The Crypt (28 page)

Rendorshag, the Hungarian police, were entering through the main doors and showing people which way to go. The inside of the church was almost empty. Since the stairs to the crypt were near the main entrance on the left, Sarah hadn’t been able to see if anyone had come up from there. Armond could already be outside.

She nodded to the team leader and started for the doors with Parkman following.

Near the doors she saw Bennett. He was standing back behind a pillar, watching her and Parkman advance on the exit.

“Don’t look now, but there’s Bennett at three o’clock. He’s watching us. This is getting strange.”

After five steps Parkman said, “I see him too.”

They neared the doors. The police said something in Hungarian. Sarah shook her head and said, “Angol”.
English
.

“You appear to be the last two. Please come with us.”

“Go with you? Why? We’re leaving the building. Mass was cancelled.”

“We understand. It’s this way,” the cop gestured and walked away.

Sarah and Parkman followed. They reached the outer doors and stepped into the rain. People had gathered under the overhang and a few others were collecting under a tree to wait out the drill.

“Come with us,” the police officer said again.

Sarah looked at Parkman. Her eyes asked him what the hell was going on.

“Where are you taking us?”

Both officers were wearing thick bullet proof vests.

Were they here for a bomb scare or expecting something more like a gunfight? 

The officer turned to face her. “We have a few questions for you. We’d like to check your passports. We are Hungarian police officers. At this point you have no choice. It will only take a few minutes and then you can return to the church once it’s been swept. Now, follow me.”

The officer walked away from them toward the parking area. Sarah could see his little police car. His partner waited behind them. Parkman started walking and Sarah followed.

This is weird. What are the odds they’d be subjected to a routine inspection of their documents during such a time?

The officer in the front lowered his head because of the rain and turned to them. “We had a bomb threat. Most of the people we saw leaving the building we recognize. You two are the only ones we don’t know. This is all normal while the basilica is swept.”

Fine.

They got to the cruiser. The officer opened the back door. “Get in.”

Sarah waited for a moment, standing in the rain as it soaked her hair.

“Please get in. It is raining. We can do this easier in the vehicle.”

Something was wrong. No way was this routine. Every radar bell she had was pinging, telling her to run. She looked around. No one was watching them. All of Rosalie’s team were still in the building. Things were going downhill fast.

“What if we decide to not get in?”

“Sarah…” Parkman started but didn’t finish.

The officer had pulled out a gun.

“Get in the backseat of my cruiser or I kill you in the street like the filthy dog you are. Armond is waiting in the crypt to see you.”

Chapter 26

The driver’s partner had slipped in beside Sarah in the back seat, a weapon pointed at her side. Parkman was ordered into the front. He was reminded that any hero shit would not only get him killed but would guarantee Sarah got a bullet too.

They should be warning me,
Sarah thought
. People always underestimate the girl.

They drove away from the basilica, the cruiser’s wipers trying in vain to keep the windshield clear of the incessant downpour.

“Where are you taking us?” Parkman asked. “You are men of the law. I’m an American police officer. Are you even aware of what you’re doing?”

“Shut up!” the driver glanced at him and then turned back to the windshield. “Janos, shoot the girl if this guy talks again.”

The man beside Sarah nodded into the rear view mirror. Sarah looked at the back of Parkman’s head. He stared straight ahead.

This was bad. She couldn’t come this close and miss Armond. Her whole existence had become focused on one true goal, and that was to stop the madman who hired these thugs. She was worried her luck had run out. How many times had she been shot and hospitalized? How many broken bones? How many injuries, cut skin and bruises to stop this one man? And yet she still walked upright. She was basically healthy and wanted to keep it that way.

Vivian had apologized. What was that all about?

Would this be it? Was she supposed to die for real? Wouldn’t her sister have warned her?

The police officer turned the car onto the green bridge connecting Hungary to Slovakia and raced across.

What is Rosalie going to think now?

They took a hard right. A sign on the side of the road had the number 63 on it. A red building went by that had
Steak House
written on it in English. Sarah could barely make out the words through her rain soaked window. The driver drove another hundred meters and then turned in between two houses and stopped.

Sarah looked at her backseat companion. The weapon he held stayed aimed at her.

The driver turned to Parkman. “You. Out.”

“I’m not leaving Sarah.”

Parkman spoke. Sarah waited for the bullet, ready to attack. None came. Her hands unclenched. These people don’t keep their word.
Janos, shoot the girl if he talks again,
the driver had said only moments before.

“You have no choice. This doesn’t involve you. Get out. No hero shit. Last chance for it to be done nicely.”

She hadn’t been looking behind the vehicle as she was paying serious attention on the guy beside her. Two men walked up beside the police car. They were in uniform. It appeared they were police officers too. Neither one looked like they were wearing kevlar.

“Parkman. We have company.”

As she saw his head swiveling, his door was ripped open. Hands grabbed him around the lapel. Even though she saw his own hands cling to the doorframe, he was pulled from the vehicle as if he had no strength.

“No!” Sarah yelled and grabbed her door handle. It was locked. She reached up and tried to find the knob to unlock it and then realized she was in the backseat of a police car. She couldn’t get out unless they unlocked the door from the front. But neither could her backseat companion.

