Spies of the Balkans Read Free Page B

and somebody was going to show up, sooner or later. If he was dumb enough to walk past the idling Skoda, they'd get both of them. If not, just the German, though Saltiel would likely take off after the second man. Woman? Maybe, anything was possible.
    3:48 A.M . Hurry up, you bastards, have your fucking meeting and let me go home to bed . After arrest, and a trip to the police station, where they'd get what they could, then run him back to the ship. After all, he hadn't done much--entered Salonika without having his passport stamped. No point in keeping him. The German consul would squawk, Vangelis would be irritated, the hell with it.
    4:00 A.M . What was the German doing down there? Was there a way through to another street that Zannis didn't know about? Oh, a fine thing that would be! I stood there in the rain until dawn but I never saw him again . Zannis sighed, shifted from his wet foot to his dry one, and thought about Roxanne, about making love, which was what they did. Sure, a restaurant now and ... Suddenly, his mind snapped back to full attention.
    From the other end of the street, at the corner of a distant alley, headlights--no car yet, just beams probing the mist. What? Could you get through down there? Zannis didn't know, but obviously somebody did because the lights swung left into the street and now pointed directly at him. He scurried along the iron shutter to the opposite corner and wound up facing the Skoda. What would Saltiel do? Nothing. The lights stayed off. Good, Gabi, that's the way .
    And next , he thought, addressing the unseen driver of the car, you'll turn into the alley . It was a Renault sedan that muttered past him, going very slowly, but his prediction was off. The Renault paused at the alley, moved forward a few feet, and backed in. Clever , Zannis thought, ready for a fast getaway. What was this? Another murder in the alley? Was it cursed? Was this long, boring, stupid night going to end in melodrama?
    Whatever happened down there didn't take long. It happened in the alley and it happened quickly and it happened where Zannis couldn't see it. A car door slammed, an engine roared, and the Renault reappeared, taking a fast left turn into the street and speeding off. Zannis squinted into the rain, trying to see through the cloudy rear window--someone in the passenger seat? No, he didn't think so. As he hurried down the steps from the loading dock, he watched the Renault as it flew past the Skoda. Count: one, two, three, four; then the Skoda's lights came on and Saltiel made a nice easy turn and followed the Renault, which had turned east up the deserted corniche.
    As Zannis approached the alley, the German came out. They stopped dead, facing each other, maybe thirty feet apart, then the German, like Hamid the moneylender, went scuttling back down the alley. Heading for the wisteria vine? No, he had a better idea, because by the time Zannis entered the alley, he'd disappeared. The magic German. Where? Zannis trotted along the sheer wall, very tense about some sort of unseen cover at his back, very certain that he was about to be shot. But then, just at the foot of the alley, a door. A door that, he guessed, would lead into the office of the warehouse. Had he forgotten it? Had it even been there, back then?
    Walther. Yes, the time had come, work the slide, arm it, assume Gabi kept it loaded, assume he'd put the bullets back in the clip when he'd got done hanging up his picture. For he'd surely un loaded it, knowing full well that banging loaded weapons on hard surfaces wasn't such a good idea--the very least you could hope for was embarrassment and it got quickly worse from there. Grampa! The cat! No, Gabi had done the right thing because Gabi always did the right thing. No?
    Zannis closed the umbrella and set it by the wall, freed the Walther's clip, found it fully loaded and locked it back in place. Then he stood to one side of the door and, making sure of his balance, raised his foot and kicked