latter had seen Harry Latham get back on the Metro train after the gunfire. Of all the officials in French Intelligence, Moreau was the last who would dare lie to the Brotherhood. Should he do so, he would become a pariah, a man disgraced beyond redemption. Scores of financial transfers to his account in Bern guaranteed it.
My inner source, concluded the message from Bonn, tells me that Documents and Research mocked up papers for a Colonel Anthony Webster, a military identification card, and an embassy requisition for rooms at the Hotel Inter-Continental on the rue de Castiglione. The same source further states she briefly saw the plastic ID card. The inserted photograph was obviously also mocked, a man with familiar features but with blond hair rather than dark brown, and wearing a uniform and large-framed glasses.
Although she has never seen a photograph of Harry Latham, she believes the man in the picture is his brother, Drew Latham, a Consular Operations officer. According to embassy records, authorized by security, the body of Drew Latham was flown back to the family in the United States. However, my own research, including the manifest records of American diplomatic aircraft, shows no such transfer for the date in question. Therefore, in'my judgment, the Latham at the Inter-Continental is not Harry Latham but his brother. Together with embassy security and the Dutch woman, De Vries, they have mounted a strategy to entrap a member or members of our Brotherhood. What the nature of the trap is I hope to learn tonight, as I will post myself outside Latham's hotel, and if it takes all night and all day, I will take him and learn. Or I will kill him in the method prescribed.
Rubbish! thought Kroeger. Brothers frequently have similar features. Why would the Americans lie about the slain Latham?
There was no reason to, and every reason not to! Harry Latham's list was the key to the global search for the reemerging Nazis everywhere. They needed him, which was why they were going to such lengths to keep him alive, from enlisting the contentious Antinayous to issuing false military identification cards and moving him from hotel to hotel. Harry Latham/ Alexander Lassiter was an intelligence tiger; he mourned his brother and wanted revenge at all costs. Little did he know that in roughly twenty-eight hours it wouldn't make any difference to him; he would be dead. But it did to Gerhardt
Kroeger. He had to find him and blow his head apart. Now he knew where to go, hoping rather desperately that their informer had already performed the execution properly
It was two-ten in the morning and Kroeger put on his jacket and a light raincoat; the raincoat was necessary if only to conceal the large, heavy-calibered pistol that held six Black Talon shells. Each bullet penetrated the flesh and spread on impact like a lethal Roman candle, leaving total destruction in its wake.
"You're being picked up at three o'clock sharp," said Witkowski.
"Not before?" asked Latham.
"Hell, it's only forty-five minutes. By the time you come down, I want a unit in the lobby and a team in the street. That takes a little organization, proper civilian clothes and all."
"I approve. What about Karin?"
"She's out of harm's way, as you wanted. Blond wig and all, as I think you suggested."
"Where ?"
"Not where you are."
"You're all heart, Stanley."
"You sound like my mother, God rest her soul."
"Why can't I wish the same for yours?"
"Because you always want instant gratification, and I won't permit it.. .. One of my people will pick up your luggage and attache case fifteen minutes before you go down. If anyone asks where you're off to, just tell him you can't sleep. Another of your strolls outside. We'll take care of the hotel later."
"You really believe Reynoldstipped off other ncos here in Paris?"
"Frankly, no, because from what we can piece together, his killer platoon is gone-who was he going to reach? No one in Germany could get here in time, and this Kroeger's a doctor, not an assassin.
My judgment is that he's here to confirm, not to pull an y triggers, assuming he knows how. Reynolds was acting solo because he'd been spotted in the street outside of my place and wanted to make up for it. Killing you would have given him points."
"We can't be sure he knew he was spotted, Stanley."
"Really? Then why didn't he show up at the embassy in the morning? Remember, chlopak, two ncos got away while surviving my externals-"