The Fifth Profession Page 6

  “You've done your homework.”

  “I try, but there's always something, the risk of an unknown threat. Knowledge is power. Ignorance …”

  “Finish. What do you mean?”

  “Ignorance is death. I think the headlights are gaining on us.”

  “I noticed in my rearview mirror. Talking helps me not to be afraid. If they catch us …”

  “You won't be harmed.”

  “Until my husband returns. To beat me again before he rapes me. But you'll …”

  “Be killed.”

  “Then why are you helping me? How much did my sister pay you?”

  “It doesn't matter. Keep your eyes on the road,” Savage said. “If we get to Mykonos—it's only eight kilometers ahead—follow my instructions exactly.”

  “Then you do have a plan.”

  “I had several, but this is the one I'm forced to use. I repeat”— Savage glanced toward the pursuing, possibly gaining headlights—“your life depends on total obedience. Do everything I say.”

  “When my husband gives me orders, I resent it. But when you give me orders, I'm ready to follow you to hell.”

  “Let's hope you don't have to prove it.”

  15

  Their headlights gleamed off cube-shaped houses, brilliantly white even in the rain-swept darkness.

  “Mykonos!” Rachel pressed her foot harder onto the accelerator.

  “No!” Savage said.

  Too late. The sudden increased speed caused the Mercedes to hydroplane on the mud. The car veered sideways, spun— twice, the steering wheel useless, Savage's stomach twisting—and crashed against a fence at the side of the road.

  Rachel rammed the gearshift into reverse, tromping the accelerator again.

  “Stop!” Savage said.

  But the worst had been done. Instead of easing away from the fence toward the road, Rachel had made the car slip sideways onto a mound of earth that snagged the car's drive shaft, propping it up. The tires spun not on mud but air. The car was useless. Two people wouldn't be strong enough to push it off the mound.

  The pursuing headlights loomed closer.

  Rachel scrambled out of the car. Savage rushed to join her. His boots sank and slid in the mud. He almost lost his balance but managed not to fall as Rachel did lose her balance. He caught her, kept a tight grip on her arm, and urged her forward. The sensation was that of a nightmare, racing through mud and yet staying in place.

  But they stubbornly gained momentum. Before them, the white cube-shaped houses enlarged as the headlights behind them magnified.

  At once, the nightmare of running in place concluded. Rock slabs beneath Savage's boots made him feel as if a cable that restrained him had snapped. He and Rachel shot forward, the solid street providing traction.

  The moment they entered the village, Savage realized that the Mercedes would have been useless anyhow. The street they ran along was narrow, winding. It forked, the angles so sharp and confining that the Mercedes could not have maneuvered with any speed. Hearing the engines of the pursuing cars, Savage chose the left tangent and hurried along it, suddenly confronted by two more tangents. Dismayed, he knew that no matter which direction he took, there'd soon be other tangents.

  The maze of Mykonos, the streets arranged in a labyrinth, a means of confusing pirates in antiquity, of making it easy for villagers to trap marauders. Or for present-day hunters to trap their quarry.

  Behind him, Savage heard slamming car doors, angry voices, urgent footsteps echoing along a street. He studied the tangents before him. The one to the left veered upward, the other down. His choice was inevitable. He had to keep moving toward the harbor. Guiding Rachel, he fled to the right, only to discover that the street soon angled upward.

  It's taking us back to where we started!

  Savage pivoted, forcing Rachel to retrace her steps. Except for the gusting rain and the angry voices of their hunters, the village was silent. Only the white of the houses, occasional lights in windows, and sporadic flashes of lightning helped Savage to see his way.

  He found a lane he'd failed to notice when he'd passed this way earlier. The lane led downward, so constricting that his shoulders brushed against the walls. He emerged on a wider lane, horizontal, so flat that he couldn't tell which direction might eventually lead downward. But clattering footsteps to his left made him nudge Rachel and charge to the right.

  This time, when the lane ended, there was only one exit —to the right, and that led upward.

  No! We have to keep aiming toward the harbor!

  Savage spun, staring along the lane they'd just taken. The footsteps and curses of the guards sounded closer. Flashlights blazed at the end of the lane. One guard turned to another, his beam revealing the face of the second guard.

