Nancy drew in a sharp breath. She had heard that sound before. It was the sound of a cocked pistol—and it was pressed against the side of her head.
Her heart began to hammer in her chest, and she thought, One move and I’m dead.
Chapter Fifteen
“Don’t move,” said a man with a deep, accented voice, as if he were reading her mind. Nancy didn’t dare turn to look at him.
In the next instant she heard the metallic sound of another gun being cocked, and her heart sank. Mick was in danger, too!
Loud male voices growled in a language Nancy didn’t understand. When she dared to glance slightly toward her right, she saw that Spiros was arguing with one of the terrorists, the scar-faced man. From studying the photos, Nancy remembered that his name was Mashti.
The other two, Shara and Rashid, stood nearby. The pistol at Nancy’s head was held by Rashid, while Shara had her gun trained on Mick.
Spiros waved off Mashti defiantly, then pointed at Nancy. “Ask her,” he spat, switching to English. “She can tell you where your passports went.”
Nancy felt her mouth go dry as the muscular Mashti lunged toward her and yanked her arm.
“Hand over the passports—now!” he demanded.
“I don’t have them,” Nancy said. She wasn’t about to let them know that Bess was on her way to the police station with them at that very moment.
“Ah, but she can get them,” Spiros objected.
Infuriated, Mashti kicked up a puff of dust, then pressed his face close to Nancy’s. The hair on her neck stood on end as his hot breath brushed her skin. “You are going to get those passports for me—if you want to live.”
Nancy saw a sudden movement behind him, and she realized that someone was coming. The police—at last, she thought.
A moment later she gasped in horror as she recognized George.
“There you are!” George cried. “Bess told us you were up here guarding—”
She stopped short, taking in the situation. “Whoa!” Kevin said, stopping next to her.
Mashti pulled out a revolver, whirled, dropped to a crouch, and trained the gun on Kevin and George. “Stop!” he shouted.
George and Kevin froze, their faces reflecting total shock. Quickly Mashti corralled them against the wall of the windmill so that they stood beside Nancy and Mick. One by one the terrorists patted down Nancy and her friends. Nancy suspected they were searching for weapons or the forged passports. They found nothing.
After a heated argument with Spiros, Mashti pulled Nancy away from the wall of the windmill.
“You will get the passports back,” he ordered, shaking his fist in her face. “Bring the passports to the cave on Dragonisi—you know the one. You have three hours. Be there by six o’clock, or your friends will die.” Then he backed away.
For a moment Nancy couldn’t believe her eyes. The terrorists were letting her and Mick go free!
Then her heart sank as she saw them nudge George and Kevin with their guns, pushing them toward the stairs. They were going to use George and Kevin as hostages!
This can’t be happening! Nancy thought. Tears filled her eyes as George flashed her a look of desperation, then turned away. Nancy watched, horrified, as the three terrorists descended the stairs, hurrying George and Kevin along at gunpoint.
“He says that he has forged passports many times in the past, but never before for anyone he thought was dangerous,” Zoe murmured. “With him, forging is an art, like the miniature statues he makes.” In a small, hot room of the police station, Zoe was translating Spiros’s statement.
“The terrorists had heard of his reputation, and they threatened to kill him if he did not do as they asked,” Zoe went on. She seemed disappointed in her family’s friend, and Nancy didn’t blame her. She guessed that it was an art to recreate something as intricate as a passport, but that didn’t justify breaking the law.
Zoe and Officer Rossolatos had helped move things along quickly. Spiros was under arrest. Two men had been sent out to search Mykonos for the terrorists and their hostages—just in case they hadn’t left the island yet. And the police chief had put in a call to Interpol, the international police network. The police would take action once Interpol arrived.