loaded with acetylene and oxygen tanks that demanded right of way on the tight-fitting road.
“Gage’s property is just up here,” she said, though Jack saw it clearly marked on the Audi’s map display.
“It’s the warehouse on the end,” Jack said.
A truck horn blasted behind them. Jack turned around. A hundred feet back, a red JAC tractor-trailer rig was honking at a forklift blocking the road. It looked a lot like the one he saw being loaded up at the Warsaw warehouse, but there was no way this was the same one. Through the windshield glare he barely made out the driver, a Chinese man, and his passenger, a white guy, with his booted feet splayed up on the dashboard. It appeared as if two more tractor-trailer rigs were inching along behind the first one.
Just as Liliana pulled up to the Gage warehouse, two huge green sliding steel doors were pushed open by a couple of beefy Poles. They glowered at the Audi beneath their yellow hard hats. One of them shouted over his shoulder. Jack caught a glimpse inside of the cavernous warehouse. Forklifts raced around, stacking palletized loads, but what really caught Jack’s attention was the docked ship unloading its cargo just outside the warehouse in the fading sunlight.
A mountain of a man stepped out of the shadows and into the open doorway. His brush-cut blond hair and broad shoulders made him look like Dolph Lundgren’s younger brother, only bigger and uglier. His mallet-sized fists were perched on his hips and his elbows splayed outward like steel joists in physical challenge to the strangers in the Audi. The glare in his cold, blue eyes told them to keep moving. So did the pistol printing on his hip beneath his work shirt.
“Friend of yours?” Jack asked.
“I should ask to see his carry permit. I doubt he has one.”
“Might not solve our bigger problem. We need to find out what’s going on in that warehouse. And I wouldn’t mind a look around on that ship unloading, either.”
“Won’t be dark for another two hours. Hard to do any surveillance undetected in this alley.”
“We’ll come back when it’s dark and see if we can get a better look.”
The truck that was behind them came barreling up, blaring its horn. Jack turned around again. The scowling Chinese driver didn’t try to hide his disgust. The other man’s boots still rested on the dashboard.
The driver gave the horn a long, hard blast.
“Osioł,” Liliana swore as she stomped the gas, throwing rocks and debris.
The goon and his buddies shouted and cursed as the Audi sped away.
“I hope you’re hungry, Jack. I know a place. It’s not far from here.”
“Starving. We can eat and talk at the same time.”
Jack knew he would love the food, and Liliana would hate his plan.
* * *
—
Cluzet’s boots were on the dashboard of the JAC truck he’d ridden across most of Central Asia. His back ached and a hammer pounded the inside of his skull. He had no patience for anything now, especially lost tourists. They were less than three meters from ending an ass-breaking journey of more than six thousand kilometers. He was a day late already, which cost him and his men their bonus. They were just a few hours short of a bullet to the back of the head.
“Hit the horn again,” he told his driver. Lin gave it a long, hard blast. The silver Audi sped away, throwing debris from the pitted road.
The Chinese man laughed. “I scared them good!”
Cluzet sat up, staring at the Audi.
The Chinese shifted into low gear and the truck lurched forward.
Something wasn’t right about that Audi. But the throbbing migraine torturing his brain wouldn’t let him think about it. He snatched a bottle of Tylenol from the glove box as the air brakes whooshed. He dropped three white tablets into his mouth and started chewing them as the truck shuddered to a final stop in front of the open warehouse doors. His advance man, a towering slab of Scandinavian meat by the name of Hult, was still staring daggers at the fleeing Audi.
Cluzet climbed down out of the cab, stretched, and yawned. He shook hands with Hult, and the two briefed each other over recent events. Hult agreed to supervise the unloading and reloading of the trucks while Cluzet set out in search of a good meal, a clean bed, and a pair of enthusiastic whores before the convoy headed back out in the morning.