  The second man was the Japanese. Even at a distance, he still reminded Savage disturbingly of Akira. The Japanese grabbed the first guard's arm and shoved the flashlight away from his face. They rushed along the lane.

  In Savage's direction.

  They haven't seen us yet, but they will.

  Savage's boot struck an object at the side of the lane. A ladder lay against a wall, half of which had a fresh coat of white. He braced it against the wall. Rachel scurried up. As Savage followed, he saw the flashlights checking doorways and alleys, rushing closer.

  On the roof, he pulled the ladder up. It scraped against the wall. The flashlights aimed toward the noise. Savage was blinded when a beam revealed him. He ducked back, yanking the ladder with him, hearing the distinctive muffled report of a pistol equipped with a silencer, a bullet zipping past his ear. An instant later, he was out of sight from the lane.

  He almost set the ladder down but quickly changed his mind.

  “Rachel, grab the other end.”

  Awkward, they strained to hurry with the ladder across the roof, lurching to a stop when a gap before them revealed another lane.

  In the distance, Savage saw murky lights in the rain-swept harbor.

  “Let go of the ladder.”

  He swung it over the gap, setting the far end on the other roof, propping the near end securely.

  Rachel started to crawl across, but the ladder's rungs were slick with rain, and her knee slipped, a leg falling through. She dangled, gasped, raised her knee to the ladder, and crawled again.

  Savage steadied the ladder. He stared toward the gap below him—no flashlights, although he did hear shouts. He glanced behind him, toward where he and Rachel had used the ladder to climb the wall. No one appeared on the rim.

  Rain gusted against his eyes. He squinted toward Rachel, managing to see her on the opposite roof. Flat, he pulled himself along the ladder, its moist rungs easing his way, helping him to slide.

  On the other roof, he stood and swung the ladder toward him. They struggled with it toward a farther gap between buildings, moving lower into the village, closer to the harbor.

  When he crossed the next gap after Rachel did, Savage stared behind him. A flash of lightning made him flinch as a head appeared on top of a wall. The head belonged to the Japanese. Savage recalled the glint of a sword! The … ! Abruptly the Japanese scrambled upright.

  Another man joined him, raising a pistol, aiming at Savage.

  The Japanese lost his balance on the rain-slicked roof. But the Japanese had moved so gracefully at the mansion, it didn't seem likely he could ever lose his balance. Nonetheless he fell against the man with the pistol, deflecting his aim. The shot went wild. The man with the pistol toppled backward. With a wail, he plunged off the roof.

  The Japanese stared down at him, then charged after Savage and Rachel, his movements once again graceful.

  He'll have to stop! Savage thought. He can't get past the two gaps we crossed!

  Don't kid yourself. If this is Akira, he'll find a way.

  But you know he can't be Akira!

  Frantic, Savage picked up the ladder. As Rachel assisted, Savage glanced again toward the Japanese, expecting him to halt when he re
ached a lane between roofs. Instead the Japanese increased speed and leapt, his nimble body arcing through the rain, his arms outstretched as if gliding. He landed on the opposite roof, bent his knees, rolled to absorb the impact, and in the same smooth motion, sprang to his feet, continuing to race.

  Burdened with the ladder, Savage and Rachel struggled toward another lane. But this time, instead of bracing the ladder across the gap, Savage lowered it against a wall. As Rachel scurried down, Savage turned, dismayed to see the Japanese leap across another gap.

  Guards shouted nearby. Savage scrambled down the ladder and tugged it away from the wall so the Japanese couldn't use it. The lane sloped down to the right. He and Rachel sprinted along it. Behind him, Savage heard frenzied footsteps, the Japanese charging toward the side of the roof.

  He'll dangle from the rim and drop, Savage thought. Maybe he'll hurt himself.

  Like hell. He's a cat.

  The lane ended. Savage faced another horizontal street, so level he couldn't decide which direction would take them closer to the harbor.

  A light from a window reflected off water on the street. Heart pounding, Savage noticed that the water flowed toward the left.

  He ran with Rachel in that direction. Shouts echoed behind him. Footsteps charged closer. Flashlights blazed ahead.

