As he rose from the table, Howell took another look at the two Americans.
Or had it been a soldier’s mission from the very beginning?
__________
Just before midnight, the penzione’s sleepy porter knocked on Peter Howell’s door to inform him that he had a phone call. He was surprised to discover that his guest was dressed as though ready to go out.
Howell spoke briefly on the phone, tipped the porter, and disappeared into the night. The moon rode high in the sky, illuminating the shuttered shops of the Vuccira market. Howell crossed the empty square to the Piazza Bellini, then drifted along the Via Vittorio Emannuele, the city’s major thoroughfare. At the Corso Calatofini, he turned right, now just a hundred yards shy of his destination.
Dominating the Via Pindemonte is the Convento dei Cappuccini— the Convent of the Capuchins. While a striking example of Middle Ages architecture, the monastery’s real attraction lies below ground. In the catacombs that surround the convento are buried over eight thousand bodies, belonging to both lay and religious persons. Preserved through various chemical processes, they are placed in the niches along the corridors, and are dressed in the clothes the interred themselves had provided prior to their death. Those bodies that aren’t lined up along the cold, sweating limestone walls rest in glass coffins, stacked floor to ceiling.
Although open to the public during the day, the catacombs had been a favorite hiding place of smugglers for centuries. There were a dozen ways in and out, and Peter Howell, who had studied the catacombs carefully, knew them all.
As he approached the gates that fronted the parklike entrance to the monastery, Howell heard a low whistle. He pretended not to notice Grimaldi slip out of the shadows until the smuggler was only a few steps away. The moonlight created dancing pinpricks of light in Grimaldi’s gray eyes.
“What have you found out?” Howell demanded.
“Something worth getting out of bed for,” the smuggler replied. “The name of the man who hired the Roccas. He’s frightened. He thinks that after the Roccas, he’s next. He wants money to get off the island and hide on the mainland.”
Howell nodded. “Money isn’t a problem. Where is he?”
Grimaldi motioned the Englishman to follow him. They skirted the tall wrought-iron fence, moving into the shadows created by the monastery’s high walls. The smuggler slowed, then crouched by a small gate cut into the fence. His fingers were busy working the lock when Howell spotted the anomaly.
The lock was already open!
Howell moved like a wraith. As soon as Grimaldi pushed open the gate, he delivered a blow meant to stun, not kill, to the side of the head. Grimaldi let out a soft sigh and dropped, unconscious.
Howell didn’t pause. Slipping through the gate, he made his way along the hedgerow that formed a corridor to the entrance of the catacombs. He spotted nothing, which meant—
The trap was outside the perimeter, not inside!
Just as he whirled around, Howell heard the creak of the gate’s hinge. Two shadows hurtled toward him. In the split-second that the moonlight caught their faces, he recognized the soldiers from the tavern.
Instantly the knife appeared in his hand. Howell held his ground until the last possible second, then, like a matador, pivoted to allow the first soldier to rush past him. He swung the blade up and across, its cutting edge drawing across the man’s midsection.
Howell didn’t wait to see the killer drop. Feigning right, he moved left, but that didn’t fool the second soldier. He heard a soft shut! as a silenced automatic spat. The hot breath of the bullet almost kissed his temple. Howell dropped low, kicked out with his legs, and drove his heel into his assailant’s kneecap.
Instantly Howell grabbed the pistol, but before he could train the weapon on the soldier he saw Grimaldi stagger to his feet. The bullet meant for the soldier tore through Grimaldi’s throat, dropping the smuggler. As the second soldier fled, Howell tucked the gun into his waistband, ran over to Grimaldi, and dragged him inside the gate up to the entrance of the catacombs. As he expected, this door was also unlocked.
A few minutes later, Howell was deep inside the monastery’s tunnels. The light from a lamp he had found revealed his catch for the night: Grimaldi lay next to a large, concrete-lined ring whose cover had already been pried off. The wounded soldier, the front of his jacket covered with blood, was propped up against the three-foot-high concrete ring as well.
“Name.”
The soldier’s breathing was ragged, his face turning gray from the blood loss. Slowly he raised his head. “Screw you!”
“I went through your clothes,” Howell said. “No wallet, no identification, not even labels on your shirts. Only people with a great deal to hide go to those lengths. So what are you hiding?”
The soldier spat, but Howell was too quick. Standing, he hauled his captive up to the lip of the ring.
“Did you kill the monastery watchmen?” he demanded. “Is that where you disposed of them?”
Grabbing the soldier by the neck, he forced him halfway over the concrete ledge.
“Is that where you were going to throw me?”
The soldier screamed as Howell, holding him by his jacket collar, forced him over the yawning black hole. From fifty feet below rose the stench of brackish water.
Howell looked down at the red dots that darted at the very bottom.
“Rats. There’s probably enough water down there so that the fall won’t kill you. But they will. Slowly.” He jerked the man back.
The soldier licked his lips. “You wouldn’t…”
Howell stared at him. “You’re wounded. Your partner is long gone. Give me what I need and I promise you won’t suffer. Listen.”
Howell pushed him to the ground, then went over and picked up the inert form of Franco Grimaldi. He carried him to the well and without the slightest hesitation heaved him over the side. A second later there was a terrific splash followed by the high-pitched chatter of rats embracing their victim.
The soldier’s eyes rolled in terror.
“Name?”
“Nichols. Travis Nichols. Master Sergeant. My partner is Patrick Drake.”
“Special Forces?”
Nichols groaned as he nodded.
“Who sent you after me?”
Nichols stared at him. “I can’t…”
Howell grabbed him and jerked him close. “Listen to me. Even if you live you’d be nothing more than a loose thread that needs cutting. Especially when they discover that I’m not dead. The only chance you have is to tell me the truth. Do that and I’ll do what you need.”
Nichols slumped against the concrete ring. His words stumbled out on bright red bubbles.
“Drake and I were part of a special squad. Wet work. Communications by cutouts only. One of us would get a phone call— a wrong number, only it wasn’t. Then we’d go to the post office where we had a rented box. The orders would be waiting.”
“Written orders?” Howell asked dubiously.
“On flash paper. Nothing more than a name or a place. After that, we’d meet a contact and he’d fill us in.”
“In this case, the contact was Grimaldi. What were your orders?”
“To kill you and get rid of the body.”
“Why?”
Nichols looked up at Howell. “You and I are the same. You know nobody gives reasons for things like that.”
“Who is ‘nobody’?”
“The orders could have come from any one of a dozen sources: the Pentagon, army Intel in Frankfurt, the NSA. Take your pick. But with wet work, you know that the source had to be right up there, real high. Listen, you can throw me to the rats but that’s not going to get you a name. You know how these things work.”
Howell did.
“Does the name Dionetti mean anything to you?”
Nichols shook his head. His eyes were glassy.
Howell knew that no one except Marco Dionetti— the man who had opened his home and extended him his friendship— knew that he was traveling to Palermo. Dionetti… with whom he would have to have a little chat.
“How were you to report that this mission was successful?” Howell asked Nichols.
“Drop off a message at another post office box— no later than noon tomorrow. Number sixty-seven. Someone will come by…. Oh, Christ, it hurts!”
Howell brought his face very close to Nichols’s lips. He needed one last thing from Nichols, and prayed that the soldier had enough strength left to give it up. He strained to hear as the soldier finally let slip his most precious secrets. Then he heard the soft gurgle of the death rattle.
Leaving the lamp where it was, Howell took a moment to compose himself. Finally he hoisted the corpse and dropped it over the side of the well. Quickly, so that he wouldn’t have to listen to the rats, he pushed the heavy lid in place and locked it down.