Shoot First(Stone Barrington #45)(43)

Bellini texted him the contact.

“Now, call him, and get him back here.”

Bellini called a number. “Stanislav? This is Gino Bellini. Have you opened the files yet? Thank God. Do not open them on any account or they will be automatically destroyed, and you have the only copy. Bring your computer back here and I will remove the danger and make the files accessible without destroying them. I know, and I’m sorry about that. It was a simple oversight that I can fix in ten minutes. Thank you.” He hung up. “Beria is on his way back here. We will be lucky if he doesn’t kill us both.”

Stone went back into the living room, took the pistol from the coffee table, checked the magazine and the breach, and tucked it into his waistband, then he had a good look around the room and decided that behind the curtains was the best spot to hide.

“He said he was five minutes away,” Bellini said.

“Can you cause the files to be destroyed if he opens them?”

“Yes,” Bellini said. “I can even make it possible for him to open them once, but not a second time without destroying them.”

“Then that is what you will do. Ask him to open the files to be sure they are safe.”

“All right.”

Stone picked up the check on the coffee table and tucked it back into the envelope in his pocket.

“Am I not to be paid?” Bellini asked.

“You have already been paid by Beria,” Stone said.

“He will kill me,” Bellini replied.

“I’ll be behind the curtain with your gun. I’ll see that it doesn’t happen.”

The phone rang, and Bellini picked it up. “Please send him up,” he said, then hung up. “He’s on the way up,” he said to Stone.

“Is he alone?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t ask.”

“Is there a service elevator in this apartment?”

“Yes, in the kitchen. It opens onto a small lobby downstairs that opens onto the side street.”

Stone nodded. “Play this straight,” he said, “or you are finished.”

“I will follow your instructions to the letter,” Bellini said. The doorbell rang, and Stone went and stood behind the curtain.

He heard the door open, and more footsteps on the marble floor than he had expected. What sounded like Bellini and another man came into the living room.

“You were very foolish to do this, Gino,” a man said.

“It was entirely unintentional, Stan, believe me. Give me your computer and I’ll fix everything.”

“In your study,” Beria said. “I want to see your computer first.”

Stone hadn’t counted on this. He realized that he could see the study door from his position, and that meant that they would be able to see him from the study.

Bellini, Beria, and another, much larger man walked across the living room and entered the study. Beria sat down at Bellini’s computer and began typing. “The files are not here,” he said.

“I told you that,” Bellini replied.

“Now, you fix my computer so that I can open the files safely,” Beria said.

Stone could see Bellini as he sat down, opened Beria’s laptop, and began typing. After a couple of minutes of this, Bellini said, “There, it’s fixed. You can open the files now. Try it, if you like.”

Beria sat down and opened some files. “It works,” he said. Now you sit down at your computer.”

Bellini did so.

“Now we will transfer the twenty million I sent you back into my account. Don’t worry, when I have had this checked out, I will rewire it.”

At this moment, Stone heard the front door open and the click of high heels on marble. “Gino?” a woman’s voice called.

“I’m in the study,” Gino called back. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

The woman walked across the living room and into the study. Stone realized that, when they finished doing what they were doing, everyone would come back into the living room, and they would see him. Everyone in the study was standing behind Gino, watching what he did on his computer. “Now is the time,” Stone said to himself. He slipped out of his shoes, held them in one hand, and the pistol in the other, then started walking quickly and soundlessly across the living room.

“There, it’s done,” he heard Gino say.

“Done is correct,” Beria replied, then a single gunshot rang out, and the woman screamed.

Stone ran flat-out for the kitchen, and as he did, there was a second gunshot. He found the service elevator and pressed the button. The lights on the panel told him the car was on the ground floor. It began to rise, too slowly to suit Stone. He pressed the button again, hoping to hurry it, then he heard the footsteps of two men walking from the study back into the living room. He saw them go to the coffee table, and that meant that if they turned, they could see him, and there was nowhere to hide.

The elevator still had fifteen floors to go.





33




Stone stared at the floor numbers of the elevator as they slowly changed.



* * *



—

“LET’S GET OUT of here,” Beria said to his companion.

“Better see if there’s a back way,” the man replied.