where I would have done it,” Kate agreed.
“MI-6 doesn’t always get it right,” Jake commented.
“Nobody does. That’s why they have us.”
Jake chuckled. “They have us when they want to take the gloves off and throw the rulebook out the window.”
Kate smiled.
“So what if everything’s snafued in Istanbul?” Jake asked.
“We improvise.”
9
Istanbul
Desperate, Ajza ran through her options. If she drove the truck where Mustafa wanted it, she’d know where it was for a while, but she didn’t doubt that the weapons would be quickly moved. Or she could depend on her support team suddenly materializing and getting her out of the current situation. But it didn’t seem like that was about to happen.
She was sweltering in the growing heat of the day and had to work hard to keep the truck headed straight. The steering had a lot of play, which necessitated constant attention.
She didn’t like the possibility of parking the weapons somewhere and losing them. The question of who was going to be using them and for what purpose never left her mind. Over the past few years she’d seen firsthand the kind of carnage left by al-Qaeda and other terrorists.
“I could have driven the truck,” Fikret complained from the passenger side.
Ajza looked around and got her bearings. She was only a few blocks from the harbor. A desperate plan formed in her mind.
“All I needed was another chance,” Fikret went on. He glared at Ajza. “There’s nothing you can do that I can’t.”
Traffic came to a halt. Ajza studied the cross street ahead. It was one of the major ones. She was certain the harbor area was nearly a straight shot down it. At least, as straight a shot as the streets of the old city allowed.
“You should not have volunteered,” Fikret said. “You only did so to make me look bad.”
Ajza couldn’t be quiet any longer. “If you could have driven the truck, you would not have looked bad. If you had not volunteered, you would not have looked bad. You brought this on yourself.”
“I could have driven the truck. I only needed a little more time to figure out how to do it better.”
Slowly traffic started forward again. The sedan she was following powered through the intersection.
Gripping the wheel, knowing her next action would put her life on the line, Ajza turned right and jammed her foot down hard on the accelerator. The truck responded immediately. She swung out wide around the corner and momentarily crossed bumpers with a panel truck waiting in the oncoming lane. Metal grated as she broke free and kept going.
“What are you doing?” Fikret demanded. He held on to the door. “You weren’t supposed to turn.”
Ajza straightened the wheels and sped down the street. The heavy traffic looked problematic. She shifted gears and gained speed. A taxi stopped in front of her to pick up a fare. Ajza pulled to the left and narrowly avoided it. The truck’s bumper scraped the side of a car, setting off a cascade of car horns.
“Stop!” Fikret roared. “Stop the truck now!” He reached for the steering wheel.
Ajza grabbed the pistol from under her thigh and clubbed the big man in the face with it. Blood spouted from his nose and he drew back, cursing in pain and anger.
“Get out,” Ajza commanded. She pointed the pistol at him.
“What?”
“Get out of the truck.” Ajza glanced in the side mirrors and saw that the rest of the convoy were hot on her heels. They closed the gap rapidly.
Fikret didn’t move. He had one massive hand clamped to his nose. He reached for his rifle with the other.
Ajza fired her pistol and missed the big man’s head by inches. The bullet slammed into a building at the side of the street.
“Get out!” she shouted over the ringing din of the pistol report. “Or I put the next one through your head.”
Fikret swung the door open and turned to leap out. Fear held him frozen.
Ajza turned in the seat, raised a leg and shoved her foot hard between Fikret’s shoulder blades. He grunted as his breath left his lungs. He lost his grip on the door frame and tumbled out.
In the next instant the open door collided with a parked truck. The window shattered and glass fragments peppered the inside of the truck. The impact slammed the door shut with a metallic screech.
Ajza’s heart pounded as she looked at the side mirror. The two vehicles tailing her pulled up alongside. Their occupants, men with whom she had eaten dinner the night before, brandished guns. A couple of them fired their weapons, and bullets ricocheted from the truck’s cab and tore through the body.
Wrenching the wheel, Ajza slammed into the lead car. The truck’s greater bulk shoved the car sideways. The car plowed through an outdoor café, narrowly missing the few patrons sitting there with coffee and breakfast. The car crashed into the corner of the next building.
Ajza hoped that Nazmi wasn’t in the car. She liked him. She focused on her driving and spotted a police vehicle at the light ahead of her. Two police officers occupied the vehicle, but neither of them noticed the wreck Ajza left in her wake.
She tapped the brake and pulled to the left again. But she allowed her front bumper to scrape across the police vehicle’s back bumper. Although she’d tried to keep the collision to a minimum, the force spun the police car halfway around.
“All right,” Ajza said, glancing in the side mirror as she passed the police car, “come get me.”
The police car’s lights came on and the siren screamed to life. Two cars bearing Mustafa’s men roared past it.
Traffic became more difficult the closer she got to the harbor area. She braked and downshifted almost constantly to avoid smashing into vehicles. The truck’s transmission groaned as she kept up the pace. Bullets smacked into the truck’s rear.
Ajza’s gut twisted as she thought about the explosion waiting to erupt if anything especially potent in the crates got hit. She took evasive action, swinging wildly across the street to block the cars zooming up behind her.
She tried to push one of them into a nearby building, but the driver pulled back and she only rammed into the building herself. Something fell in the truck’s cargo area. Ajza waited for the detonation. Nothing happened.
Lying on the horn as she powered into the last intersection, she headed for the pier. She didn’t know where she was, but the broad expanse of gray-green water in front of her told her she’d reached the harbor. Ships and boats sat at anchorage.
The large cranes and forklifts marked the area as one of the commercial districts. Men dodged out of the way as she barreled through. Another blistering hail of
