Numbered Account Read online

  Mevlevi was surprised at the alacrity with which she revealed her crimes. The girl actually believed herself innocent.

  She said, “Once, I swear only once, I looked through your desk when you were not at home. I am sorry. But I found nothing. Nothing at all. I do not understand so many numbers. What I saw meant nothing to me.”

  Mevlevi brought his hands together as if to pray. “An honest child,” he exclaimed. “Thanks be to Allah. You spoke of numbers. Please go on.”

  “I do not understand so many numbers. What is there to see? You work, work, work. On the telephone all the day long.”

  Mevlevi smiled as if her confession pleased him. “Now, Lina, you must tell exactly what you reported to the Makdisis.”

  “Nothing, I swear.” She cast her eyes to the floor. “Only a little. Sometimes on Sundays, when I visited my mother, he would call.”

  “Who?”

  “Mr. Makdisi. He wanted to know what you do all day long. What time you get up, when you eat, if you go out. Nothing else. I swear.”

  “And this, of course, you told him,” Mevlevi suggested as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world.

  “Yes, of course. He paid my mother so much money. What harm could it do?”

  “Of course, darling. I understand.” He stroked Lina’s soft tresses. “Tell me now, did he ask you about my money? About banks? About how I pay my partners?”

  “No, no, he never asked that. Never.”

  Mevlevi frowned. He was certain that it was Albert Makdisi who had fed information about his transfers to the American DEA. Makdisi had long wanted to go direct to Mong. Eliminate the middleman. “Lina, I prefer it when you tell me the truth.”

  “Please, Al-Mevlevi, you must believe me. No questions about money. He only wants to know about where you spend the day. If you travel. Nothing about money.”

  Mevlevi pulled a silver Minox camera from his pocket. He passed the camera before Lina’s eyes, then under her nose as if it were a fine cigar. “And so darling, what is this?”

  “I don’t know. A small camera? Maybe I have seen one in stores.”

  “No,cherie. You have never seen one like this in any store.”

  “It is not mine.”

  “Of course not,” he cooed. “And this charming little device?” He presented for her inspection a casing of matte black metal, no larger than a deck of cards. From one end he pulled a blunt rubber antenna.

  Lina stared at the metal object. “I do not know what this is,” she said indignantly. “You tell me.”

  “Me tell you?” Mevlevi peered over his shoulder at Joseph. “She wants us to tell her?”

  Joseph looked on impassively.

  Mevlevi said, “I’ll let you in on a secret. When Max Rothstein told me that Albert Makdisi had brought you to Little Maxim’s, I went with Joseph to search your quarters. You see, my dear, Max’s word simply wasn’t good enough. Not to condemn you, it wasn’t. I had to be sure for myself. We found this pretty device—it’s a radio, actually—along with the camera in that clever hole you fashioned in the flooring under your bed.” Mevlevi held the small transmitter beneath her eyes. “Tell me about your radio. So petite, so compact. Frankly, I’d have thought such a toy far beyond the Makdisis’ clumsy grasp.”

  Lina grew agitated. She fumbled with her hands and ground her ankles together. “Stop it!” she screamed. “There is no hole in my room. That camera doesn’t belong to me. Neither does the radio. I’ve never seen them before. I swear it.”

  “The truth, Lina.” Mevlevi’s voice assumed a velvety monotone. “Here we speak only the truth. Come now. You were doing so well just a few moments ago.”

  “I am no spy. I never listened to that radio. I own no camera.”

  Mevlevi drew nearer Lina. “What did you say?” His voice was filled with an urgency until now absent, his posture suddenly rigid.

  “I never listened to the radio,” moaned Lina. “If I want music, I go to the living room. Why would I need a transistor radio?”

  Mevlevi regarded her anew. “Atransistor radio,” he said appreciatively.“She never listened to the transistor radio.” He glanced at Joseph, then back at Lina, as if momentarily unsure with whom to speak. The device he held in his hand was as far from a transistor radio as modern science allowed. It was an ultra-high-frequency single-band two-way radio capable of plucking from the ether the faintest cobweb of a signal—but only one sent on its preset frequency. It could not be used to find commercial radio transmissions.

