“Yes, but he’s about to return to D.C.,” the Hastings matriarch answered after composing herself.
“Good. Please tell him I’ll meet him at Langley. I don’t want to cause another commotion by flying back to the ranch with LE still combing the place. How’s Katie?”
“She’s a strong woman, Reece. I think it’s all still sinking in, but she’s fine.”
“Please give her a hug for me and tell her I’ll meet her at her place in Alexandria tomorrow. Can you get her home for me?”
“We can certainly handle that.”
“Thank you. I’m so sorry I brought this on you, Caroline.”
“Where is all this leading, Reece?”
“Russia.”
CHAPTER 53
Iasi International Airport, Romania
THE FLIGHT FROM DULLES was well within the eight-thousand-mile range of the G550, but it was still almost 5:00 a.m. when they finally landed. The combined flights had exceeded the crew rest requirements for the two pilots, but, given the emergency nature of the trip, they were willing to push it. Despite the creature comforts of Thorn’s Gulfstream, for Raife, rest was an impossibility.
Raife rented a car as rapidly as was possible in Romania from a man speaking passable English and headed directly for the farm where his sister lived, driving the small Opel sedan as fast as he dared.
His parents had tried to contact Hanna several times during the past twenty-four hours without success and the embassy personnel had predictably been unable to track her down. A sense of dread permeated Raife’s very being; his instincts were usually correct.
The navigation app he was using was next to worthless in this area, so Raife had to rely on a paper map that he kept in his lap as he drove. Just like the old days. The sun was beginning to rise, illuminating the small farmhouses and villages that dotted the rolling hills, the local residents already moving into the planted fields to bring in the harvest. It was a simple, meaningful existence, and Raife quickly realized why his baby sister had fallen in love with it.
He pulled the sedan off the road and compared the small brick building and nearby barn to a photo on his iPhone. This was the place. Not wanting to disturb anything or anyone, Raife left the car near the road and walked toward his sister’s temporary home on foot. He walked around the barn and saw that a small pickup truck, presumably belonging to Hanna, was parked outside.
Maybe she was home, and her internet was just down?
As he walked farther, he saw that the door to the small home was open. A burst of adrenaline surged through his body as his mind put the pieces together.
He was unarmed, a requirement to clear Romanian customs. The old wooden door creaked as Raife pushed it open. A chair was on its side, and blood was visible on the tile floor. Raife pushed the horror of the moment from his mind and put his tracking skills to work. The fact that her body wasn’t here meant she was probably still alive. He pulled the small pack from his back and retrieved a pair of nitrile gloves from the first aid kit inside.
At first glance, it appeared the droplets of blood on the tile floor led outside but, upon close inspection, the pattern indicated it was leading inside the home. The bleeding had begun outside. Raife went down to his hands and knees and used a small but powerful LED light to search for evidence. A kitchen knife had slid underneath a table and appeared to be covered in blood. Hanna had fought, and for a slight moment a sense of brotherly pride broke through the pain. The beam from his light found a strand of hair that appeared to belong to his sister on the floor, an arm’s reach away from the knife.
Raife backtracked outside and searched the soft dry ground. He paced the area with his eyes on the ground, stopping, kneeling, then going prone, just as Melusi had taught him back in Africa.
The tracks will tell the story. Let them speak.
After twenty minutes of study, those tracks had given their testimony. A vehicle, a van by the looks of it, had stopped by the road and two large males wearing work boots had stepped out. One set of boot tracks led to the back of the home, where he’d knelt next to the door. The other set of tracks led to the front door. It swung outward and he’d positioned himself on the hinge side so that