potatoes to security units. The moment a fire diversion is activated, they'll race to the subject to protect him, and there's no way to sedate the guards who aren't at surrounding tables, even if you know who they are."
"So you disagree with your associate," said Karin.
"It's not the first time, ma'am. We usually work it out."
"But you're his superior," Witkowski interrupted brusquely.
"We don't pay much attention to rank," said the lieutenant.
"Not in combat anyway. In a month or two I'll be a captain and then we'll have to split lunch and dinner checks. I won't be able to insist he pays anymore."
"The Thin Man eats like an ox," grumbled Captain Christian Dietz softly.
"I've got a hell of an idea," Latham suddenly broke in.
"It's damn near close to the yardarm, whatever that is.
Let's have a drink."
"But I thought you said-"
"Forget what I said, General de Vries."
The five members of Operation N-2 flew into Nuremberg on three different flights, Drew on board with Lieutenant Anthony, Karin with Captain Dietz, and Witkowski by himself. Claude Moreau had made the arrangements: Latham and De Vries had ad'oining rooms at the same hotel; Witkowski, Anthony, and Dietz were in different hotels across the city. Their rendezvous was the next morning at Nuremberg's main library, between the stacks of volumes devoted to the once-imperial city's history. They were shown to a conference room as three doctoral candidates and their professor from Columbia University in New York, along with their female German guide. No papers were required, as Moreau's agents had cleared the way.
"I had no idea this was such a beautiful place!" exclaimed Gerald Anthony, the only former Ph.D. candidate from America.
"I got up early and walked around. It's so medieval-the eleventh-century walls, the old royal palace, the Carthusian monastery. Whenever I thought about Nuremberg, all I conjured up were the World War Two trials, beer, and chemical plants."
"How could you be a student of the German arts and not have studied the birthplace of Hans Sachs and Albrecht Dfirer?" said Karin as they all sat around the thick, round, glistening table.
"Well, Sachs was primarily a musician and playwright and Direr an engraver and a painter. I concentrated on Germanic literature and the frequently terrible influences-"
"Do you two academics mind?" Latham interrupted as Witkowski chuckled.
"We have other things on the current agenda."
"Sorry, Drew," said Karin.
"It's just so refreshing to never mind."
"I can finish your comment, but I won't," Latham broke in.
"Who wants to go first?"
"I got up early too," replied Captain Dietz.
"But not being so aesthetically inclined, I studied Traupman's residence. The [email protected] report said it all. His gorillas prowl around that complex like a wolf pack. They go in, they go out, they circle the building and come back; one disappears, another appears. There's no way to penetrate and live to tell about it."
"We never seriously considered taking him in his apartment," said the colonel.
"The [email protected]'s men here in Nuremberg are our observers. They'll keep us informed by phone codes when he leaves his residence. One of them should be here pretty soon. You wasted your time, Captain."
"Not necessarily, sit. One of the guards is a heavy drinker; he's a big, beefy guy and doesn't show it, but he swigs from a flask whenever he's in shadows. Another's got a rash in his crotch and on his stomach--crabs maybe, or poison oak or ivy-he literally runs into dark areas and scratches the hell out of himself."
"What's your point?" asked De Vries.
"Several, ma'am. Having that information, we could position ourselves to take one or the other or both, and once having taken them, use what we've learned to extract information from them."
"You employed these tactics in Desert Storm?" Witkowski was obviously impressed.
"It was mostly food there, Colonel. A lot of those Iraqis hadn't eaten in days."
"I want to know how he enters and leaves his limousine," said Drew.
"He's got to walk out of the apartment house and into his car, then at the hospital he has to get out of the limo and into the hospital. Whether aboveground or in underground parking lots, he's got to be exposed, if only briefly. Those may be our best opportunities."
"The compressed times and locations could also work against us, sir," offered Lieutenant Anthony.
"If we consider them, so will his bodyguards."
"We have dart guns, silencers, and the element of surprise," said Latham.
"They've worked more often than not."
"Go easy," admonished Witkowski, "one miss and we're out of business." If they even get a whiff of what we're doing here, they'll pack