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Korso immediately ducked his head down and swept his arm up, forcing the barrel upward just as it went off. The blast was thunderous. Korso swivelled his body round, at the same time aiming a sweeping roundhouse punch at where Jonas’s head should be. His fist connected with flesh and bone, and Jonas yelled out in surprise as something clattered to the ground nearby. The other shotgun. Somewhere to Korso’s left.
Korso ducked down to where it landed, and swept a hand across the hard clay earth in a wide radius. His fingers touched metal just as Jonas kicked him hard in the stomach.
‘Bastard,’ Jonas said.
Korso clenched his abdominal muscles to in an effort to compartmentalise the pain, somehow keeping his fingers in contact with the shotgun barrel. Ignoring the agony in his torso, he managed to get a half-decent grip on the barrel just as another kick came his way. Grabbing the firearm, he scrambled his body back along the ground as Jonas’s foot swept past his face.
He rotated the gun until his right palm was on the grip, his index finger in the trigger guard. Jonas was already moving in for another kick when he suddenly saw the shotgun aimed at his chest. His eyes widened.
‘Wait—’
Korso squeezed the trigger. The gun boomed. Jonas fell back against the hull of the plane. His legs crumpled underneath him, and he slid down until he was half resting against the body of the plane. There was a ragged wound in his lower neck, and blood was already staining the pale hull of the jet. Korso also noticed Jonas’s shirt was heavily stained with blood just above the left hip. Which explained the scream of pain he’d heard earlier.
Korso was about to get up when he heard sounds of footsteps to his left, from the direction of the turboprop. He swivelled round, shotgun first. The smoke was thin enough now for him to make out an indistinct human figure moving through the haze.
With his finger on the trigger, he called out, ‘George.’
‘Romero,’ came the reply.
He smiled faintly to himself as he took his finger away from the trigger. Natasha appeared out of the smoke a second later, now gripping a semi-automatic in her right hand. Which told its own story. She appeared unharmed.
Using the shotgun for support, Korso lowered his head and was just rising to his feet when something hard slammed into the back of his skull and everything turned black.
Fifty-Two
Korso opened his eyes and saw blue sky above him. Still daylight. He’d only been out for several minutes. He hoped. Not that he had anybody to blame but himself. Natasha had given him fair warning. He should have listened.
Using one hand for support, he slowly got to his feet, still feeling woozy from the blow. Once up, he felt the back of his neck and flinched at the soreness there.
The smoke had completely dissipated. The sun was still making its way into the horizon. Korso figured another fifteen or twenty minutes before it disappeared entirely.
He heard coughing sounds to his right. He turned and saw Jonas in the same position as before, his upper half resting against the hull of the plane, legs splayed out before him.
Jonas was looking at him with half-closed eyes, his breathing faint and laboured. The neck wound was still bleeding profusely, and it was clear he didn’t have long left. The ground under him was dark with his blood. Both shotguns were also gone, which came as no surprise.
‘You… got… lucky.’ Jonas’s voice was barely audible.
‘We make our own luck.’
‘Who…’ He stopped as he coughed up blood. He tried again. ‘Who… you?’
‘Nobody.’ The man’s eyelids were getting heavier with each passing second. ‘You should have played straight, Jonas. Especially with someone like her.’
‘Drop… dead… asshole.’
Jonas grinned at him with red teeth. The grin turned into a grimace, and he coughed up about a quart of blood. Then his head fell backward and he exhaled his last breath, staring blankly up at the sky.
Korso crouched by the now lifeless body and patted it down from head to foot. Just to be sure. Nothing. Even the bandolier was missing. Natasha didn’t take any chances, but then he already knew that about her. He was about to rise, when he stopped and turned the body over. He patted the man’s back pockets, and felt a long thin object in one. He reached in and pulled it out.
* * *
It took less than a minute to reach the three aircraft carcasses. As he passed the corpse of Alvaro, lying near the ATP, he heard noises coming from the cargo area fifteen feet away. Then Natasha emerged, a caviar tin under her shoulder and the sat phone in her left hand. In her right was Jonas’s gun.
