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Theo rose. In general, he’d found it helpful to stand in situations such as these. As it became apparent that he was about a foot taller than this punk, the situation quickly de-escalated.
The man laughed nervously. “Take it easy there, mate. No problem at all here.”
The train stopped. The doors opened. The creep scurried onto the platform like a startled cockroach. The doors closed, and the train pulled away with just Theo and the girl in the car.
“That was very kind of you,” she said.
The voice was definitely that of a girl. Sixteen, maybe seventeen. “No problem,” said Theo, as he returned to his seat.
Commuters came and went at the next few stops along the Central Line into the city. Theo exited at Oxford station to pick up the Victorialine. He hadn’t noticed her on the platform, but once on the train, he saw that the girl had also transferred to the Victoria line. She was standing at what was apparently her preferred spot, clinging to the safety pole at the front of the car. Ten minutes passed. Theo exited at the Vauxhall station. The girl exited, too. Theo had no umbrella, and so he covered his head with a left-behind copy of theDaily Mailand started walking toward the river. On the north side of the busy Vauxhall Bridge was the massive SIS headquarters, instantly recognizable to any fan of the more recent James Bond movies. Theo was walking in the opposite direction, toward the U.S. embassy. He heard footfalls behind him on the wet pavement. The girl, apparently, was heading in the same direction.
Theo stopped. The girl kept coming, then stopped about twenty feet away from him. The rain had soaked through his newspaper, so he tossed it in the trash.
“Do you have nowhere to go?”
She shook her head. “My boyfriend kicked me out.”
By “boyfriend,” he worried she meant pimp. He walked toward her, removed a few bills from his wallet, and handed them to her. “There’s a Holiday Inn two blocks that way,” he said. “Get yourself a room.”
She took the money. “When will you get there?”
“No, no, no. The money is for you to get a room for yourself. I’m not coming.”
She looked at him as if he had sprouted a second head. “What?”
“Just go. It’s your lucky day.”
She smiled. Theo turned and started back toward the river. There was no telling what she might actually do with the money, but there was nothing more he could do. He had a meeting with the FBI’s legal attaché at the Riverside Pub, and he was already late.
Madeline Coffey was waiting for him at an umbrella-covered table by the river. Flaming space heaters threw off enough warmth to allow for outdoor seating, but Theo still found it cold by Miami standards. Farther downriver, the embassy was alight and in full view, but Coffey had made it clear that she didn’t want this meeting on government property.
“We lost the hearing,” Coffey said.
Theo knew what she meant. The court hearing to determine whetherSergei Kava should be extradited to the United States to face charges on piracy-related crimes was scheduled for that afternoon.
“Sergei Kava is not being extradited?”
“No. The judge just issued her ruling.”
“How did you lose?”
The server brought a couple lagers, a pint for each of them. Coffey waited for her to leave, then continued.
“Kava retained top-notch counsel. They convinced the judge that it is unlawful for the UK to fulfill extradition requests that relied on private vigilantes like MAP to carry out extraction kidnappings against people like Mr. Kava.”
“How were they able to prove there was an extraction kidnapping? Did Kava’s daughter testify?”
“Even Kava has enough sense not to put his granddaughter through that. Their witness was the bodyguard who was tasered and left behind with Kava’s daughter.” She took a long drink from her pint glass, then shook her head. “This extraction kidnapping was not well planned. Too many witnesses.”
“You’re barking up the wrong tree. I had nothing to do with the kidnapping or the planning of it.”
“Maybe you did. Maybe you didn’t.”
“There’s no maybe,” said Theo.
“Lucky for you, the bodyguard only mentioned two kidnappers in his testimony. Sergei Kava’s driver, who obviously betrayed him. And another guy who fits the description of Amongus Sicario.”
“That means I don’t have to worry about the Metro Police coming out to arrest me on kidnapping charges.”