  An alley on the right led steeper downward, away from the flashlights. The closer he and Rachel came to the harbor, the more the village narrowed, forming a bottleneck toward the sea, Savage knew. He'd reach fewer tangents, fewer risks of making the wrong decision and heading inadvertently upward, away from his objective.

  But he had to assume that his pursuers understood where he was going. They'll try to get in front of us.

  He prayed that the guards were as baffled by the maze as he was. Amid the curses behind him and the blaze of flashlights on his flanks, he heard a single set of pursuing footsteps.

  The Japanese.

  As if a nightmare had been dispelled, Savage broke from the village, from its confines and confusion. His way now was clear, across the beach, along the dock. No enemy awaited him. Beside him, Rachel breathed hoarsely, stumbling, on the verge of exhaustion.

  “Keep trying,” Savage urged. “It's almost over.”

  “God, I hope,” she gasped.

  “For what this is worth”—Savage breathed—“I'm proud of you. You did fine.”

  His compliment wasn't cynical. She'd obeyed him with Style and strength. But his encouragement—no doubt the only positive words she'd been told in quite a while—did the trick. She mustered her deepest resources and ran so hard she almost passed him.

  “I meant what I said,” she gasped. “I'll go with you to hell.”

  16

  The yacht, one of several, was moored near the end of the dock. Savage's final option. If the boats in various coves had been discovered, if the fishing trawler had been forced to retreat due to hazardous, weather, if the helicopter couldn't take off from nearby Delos and pick them up at the rendezvous site, the last possibility was a yacht that a member of his team had left in the Mykonos harbor.

  Savage sprang aboard, released the ropes that secured it to posts, raised the hatch above the engine, and grabbed the ignition key taped beneath the deck. He slid the key into the switch on the vessel's controls, swelled with triumph when the engine rumbled, pushed the accelerator, and felt a satisfying surge as the yacht sped away from the dock.

  “Thank you!” Rachel hugged him.

  “Get down on the deck!”

  She instantly complied.

  As the yacht churned away from the dock, raising waves dwarfed by the greater waves of the storm, Savage scowled behind him. The force of the sea made the yacht thrust up and down, but despite his confused perspective, Savage saw a man rush along the dock.

  The Japanese. Beneath a light at the end of the dock, his features remained as melancholy as Akira's.

  He showed other emotions as well. Confusion. Desperation.

  Anger.

  Most of all, fear.

  That didn't make sense. But there wasn't any doubt. The Oriental's strongest emotion was fear.

  “Savage?” The voice was strained, obscured by the gusting storm.

  “Akira?” Savage's yell broke, strangled by waves that splashed his face, filling his mouth, making him cough.

  On the dock, other guards rushed beside the Japanese. They aimed pistols toward the yacht but didn't dare fire, aware of the risk of hitting their client's wife. Their faces were rainswept portraits of desperation.

  The Japanese shouted, “But I saw you … !”

  The storm erased his next frantic words.

  “Saw me?” Savage yelled. “I saw you!”

  Savage couldn't allow himself to be distracted. He had to complete his mission and urged the yacht from the harbor.

  “… die!” the Japanese screamed.

  Rachel peered up from the deck. “You know that man?”

  Savage's hands cramped around the yacht's controls. His pounding heart made him sick.

  He felt dizzy. In the village, he'd predicted that the Japanese would leap down from the wall like a cat.

  Yes. Like a cat, Savage thought. With less than nine lives.

  “Know him?” he told Rachel as the yacht fought stormy waves to escape the harbor. “God help me, yes.”

  “The wind! I can't hear you!”

  “I saw him die six months ago!”

  EXECUTIVE PROTECTION

  1

  Six months ago, Savage had been working in the Bahamas, an uneventful babysitting job that involved making sure the nine-year-old son of a U.S. cosmetics manufacturer didn't get kidnapped while the family was on vacation. Savage's research had made him conclude that, since the family had never been threatened, his assignment was really to be a companion to the boy while the parents abandoned him in favor of the local casinos. In theory, anyone could have served that function, but it turned out the businessman made frequent racial slurs against the local population, so Savage assumed that the supposed potential kidnappers had a skin color darker than his employer's. In that case, why, he'd wondered, had the businessman chosen the Bahamas at all? Why not Las Vegas? Probably because the Bahamas sounded more impressive when you told your friends you'd spent two weeks there.

