I wasn't trying to top you, but they were there."
"So tomorrow morning we hit on a boot maker and someone in an amusement park who gives away free tickets-not exactly a French tradition. Christ, I'm tired. Let's go home.. .. No, wait a minute! What, about the trap you set at Sacro-Coeur?"
"What trap?" asked an astonished Witkowski.
"The trap! Courier Sixteen at the top of the funicular."
"Never heard of it." Both men looked at Karin de Vries.
"You?"
"I did that for Freddie many times," said Karin, smiling awkwardly.
"He used to say, "Make up something, the more foolish the better, for we're all fools."
"Just hold it, both of you," said Witkowski, shaking his head, then looking at Drew.
"Are you positive no one could have followed you here?"
"I'll overlook the insult, and give you my professional reply. No, you son of a bitch, because I knew better than to take three changes of vehicles, which could have been picked up electronically, but you're too antediluvian to know that. Our changes took place underground, on the Metro, not three, but five.
You got that? ""Oh I do like your anger. My sainted Polish mother always said that there was truth in anger. It was the only thing you could trust."
"That's fine. Now may I call a taxi and get us both home?"
"No, that's the one thing you can't do, lad. Since no one knows where you are, you'll stay right here, both of you. I've -got a guest bedroom and that very nice couch over there.. .. I suspect you'll be on the couch, youngster, and I'll thank you not to drink up all of my whisky."
The frustrated Blitzkrieger unit had returned to headquarters from the "trap" at Sacr&Coeur only to be met by muted confusion. It served to heighten the elite killers' anger.
"There was no one!" spat out the ojder Paris Five, throwing himself into a chair at the conference table.
"Not a goddamned man or woman who even looked like a contact! We were set up-a foolish and dangerous waste of time. "
"Where's our so brilliant leader, Zero One?" asked another member of the unit, addressing the three remaining Blitzkrieger who had not been sent to Sac rE-Coeur.
"He may be in charge between his changes of diapers, but he's got an explanation or two to deliver. If we were set up, we were undoubtedly spotted!"
"He's not here," replied another neo killer, his elbow on the table, his voice a mixture of weariness and boredom.
"What are you talking about?" cried Paris Five, sitting up sharply.
"The ten o'clock call from Bonn. He had to be here for it."
"He wasn't, and no call came," said another.
"Could it have come in on his private line?"
"No, it could not and did not'. answered the weary Blitzkrieger whose number was Zero Two, Paris.
"When he didn' tshow up, I sat in his putrid office from nine thirty to quarter of eleven. Nothing. . Zero One may be a devoted favorite of our superiors, but I wish he'd bathe more often. That room is a stink tank."
"Taking a shower takes him away from his throne, and all its gadgets."
"He's a mad child in an electronics toy store-"
"Careful," interrupted yet another.
"Dissension's frowned upon, I remind you."
"Legitimate criticism isn't," pressed Paris Five.
"Where is One and why isn't he here? I gather you haven't even heard from him."
"You 'gather' correctly, but then, we all understand the friction between you two
"Admitted and irrelevant," said Five, standing up, his lean frame over the table, supported by strong, splayed out hands.
"However, his behavior now is unacceptable,
and I'll express that to Bonn. Our team is sent out on a false mission filled with jeopardy-"
"We all heard the embassy tape," the weary Paris Two broke in.
"We agreed it was the priority."
"We certainly did, I foremost. But instead of leading this priority assault, our first Zero chose the secondary Bois de Boulogne on the pretext that he could not return from the Sacro-Coeur in time for the call from Bonn. There was no call and he's not here. An explanation is definitely required."
"Perhaps none is available," said a previously silent Blitzkrieger at the far right end of the table.
"However, there was another call, our informer at the American Embassy."
As one, the unit from Sacro-Coeur reacted like startled cats.
Again Five spoke.
"It's absolutely forbidden for him to contact us directly, especially by telephone."
"He felt the information warranted his disobedience."
"What was it?" demanded Three.
"The subterranean, Colonel Witkowski."
"The coordinator," added Paris Two quietly.
"His impressive connections in Washington are familiar to our our people over there."
"Whit was