were asleep in the other rooms.
"We're not getting anywhere!"
"We've all agreed," said Latham, his eyelids like lead shields he had to constantly pry open, "if nothing comes down by six o'clock this morning, we take him and put him on the rack."
"There won't be a rack, Drew! Freddie never went into an operation without the means to kill himself if he was caught. He always said to me that it wasn't heroic at all, it was only his fear of torture. If he was exposed, he knew he'd eventually be executed, so why not avoid the pain.. .. It was one of the reasons I couldn't believe the Stasi file."
"You mean a cyanide capsule in a collar and all the rest of that crap?"
"It's real, you've seen it! Your brother Harry armed himself with the same pill!"
"He never would have used it." Latham's head fell forward over his chest, then his entire body lurched slowly back on the couch.
"Hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake, Drew! You said it yourself-he's found a way to do it!" Her plea was not heard; Latham was asleep.
"There's another way to stop him," said De Vries, whispering as she raced into their bedroom, yanked a blanket off the bed, and returned, covering Latham. She then -returned to the bedroom and picked up the phone.
A telephone rang, disorienting Drew, who fell off the couch, reaching for what was not there. He rose to his feet unsteadily; the ringing stopped and thirty seconds later a nearly dressed Witkowski burst out of the bedroom.
"Goddammit, she's done it!" shouted the colonel.
"Done what .. . ?" asked Latham, back on the couch and shaking his head.
"Gone after De Vries herself."
"What?"
"Karin used our codes and got clearance to pass through the jdger security."
"When?"
"A few minutes ago. The officer of the watch wanted to know whether to log her entry by code or by name."
"We're out of here! .. . Where's my weapon? It was right here on the table. My God, she took it!"
"Put on a jacket and a raincoat," said the colonel.
"It's been raining for the last hour."
"A car from German intelligence is on its way," announced Captain Dietz, rushing out of the third-bedroom door followed by his lieutenant, both fully dressed, their automatics bolstered.
"I picked up the phone and heard, "he explained.
"We've got to hurry, it'll take at least ten minutes to get there."
"Call the security chief and order them to stop her, or go in after her!" said Lieutenant Anthony.
"No," snapped Witkowski.
"Jdger's a mad dog. If he thinks he's cornered, he'll go wild, killing everything in front of-him. You heard the psychiatrists. Whatever the hell she thinks she's doing, she's better off doing it alone until we get there."
"And when we get there," said Drew quietly, yanking a jacket and a raincoat off a chair, "we're going in. Each of you has a second weapon. One of you give me his."
Identifying herself as a member of the N-2 unit, her name and code verified by the German intelligence officer in charge of the Jdger compound's surveillance team, Karin de Vries was given an overview as well as specific instructions.
"I have nine men strategically placed throughout the grounds with their equipment," said the officer, crouched in the pouring rain bele and a half-demolished wall of the old estate.
"Each is camouflaged and hidden in the foliage, several actually up in trees, and the rain, though extremely uncomfortable, is advantageous for us. Gunter Jdger's two patrols stray barely twenty-five meters beyond the boathouse cottage. You say that you must reach the door without being seen, and it's vital to our situation that you are not seen-so listen to what I tell you. Follow this old flagstone path until you reach the remnants of a burned-down gazebo where there's a croquet field rebuilt for Jdger's re-
Taxation. On the opposite side is a spreading pine tree; roughly fifteen feet above the first branches is one of my men with clear sight lines to the cottage. He has a penlight he will cup in his hand:
two flashes mean a guard is walking around, three mean everything's clear. When you see the three flashes, run across the center of the croquet course, where there is another flagstone path that curves to the left. Enter it and stop after approximately forty paces, at where the curve is the sharpest. Look to your right;
there'll be another man in the brush, another penlight. He has a direct line of sight to a side door which is