“Mac?”
“Yeah, it’s me.” He peeked inside, keeping his pistol trained on the doors at the end of the hallway.
Ava stood from behind a desk of red marble, furiously pushing her hair out of her face. Her eyes were wide, “adrenaline eyes,” and she was wearing the dress from the day before, but otherwise she appeared unharmed. “Did you get him?” she asked, half out of breath.
“You mean TNT?”
“Go,” she shouted, waving a pistol at him. “Find him. Kill him.”
Mac ran to the end of the hall, looking both ways, not seeing anyone. Any emotion he’d had upon finding her alive and seemingly unhurt came and went before it registered. Her mission had become his. Kill TNT. Aye, aye, sir. Good to see you too.
Mac entered the media room, then rushed down the adjacent hallway. There was no sign of TNT and no time to search for him, nomatter the urgency in Ava’s voice. She might want him dead, but the police were in the house. It was a matter of minutes, less even, until they reached the fourth floor.
Mac retraced his steps to the office. “He ran away.”
“Shit,” said Ava. She was kneeling beside a woman who lay on the floor just behind the desk. The woman’s head was canted unnaturally, her eyes open. It was a position he’d seen too often.
“A friend?”
“Something like that,” said Ava. “Her name was Dahlia. She worked with Zvi.”
Mac nodded. Zvi was Zvi Gelber. They’d met once or twice back in the day. No time for questions, no matter how badly he wanted to know. Knowing that Zvi Gelber was involved was enough. “We have to leave.”
“So it was you,” said Ava, pointing to the window.
“I needed a distraction,” said Mac. “Get everyone out of the house.”
“To find me.”
“Yes.”
“She said you wouldn’t listen,” whispered Ava.
“Pardon me?”
“The message in the hotel. ‘Get out.’ Guess it didn’t sink in.”
“I only saw it after two guys tried to kill me,” said Mac. “I wasn’t in the mood to take advice from anyone.”
“I didn’t know,” said Ava.
“You wanted him to kidnap you,” said Mac.
Ava nodded, and a piece of the puzzle fell into place.
“Did you get what you came for?” asked Mac.
“Think so.” Ava picked up the laptop off the floor, then came closer and kissed him. “Good to see you.”
“Sure?”
“I’m sure,” said Ava. “I had him, you know.”
“Yeah, you did,” said Mac.
“Thanks anyway,” said Ava. “Maybe I didn’t have him.”
“We can’t take her,” said Mac, gesturing to the woman. Dahlia.
