Appointment in Tehran by James Stejskal

Author:James Stejskal
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781612009674
Publisher: Casemate Publishers (Ignition)
Published: 2021-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

The final approach to the safe house was critical. It was a smaller building set among some high-rise apartments. The key thing that had made it attractive to the Station was that it was set on a corner lot and had easy access from several directions as well as good visibility from inside. That meant it could be easily escaped from as well.

Stavros walked down a narrow alley and into a small area behind two of the apartments. He looked at the safe house through the trees and bushes at the edge of the lot. There was no wall that separated the properties, which would make the next part easier. He watched the darkened lot until he was satisfied no one else was around before he made his way to the edge and slipped carefully through the parked cars. The only sounds he heard came from the major streets several blocks away. There was no music, no yelling, no noise coming from the surrounding buildings, just quiet. He wondered if there were block wardens like in Germany, old women who sat at their windows and reported the slightest infraction to the Polizei. He decided it was best to assume there were watchers and kept to the shadows until he was able to make his way through the bushes and onto the back patio of the safe house. He stepped quietly; it was very dark in the shielded area and he didn’t want to accidentally kick something and get shot by whoever was inside. There was a spare set of keys hidden behind a brick but he didn’t bother with those either. The sound of a lock being opened would bring the same result as kicking the cat, so he decided to resort to his teenage method of summoning friends. He pulled a small coin from his pocket and pitched it against a window pane.

He waited.

Nothing.

Another coin came out and this one was pitched against a window on the other end of the house. Again, he waited, standing about 3 paces from the door. A few minutes passed and the curtain moved to the side slightly. There was no light inside so he couldn’t see who or what made the curtain move. Stavros tapped the button on the tiny flashlight he held and a short flash of red light lit up his feet. He waited. The curtain dropped back into position, swaying back and forth a bit. Then he heard the slow click of the lock. The door opened slowly and a face appeared from behind the wood.

Stavros thought it best to introduce himself. In Greek.

“Jonny. Eímai το ippikó.” I’m the cavalry.

After a moment, Jonny Panagasos stepped outside. “Are you all there is?”

“For the moment. We needed to find you first.”

“You did. Would you like to authenticate yourself?”

“Your folks didn’t really give me a way to do that but I’m here to get you and Perses out of here.”

Jonny considered Stavros for a second. There was no way headquarters could have provided a code word because there wasn’t one.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.