  “Charming,” he said to Joseph. “And well trained. Don’t you think? For a moment, I nearly believed her. Women often make superb plants. They are naturally emotional. One tends to mistake their hysteria for honesty. If a man cries, it is only because he is guilty and pitying himself.”

  Joseph said nothing. He nodded once resolutely as if he knew exactly what his patron was speaking of.

  Mevlevi placed himself behind the rattan chair and ran his hands over Lina’s body. He gently squeezed her powerful shoulders and caressed her firm breasts. A morose fog fell upon him. “Lina, the time has come for us to part ways. You go now on a transcendent path. I am sorry I cannot join you, but my work is not yet completed. Soon, though, we may be reunited. Truly, I loved you.”

  Lina faced him with her eyes closed. She cried quietly. “Why?” she asked between sniffles.

  For a moment, Mevlevi asked the same question of the Almighty. Why must I lose one who means so much to me? One who has brought only light and joy into my life. She is but a child. An innocent. Surely, she should not suffer so for her crimes. And then he felt his resolve stiffen, and he knew it to be Allah speaking through him.

  “You were brought to test me. If I can part with you, my sweetest creature, I can part with life itself. Allah demands sacrifices of us all.”

  “No, no, no,” she whispered.

  “Adieu, my love.”He stood and nodded to Joseph.

  Joseph approached Lina slowly and asked her to be calm. “Go serenely,” he counseled. “Go with grace. It is the way of Allah. You must not resist.” And when he cradled her in his arms, she went without fighting.

  Joseph carried her to a low bench at the far end of the building. An oblong stone, twenty inches long and ten inches high, lay below the bench. The stone weighed exactly thirty pounds—easily enough to anchor a small woman’s body to the pool’s bottom. He unbound Lina’s feet and placed each one in a shallow depression molded into the stone. Stainless steel manacles extended from a brass eye screw that protruded from between her feet. He locked a cuff around each foot.

  “Why are you doing this?” Lina asked. Her tears had dried. Her swollen eyes were clear.

  “I must obey Al-Mevlevi. He is inspired by a greater purpose than either of us.”

  Lina tried to slap Joseph’s face with her bound hands. “I do not believe you. It is you, the liar. You put the radio under my bed. You!”

  “Shhh!” Joseph knelt and offered her a cup of wine. “It contains a powerful tranquilizer. Al-Mevlevi did not wish you to feel any pain. Look into the water. You don’t want to die like that, not while you’re fully conscious.”

  “This is the end of my life. I must feel every moment.”

  Hastily, Joseph raised her to her feet.

  Ali Mevlevi stood at the opposite end of the pool, his head tilted toward the heavens, a muted prayer playing from his mouth. He stopped and looked at Joseph, then nodded and resumed his incantations. Truly, he had loved her.

  Lina struggled against her bonds. She whimpered at her inability to move her feet or to free her hands.

  Joseph whispered in her ear that Allah would love her forever. He carried her onto a narrow span that bridged the pool, and when he stood over the water, he lifted her as high as his strength would permit and threw her into the pool. Her scream mixed with the tumult of the splashing water, and for several seconds after she had fallen below the surface, her voice echoed through the vaulted pavilion.

  # # #

&n
bsp; Outside, a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter sat with rotors turning at idle on the main lawn of the compound. The sky was bleak. A light drizzle fell.

  Mevlevi walked toward the chopper, his hand on Joseph’s shoulder. “Lina jeopardized Khamsin. You understand there was no other solution.”

  “Of course, Al-Mevlevi.”

  “I am growing to be a sentimental fool. I felt for her. It is harder to live without emotion at my age.” He paused and in a rare loss of temper, cursed the Almighty. “Our priorities are clear. Khamsin must be allowed to take shape. You must leave at once to take responsibility for our latest shipment. You will fly to a freighter steaming in the Adriatic, near Brindisi, off the Italian coast.”

  “May I gather my belongings?”

  “No. I’m afraid you may not. No time.”

  For once, Joseph protested. “I only need a few minutes.”

  “You will leave immediately,” Mevlevi commanded. “Take this bag. Inside you will find a passport, some clothes, and five thousand dollars. Once you are safely on board, I will contact you with further instructions. The profit from this transaction is essential. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, Al-Mevlevi.”