  Savage had disapproved but hadn't shown it. His job, after all, wasn't to like his client, but instead to provide security, and besides, despite his aversion to his employer, he enjoyed the boy's companionship extremely. While never allowing himself to be distracted from his duties, he'd taught the boy to windsurf and scuba dive. With the businessman's money, he'd chartered a fishing boat—captained by a Bahamian native, to Savage's rebellious delight—and never baiting a hook had shown the boy the graceful majesty of leaping sailfish and marlin. In short, he'd behaved like the father that the endearing boy's actual father should have been.

  When the boy had flown back to Atlanta with his family, Savage had felt empty. Well, he'd thought, you've got this consolation. Not every job's as pleasant as this one. He'd remained in the Bahamas for three more days. Swimming, jogging, hardening his muscles. A vacation for himself. But then his habitual compulsion to work had taken control. He'd phoned one of his several contacts, a restaurateur in Barcelona, who'd received a call from a jeweler in Brussels, who passed the word that if Savage was available, his agent would be pleased to speak with him.

  2

  Savage's agent, Graham Barker-Smythe, the Englishman who'd trained him, had his home in a renovated carriage house in an elegant brick-paved lane in New York City, a half-block from Washington Square. As Graham liked to say, “At midnight, I can hear the junkies howl.”

  Graham was fifty-eight, overweight from too much champagne and caviar, but in his lean youth, he'd been a member of the British military's elite commando unit, the Special Air Service, and after leaving the military, a protective escort to several prime ministers. Eventually his civil servant's income had been unacceptable compared to the guardia
n's fees he could earn in the private sector. America had offered the richest opportunities.

  “This was after President Kennedy was shot. Then Martin Luther King. Then Robert Kennedy. Assassination was the major fear of anyone in power. Of course, the Secret Service had cornered the market on high-level politicians, so I chose to deal with prominent businessmen. They've got the bucks, and after the terrorists hit in the seventies, I made a bleeding fortune.”

  Despite his twenty years in America, Graham still retained his English accent, though his vocabulary had become an intriguing mixture of American and British expressions.

  “Some of the businessmen I protected”—Graham pursed his lips—“were no more than ruffians in Brooks Brothers suits. An elegant front. No class. Not like the aristocrats I used to work for. But this is what I learned. A protector has to repress his ill opinions about his employer. If you allow disapproval to control you, you'll unconsciously make a mistake that might kill your client.”

  “You're saying a protector should never disapprove of a client?”

  “It's a luxury. If we worked only for those of whom we approved, we'd seldom work. Everyone has imperfections. However, I do adhere to minimum standards. I would never help drug dealers, arms merchants, terrorists, mobsters, child molesters, wife beaters, or members of militant hate groups. I would never be able to repress my disgust enough to protect them. But unless you're confronted by unmistakable evil, you don't have a right to judge your client. Of course, you can still turn him down if the fee he offers is insufficient or the job too dangerous. Because we're tolerant doesn't mean we have to be schmucks. Pragmatism. Adapt to circumstances.”

  Graham always enjoyed these philosophical discussions and despite his heart doctor's orders, indulged in lighting an enormous cigar, the smoke from which hovered above his bald head. “Did you ever wonder why I accepted you as a pupil?”

  “I assumed because of the training I'd received in the SEALs.”

  “That training was impressive, no doubt about it. When you came to me, I saw a strong young man accustomed to the stress of lethal conditions. A commendable background. Promising. Unrefined, however. I might even add, crude. Now don't look insulted. I'm about to give you a compliment. I grant that the SEALs are among the best commando units in the world, though my own SAS is of course in a class by itself.” Graham's eyes twinkled. “But the military insists on strict obedience, whereas an executive protector isn't a follower but a leader. Or more exactly, a protector exists in a delicate stasis with his employer, commanding yet obeying, allowing the client to do what he wants but insisting on how he does it. The relationship is known as symbiosis.”