Page 37 of The Devil's Ransom

Karim did as he was asked, and they huffed back into thehouse, laying him on the floor next to the dead man, Ahmad slowly rolling back and forth. Shakor leaned back, panting, and said, “Is the house clear?”

Ghulam appeared from the second floor and said, “Upstairs is clear.”

Din said, “Nothing downstairs.”

Shakor nodded and said, “Close the front door. Put a man outside to see if the neighbors heard anything. Get the side door unlocked and get everyone ready to run. We have probably five minutes to know if we’ve been compromised. If we have, we starburst and meet back at the hotel. If you’re caught, you’re on your own.”

The men did as they were told and Shakor turned to Ahmad, lightly tapping his face until he focused. Ahmad saw him and tried to backpedal. Shakor grabbed his injured leg, bringing another scream. Shakor slapped his face, saying, “Shut up and take it like a man.”

Ahmad lay down, panting. He said, “Just kill me. Do it. Get it over with.”

Shakor said, “Believe it or not, I’m not here to kill you. I don’t care about you. I care about what you did with the treasure.”

Ahmad looked at him with wild eyes and said, “Treasure?”

Shakor put his hand on Ahmad’s knee, drawing a wince, and said, “I don’t have time for games. Where is the treasure?”

And Ahmad told him everything. The escape, Jahn, the Russian, Liechtenstein, the helicopter trip, everything.

Inwardly, Shakor believed he was telling the truth, and also that they’d lost the treasure yet again. He pulled out his phone, went to the picture that Abdul had sent, and held it up, saying, “Is this the box the treasure was in?”

Ahmad looked at it, and Shakor didn’t even need to hear the answer to know what was coming. “Yes. Yes, that’s it.”

Shakor heard Ghulam return and said, “Are we good?”

“So far. No new lights, nobody on the street, nothing.”

Shakor returned to Ahmad and said, “Where is it going? Where are they flying it to?”

Confused, Ahmad said, “Flying it? It’s in Liechtenstein. It’s already flown, and I told you where it is. I can’t give you any more information, which means you don’t need me anymore, right?”

Shakor said, “Right,” and put his forearm into Ahmad’s throat.

Ahmad thrashed, fighting, but Shakor used the blade of his forearm to cut off his air. Ahmad choked out, “There was a man. A man.”

Shakor relaxed his arm and said, “What man?”

Ahmad coughed and rolled over, saying, “There was a man from Croatia with me when I met the Russian. Maybe he has it.”

Shakor could see he was grasping for anything to save his life, but it was worth exploring. They had nothing else. “What man?”

“I don’t know. Some guy like twenty-five. Does computer work for the Russian. He was leaving after me. If the treasure is gone, maybe it went with him.”

“Why would the Russian give the treasure to some twenty-five-year-old?”

“I don’t know. I’m just telling you what I saw. I’m trying to help.”

“What was his name? Who is he?”

“He said his name is Branko. He lives in Zagreb. I don’t know who he is. I only know he was meeting the Russian.” Ahmad fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper, saying, “This is his email. He told me to contact him if I ever made it to Croatia.”

Shakor assumed that Ahmad was simply spinning a story to delay the inevitable, but the slip of paper was just enough to prove what Ahmad was saying was true. He looked at it, seeing a Gmail address for “Branko_420.” He said, “Why would this man have the treasure?”

“I don’t know that he does. If you say it flew away, he was the only other man there who was leaving.”

Shakor flipped through the pictures sent from Abdul and showed him the first man who’d entered the aircraft. “Is this him?”

Ahmad looked and said, “No. That’s the Russian’s bodyguard. Nikita.”

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