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This is all you get. Leave me alone.
More discussion, then Drummond got physical with Tomas and she knew it was all over.
All it would take was a minute press of her thumb, a hint of pressure, and this would all be over.
No more Drummond. She recognized she was full of righteous anger, a feeling she remembered well from when she was younger and less disciplined. She’d acted on emotion only once. This couldn’t be about rage. This was about survival.
She’d wanted it to be Lanighan to open the second box, to blow himself off the face of the earth, because it would mean he’d betrayed her.
She held the detonator in her hand and watched. No, she wouldn’t have to blow up the box, Drummond was going to open it and do the job himself.
She heard Mulvaney telling her once, twice, perhaps with the pla
She gritted her teeth at the thought of her mentor, pushed him from her mind. She needed to be clear for this. There would be time enough later to find what happened to Mulvaney.
She watched Drummond stiffen, and she knew he’d realized the bomb was there. She watched Caine drag Tomas from the building, and run across the street. And she watched Drummond slowly lower the lid, then slowly step away from the box. His life was in her hands.
She hadn’t wanted it to end like this. She swallowed, breathed deeply, forced herself to calm.
Do it.
You have to survive. There is too much at stake.
Do it do it do it!
The front door opened and Drummond was outside—Do it now.
Her thumb twitched, and it was over.
68
The car shook with the force of the explosion, but Kitsune put it in gear and drove away, counting on debris from the explosion and the bursting flames to cover her escape.
Two blocks from the explosion, on a quiet, unmarked street, she found a small gray Fiat, still ru
She abandoned the rental in the small driveway of a town house, threw her things to the Fiat, and was gone all in under a minute.
She forced herself to calm, to think, to figure out what she was going to do now. The sky was already darkening. She would be all right. She had two more clean identities in her bag, both prepared for her by Mulvaney, and there was no one better than him. Where was he? No, she couldn’t think about him just yet, too much to do.
She started west immediately. The border was only a few kilometers out of town, and she wanted to make it through before they’d been alerted about her.
Since all available perso
Lanighan had betrayed her, just as Mulvaney had warned he might. She hadn’t seen it coming, though. She thought back to the night in Paris with him two years before; she’d weighed, judged, and decided his desire for the Koh-i-Noor would keep him on the straight and narrow. He was a businessman. He knew how things worked. So what had changed? Why did he now consider her the enemy? Why had he believed she was betraying him?
A thief who would hand over the goods in person was a fool, hardly professional. He knew this. Give him the key, make sure her money was transferred, and everyone was happy. It should have worked seamlessly. Instead it was all unraveling.
Those precautions she’d set into place were going to save her now, not only from Lanighan but from the authorities, too.
She bit her lip hard enough to taste blood. It would have to suffice for the moment, until she could feel Lanighan’s blood on her hands.
She changed quickly, pulling on a new wig and pulling out the appropriate ID from the base of her backpack. She called Marie-Louise Helmut at the Bank Horim.
“Did you secure the package in the safe-deposit box?”
“Yes, madam. A fortuitous happenstance, there was an explosion nearby. Even the FedPol agent went to deal with the emergency. You will not be coming back to the bank, I presume?”
“No. Send the contents to the Café Popon, on Rue Henri-Fazy.”
“I know it.”
“I will be there in ten minutes. Have your person waiting in the women’s loo.”
“Ten minutes.” Helmut rang off, and Kitsune felt her control slide back into place. Ten minutes and she’d have the diamond back in her hands. She pulled the Fiat into the light traffic, checked the mirror to see if anyone was following.
She made it to the Café Popon in five minutes, walked to the counter, bought a croissant and a coffee. The television set above the cash register had an alert on the screen, the local station ru
She listened to the rapid-pace French. Three injured, none dead. So Drummond hadn’t died in the blast. He was in the hospital, then, and that would slow him down, surely long enough for her to get herself, and the diamond, away from Geneva.
A young woman entered the coffee shop, walked directly past Kitsune toward the back. Kitsune followed her to the bathroom.
It was an expert handoff, the diamond was now heavy in her pocket, and Kitsune was gone. As she climbed back in the car, she thought maybe she needed some help with things after all. At the very least, it should surprise the hell out of him.
69
Geneva, Switzerland
Hotel Beau-Rivage
Friday, early evening
Lanighan raced back to the balcony at the sound of the explosion. It shook the railing and rattled the windows. He saw the ball of fire plume into the air, then smoke, black and thick, well up, blacking out the sky.
Where was Kitsune? Was she responsible for this?
Thirty minutes later his cell rang.
She said only, “I need your help.”
A moment of surprise, then he said, “And I need my diamond.”
“I have it, but I can’t get back across the bridge to your hotel because of the fire. The police from America and Britain are after me—how, I don’t know, but they’re here.”
“I assume you set the bomb. You were so careless they didn’t die?”
“I tried, but they managed to escape the blast. One of them is injured. I don’t know how badly, but I don’t want to take any chances. I’m sure both of them will be at the hospital, at least tonight. When they leave, don’t kill them, just get them off my back for a while.”
“And my diamond?”
“You will get your diamond when you meet me in Paris. You know the time and place.”
His suspicion and distrust sounded loud in the silence. “Very well, I will handle things. I will see you in Paris.”
There was a click and his cell went dead.
Saleem slipped his cell into his pocket, packed his bag, and left the suite. He took the stairs to the basement, checked his BMW—who knew if this was a trick and she’d planted a bomb on his car? He saw no bomb. He was out of the garage and onto the Quai du Mont-Blanc less than two minutes after she called. Better to cross the border now before the police started cracking down.
He made a call as he weaved his way out of downtown Geneva and pointed the car west. The phone was answered on the third ring. He explained his needs and hung up, fully satisfied his demands would be met. He’d get the agents off her back forever. Then he would get his diamond and deal with her.