someone tell her I was a cad of the first order?” Ryan said as he glanced back at a very frightened Gina as she walked away.

“No, I’m the one that scared her off. We may have a bigger problem than antiquities theft on our hands here, Mr. Ryan.”

“Yeah, I think we may. I think the owner of this place wants us out of the way.”

“Any more good news?” Sarah asked Ryan as she angrily stepped between the two men.

“Well, until a second ago, no, but as of this very second, yes,” Ryan said as he pointed to his right in the direction he had come.

As they watched, Pete Golding was led out of the men’s restroom and herded toward the elevators. Jack lowered his eyes when he realized who was escorting the good doctor away. He could see the large Romanian smiling as they waited for the elevator and poor Pete Golding looked horrid with no shoes and filthy clothing.

Sarah looked at Jack and he shook his head in disgust at allowing the doc to be taken right under their noses.

“Commander, we have to get into the engineering area of Zallas’s office. Sarah thinks there’s a significant problem with the geologic makeup of the ground here.”

“Well, from what we overheard outside that may be hard to research if we’re dead and buried someplace. I don’t think our host is all too thrilled with us being around, it’s like he knows we’re not invited guests.”

“Boy, I wonder where he got that notion,” Sarah said, looking at Jack with a raised brow.

“This is certainly turning into a banner day,” Jack said as he started to move forward toward a shaken-looking Pete Golding but was stopped by an outstretched arm. Ryan shook his head at Collins.

“You and Sarah do what you have to do, Pete’s my responsibility. I’ll get him out of whatever trouble he’s in and meet you back at the rooms later.”

“And how do you plan on doing this, Mr. Ryan?”

Jason took a deep breath and then smiled. He then aimed himself at the bank of elevators.

“Like you, Colonel, I’m making this up as I go.”

As Jack’s eyes followed, Ryan made a beeline for the men waiting for the elevator to arrive. Collins shook his head and then took Sarah by the arm and they made their way to the main lobby.

“Well, I think now would be about the best time to head to the office area before we go into the restaurant.” Jack looked around and then nodded toward the front desk where a lone employee stood at a computer terminal. “I guess we can assume the managerial areas are back there.”

“What do we do, just stroll up to the front desk and ask for the key to Dmitri Zallas’s offices?”

“That wouldn’t be the best course of action in this case.”

Jack and Sarah turned and saw the resort’s general manager as she returned. Gina slowly removed her glasses and they could both see she was frightened by what she had been asked to do. Sarah saw the hand holding the glasses shaking almost uncontrollably.

“Mr. Zallas is out on the grounds and his goons are with him, with the exception of those two men there.” She nodded behind them. “I don’t know where Zallas is exactly and since he has scheduled dinner with you, you will only have a few minutes inside the offices. I suggest one of you do your artifacts search and the other take the engineering office for the geological report. If we are caught we can expect … well … I have heard stories about Zallas and his business practices.”

Jack looked at Gina and reached out, and with his own hand stilled her shaking one. “He’s the kind of man that promotes his own legend, it’s business, it’s meant to frighten. The man is a fool, but these sorts of men we have discovered are the most dangerous and unpredictable. He thinks we’re a part of NATO and that will make him a little less likely to off us while we’re here. You let us in and then disappear, go eat dinner, and we’ll be out before you know it.”

Without another word Gina gestured by nodding her head and then she walked toward the far end of the front desk and was through before Collins and McIntire could move. Gina turned and smiled in their direction and held her hand out toward the rear of the front desk area, as she attempted to act normal for the desk clerk’s benefit.

“Right this way and we’ll get you started looking at our honeymoon packages,” she said with her large and very false smile in place. Her eyes moved to the front desk clerk and she winked at the young man, who returned her smile and then turned back to his work.

“Don’t get your hopes up, Jack,” Sarah said as she haughtily walked past him to a waiting Gina Louvinski.

Jack’s eyes followed Sarah and he shook his head.

“Newlyweds,” he muttered as he followed the two women into the back offices where their burglary would commence against one of the more ruthless individuals in the world.

VILLAGE OF PATINAS

Anya was not happy about having to stay in the village and watch out for Marko. Her grandmother wanted him kept an eye on and she was it. As Madam Korvesky prepared to leave for the temple, she gathered the things she would need for the healing of Mikla, who had already been removed by several of the trusted Patinas men and taken to the temple. The Gypsy queen was using her cane more heavily than before. Dr. Gilliam had offered Madam Korvesky pain medication but it had been explained to the MD that any introduction of a toxicant or opiate right now would interfere with the spell casting to be done.

“Mr. Everett,” Niles said, “Charlie and Denise are insisting they join us inside this temple of Alice’s. I think it best you and Lieutenant Mendenhall stay here and see what you can find out about this Marko and what his plans truly are. If you’re thinking like me, his sister can tell us a lot about the power play going here.”

Everett nodded as Anya vanished into her grandmother’s room to dress and clean up.

Niles watched as Madam Korvesky was finally eased into a large chair and then four men raised it from the floor of the cottage. She smiled down at Alice, Denise, Charlie Ellenshaw, and Niles, and then gestured for the men to take her out.

Everett saw the bright red satin, lace-lined head scarf that was placed on the woman’s head. The garment was simple yet elegant. Its color matched that of her red dress and for the first time he could see the young Anya in the old face that looked down upon her people as she was carried from the house. The music became louder and the cheering of her people reverberated throughout the small house. Carl stepped to the doorway and saw the people reaching for Madam Korvesky as if she were Jesus entering Jerusalem. The men carrying her beamed at the honor of carrying the queen to the temple.

“We tend to overdo things here,” said a voice from behind him.

Everett turned and his eyes widened. Anya was dressed in a bright sky blue dress that went down to her mid-calf. It was made with a light weave of soft cotton. The blouse she wore was equally blue in color with red piping along the sleeves and a very low-cut collar. Anya had her jet black hair straight and brushed to a high sheen. The bright blue head scarf was covering just enough of her hair for Carl to feel disappointment. She wore rings he hadn’t seen before and her bracelets were many and bright on both arms and wrists. Her boots were the old-fashioned button-up kind with the spiked heel that was popular in the eighteen hundreds. The top of the boot was white and the bottom black.

“Well, does this meet with your expectations as to what a Gypsy girl looks like?” she asked with sarcasm lacing her voice.

Everett couldn’t help it and he smiled.

“Yes, it does,” he said as he kept his eyes on her dual-colored ones. “Only the Gypsy girls I’ve seen never looked like this.”

Anya looked taken off guard by Everett’s compliment. She was momentarily flustered and then shook her head negatively.

“Well, unfortunately, this is the way we dress, and don’t be a smart-ass about it, Captain.” She stepped around his large frame with a huff.

“Never,” he said as he turned to follow Anya from the house.

As several of the mothers and aunts and other admirers crowded around Anya, Carl finally spied Will Mendenhall and waved him over. As he waited he noticed that the 82nd men were being well treated by their hosts as they ate to their heart’s content. Will came near to saluting as he stepped up to the crowds and squeezed past them until he was next to the captain.

“Will, watch your fellow Army boys and make sure they don’t cause an international incident with the Jeddah,” Everett said as he saw Anya finally break free of the women and start away from the house.

“Yes, sir, do you want—” Will started to ask but Everett walked away as if he had been sleepwalking. “I guess not,” Mendenhall finished.

He found Anya as she was standing and watching the mountain above them. Several men and women walked past but left her alone as they knew she was getting reacquainted with her home. Carl stepped up to her and he also looked up.