Page 65 of Clive Cussler The Iron Storm

“Watch it.”

“How do I know you’re not feeding me this so I spend my time trying to find your missing person for you?”

“In truth, you don’t, but I’ve got a hunch. Bell thinks the older brother, Karl, and his men are heading to New York. I believe that the guy who took a header out of a fifth-story window, who was from Hungary by the way, was sent from Europe as a courier by Karl Rath to alert his little brother to be ready for their arrival. According to what I’ve been able to piece together, this kid, Vano Hetzko, had arrived in the country less than six hours before he died.”

“Thin.”

“Absolutely gossamer,” Archie agreed. “But it makes some sense.”

“We had that down as a suicide.”

“Of course you did. Less paperwork. But my money says he had help going through that window. Balka Rath’s help.”

“Do you have any leads on finding him?” Tanner asked rather noncommittally.

“The dead kid was seen meeting a young woman in a bar on the Lower East Side.”

“Which bar?”

“Good Gotham’s.”

“Little out of my precinct, but I know it.”

“I’m sure you do.”

“Funny.”

“Anyway, the dead kid was found only four blocks from it.”

“Description of the girl.”

“Same as Balka Rath. Young. Dark hair and eyes. Pretty.”

“I don’t know, Arch. All you got linking them together is an Eastern European background. If it even was murder, she could have been a working girl and lured the kid to her pimp and he tossed him out the window.”

“He’d been in America for just a couple of hours, Al. He was definitely meeting someone. Someone who didn’t want to be seen meeting him. The girl is a cutout.”

Ever a dedicated cop, Tanner said, “If Rath is as dangerous as you think, that could put her at risk.”

“All the more reason to look into this.”

“I don’t like being manipulated.”

“Then you never should have gotten married. How about it, pal?”

Tanner blew a breath like he was a long-suffering victim. “Fine. I’ll get some men to poke around. We’ve got a rookie from somewhere in Hungary or one of those places. Maybe he can make some headway.”

“Thanks, Al. I owe you one.”

“More like four or five by now, but who’s counting?”

“Only you,” Archie said and hung up the phone, a wide grin on his face.

Once set in motion, he figured his plan would need a day or two to work.

34

The HMSMastiffcruised twomiles off the south coast of São Miguel Island, the largest of the Azores and home of the largest city, Ponta Delgada. The spine of the island was formed from several volcanoes, now covered with forest and some open meadows. The sea turned a frothing white when waves crashed into the rock ramparts that protected the isolated bit of land.