The Sinai Secret (9 page)

Without moving his head, Lang surveyed his situation. A man armed with an automatic weapon on either side of the car, the driver at the door to his left. No way to un- holster the SIG Sauer, let alone use it before those two weapons filled the passenger compartment with lead. He stretched slightly to see over the back of the front seat. The driver had taken the keys out of the ignition. Even if he could somehow get into the driver's seat, he'd be no better off.

No way... unless...

He smiled and shrugged, speaking up to be heard through the window. "Not much I can do. You've got the door locked, remember?"

The driver reached into his pocket, and there was an electronic squawk as the lock popped open.

Lang lunged for the door, grabbed the handle, and pulled.

Perplexed, the driver gave into his natural reflex to pull the opposite way. The door opened a crack and closed, a tug-of-war of sheet metal.

Just as the other leaned backward to pull, Lang slammed his full weight forward, throwing the door open and smacking the driver squarely. He stumbled back as Lang lunged out of the car and on top of him. Grabbing the man by the collar with one hand, he pressed the SIG Sauer against his head with the other.

The two men with machine guns raised their weapons uncertainly.

"One of you so much as wiggles his ears and he dies!"

Neither seemed willing to take that responsibility.

Still pressing the automatic against the man's head, Lang released his grip on the collar to search the man's pants pockets. Gratified when his fingers closed around the car's key, he pulled it loose.

Keeping his hostage in tow, Lang used him as a shield against one gunman and kept the Mercedes between him and the other as he backed slowly toward the car. He reached the hand that didn't have the gun in it behind him and opened the driver's door.

He was bending to slide into the seat when a yell came from the house. He didn't understand the words but the intent was clear.

There was a short, staccato burst of gunfire. Lang felt a tug at the sleeve of his jacket, and the driver pitched forward with a grunt.

Had the driver not been there to block the bullets, it would have been Lang lying on the ground.

So much for intending no harm.

The nearest man with the H and K was lowering his weapon for another burst. Lang fired two quick shots, more to distract than to kill, and leaped into the car, slamming the door behind him.

He jammed the key into the ignition and turned, ducking a shower of glass pebbles that an instant before had been the driver's window. He jammed the shift lever into drive and floored the accelerator.

The big car fishtailed, caught traction, and lunged ahead as the rear window went opaque in a spiderweb of safety glass.

As soon as Lang reached the four-lane highway, he checked the rearview mirror. He was not surprised to see a black car approaching fast. In seconds he could recognize it as a Land Rover, smaller than the custom job he was driving and, quite likely, faster.

Any doubt as to relative speeds evaporated as he floored the gas pedal and still the pursuing car gained on him.

If his vehicle was speed-handicapped by its size and weight, perhaps he could use those features to his advantage. Lang lifted his foot slightly.

As anticipated, the Land Rover pulled into the left lane, its occupants no doubt intending to spray him with gunfire as they drew even.

Lang looked back at the road, aware that he was going to get exactly one chance.

At least, in this lifetime.

The Land Rover behind had closed to slightly more than a single car length. Lang cut in front, the move of a man desperately trying to avoid what was inevitable.

He passed a Peugeot, pulling slightly ahead and blocking the Land Rover behind him. Driving in the left lane was illegal on European superhighways, a rule more uniformly enforced than speed limits. It was also frequently fatal.

He could see the Peugeot's perplexed driver in the mirror. Either the man was unwilling to share the road with a maniac or he had reached his destination. He took the next exit, leaving Lang alone with his pursuers.

Before Lang could return to the right lane, the car behind him pulled into the empty slot. The men in it preferred to force Lang to fire his weapon across the seat, if, in fact, he had a chance to fire at all before they did.

Lang backed off the accelerator, letting the Land Rover draw almost even before touching the brake. Before the driver of the Land Rover realized what had happened, it had shot past.

Lang sped up as the Land Rover slowed, trying to recover the best position for a shot.

As in the police chases on any American city's local news at six o'clock, Lang nudged the left rear of the Land Rover with the Mercedes's front right bumper.

The high center of gravity of the sport-utility vehicle combined with the wet surface and the German car's weight to break the adhesion between the tires of the Land Rover and the road. The British car began a slow but uncontrollable counterclockwise spin down the highway.

Lang tapped his brakes and watched the other car smash into the steel Armco barrier dividing the road.

He passed just as two dazed men were fighting ballooned air bags to climb out. He gave a cheery honk of the horn, noted the license plate, and headed back to Brussels.

TWELVE

Rue des Bouchers

Brussels, Belgium

Two Hours Later

Lang had returned the scarred Mercedes to the foundation's garage. The attendant gaped at what were obvious bullet holes. The man was staring openmouthed, too fascinated to notice as Lang dropped the keys into his hand.

"In America," Lang said, "we call it road rage."

From there he walked to the offices on the flamboyant Grand Place, the geographic, historical, and commercial center of the city. Surrounded by elaborate seventeenth- century architecture, it housed statues of saints and busts of a ducal line peering from their lofty niches high above the bustling cobblestone square. The Hotel de Ville, city hall, with its fourteenth-century spire, competed for attention with the former palace of Belgium's Spanish monarchs.

Lang entered Le Pigeon, former residence of Victor Hugo during his exile from France. The grand old building had been converted into commercial space long ago.

Louis deVille dropped the telephone when Lang walked into his office. "Monsieur Reilly!"

