Page 53 of The Devil's Ransom

Eventually he made it to King Tomislav Square, the entrance to the Glavni Kolod train station right in front of him, the underground mall known as Importanne Center across the street to his right. It was wide open here, with statues and fountains and cars coming and going in front of the station. He worried about exposing himself, but it would only be for a minute.

The mall was built underneath all the open space, as was the garage where he’d left his car. The shopping area had several access points, stairwells leading down like one was going into a subway, but instead of finding tracks like the train station next door, there were a plethora of shops.

Branko sat on a bench watching people come and go, building his nerve to leave the shadows. He glanced left and right, seeing nothing alarming, then jumped up, running across the street to the nearest stairwell access.

He took them two at a time and entered the mall, now on more solid footing, the crowds giving him comfort. He ran down an escalator to a lower level, and then went to the end, where thegarage was located. He opened the entrance door and watched for a moment, wondering if they’d staked out his vehicle, waiting on him to return. He saw nothing. Just blinkering overhead fluorescent lights and rows of cars.

He sprinted through the rows until he reached his vehicle, an old Kia SUV—the same one they’d used to transport the crate. He unlocked it, went to the glove box, and pulled out three old-school flip phones.

He locked the vehicle and raced back to the mall, taking a seat on a bench next to a wine store, the escalator to the upper level in view. He dialed one of the phones, praying Pushka wasn’t dead or captured.

Pushka answered on the second ring, warily asking, “Hello?”

Branko sighed and said, “Hey, it’s me. Where are you?”

“I’m hiding in a park! With a bullet hole in my leg! What the fuck, man. I’ve been shot.”

“How is the wound? Are you in trouble?”

Pushka backed off, saying, “No, it’s not that bad. The bullet grazed my leg, making a gouge, but that’s about it. It looks like someone went after my thigh with a garden trowel, but it’s not deep. I’ve already bandaged it up. I’ll live.”

“Good. Good. I need you to come to me, but make sure you aren’t followed. I’m at the Importanne Center. You know that wine store at the bottom level?”

“Yes, I know it, but what’s going on? What happened?”

Exasperated, Branko said, “I have no idea. Just listen to me.”

“Did this have something to do with that crate we took to the forest?”

“No! Damn it, shut up and listen.”

He heard nothing, and continued, “Come down to the winestore and go to my car. Walk by me to the garage, but don’t look at me. Just walk by and go to my car.”

“Why not just meet at your car?”

“Because I don’t know what’s going on! I want to see if someone’s following you. Looking for me.”

“You mean this is all about you? And you want me to come to you? What am I, bait? You’re fucking insane. I’ll take my own chances.”

“Listen to me, this is about Andrei. It’s not about me. You take your own chances and you’re dead. I don’t know what’s going on, but we need to get out of here. Together. I need to call Andrei and we need to get to Split.”

He heard nothing but breathing, and then, “I’m on the way.”

Branko waited for thirty minutes, then his phone buzzed with a message:At the entrance. Coming down.

He typed back,I’ll be watching. If I call your phone, don’t answer, just get out.

He saw Pushka come down the escalator and disappear down the hallway for the parking garage. Nobody followed him. He stood and raced to catch up. Two minutes later they were driving his car out of the city, headed to Split, with Pushka bitching the entire time.

Finally leaving the suburbs, reaching Highway A1 headed south to Split, he turned to Pushka and said, “Shut the fuck up, man. I don’t have the answers you want. Let’s get to the safehouse and figure it out.”

Pushka looked like a whipped dog, settling into the seat and saying, “It’s just not how we operate. Nobody comes to us with guns. I always worried about getting put on some U.S. sanctions list or having an arrest warrant, but never someone shooting me. This is getting to be too much.”

Branko saw the team breaking up. Saw his primary penetration man scared to continue. Right when they had their biggest score on the horizon. He pulled over to the side of the road and said, “Look, man, you drive. Let me call Andrei. Let me sort this out.”

Pushka stared out the window for a moment, then nodded. They switched seats and began going down the road again.

Branko said, “Here goes nothing.” He dialed the burner phone and got Nikita, saying, “I need to talk to Andrei.”

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