The Malta Escape by Chris Kuzneski

Author:Chris Kuzneski [Kuzneski, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chris Kuzneski, Inc.
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

From his office at Interpol headquarters, Nick Dial growled into his cell phone. “Ivan Volkov? You’re fucking around with Ivan Volkov? Do you have a death wish?”

“Not really,” Payne said from the outdoor table on the stern of the moving yacht. Spread out in front of him were several takeout containers, filled with an assortment of food: a cheeseburger with fries, pasta salad, fruit salad, and a stack of pancakes. As Jarkko piloted the craft into deeper water and away from other boats, Payne grabbed some fries and dipped them in ketchup. “But you know damn well I’m not going to back down from a challenge.”

“A challenge?” Dial blurted as he stood from behind his desk. “You call going up against one of the most powerful criminals in Russia a challenge?”

“Yep,” he said as he chewed quietly. “Why? What would you call it?”

“A death wish!”

Dial took a deep breath as he stomped across his floor to his office door and shut it for privacy. He had spent half the night trying to come up with information about the Russian attack in Malta, only to have news about its mastermind handed to him by Payne.

Not that he was upset about the call itself.

The truth was he was thrilled that Payne had kept his word and had phoned the minute he had come up with news about the gunmen. Dial’s frustration stemmed from the slow trickle of data that had come from I-24/7, which was the global police communications system that Interpol used to connect law enforcement officers in all of its member countries. Unfortunately, the system was completely reliant on the National Central Bureaus and police departments around the globe. Until information was added to the appropriate databases, Dial couldn’t access it on the network. And since the secretary general had banned Dial from investigative work, all he could do was sit on his ass in France while his friends’ lives were in danger in Malta.

For a man like Dial, that was hard to handle.

“Listen, Jon, and listen good. Even though Russia is one of Interpol’s member countries, I cannot help you or DJ if you go to Moscow to take on Volkov. My fancy title doesn’t mean shit to the Politsiya. Their entire police force operates under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, and they barely tolerate our presence. I can’t even imagine how the Minister would react to a phone call from me—a fuckin’ American—but you better believe it wouldn’t help your cause in a Russian prison or my chance of continued employment at Interpol.”

“On the bright side, you’ve been looking for a change.”

“Don’t fuck with me, Jon. I’m not in the mood.”

“Would your mood improve if I helped you clear a murder case?”

“Good Lord,” Dial said as he started to pace his office. “Who’d you kill now?”

Payne laughed as the yacht slowed to a stop. “Not me. Volkov.”

Dial stopped. “It might.”

“Does the name Sergei Bobrinsky mean anything to you?”

“Bobrinsky?” he said as he tried to think.

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