Spying him, she raised the gun. ‘Do not come any closer.’
‘Tell me, was the crack on the head really necessary?’
‘Like I said before, I always prepare for the worst.’ She placed the caviar tin on the floor of the cargo hold, but held onto the phone. ‘You should know that better than anyone.’
‘What’s the time now?’
She glanced at the phone’s display. Showed it to him. 17:49.
‘Cutting it close,’ he said. ‘And that’s the special tin you wanted?’
‘It is.’
‘So what next for me? A bullet to the brain, I suppose?’
‘I have not decided yet. Although you don’t seem too surprised at the likelihood.’
‘I’m not. With Sardoca, there’s always a sting in the tail. Now that I’ve outlived my usefulness, he can’t afford to let me live one second longer. And who better to act as my executioner than you?’
‘Everybody dies, Korso. It’s just a matter of timing.’ She paused. ‘But I still have one or two unanswered questions. Such as what were those other red flags that gave me away?’
‘There was only one more really. But it was a fairly big one.’
‘Please enlighten me then.’
‘Well, we both know that Nikolic likes to divide up assignments, passing out information on a need-to-know basis, so that there’s never any one person who knows the whole plan besides him. But in this case, you and Sardoca had to know most of those details since you were the ones tasked with supervising the transport of this precious cargo of his.’
‘Obviously. So?’
‘So we agreed that this whole heist had to be an inside job. That it could only have worked with the help of a leak from within Nikolic’s organisation. And since only you and Sardoca knew enough about the mission to cause any trouble, it seemed logical that one of you was that leak, possibly even the one who masterminded the whole setup in the first place. Once I discounted Sardoca, that left just you.’
She was silent for a moment. ‘Why would you discount Sardoca?’
‘Because I know him, and if he had been the one behind it there’s absolutely no way he would have trusted anyone else to chaperone me on this assignment. Not even you. Also, since he was ostensibly in charge of this operation, it makes no sense that he’d sabotage it for financial motives, knowing that Nikolic would hold him personally responsible if things went wrong. Sardoca’s seen Nikolic at his very worst, as have I. And you don’t want that kind of rage aimed at you if you can help it.’ He arched an eyebrow. ‘Do you?’
Natasha looked at him for a few moments without speaking. Then, still holding the gun on him, she raised the sat phone in her other hand and pressed two buttons. They both listened to the ringing tone.
Thirty seconds later there was a click, and a man’s voice said, ‘Go.’
‘Seven two nine nine,’ she said. ‘I have the item.’
There was a brief pause, then Sardoca said, ‘Natasha, you wonderful creature, you’ve just made my week. Shit, my whole year. And by the skin of your teeth too. That serial number on the bottom of the tin. Read it out to me, will you?’
She turned the tin over and carefully recited fourteen numbers.
‘That’s it all right,’ Sardoca said. He sounded happier than Korso had ever heard him. ‘Jesus, that’s a weight off my shoulders. You don’t know how much. Look, I have to get in touch with the boss to let him know, but we’ll go over the details once you get back, okay? And good job, Natasha. Damn good job.’ There was a pause on the line. ‘And that final thing I asked you to do, back in Bermuda? Is it done yet?’
She was watching Korso. ‘Not yet.’
A sigh. ‘Is he nearby?’
‘No, he is otherwise engaged at the moment. But it’s just the two of us.’
‘Good. Then I suggest you carry out the last part of your assignment the moment you get off this line, before he starts getting suspicious.’
‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I’ll take care of everything.’
Still watching Korso, she ended the call and pocketed the phone. She was still aiming the gun at him.
‘One thing about Sardoca,’ Korso said, ‘he never lets you down.’
Natasha looked at him, and said nothing.
‘If he only knew what he’s up against. He really doesn’t have any idea, does he?’
‘About what?’