  “Very good.” Mevlevi wanted to tell Joseph more. He wanted to tell him that in two days his men would begin moving south toward the Israeli border; that they would travel in two groups, each three hundred strong; that they would move under cover of darkness, between the hours of two and six when American satellites did not have the region of southern Lebanon in their purview. Mostly, he wanted to tell Joseph that without the profits from this transaction, and the far greater sums those profits would almost immediately make available, Khamsin would surely fail—yet one more vainglorious, and ultimately suicidal, border incursion. But alas, such knowledge was his to bear alone.

  “The men who will meet you in Brindisi . . .”

  “Yes?”

  “I no longer know if they can be trusted. They may be with the Makdisis. Take precautions. Our shipment must reach Zurich as soon as possible. Once the merchandise is unloaded, accept no delays.”

  Joseph reached for the athletic bag. He grasped the handle, but Mevlevi refused to give it up. He stared deep into his retainer’s eyes. “You will not betray me.”

  Joseph stood straighter. “Never, Al-Mevlevi. I am beholden to you. You have my holy word.”

  CHAPTER

  37

  Marco Cerruti sat up in his bed. His breath came fast and shallow. He was soaked with perspiration. He opened his eyes as widely as possible, and slowly the room came into focus. Shadows looming in the dark took form. Phantoms sought refuge behind heavy curtains and antique dressers.

  Cerruti untangled his legs from the covers and turned on the bedside lamp. He was confronted with a portrait of his mother staring at him from the confines of her beloved armchair. He turned the picture facedown on the table and rose from the bed. He needed a glass of water. The cold tile of the bathroom floor sent a wash of clean sensation through his body, restoring his nerves. He drank a second glass of water, then decided upon a quick inspection of the apartment. Best to ensure he’d properly locked the windows and secured the elevator door. This done, he returned to bed, first arranging the sheets and covers. He climbed in, fastened the top button of his wool pajamas, then slid under the covers. His hand reached for the lamp but stopped midway there. He recalled the dreadful nightmare. Maybe it was smarter to leave the light burning a little longer.

  Cerruti laid his head on the pillow and stared at the ceiling. For weeks, the dream had not come. His recovery had progressed. Night was no longer a time to be feared. A return to work was hardly out of the question. And then the visits from Thorne.

  The American frightened him. So many questions. Questions about Mr. Mevlevi, about the Chairman, even about young Mr. Neumann, whom he had met only once. Cerruti had been polite, as he was with all his guests. Had offered the rude man a Coca-Cola and some biscuits. Had answered his questions respectfully. Of course, he had lied. But he had done it diplomatically, and with what he hoped was aplomb. No, Cerruti had sworn, he did not know a man by the name of Ali Mevlevi. No, he did not know a client at the bank nicknamed the Pasha. A supplier of heroin to the European continent? The bank did not work with such people.

  “You have a moral responsibility to assist us in our investigation,” Thorne had argued. “You are not just an employee of a dishonest bank. If you insist on keeping your mouth closed, you’re also an employee of Ali Mevlevi, a criminal just like him. I don’t plan on resting until I stop him. And after he’s sitting in a black hole forty feet underground, I’m coming after you. Count on it.”

  Funny, Thorne so concerned about Mevlevi being a big wheel in the heroin trade. Didn’t he know about the guns? Cerruti was a major in the Swiss Army—intelligence, of course—but he knew his way around the standard armaments of a light infantry battalion. He had never imagined that a private individual could purchase the monumental store of arms and munitions, the near mountain of materiel he had seen only two months ago at the Pasha’s compound: crates of machine guns, ammunition, pistols, grenades—both antipersonnel and incendiary. And that was the small stuff. He had seen several Stinger ground-to-air missiles, three anti-tank guns, and at least a dozen mortars, some large enough to lob a projectile five kilometers. Enough, Cerruti concluded, for a very messy little war.

  He reached for the glass of water on his night table. Recalling his last visit to Ali Mevlevi’s compound in the foothills above Beirut led inexorably to the root of his distress, the cause for his psychic dysfunction. Suleiman’s Pool.

