Nobody’s Hero (Ben Koenig #2)

Chapter 91

They left the jammer in the apartment lobby. It was a traceable piece of equipment. It would give the NYPD somewhere to start. Draper had turned it off and called her pilot.

‘ETA thirty minutes,’ she said. A pause, then, ‘Five – two are hostiles, so get some restraints ready.’

They commandeered the van that the guys who’d assaulted the building had used. Draper took the wheel while Koenig and Carlyle sat in the back with Margaret and Nash. Margaret was smiling like they were going to the Ritz for afternoon tea. Nash was clammy but calm.

‘I’m briefing Smerconish, Koenig,’ Draper said when she stopped for a red light. She didn’t wait for permission. When the light turned green, she jammed her cell between her ear and her shoulder so she could drive and talk. ‘Andrew, we have a problem,’ she said without preamble.

She told Smerconish what had happened. Explained how Margaret had been their snake in the woodpile. That Hobbs had given them the name Jakob Tas, and his cell phone had gone dead in a fishing village in Maine. That they had narrowly survived an attack at Hobbs’s apartment and were now on their way to the airport. And no, Carlyle still hadn’t told them what the Acacia Avenue Protocol involved.

Koenig listened to Draper but kept his eyes fixed on Nash. He had never come across anyone like her. She was wrapped in so much duct tape she resembled an Egyptian mummy, but she still looked ruthless. Willing to do anything to escape. If he didn’t need to know what she’d overheard Konstantin say to Jakob Tas, Koenig would have put a bullet in her head. Same way he would a rabid fox. Safer for everyone.

‘Smerconish is worried,’ Draper said when she’d finished her call. ‘He wants us to fly to Maine.’

‘What did you tell him?’

‘That Maine was where Jakob Tas was . We need to fly to where he is .’

‘Which is?’

‘Let’s find out.’ She made another call. ‘I need an update,’ she said when it was answered. She listened for a few seconds, then added, ‘I need you to call this cell phone’ – she rattled off Smerconish’s number – ‘and tell the person who answers exactly what you’ve just told me. He’s a friendly, so if he has follow-ups, help him.’

She threw the cell phone onto the dashboard.

‘I hope you like surfing, Koenig,’ she said. ‘We’re going to San Diego.’