No Fortunate Son (Pike Logan, #7)(50)

Seamus told him what had transpired, ending with “I have no idea about his men either, but that’s just another reason we need to move.”

Braden was shocked at the revelations. Shocked and scared. He said, “Seamus, suppose he needs those two men? Ratko may kill me if I demand this. He’ll blame me.”

“He needs you. Aren’t you the getaway? The break from the Serbs? I thought they were worried about getting caught with the jewels. Interpol is all over their ass. Didn’t they expect to get pulled in as a matter of course after the robbery?”

“Yeah, that’s true, but I’m not sure if that’ll be enough. He might just put a bullet in my head for the trouble and call the whole thing off. These guys are clannish. You’ve never worked with them, but they’re scary.”

Seamus said, “That won’t happen. They’ve put too much time into this. How long have they worked it?”

“Two months. Two that I’ve been involved with, anyway.”

“That’s nothing compared to what we’ve done. They’ve given us six months of work, with aircraft, boats, reconnaissance, and everything else. They won’t throw that away. They want the diamonds.”

Braden said nothing, running the ramifications of what Seamus was asking.

Seamus said, “You still there?”

“Yeah. I’m here. Okay, Seamus, I’ll give it a try.”

Braden had gone to the extended-stay hotel the Serbs were occupying in Brussels, the living room full of corkboards, each one with a selection of pictures of their target in Paris, the note cards above the photos delineating a specific activity. Response times for police, traffic patterns throughout the day, tourist pedestrian flows, the rotations of the guards manning each door. Everything involving the assault. Even the glare of the sun on the surveillance cameras.

The Pink Panthers conducted operations timed to the nanosecond, utilizing intelligence that would make any Special Forces team proud. The surveillance video later would look random, with the Panthers overwhelming the security by brute force, but the preparation belied the technique. It was why they’d been so successful.

Braden heard Ratko on the phone.

—“So it’s there? Inside?”

—“Doesn’t matter where they put that f*cker at night. It’ll be on display during the day. We’re good.”

Ratko hung up the phone and saw Braden. He said, “Looks like the necklace is in place. But the gendarmes have increased their patrols in the area because of it. A week’s worth of extra vigilance like we expected. You know what that means, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Your diversion had better be good. It had better consume them.”

“Ratko, we need to talk.”

The man rose up from the couch, a brute standing over six feet, covered in coarse black hair. “Yes. We do. I still cannot contact the men I sent on your fool’s errand.”

Braden felt more than heard the two other men in the room stand. Closing in on him.

He said, “I don’t know about your men, but I had a call from Seamus. You need to execute as soon as possible. We have to do the diversion now, or we lose the leverage of it.”

Ratko moved to the board, studying the different cards. He said, “You know why I helped you? You understand how much this necklace is worth?”

“No. I mean, yes, I know why you helped, but I have no idea about the necklace. I don’t want to know about the necklace. My payment is your help. You’ve done that, and I’ll take the necklace to you as you asked. After the operation.”

Ratko turned to him and smiled. A grin like a ferret, all teeth and no joy. “I don’t like being played. I have put a great deal of effort into this operation, including securing your hostages.” He tapped the map of the target with a knife, saying, “This will be our biggest success ever, but I won’t take the risk if I have a weak link.” He pointed the knife at Braden. “My men have worked for me a long time. Some since the Bosnian War, fighting with the Arkan’s Tigers. I trust them. You, not so much.”

Braden knew well the name of the paramilitary group that fought in Bosnia. Their cruelty was legendary. He was unsure if the mention was designed to instill fear or even if it was true. Ratko looked too young to have fought in Bosnia, but age could be deceptive.

Braden said, “I understand a soldier’s code just like your men. I am not a weak link. I don’t know what happened to the two you sent, but the fact remains that they found a penetration. Someone is tracking our other operation, which puts yours in jeopardy. The diversion has to go now. If you want the Paris gendarmes looking somewhere else, then you need to do the robbery soon.”

Braden sensed the other two men in the room taking positions to his left and right and knew he was within a breath of Serb punishment.

Ratko said, “You take but never give. I have provided more for you than you have ever offered in return. And I’m done with that.”

Braden sidled to the left, putting his back to a wall. Knowing that any sign of weakness would end in punishment, he steeled himself and said, “Ratko, all of that was predicated on this robbery. Your payoff was my help in transporting the necklace across the border and getting rid of the police presence. You need us. You need the police to look somewhere else. We’re set. We just need to execute sooner than we thought.”