Dark Watch (Oregon Files 3)

The light stopped blinking. The alarm had been

disabled. Hali shot a questioning look at his partner.

“Hey, man you should have paid more attention to Max’s briefing.” Linc’s smile was that of the Cheshire Cat. “Isphordings have two grown children. One born on April second and the other March first. Four/two, three/one. Elementary, my dear Hali, elementary.”

Hali spent a few more minutes with the alarm panel to disable the panic buttons. One on this control and no doubt one next to the Kara Isphording’s bed.

“All right, clear out,” the chairman whispered as he and Doc Huxley entered the foyer. “If we’re still inside after twenty minutes, assume everything’s okay and you can head back to the safe house. Julia will take Mrs. Isphording’s car to Regensdorf tomorrow. Once she’s back she’ll babysit her over the weekend, and I’ll borrow the car to get back to the city.”

After Hali and Linc returned to the SUV, Juan stepped outside and dialed the Isphording residence from his cell. He heard the phone ring in his ear and throughout the house. After the third ring a sleepy voice croaked, “Allo?”

“Frau Isphording, my name is Yuri Zayysev,” Juan said in Russian-accented English. “I am an associate of your husband. It is important that I see you tonight.”

“Was? Nein. That is not possible,” Kara Isphording groused, switching to English. “Mein Gott, it is two o’clock in the morning.”

“This concerns your husband’s safety, Frau Isphording.” Juan had deepened his voice, adding menace. By now she must have realized that many, perhaps all, of her husband’s clients worked the other side of the law. “I am just outside your home. Please meet me downstairs. I have already disabled your alarm system. If I wanted to harm you, I would have done so already.”

“Who are you?” Fear had crept into her tone.

“Someone who is trying to help you and your husband. He is a trusted member of an organization I work for, and we have learned that he’s been targeted for assassination on Monday morning.”

“Assassination?”

“Yes, Frau Isphording. By members of the PLO.”

“What did you say your name is?”

“Yuri Zayysev. I have been sent from Saint Petersburg to help your family.”

She had to know Rudolph did a great deal of work with Russians, because after a moment’s pause she agreed to meet. Juan was relieved. He could have simply bound and gagged the woman in her bed, had Julia send away the maid when she arrived in the morning, and put his plan into motion. However, that wasn’t his style. The woman was an innocent in this affair, and he wouldn’t put her through any more than absolutely necessary.

A light at the head of the stairs came on. Made up and properly dressed, Kara Isphording was not an attractive woman. But fresh from her bed with her hair awry and her face puffy with sleep, she was downright scary. She’d donned a heavy robe over whatever she wore to sleep in, and Juan fervently hoped it wouldn’t slip open. For this meeting he was dressed in black jeans, a black shirt, and a large black leather jacket, the de rigueur uniform of an enforcer in the Russian mafia. He’d dyed his hair and five days’ worth of beard a ginger red. He also wore tinted contacts that darkened his bright blue eyes.

“I am sorry to disturb you, Frau Isphording,” Juan said when she reached the first floor. Neither made a move to shake hands. “There was no other way. Plans are in motion to free your husband, but we need your help. You are the only one allowed to see him at Regensdorf, and he needs to be made aware of what is happening.”

“You said someone wants to kill my Rudy?” She dumped herself into a chair. Tears were already in her eyes.

“Yes. You may not be aware, but factions within the Palestinian movement believe your husband is the key to a great deal of their money. Perhaps billions of dollars.”

“But…but he said that what he did for the Palestinians was legal.”

Juan knelt in front of the frightened woman and took her trembling hands in his. “That may be true, but for these people rumor is as good as fact. They are either going to kill him on Monday or try to abduct him. We must act before they do.”

“I don’t…I don’t know what to do. Shouldn’t you tell the police?”

“Your husband’s testimony has already ruined the careers of several prominent people in business and the government. There are even more powerful people who would like nothing more than for your husband to be silenced.”

Juan could see he was being too circumspect. Kara Isphording was already at the end of her mental and emotional rope and couldn’t grasp what he was saying. He couldn’t blame her. A year ago she was married to a successful lawyer and enjoying the genteel life of a Swiss hausfrau. Today she was bombarded with reporters and dosed daily with stories about her husband’s criminal activities.

“What I am trying to tell you is the police won’t prevent an attack on your husband.”

“But that’s just not right!” she cried indignantly. “We pay taxes.”

Cabrillo almost smiled at her naïveté. “As the Americans would say, your husband has stirred up a hornets’ nest. I am here to make sure he isn’t the last one stung.”

She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue that looked like it had been in her pocket for as long as she’d owned the robe. She tried to square her shoulders. “I don’t know what to do. What do I tell Rudy? What is your plan?”

“You don’t have to do anything, Frau Isphording.” Juan turned his head and called into the dining room. “Ludmilla.”