‘About you, Natasha. And about your unique relationship with Nikolic, and how totally outclassed he is in comparison. He may currently enjoy the privilege of being one of the man’s few trusted lieutenants, but that’s nothing when compared to blood, is it? And blood’s always thicker than water.’
‘How long have you known?’
‘Since that initial plane journey to Tijuana. Watching your profile reminded me a little of Nikolic. More than a little, actually. Especially the nose and cheekbones. Then you kept doing that thing with your earlobe, which only reinforced the effect. Sardoca, of all people, planted the idea in my head back in Bermuda, when he claimed Nikolic treated me like the son he never had. Totally untrue, of course, but it got me thinking along those lines. Also, I remember asking you whether “partner” was the correct term for Sardoca, and you said it was “close enough for now”. It was fairly obvious even then that you considered him your junior, even though he believed the reverse.’ He paused. ‘I take it you were illegitimate?’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘I worked for Nikolic for two years, and got to know him as well as any man can, so I was aware he never married or had children. Or at least had any that he knew about. Hostages to fortune, he called them. And in his case, he meant it literally. I guess you slipped through the net somehow, although I’m not sure how. No offence to your mother, but I find it hard to picture Nikolic having a relationship with a mere waitress. If that’s really what she was.’
‘If you must know,’ Natasha said with a shrug, ‘my birth mother was a call girl. Or hooker, if you prefer. I barely knew the woman, and she barely knew me. Her elder sister was the waitress I mentioned, and it was she who raised me. Can you picture it now?’
He nodded. ‘That fits in more with the man I remember. So how did you find out he was your biological father?’
‘He told me three years ago, as well as presenting me with the DNA evidence. As you know, he is thorough in all things. Sardoca was the one who initially recruited me into his organisation three years before that, but only because Nikolic subtly pointed him in my direction in the first place. That’s his way, as you know. He never goes the direct route.’
Korso knew. Everything fitted together now, like the pieces in a jigsaw. ‘And the moment he found out about you, he began secretly grooming you for higher things, right? Such as partnering you up with Sardoca, so you could experience first hand how the business was run at ground level. That’s also Nikolic’s way. When he finds promising talent, he often throws them in the deep end and watches them sink or swim.’
‘Is that how it was with you, Korso?’
‘Maybe.’
They looked at each other.
After a long pause, Natasha said, ‘I’m still waiting for the question you really want to ask me. Or one of them, at least.’
Korso smiled. ‘You mean why? It all seems fairly obvious to me. Since you’ve inherited your father’s genes, you’ve undoubtedly inherited his legendary impatience too. And while you steadily advance your progress up that metaphorical ladder to sit at his side, it’s still not happening fast enough for you. So you decided you’d speed things along a little. Hence, your behind-the-scenes plotting of the cargo heist. And with this mysterious asset of Nikolic’s as part of the equation, it must have been too good an opportunity to pass up.’
He paused. She motioned with the gun. ‘Go on.’
‘I’m just trying to figure out how the pilot, Azevedo, initially got wind of the cargo’s worth and then got the idea to reconnect with his sister’s ex-boyfriend, Kujan, to help organise its removal.’ He furrowed his brow for a moment, then smiled as it came to him all of a sudden.
‘Something funny?’ she asked.
‘The apple didn’t fall far from the tree, did it?’
‘Meaning?’
‘Meaning you introduced the idea to Azevedo yourself. That’s the only way it could have happened. At some point, you must have mentioned the upcoming shipment to him and hinted at the crates’ contents, along with the cargo’s true value. All very subtly, of course. You probably also inserted Kujan’s name into the conversation somehow, so as to jar Azevedo’s memory a little and nudge him along in the direction you wanted him to follow. Then once they were on board, you threw Jonas into the mix to recruit the rest of the crew and keep everyone in line. Jonas called you a manipulative bitch, but he had no idea how calculating you can be, did he? But then, you’ve learned from a master.’
