The Last Survivor (A Wilde/Chase Short Story) Read Free Page B

happy about that?’
    ‘No, I don’t mind,’ he insisted. ‘Unless she wakes me up at four in the morning to do it!’
    ‘But something is bothering you.’
    Eddie chuckled. ‘It’s that obvious? Yeah, a bit. We had an argument about it this morning, actually. She …’ He hesitated.
    Natalia gave him an apologetic look. ‘You do not have to tell me if you do not want to.’
    ‘No, it’s okay,’ he said, wanting to get it off his chest. ‘It’s not that she’s spending all her time working that’s the problem – I’m used to that. It’s … the way she’s writing it.’
    ‘How so?’
    ‘There were other people involved in finding all that stuff, but she hardly mentions them. That’s what we were arguing about. I don’t think she was trying to steal the credit,’ he added, time and reflection having softened his earlier accusation. ‘It just felt like she was trying to avoid thinking about them. Which considering what happened to some of them I shouldn’t be surprised about, but still …’
    She understood his meaning without having to enquire further. ‘I am sorry.’
    ‘Thanks,’ he said quietly. Neither of them spoke for a long moment, until the silence was interrupted by his phone. ‘That’s probably her.’
    But the call was from an unknown number. ‘Hello?’ he said, expecting it to be a telemarketer.
    It was not. ‘Eddie, is that you?’
    He instantly recognised the young man’s voice. ‘Jared? Yeah, it’s me.’ Jared Zane was an agent of the Mossad, the feared Israeli intelligence agency, who had joined forces with Eddie and Nina to locate and destroy the enclave of escaped Nazi war criminals in Argentina. ‘How’d you get this number?’
    ‘The Mossad has everyone’s number.’ Jared had a genially mocking relationship with the Englishman over their age difference, there being the better part of twenty years between them – but today there was no humour in his voice, which immediately put Eddie on alert. ‘Eddie, listen, this is urgent. We didn’t get all the Nazis. There was a survivor. And he’s in New York.’
    Eddie felt a sudden coldness. ‘Are you sure?’
    ‘Yes. We recovered Kroll’s computer from the Enklave – it had been burned, but we were still able to get most of the data from its hard drive. There was a file from Frederick Leitz’ – a middleman through whom the Nazis had dealt with the outside world – ‘with a list of all the fake passports he’d arranged for Kroll’s people. One of them, a US passport, was used to enter JFK yesterday.’
    ‘And he got in? Why wasn’t he arrested when his passport came up as flagged?’
    ‘It hadn’t
been
flagged. We only recovered the files a few days ago. And,’ faint frustration entered his voice, ‘the list wasn’t sent to Interpol until today. My superiors didn’t think there was any rush – we believed all the Nazis were dead. The passport was flashed up immediately, but its holder was already in the States.’
    Eddie snorted. ‘Shut the stable door, will you? The horse’s buggered off. An’ I thought Mossad were supposed to be efficient!’
    ‘We’re telling you now,’ Jared replied spikily. ‘Or rather, I’m telling you, as a friend. I might get into trouble for it, but I’ll take it if it keeps you and Nina safe.’
    ‘You think this guy’s coming after us?’
    ‘He knows who you are – or rather, he knows who
Nina
is. When Kroll was about to execute us at his rally, he told his people her name and that she worked for the United Nations. There isn’t any other connection to New York that I can think of. Eddie, you both need to be careful. I’ll send you this man’s passport photo so you’ll recognise him if he finds you.’
    A horrible thought came to Eddie. ‘Shit, what if he already has?’ Fear rose in him: Nina was out in the city alone, and with no idea of the potential threat. ‘Jared, I’ll call you back!’
    He hurriedly ended the call, telling the driver to turn