“Good afternoon, Sir Donald. I am calling in regards to an important business matter.”
“Do I know you?”
“Our paths have not crossed, I don’t believe. You may call me Igor.”
Fitzroy was short with the caller. There was more thanenough on his plate to where he felt no need to be polite to some heavily accented solicitor. “And you may call me not interested. I am busy. If you have legitimate business, you can bloody well contact my secretary and make an appointment.”
“Yes... well, the Gray Man seems to think he represents legitimate business to you. He told me to call, is insisting you will pay handsomely for his safe return.”
“The Gray Man is with you?”
“Indeed.”
“Which team are you with?”
“Which team? I am my own team, sir.”
Fitzroy and Lloyd looked at one another. Lloyd pushed the mute button. “I don’t think this is one of our hunters.”
Sir Donald tapped the button to allow the caller to hear him. “Let me talk to him.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible at the moment.”
Lloyd hit the mute button again. He turned to the Tech at the bank of computers on the wall. The young man said, “The call originated in Budapest, the Pest side. He’s got some misdirection software on it. I’ll try and get it pinned down.”
Lloyd looked up at the large map on the wall monitor. “What’s Court doing in Budapest, for fuck’s sake?”
Fitzroy ignored him and hit the speaker box in the middle of the table, releasing the mute yet again.
“I... I may be very interested in accommodating you, Igor. I just need assurance that my man is, in fact, in your care.”
“No trust in this world, that’s what’s wrong. Very well, Sir Donald. Give me a moment. I don’t move as quickly as I used to.” There was shuffling through the speakers for nearly a minute. Then finally, “Go ahead, Mr. Fitzroy, you may speak.”
“Lad? Is that you?”
Gentry’s voice, distant or muffled by something: “He called the agency. A kill squad will be here in less than ninety minutes, Don! I’m in—”
There was more scratching and shuffling over the speakers. Then the accented voice came back on the line. “You have one hour, Sir Donald. Wire five hundred thousand euros, and I will have your boy spirited away in plenty of time to avert a counteroffer from a competitor. Here’s the account number. Do you have a pen?”
A minute later, the call was disconnected. Both Fitzroy and Lloyd looked to the Tech. The young Brit with the nose ring shook his head.
“Budapest, Sixth District. That much we know. But I couldn’t pinpoint it closer. There are a quarter million phones in the Sixth District. He could have called from any one of them.”
Lloyd was annoyed but in too much hurry to show it. He turned to his captive. “Who does he know in Budapest?”
Fitzroy rubbed his forehead and shrugged.
“Think, damn you! Who would Gentry go see there?”
Sir Donald lifted his head quickly. “Szabo! Not in my Network, you see; an old counterfeiter, used to work for the Reds back in—”
Lloyd interrupted “Got an address?”
“I can get it.”
“My closest kill team is in Vienna, a hundred miles away. No way we can have them there in that time frame. We’ll have to pay Szabo off to keep Gentry out of the CIA’s hands.”
Fitzroy shook his head. “Forget it. Szabo is a snake. If hecalled the CIA, he did it to curry favor with them. He just called me because Gentry told him I’d pay for his release. Laszlo Szabo will take my money and still give him up to the CIA. He’ll fuck me over long before he’ll fuck them over.”