She smiled at him. ‘Sometimes it takes a great teacher to discover where a person’s true talents lie. I must admit, Korso, I was impressed not only when you spotted the connection between Azevedo’s sister and Kujan so early on, but that you were even aware of Kujan’s existence in the first place.’
‘I’m just full of surprises. Had I missed that particular lead, though, I’m sure you’d have pointed me in the right direction again.’
‘Except with you, I never needed to. You have proved yourself adept at noticing things others miss.’
‘Thanks, I guess. What about Papsidera and Adamson? Did you know about them?’
She shook her head. ‘Only in the most general terms. Jonas didn’t give me their real names. Or rather, the names he did give me turned out to be false. After you and I found Kujan’s body in Tijuana, everything else from that moment onward was news to me. But you have still not explained how stealing a shipment from Nikolic could benefit me.’
‘That’s the easy part. This whole setup was a win–win. Had Jonas kept his end of the deal, you could have miraculously discovered the whereabouts of the missing shipment yourself, eliminating all those involved in the process, and then personally delivered it to Nikolic, thus demonstrating your clear and obvious superiority over Sardoca. After all, that was the main purpose of all this, wasn’t it? To make Sardoca look bad in Nikolic’s eyes, and so accelerate your own upward trajectory.’
That smile was back. ‘But Jonas did not keep his end of the deal.’
‘Which actually made little difference to you. Whether Jonas double-crossed you or not, Nikolic still held Sardoca responsible for the missing shipment, coming down hard on him and demanding a quick resolution to the problem. So after getting nowhere, Sardoca decided to bring me in as a final solution, bringing you along to watch over me. Probably at your suggestion, am I right?’
She gave a brief nod of her head.
‘And so, three days later, here we are. Obviously, recovering the shipment works out better for you, but not finding it would have produced the same result, albeit a less satisfying one. Sardoca’s failure would ensure he was no longer part of Nikolic’s inner circle, and while no real blame would be left at your feet, you wouldn’t have actually progressed any further. But it all worked out to your advantage. You found the shipment and the main prize. And I’ve no doubt you’ll make it perfectly clear just who deserves the credit when you report back to Nikolic.’
‘He won’t take a great deal of persuading,’ Natasha said. ‘Thanks to my influence, Nikolic already suspects Sardoca is past his best. This episode will merely confirm it. His days are numbered, and I will move ever closer to my end goal.’
‘The summit itself,’ Korso said. ‘But there’s only space for one at the very top.’
She shrugged. ‘Nikolic is a lot older than you might think, Korso. He just keeps himself in very good shape. However, it’s my estimate that he has two, maybe three, years left.’
‘Just long enough for you to bleed him dry of everything you need in order to successfully run his organisation all by yourself. It also helps that most people aren’t even aware that Nikolic exists in the first place. Other than a few close lieutenants, nobody will actually know he’s gone, and you can easily take care of them. His name and his rep are all that matter, and they’ll do most of the work for you.’
Natasha’s smile gave him all the confirmation he needed.
‘My heart bleeds for the guy. It really does.’ And for Sardoca too. Clearly, neither man was long for this world, which was fine with Korso. He glanced at the caviar tin at her feet, and said, ‘You’ve known what the Tiger’s Tears was from the very start.’
She nodded.
‘So are you going to let me in on the secret?’
‘Let’s just say one of your guesses was not a million miles away from the truth.’
‘Really? Which one?’
She shook her head slowly. ‘This is Nikolic’s property. In a short time it will be mine. And the fewer who know its true contents, the better for me in the long run.’
‘So you’re not going to carry out the final part of your assignment? Sardoca won’t be pleased if he finds out.’
She lowered the gun. ‘Since you’re unlikely to reveal to either man my involvement in all this, or my future plans, you present little danger to me now. You may live.’
‘Thank you,’ Korso said, allowing the small switchblade concealed in his shirt sleeve to fall into his hand. He swung his arm forward and hurled the knife, blade first, into the ground, three feet in front of Natasha. ‘I guess I won’t be needing that anymore.’
