Free Valley of the Templars by Paul Christopher Page B

leather jacket and a pale green Gucci T-shirt crossed to Fusilier’s Gate from the far side of Grafton Street. He had slicked-back black hair, tanned skin and a single earbud line running down to his T-shirt and then under it.
    “Three, he’s got a shadow. Black leather jacket, green T-shirt, cream-colored linen pants.”
    “Three. Got him.”
    “Three, give him a ten-second lead and then follow him. I’m coming in now. You know what to do,” Black said.
    “Yes, sir. Three out.”
    “The rest of you keep your eyes open. He’s got ears on. There’s going to be others around.” Once again there was a series of clicks.
    Black swallowed the last of his cold coffee, left the store and walked across Grafton Street, thick with tourists even this early in the season, especially with everything in the country being on sale these days. He crossed over to Fusilier’s Gate and quickened his pace. He spotted Major a hundred feet behind Leather Jacket. Major was wearing a London Fog belted raincoat and a gray fedora, looking like something out of a Humphrey Bogart movie. Black spoke quietly. “Three, start the ball rolling.”
    Major began walking faster and so did Black. By the time Major had drawn even with the man in the leather jacket, Black was only twenty feet behind them both. Major drew ahead of the man and Black saw the shadow’s shoulders visibly relax. The man slowed his pace, letting Major get even farther ahead. Black put his hand into the right-hand pocket of his suit jacket and popped the top off the fountain-pen-like device he was carrying. In fact, it was a modified version of an insulin pen filled with a light dose of dihydroetorphine.
    In high concentrations the Chinese drug is used by zoos to tranquilize rhinoceroses. He laid his thumb across the CO 2 delivery button andlengthened his stride. Ahead of the man in the leather jacket, Major veered slightly and kept walking. He was now directly ahead of the shadow. The shadow dropped back a little, which in turn brought Black almost beside him to the left. Sensing someone behind him, the shadow turned. Black smiled and nodded pleasantly.
    The shadow turned again just as Major dropped to one knee and began fiddling with a shoelace. The man in the leather jacket stumbled, trying to get out of Major’s way, and barged into Black, who already had the CO 2 pen in his hand. As the shadow bumped into him, Black jabbed the end of the pen into the man’s thigh and hit the button. The timing was perfect. In the five seconds it took for the drug to take effect, Black and Major managed to get the shadow to a bench and get him seated. Oddly, in the distance he could hear a brass band playing the theme song to
SpongeBob SquarePants
.
    Black took a few extra seconds to go through his jacket pockets. He came up with a billfold and a blue Cuban passport with the words
Pasaporte Dimplomatico
in gold across the bottom. According to the passport the shadow’s name was Rudolfo Suarez and he was an assistant attaché at the Cuban embassy on Adelaide Court. Not likely. Black put the passport back into the unconscious man’s pocket.
    “This is Four. I’ve got a Hispanic couple at the run from the Shelburne entrance to the Green. Something’s up.”
    “Fucking hell,” said Black softly. The doctor had been told to wait at the fountain in the center of the park. If he saw two Secret Police coming after him, he was bound to panic. He was pretty shaky as it was. “Stop them, Four.”
    “How?”
    “How the bloody hell should I know? Arrest them, shout fire, tackle them. Shout out Viva Fidel! Just stop them!” Black turned to Major. “Come on, double time.”
    The two men began to stride quickly down the wide paved pathway. A hundred yards ahead of them, they could see the fountain and the bewildered-looking figure of the doctor. Suddenly the skies overhead opened and it began to pour. People in the park began to run for cover. Dr. Eugenio Selman-Housein vanished behind a