Rogue by Mark T. Sullivan

Author:Mark T. Sullivan [Sullivan, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

31

SEVEN DAYS LEFT …

FOR NEARLY FORTY-EIGHT HOURS, Monarch and his team listened, monitored, and followed Vadas and his girlfriend on the rare trips they made outside the apartment. Chávez bore the brunt of the work, taking the headphones for nearly every conversation and telephone call, translating every e-mail and text message.

They learned that Vadas had a dying mother, that Rozsa liked Hungarian soap operas, and that they both liked to drink, smoke, and bicker. Most of the latter had been directed from Rozsa at Vadas over his alleged affairs. But simmering beneath it, Chávez had caught several references to “a deal” in the works that had them both on edge. Beyond that, all communications in and out of the apartment appeared benign.

Monarch was growing frustrated. He kept thinking about Lacey Wentworth held hostage as day after day slipped by and only a week left. Would Belos really kill her? If he wanted the trigger more than anything, that wouldn’t make sense, would it? This time constraint felt odd, considering the stakes.

“Think they’re on to us?” Fowler asked, breaking Monarch’s thoughts.

Chávez said, “Why not just tear out the bugs? Why the charade?”

“Maybe they don’t have the polonium-210,” Barnett said.

“They don’t,” Monarch said. “Vadas is not exactly kingpin material, and Belos told me that Vadas had portrayed himself as a go-between.”

“But between who and who?” Yin asked.

Monarch said, “Let’s ask the girlfriend that same question.”

* * *

Later that day, Chávez overheard Vadas’s girlfriend telling him that she couldn’t stay in the apartment any longer. Rozsa was going to visit her sister in Pest. She left the apartment late in the afternoon. Chávez followed on foot. Fowler fired up a panel van they’d rented and brought it around into the alley, where Monarch and Tatupu jumped in.

“We reading?” Monarch said into his Bluetooth.

“You’re clear,” Barnett said in his ear. “She’s taking the tram.”

“Chávez?” Monarch said, glancing at a GPS device that showed a map of the city and a blinking pinpoint of light that represented her location beacon.

“In the same tram car,” Chávez replied. “Get to the sister’s place.”

* * *

Thirty-five minutes later, they were parked down the street from the tram station closest to the sister’s address. When Vadas’s girlfriend emerged, she walked right at them down the sidewalk with Chávez in near pursuit. Darkness had fallen. Few people walked the commercial strip. Most stores had already closed for the evening.

Chávez timed her bump perfectly. Just as Rozsa came abreast of the van, Tatupu jerked open the side door and Chávez hit her from the side like a hockey check. Vadas’s girlfriend cried out and fell in. Monarch clamped a hand over her mouth and dragged her inside. Chávez jumped in after her. Tatupu shut the door and Fowler pulled into traffic.

Rozsa started screaming and squirming until Tatupu slapped tape over her mouth. He then taped her wrists and ankles before Monarch set her up against the van wall. Shadows crisscrossed Rozsa’s terrified face. She whined, her eyes arcing back and forth. Monarch and Tatupu said nothing as they blindfolded her.

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