Evil Deeds (Bob Danforth 1) (55 page)
Read Evil Deeds (Bob Danforth 1) Online
Authors: Joseph Badal
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, #Thrillers, #Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue, #Espionage
Michael walked near the middle of a line of men spaced about ten feet apart – two Serb soldiers in front and three trailing. His wrists were tied together in front of his body with rope, and a second rope – a tether – was held by the man named Dimitrov. Whenever Michael lagged behind, the Serb jerked on the rope, sending a sharp pain from Michael’s wrists to his shoulders, and dragged him along like a dog.
His arms and head hurt. He stumbled along the narrow forest trail, weaving first one way then the other. But Michael was nowhere near as dizzy and weak as he pretended. Staggering along the narrow trail through the forest, he intentionally fell every few minutes.
Through trees to the left, Michael could just see a ribbon of road meandering far below.
Ahead, the trail led out of the trees and edged along the brink of a steep hillside. He waited until the trail approached closest to the drop-off, then violently yanked the tether out of Dimitrov’s hand and launched himself down the slope. He rolled and crashed through bushes and bounced off saplings, then slammed chest-first into a large tree. The pain made him gasp. It was as though a knife had been stuck into his ribs. He scrambled under a bush, breathing as shallowly as possible.
There were shouts from above, and then the sound of boots moving cautiously down the hillside. A small rock, dislodged by one of the Serbs, rolled past his face. Twice, someone came within a few feet of his hiding place.
Dimitrov finally found Michael. “You bastard!” the Serb hissed in English, while he dragged him out by the arm and began to punch him in the face and chest, sending shock waves of pain through him.
“Idiot!” Sokic snarled, grabbing Dimitrov’s arm and shoving him aside.
Sokic spat an order and two of his other men lifted Michael off the ground and held him braced between them.
The Serb leader stood toe-to-toe with Michael. “I have had all the crap I am going to take from you,” he said. “Any more delaying tactics and I will shoot you right here.”
“Bullshit!” Michael blurted. “You already told me enough to know that’s the last thing you’ll do. You need me alive.”
Sokic snapped an arm forward, grabbed Michael’s throat, and squeezed. With his air cut off by the Serb’s painful grip, Michael gagged and nearly passed out. Suddenly, the pressure let up. But Michael saw the bloodlust in the man’s eyes and knew the Serb would have killed him right there if his orders allowed it.
After hours of waiting in Sweeney’s command post for news of Michael, Jack got a ride back to his hotel. He needed to shower and change. Then he’d return to the Army base. He dragged into the lobby and was walking toward the stairs when a man’s urgent voice called across the lobby: “Mr. Cole!”
Jack turned tired eyes toward the voice and saw the desk clerk beckoning him. What the hell now? He walked over to the man.
“A Mr. Danforth called for you several times,” the clerk said, handing Jack four message slips. “He wants you to call him as soon as possible.”
Jack took the messages and mumbled, “Thanks.” He felt heaviness on his heart like never before while he walked back over to the stairs. How could he tell Bob and Liz about Michael? His body slumped. He looked at his watch. Ten p.m. in Bethesda.
After he reached his room, Jack shucked his shirt and began unlacing a shoe, at the same time holding the telephone receiver to his ear and waiting for the overseas operator to make the connection. The phone rang on the other side of the Atlantic. Please don’t be home, he prayed.
“Hello!” It was Bob, and not Liz, thank God.
“It’s Jack.”
“Jack, I’ve been trying to reach you all day. You’ve got to find Michael and warn him. Miriana’s father is Stefan Radko. Must be the same Radko.”
“Bob, I need to–”
“Let me finish. You know Radko hates my guts because of what happened to his own son. There’s no telling what he’ll do to Michael to get even with me. You’ve got to protect my son. You’ve–”
Jack interrupted. “It’s already too late. The Serbs kidnapped Michael this morning. We’re trying to find him before they get too deep into Yugoslavia. And Radko
was
involved. He set Michael up.”
Jack waited for Bob to respond, but all he heard was a light buzz over the line. “Bob,” Jack said softly, “did you hear me?”
“Yeah, I heard,” Bob said, flatly. “Anything else?”
“No, that’s it. I’m sor–”
“I’ve got to tell Liz,” Bob said. There was a click, then a dial tone.
Jack forced away his fatigue. He stripped off the rest of his clothes, moving with renewed, anger-fed energy. He took a quick shower, shaved, brushed his teeth. After putting on clean clothes, he rushed downstairs and drove back to the American base.
When Jack walked back into Sweeney’s command post, the silence in the room told him there’d been no news of Michael.
Sweeney’s face was a steel mask. “Nothing! Not a damn thing,” he told Jack.
“Anyone question Radko?”
“Yeah. The sonofabitch admitted his complicity and seemed proud of it. He told us he at first thought they were just a bunch of farmers, but he figured, after a while, they were Serb soldiers. The bastards killed his son, and he still hasn’t given the slightest indication he’s sorry about what he did.”
The phone rang. Jack noticed everyone in the room watching while Major Krumka, the Intelligence Officer, picked up the receiver, listened for a moment, then handed it to him. “It’s for you,” Krumka said. “NIMA’s got something.”
“Put it on speaker mode,” Jack said. That done, he said loudly, “Cole here. Go ahead.”
“Okay,” said the voice on the line. “We couldn’t see much with the SAR satellite until the sun came up. The last satellite pass went over the Preshevo area ten minutes ago. A couple miles north of the city, we saw a vehicle nose down in a ravine. Another of our satellites – an infrared unit – got a weak heat signature off its engine. With computer enhancement, we picked up U.S. Army insignia. It’s the Jeep your man was driving when he got snatched.”
“Any people around the site?”
“Nope! Not a soul.”
Jack walked around the room, organizing his thoughts.
“You still there, Mr. Cole?” the NIMA man asked.
“Hold on,” Jack shouted.
Sweeney looked quizzically at Jack. “What’s . . . ?”
Jack cut Colonel Sweeney off with a wave of his hand. He stepped closer to the speaker. “Your IR satellites can’t pick up anything in the dark unless it’s hot or lit up, right?”
“Correct! A fire, a running engine, even a man or a large animal.”
“So,” Jack continued, “you said the satellite picked up a heat signature off the Jeep. Which means its engine must have been running pretty recently.”
“Sounds right!”
“How ‘bout going back over every satellite pass and see when you picked up the first heat signature coming from that location. Could give us an idea how long ago they dumped the Jeep. And while you’re at it, check to see if any vehicles left the area shortly after the Jeep showed up.”
“I see where you’re going,” the NIMA man said. “You think maybe they dumped the Jeep and took off in another vehicle they stashed there.”
“And,” Jack continued the thought, “if we don’t find any evidence of other cars or trucks having left the site, it’s damn sure they set out on foot. Depending on when the Jeep showed up, we should be able to figure out how far they could’ve traveled – by vehicle, or by foot. How soon can you get back to us?”
“Thirty minutes.”
“We don’t have thirty minutes. Make it ten.”