Shoot First(Stone Barrington #45)(77)

“I’m not surprised they lost the connection,” Stone said. “Were they able to get a fix again? Are they still sitting in front of my house?”

Dino’s phone rang. “Bacchetti. Which way? Are you on it? Thanks.” Dino sat back and relaxed again. “The car left your house and turned downtown on Second Avenue. We are in pursuit.”

“But you’ve lost the connection again?”

“Yeah, but he said to call back in a couple of minutes so they can get a new location.” Dino put his head back onto the headrest and appeared to doze.

Stone waited impatiently, then jabbed Dino with an elbow.

Dino didn’t open his eyes. “Yeah?”

“It’s been a couple of minutes—make the call.”

“It hasn’t been more than half a minute,” Dino said.

“I timed it with my watch,” Stone lied.

“Oh, all right.” Dino called the number. “Hi, Mr. Beria, how’s everything going?” He held the phone away from his ear while the man on the other end shouted. “Why shouldn’t I call you Mr. Beria?” Dino said. “That’s your name, isn’t it?” Another torrent of shouting. “I mean, have you sent somebody to the Barrington house in England to get the thumb drive? Well, he should be back at the house inside an hour. How’s the weather where you are? Oh, good, I hear it’s raining like hell in England, but then, it usually is. Tell your guy to drive carefully; those country roads can get slippery when they’re wet.” Dino put down his phone. “They hung up again. Some people just can’t carry on a conversation, you know?”

“Yes, I know,” Stone said.

Dino’s phone rang. “Bacchetti. Did you get a new location? Why the hell would they do that? Okay, I’ll call them again in a couple of minutes.” He hung up.

“Now what?”

“Now they’re on First Avenue, headed uptown. Every time they hang up we lose the connection. I’ll call back in a couple of minutes, and this time I want to see you timing it.”

Stone pressed the start button on his Rolex Daytona. “Okay, I’m timing it.”

“Let me know when it’s two minutes,” he said.

“I’ll do that,” Stone said. “And we need to go to my house.”

“Why?”

“I want to send Bugg some data from the thumb drive so when they check it out, it will appear to work.”





59




Meg woke up slowly, realizing that she was in the luggage compartment of an SUV, with a pull-out cover closed over her head, cutting out much of the light. Her hands were secured behind her, her handbag chain around her neck, and her ankles were taped together. Her handbag lay about an inch from her nose. There were two things she immediately wanted from the handbag: a little sewing kit, and a small .380 pistol that Stone had given her from his safe when she had complained about feeling in danger. She would get some satisfaction from telling Stone that she had been right.

She heard a cell phone ring and one end of a conversation; she supposed Stone was on the other end. The talker hung up and said angrily, “He keeps calling me Mr. Beria.”

“Why not?” another male voice asked. “It’s your name.”

“Yes, but he’s not supposed to know it.” Then for reasons unknown to her, they switched to Russian.

Meg managed to get her small handbag between her teeth and drag it to a spot near her head, in the center of the compartment that contained her.



* * *



—

WHEN THEY REACHED the house, Stone told Fred to put the Bentley in the garage, just to give him something to do. Then he took Dino into his office.

“What’s going on?” Joan asked as they passed her desk.

“Beria has taken Meg,” he replied, and continued into his office. He sat at his desk and turned to his computer, then glanced at his watch. “Time’s up,” he said to Dino. “Call Fred’s number again.”

Dino pressed the button and waited for an answer, which came quickly. “All right, Mr. Beria, we’re making progress. Major Bugg has been summoned and is on the way to Mr. Barrington’s house. He should be there in about half an hour. It’s still raining hard over there, by the way, so let’s hope he doesn’t drive into a ditch. Okay, okay, I’ll call you in half an hour.” He hung up. “Beria doesn’t like chatting with me.”

“How do you know it’s raining in England?”

“It’s always raining in England,” Dino said. “Also, I needed something to talk about to keep him on the line long enough for my people to get another fix.”

Stone called Major Bugg’s cell phone. “Mr. Barrington? I have obtained a thumb drive from the computer shop in the village. What shall I do with it?”

“Please plug it into your computer’s USB receptacle,” Stone said. “I want to send you some files.” He took the thumb drive from his office safe, plugged it into his computer, and established contact with Bugg’s machine. He chose the first file from each of four sections of the files on his computer and transmitted them to Bugg’s computer as different documents. “There,” he said, “all done. Now please take the thumb drive to the safe and lock it inside. Someone will come for it, then you can open the safe and hand it over.”