Zero Day, стр. 25
Still, she had worn her hiking boots and tied up her hair into a bun under a baseball cap, just in case she had to go out there for some reason.
Through the two screens, Yona could see that the discussion was turning sour. The man was no longer smiling. In fact, he got up to walk away.
He passed by a single woman sitting three tables away. Neither looked at each other.
There was something about that woman…
“Could you zoom into that woman sitting alone at the table? Floral dress? Brown hair?” Yona asked.
One of the operators did.
“Whoa.” Yona was out of the van before anyone could stop her.
She saw Esperanza following the man down the street.
Yona walked quickly toward the woman at the table, and sat down across from the woman. “Hello, Aspasia.”
The woman didn’t reply.
“Still looking for Ulysses?” Yona asked.
No answer.
“Did you know he just walked past you?” Yona remembered telling the operators in the van that she didn’t think it was Ulysses, but she was fishing now for confirmation.
The woman looked startled and almost turned her head. “Why are you here?”
“We’ll talk later. He’s leaving the store right now.”
They both got up at once.
Aspasia was faster.
The man started to run.
Aspasia went after him. So did Yona, Esperanza and just about everyone in the operation.
Esperanza sprinted by Yona. “Didn’t I tell you to stay out of this?”
They nearly caught up with the man who suddenly pulled out a pistol—
“He’s got a gun, Espy!”
And he was pointing in Yona’s direction.
Or was it at Aspasia?
Yona tackled Aspasia and pushed her to the ground as she heard the sound of a single gunshot.
Thousands of feet stampeded around them as Yona and Aspasia hid under a table.
“You do this often?” Aspasia asked.
“Only when I need a witness.” Yona realized she had no weapons. She had her cell phone with her, but she didn’t have Esperanza’s number.
When the noise died down a bit, Yona peeked under the tablecloth. “Coast is clear.”
She got out and pulled Aspasia to her feet.
“He shot at me.” Aspasia was holding back tears.
“It could’ve been meant for the rest of us.”
“I don’t know.”
“Besides, he didn’t look like Ulysses.” Yona saw that the local Prague police was helping Esperanza and Ben apprehend the man, whose wig had fallen off.
“Oh yes. That was him.” Aspasia burst into tears. “After all these years, he shot at me.”
She rushed forward to kick Ulysses, but a police officer held her back.
“Fight him in court,” a tourist said within earshot.
“I will!” Aspasia replied. She turned to Yona. “You said you need a witness?”
“Yes.”
“You got yourself a witness.”
Chapter 23
Upon the advice of Dmitri and Esperanza, Yona could not appear in person to support Kelvin in his court case. None of them could show their faces in public. If Dario were in town, he would have done the same.
Poor Kelvin.
Yona had asked his lawyer to tell him that they were praying for him, for a speedy trial and for God’s perfect will to be done in his life.
She didn’t have to say that it wasn’t God’s perfect will that Kelvin committed multiple crimes. However, now that he had done them all, he had to pay for them.
At least some of them.
The severity of his punishment would be counterbalanced by not only his actions for the greater good but also by Aspasia’s scathing testimony of what Ulysses had made her do. Hiring Kelvin was one thing, but forcing him to work for the terrorists was another thing.
To take her mind off the matter, Yona did what she had promised Kelvin: take care of his cat.
Her hotel was only five or six blocks away, so she decided to walk. On the way there, she stopped at a corner store to buy cat food. She remembered Kelvin saying that Mordecai liked mackerel, tuna, or shrimp. She bought all three.
When she arrived at the abandoned building where she had first found Kelvin a month ago, she realized that the building had a new coat of paint. Perhaps it was finally sold.
She knocked on the smaller house next door.
After a while, an old lady opened the door.
“Tereza?” Yona asked.
The old lady nodded.
Using an English-Czech translator app on her phone, Yona said, “Hello, I’m Yona. I told Kelvin that I will check on his cat.”
Tereza greeted her back. Yona pointed her phone at her mouth so that the translator could pick up.
“He is still here,” Tereza said.
“The cat?”
Tereza nodded.
“He is eight years old, and I don’t let him go out anymore.”
Eight years? Not too old for a cat. “Why?”
“Because if he disappears, then when Kelvin comes out of jail, he will be sad.” The woman spoke so quickly that she had to repeat for Yona’s translator app to catch every word.
“I brought some cat food,” Yona said.
“Thank you,” Tereza said in English after listening to the translator app.
She invited Yona into her cramped living room, where the furniture looked as old as the house.
By the window, there was a slither of afternoon sunlight tracking across the wooden floor. Right in the middle of that sunshine—filtered through a sheer curtain—Mordecai was sleeping, legs spread out.
His fur was mostly gray, with white speckles under his chin and on his belly.
His eyes opened, and they were green.
“Do you want to feed him yourself?” Tereza pointed to two bowls near a wall. One had water in it, and the other was empty.
Yona hated seeing it empty.
“Are you hungry?” Yona waved a can in front of the cat.
Mordecai ignored her.
“We can feed him later. He will tell us when he is hungry,” Tereza said.
“How?”
“He will make a lot of noise. You will hear it.” She pointed to a couch. “Please, sit down. I will bring you some tea.”
“Thank you.” Yona found a clean spot and sat down on the couch.
She didn’t know what else to do other than to watch the cat sleep.
Every now and then Mordecai lifted his head