an old friend who's going to powder her nose, and so will M' She got up from the table and walked across the terrace, following another woman.
"What did she say?" asked Drew.
"The ladies' room," replied Dietz.
"Oh, that's all."
"I doubt it," said the equally fluent Anthony.
"What do you mean?" pressed Latham.
"The woman she's tailing is obviously Traupman's date for the evening," explained Witkowski.
"Is Karin crazy?" exploded Latham, whispering intensely.
"What does she think she's doing?"
"We'll know when she comes back, chlopak."
"I don't like it!"
"You don't have a choice," said the colonel.
Twelve frustrating minutes later, De Vries returned to the table.
"To use the American vernacular," she said in English quietly, "my new young friend hates the 'stinking pervert." She's twenty-six years old and Traupman takes her out to show her off, pays her money, and demands kinky sex when they return to his apartment."
"How did you learn that?" asked Drew.
"It was in her eyes.. .. I lived in Amsterdam, remember? She's a cocaine addict and desperately needed a dose to get through the evening. I found her giving herself one -also supplied by the good doctor."
"He's such a beautiful man," said Captain Christian Dietz contemptuously.
"One day the story will be told how many Iraqis were supplied a daily diet of that crap. Hussein made it part of the military diet! .. . Can this lead us to something?"
"Only if we can get into his apartment," answered Karin, "which could give us an enormous advantage."
"How so?" asked Witkowski.
"He makes videotapes of his sexual encounters."
"Sick!" spat out Lieutenant Anthony.
"Sicker than you think said De Vries.
"She told me he has a whole library, everything from alpha to zed, including little girls and boys. He claims he needs them to get properly excited."
"They could be awesome artillery," interjected the colonel.
"Embarrassment and public disgrace," said Latham.
"The most powerful weapons ever invented by man."
"I think we can do it," said Dietz.
"I thought you said we couldn't," whispered Anthony.
"I can change my mind, can't P"
"Sure, but your first assessments are usually right, Ringo. "
"Ringo?"
"He likes that movie, forget it, sit.. .. How, Chris?"
"First I Mrs. de Vries, since you learned about the tapes, I can only assume you made subtle inquiries about the apartment itself. Am I correct?"
"Of course you are. The three guards divide their duties, alternating to give each other breaks, I gather. One remains outside the door at a table with an intercom while the other two, as you described before, Captain, patrol the hallways, the lobby, and the exterior of the building."
"What about the elevators?" asked Witkowski.
"They don't really matter. Traupman has the penthouse, which is the entire top floor, and to reach it my disturbed young friend says you either enter a code, which is the normal procedure, or you're cleared by the building's own security desk after they've ascertained that you're expected."
"Then you're talking about two barriers," said Drew.
"Traupman's guards and the apartment building's inhouse security."
"Try three," interrupted Karin.
"The guard outside the penthouse door has to punch in a series of numbers for the door to open. If he punches in the wrong ones, all hell breaks loose. Sirens, bells, that sort of thing."
"The girl told you that said Lieutenant Anthony.
"She didn't have to, Gerald, it's standard procedure. My husband and I had a variation of that system in Amsterdam."
"You did?"
"It's a complicated story, Lieutenant," Latham broke in curtly.
"No time for it now.. .. So if we 'manage somehow-which is highly doubtful-to bypass the guards and the elevator-programmed security desk, we're stymied and probably shot outside the penthouse. It's not exactly an attractive scenario."
"Do you concede that we could possibly overcome the first two obstacles?" Witkowski asked.
"I do," replied Dietz.
"The drunk and the scratchycrotch, Gerry and I can take care of. The inside desk could probably be handled by a couple of very official types showing very official Ms." The captain settled his gaze on Latham and Witkowski.
"If they're really experienced at this kind of exercise, which the lieutenant and I went through twice in Desert Storm," he added.
"Say we do," said an increasingly irritated Drew, "how is anyone going to handle the penthouse robot?"
"There you've got me, sir."
"Perhaps not me," interrupted Karin, getting up from the table.
"If things work out, I'll be quite a while," she continued, speaking softly, enigmatically.
"Please order me a double espresso, it may be an exhausting night." With those words, De Vries took the long way out of the garden restaurant toward the entrance, and in case anyone was watching her, she doubled back along the walls beyond the