The Prague Plot: The Cold War Meets the Jihad (Jeannine Ryan Series Book 3) by James E. Mosimann Page A

at a Motel on Shady Grove. That’s where I took him last night.”
    “That’s far away from us, at least a half hour.”
    “Not far enough. He’s a womanizer. He’s dangerous. I’d feel safer if Johan Zeleny was gone. How did he have a son like Peter?”
    “He told you that Peter sent him to ask about someone named Vaclav Pokorny?”
    “Yes, but I don’t know if Peter did or not. I don’t trust the old goat. He was all over me! He told me that he could see why his son liked me. I shoved him away and he started talking drivel about greedy capitalists and keeping up the ‘People’s’ struggle, whoever the ‘People’ are, surely not me and you.”
    Aileen folded her arms and grimaced.
    “What’s more, I don’t believe he knows where Peter is.”
    At that point there was knock on the door. It was a UPS delivery for “Doctor Peter Zeleny” care of Ryan Associates.
    No sender was indicated.
    Jeannine Ryan studied the package.
    “Strange, why us? But Peter’s missing, I’m opening this now.”
    She tore open the wrapping.
    “There’s nothing here but packing, crumpled newspapers.”
    Aileen took several papers and flattened them on the desk.
    “These papers are not the same. This one must be Russian, it’s Cyrillic. And these are Czech, at least the alphabet is Latin. Wait, here’s one in English, ‘The Prague Post.’”
    Jeannine pointed at a small crumpled mass.
    “That’s not a newspaper.”
    Aileen smoothed the wrinkles flat. It was a memo on Hus-Kinetika Letterhead from a “Vaclav Pokorny.” She started. Peter’s father had asked about “Pokorny.” The text was in Czech, but the subject clearly was Xolak. The memo featured a table of numbers.

    Jeannine looked at the numbers and turned to Aileen.
    “Clearly ‘Rok’ means ‘year,’ so ‘Průměr’ must mean average.”
    She did some quick calculations.
    “Aileen, these are the real 3-point averages for Xolak. From 2003 on if I divide them by three, I get the fake values in the report. The increase in allergic reactions to Xolak is large and real!”
    She grinned.
    “And look. ‘Vaclav Pokorny’ is cited in the Appendix of the report. This memo is the proof we need for Larry Hodges and the FDA.”
    She pumped her fist.
    “This is proof that Hus-Kinetika faked the data!”
***
******

Chapter 11
Saturday, November 20
    In Nags Head, the gray Ford Excursion had been parked on a street behind the Patek Realty all morning. Both the driver and his passenger wore earphones. The driver stopped listening and lifted the headset from his ears. He turned to his partner.
    “I told you that local cop Harrigan wouldn’t know to check for bugs. What do you think of Mila spilling her guts like that?”
    “Why don’t we kill Gustav and grab Pokorny’s carryon for Karel? Then we can go to Bethesda and visit these ‘Ryan Associates’ or whoever and find that damn package.”
    “Sounds right.”
    “What about the Simek woman and meeting her at Whalebone Junction?”
    “Forget Simek. She knows nothing. We know that now. It’s the Patek woman who knows more than she lets on. She’s clever. She tells only what she has to.”
    “Pokorny is dead anyway. What do we do with his body? It can’t stay in the trunk.”
    “Hell, we’ll dump him in Currituck Sound. The idiot never should have betrayed Karel.”
    “He may have been an idiot, but he got the papers out of the country and into the USA and we don’t have them yet.”
    The driver fell silent for a moment. The passenger picked up his cell phone.
    “I must text Karel right away. He needs to know that Ivana is betraying him.”
    “Don’t be stupid. Karel won’t believe you. He’ll believe her before you. You accuse her and one of you will be in trouble, and it won’t be Ivana!”
    “You mean wait?”
    “No choice. She’ll slip up soon enough.”
***
    In Nags Head, Jim Harrigan looked down from the window of Mila’s house. The Ford Excursion on the roadway behind Mila’s realty