Arms flailed outside her window. Parkman was taking serious blows to his body. The driver eased along the front seat until he was at the passenger door leaning out to watch the fight.

In the confusion, while the men outside fought and the driver stuck his head out the passenger door to watch, Sarah got ready.

She felt a shift in the seat beside her. The guy leaned forward to see more of what was happening.

She did her best to judge the location of his throat without looking directly at him. The kevlar came right up to his collar. She would have to make sure she did it right the first time. There would only be one chance.

She raised her left arm to rest on the back of the front seat. She too leaned up to pretend to watch. A quick check using her peripheral vision showed that her elbow was around a foot from the guy’s exposed throat.

She waited. He edged closer still. The driver leaned further out the passenger door, his attention diverted.

With all the speed she could muster Sarah shot her elbow in a backward thrust at the guy’s throat. It held all the pent up anger at Armond; all the times she had been placed in dangerous situations because of him, all the times she had been duped by him, all the anger at having lost a sister…it all went into the blow to the throat that drove the cop into the back of the seat, his head banging the blind spot between the back and side windows.

Her right hand reached under and wrestled the gun from his weakened grasp as he lost his fight for air. At the same moment the driver shouted something outside to his comrades. A quick look up told Sarah that he hadn’t seen anything.

The men outside were almost finished, but grunts and groans were still coming from the fight, masking the backseat choking sounds.

The cop in the front seat spoke again in Hungarian. The fight was over as the two cops outside stood up.

The guy beside her had turned blue. She was sure she’d collapsed his trachea. He grabbed at his throat and gestured wildly but couldn’t catch a breath or make a sound other than the choking kind. She kept her left arm across his chest so he couldn’t lean forward to warn the driver.

They’d stopped hitting Parkman and were pulling him away from the vehicle.

Oh Parkman, I seriously hope you’re okay. They will pay for this.

The driver leaned back in the car and slid along the front seat after slamming the passenger door shut.

The guy beside her had stopped making noise. The driver put the car in gear and went to start reversing. He spun in his seat and looked at Sarah. His eyes widened when he took in the situation. The car stopped as he hit the brakes.

She was holding the gun up on the back of the seat aimed at his face.

“Unlock the back door. Slowly.”

She saw him reach for something. A clicking sound confirmed the door was unlocked. She reached to her right without looking and opened it.

“Good. Now, one more thing. Where are you taking me?”

He shook his head.

“Not a good answer. I’m the one with the gun. Where are you taking me? Last chance.”

The driver turned a little and looked at his partner. He looked back at Sarah.

“Back to the crypt in the basilica.”

“So you kidnapped us to bring Parkman over here?”

“Yes, and to give Armond a chance to neutralize your assault team.”

“Why not leave Parkman and neutralize him too?”

“He would never have left you without a lot of noise. Too much trouble. Our orders were to remove anyone who was with you and bring them here. Then return with only you. By that time everyone else would be dead.”

“Is that why you’re wearing vests? Because of the assault team?”

He nodded. “Everyone has one tonight.”

“Tell me your name.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Ballsy to be defiant when I’m the one with the gun. Tell me your
name
.” She emphasized the last word by pressing the weapon into the skin of his throat.

“Peter.”

“Okay Peter. As you said, everyone else will be dead. But it won’t be only my side because I’m going to end this thing tonight.”

He frowned. “You can’t win. Whether you shoot me or not, Armond will kill you tonight and everyone else you brought along. No one can stop him.”

“I’ll take my chances,” she said and fired her weapon.

The bullet entered the center of his neck right below the adams apple. His eyes widened and his hands rose to the wound. Blood began trickling out and down his chest. After a moment he slumped in the driver’s seat.

“That was for my friend Parkman. No one delivers him to a beating like that and gets away with it. No one.”

She looked outside but couldn’t see anyone. The rain continued to pelt the car. It must’ve masked the sound of the gunshot well enough because no one came running to investigate.

She needed to find Parkman. She needed to make sure he was okay before going back to the crypt.

She eased out of the backseat, the gun held in front of her. A quick look up and down the small alley revealed no one. It was getting dark and the rain wasn’t showing any signs of letting up.

She started down the alley the way she’d seen the two men pulling Parkman.

At the corner she looked around slowly. Both men were standing inside an open garage door. They had the trunk of a car open. Sarah could see the edge of Parkman’s elbow from where she was.

“Hey guys!” she yelled from her hiding place, deepening her voice as best she could. She looked behind her to make sure she was alone.
No more surprises
.

When she looked back around the corner with one eye she could see both men were staring in her direction but neither one had stepped out into the rain.

“Peter and Janos said to bring the American cop back to their car,” she shouted, trying to sound as masculine as she could.

She watched as they looked at each other. One of them shrugged his shoulders and reached into the trunk to pull Parkman out.

How stupid can you get? They don’t even question why a woman’s voice is shouting at them? Maybe her voice was convincing enough? Or maybe it was saying the names Peter and Janos that did the trick.

Parkman was lifted out. One guy took his arms and the other his legs as they started carrying him back toward her.

I’m sorry this happened to you, my friend.

She waited until they were five feet from the corner before stepping out, her gun raised with both hands.