  He had never in his life borne witness to so horrific a sight. He winced at the memory of the smell: the rank odor of a hundred midnight laboratories. Heshut his eyes against the recollection of the pale bodies drifting in the pool. He covered his ears to muffle the laugh. Mr. Mevlevi howling with glee as poor Marco fainted.

  Cerruti sat up in his bed for the second time that night. Perhaps Thorne was right. Perhaps Mevlevi did have to be stopped. The guns, the pool, heroin, too, according to the DEA. What more did he need to recognize a villain?

  Cerruti clutched the sheets to his chin as the nightmare returned. The black water. The demons lurking just beyond the periphery of his vision. He couldn’t go back to sleep with the dream awaiting him. Instead, he rocked gently back and forth moaning “Suleiman’s Pool.” He repeated the words like a mantra.Suleiman’s Pool. Switzerland had a law for just such a situation. And even though it remained more or less untested years after its inclusion in the country’s legal tomes, he knew that no one qualified more aptly as “a client whose activities lead the employee to infer illegal business practices” than Mr. Ali Mevlevi.

  Cerruti drew in several deep breaths. Tomorrow morning he would call Mr. Thorne and show him the papers that sat in his desk. He would turn over evidence of the Pasha’s accounts at the United Swiss Bank and confirmations of the transfers made twice each week. He would help the international authorities bring the scoundrel Mevlevi to justice.

  “No, Mr. Thorne, I am not a criminal,” he declared aloud to the silent walls, and then quietly to himself, “I don’t want to go to prison.”

  Cerruti sat upright in his bed, proud of his decision. Slowly, though, the faint smile faded. He couldn’t make such a momentous decision alone. Discussion was required. But whom could he share his feelings with at this late hour? He had no relatives, none at least who would understand such complex issues. Friends? None. Colleagues? He wouldn’t consider it.

  Cerruti lay in his bed thinking, and soon a damp sweat bathed his entire body. There was only one man with whom he could talk about this. The man who had helped him make so many of the major decisions in his life. Only he could help Marco rid himself of the nightmare.

  For the second time in a quarter of an hour, Cerruti turned back the sheets and rose from his bed. He padded to the closet and pulled out a terry-cloth robe. He walked through the apartment turning on all the lights, stopping
last in his small study, where he sat himself down behind his desk. He opened the drawer and removed a slim gray book—his personal phone directory—which he laid on his desk beside the telephone. His hand shook only a little as he found the proper page and located the number. He stared at the book, and though the apartment was heated to a mild seventy degrees, he began to shiver. For while he recognized the first number listed on the page, and had in fact called it on a hundred occasions during his long career, he had never called the second number.For emergencies, Marco, he heard the stentorian baritone tell him.For the closest of friends in the direst of times.

  Cerruti pondered his decision—whether this was an emergency, whether it was in fact the direst of times—and when after a few minutes of this he found himself unable to fight back an onslaught of tears, he knew he had his answer.

  At 1:37 A.M., he picked up the telephone and dialed his savior.

  # # #

  Wolfgang Kaiser picked up the phone on the second ring.

  “Now what is it?” he asked, keeping his head on the pillow and his eyes closed. A dial tone answered noncommittally. Nearby, a phone rang again.

  Kaiser dashed off the bedcovers and swung his feet to the floor. Kneeling, he grasped the handle of the bedside cabinet and flung open the door. A black telephone sat on a sliding drawer. His hand found the receiver as the phone rang once more.

  “Kaiser,” he announced in a gruff tone.

  “Please engage now.” A command.

  Kaiser pressed a transparent cube on the base of the special phone, engaging the Motorola Viscom III Scrambler. Static tickled his ear. The line bulged with white noise. A moment passed and the line regained its clarity.

  “Kaiser.” This time he spoke quietly, deferentially.

  “I will be arriving in two days,” said Ali Mevlevi. “Make the usual arrangements. Eleven A.M. Zurich Airport.”

  Kaiser placed the phone on his left shoulder, using his right hand to cover the mouthpiece. “Out,” he hissed to the lump on the far side of his bed. “Go to the bathroom, shut the door, and turn on the bathwater. Now!” He removed his hand from the phone. “Eleven A.M.,” he repeated. “Unfortunately, I cannot be there to welcome you.”