He came around the desk to clasp Lang with both hands. He was about to kiss him on each cheek when he recalled Lang's opinion of the traditional French greeting.

Instead he dropped his arms and gloved Lang's right hand in both of his own. "The police were on the phone. Someone hijacked the car and the driver called them. Since your flight crew reported you had gotten in it at the airport..."

Lang extracted his hand as politely as possible. "I took a tour of the countryside. I'm fine. The Mercedes needs to go to the body and glass shops, though."

Louis took a step back. "Who ...?"

"Good question. I have a license plate number."

Louis looked at a jeweled watch, the sort Of thing few American men would wear to any event other than a pimp's convention. "It is near lunch. Have you eaten?"

Without waiting for a reply, Louis punched the intercom on his desk and rattled off a command in French.

"I have asked that the police inspector with whom I was speaking join us. He can ask his questions over a bowl of
moules
as well as here, no?"

Outside, blue was breaking through the dove gray skies. The drizzle had stopped altogether.

The two men crossed the square and walked along one of the Lower Town's main thoroughfares, Boulevard Anspach. Lang loitered, checking behind him by use of reflections in shop windows. Unlike in most U.S. cities, lunch was not a hurried affair here. It normally consisted of an hour and a half of throngs seeking good food and pleasant company. Consequently, spotting a tail in the crowd was difficult if not impossible.

A few blocks south, Louis stopped in front of the Eglise St-Nicolas, where a Gothic-style church marked the site of a twelfth-century marketplace. They turned left and strolled through the Galeries St-Hubert, a nineteenth- century glass-domed arcade, the location of familiar names such as Hermes and Chanel. Here it would be a lit- tle easier to discern a follower. Men hurried through; women idled in front of shop windows.

There was still no evidence that they were under surveillance.

An ornately decorated exit let out onto the Rue des Bouchers, in English the Street of the Butchers. The narrow alley was lined on both sides with restaurant after restaurant, each with an awning out front for al fresco dining and each featuring
moules,
mussels, boiled with onion, steamed with wine or beer, in sauce or butter. They were being served in the shell, in stews or cold, with horseradish, ketchup, or béarnaise sauce. Shiny, black-winged shellfish that could be prepared more ways than potatoes.

And Lang knew from experience they were all delicious.

Louis slid behind a small table around which four fragile chairs shouldered one another for room. He motioned Lang in beside him. The waiter had just delivered the menus when a thin man in a loosely cut suit approached.

"Mr. Reilly?" He extended a hand. The nails were bitten to the quick.

Lang stood, a question on his face as he shook.

"I am Inspector Henré Vorstaat." He showed a badge and sat before an invitation could be extended. "I was speaking with M. deVille about the theft of your car."

The man's face seemed too narrow to accommodate the mouth, his expression doleful. Lang guessed the tiny folds around his eyes came more from frowning than laughing.

Hercule Poirot he wasn't.

His English had the hard edge of Flemish. "I also understand Mr. Benjamin Yadish was employed by you. Having your foundation's car forcibly taken and a murder in the same week looks like a crime wave, no?"

"More like a tsunami."

"Oh?"

The waiter was hovering. Both the other men ordered without looking at the menu.

"I'll have the same," Lang said.

He waited until the waiter had retreated before continuing. "We also had an employee killed in the States, apparently the same night as Yadish. One was a physicist, the other a physiochemist."

The policeman was staring at him with eyes that Lang suddenly realized were colorless. The discovery was somehow disconcerting. Lang had the impression the inspector had used those eyes to intimidate more than one suspect.

"Do you believe the two murders are related?"

"After what happened this morning, yes."

"Tell me."

Lang did, omitting only any mention of his possession of a firearm.

As Lang completed his story, the waiter set a copper tureen and an empty plate in front of each, along with crisp brown
frites,
french fries, standing on end in tall ramekins to conserve their warmth. Lang was uncertain what was in the pale red sauce in which the mussels still simmered, but if it tasted as good as it smelled, he would be happy.

As in France, all conversation not related to food ceased once the meal was served. As each man filled the platter before him with empty shells, Vorstaat and Louis compared these mussels to others they had had here and elsewhere. Was the sauce stronger than before or weaker? Had the chef left out one of the customary herbs? Were Antwerp's mussels any fresher than those delivered daily to Brussels?

Murder took a backseat to gastronomy.

The inspector drained the last of his glass of Duvel and regarded the mound of empty shells before him with

what could have been regret. He resumed the previous conversation as though there had been no interruption.

"Do you have the license plate of this Land Rover?"

Lang recited it from memory. Vorstaat had him repeat it as he wrote it into a small notebook.

The inspector leaned back in his chair, fumbled in a coat pocket, and produced a blue box of French cigarettes, Gitanes. Without offering his companions one, he lit up with a wooden match before dumping the match into the bowl formerly full of mussels, where it sizzled.

The Belgians, or at least those of Brussels, also shared with the French a total contempt for inconvenient authority. From where he sat Lang could see at least two
no smoking, non fumer, nicht rauchen
signs, complete with a line drawn through a picture of a cigarette. He could also see half a dozen other smokers.

"You said you believed the murder of your employee and the attempt to kidnap you were related?"

"Yadish and Lewis were working on the same thing, an alternative to fossil fuels."

Vorstaat's nostrils exhaled blue smoke. "We might assume that the killer—or rather, killers—are opposed to the project?"

"Really
opposed."