sat in a booth, De Vries on Har 's side..ry "I've got a legend for a brother!"
"Because Alexander Lassiter was a person. It's the only way it could be done."
"Well, you sure. pulled it off-at least up to a point, enough to get you there."
"You're talking about what Karin told you?"
"Well, yes-"
"Untrue. Totally false!"
"Harry, I said I could be wrong."
"You are wrong."
"Okay, Harry, okay." Drew held up both hands, palms forward.
"So she's wrong, it happens to be what she heard."
"Bastard sources, illegitimate, no confirmation."
"We're on your side, bro, you know that." The younger brother looked at De Vries, his expression questioning, disturbed.
"Alexander Lassiter was real," said Harry emphatically, wincing as he raised his left hand to his temple, rubbing it in circles.
"Ask Gerhardt Kroeger, he'll tell you."
"Who is-"
"Never mind," Karin broke in, shaking her head, "he's a fine doctor, your brother explained that to me."
"How about to me, bro? Who's this Kroeger?"
"You'd really like to know, wouldn't you?"
"Is it a secret, Harry?"
"Lassiter can tell you, I don't think I should."
"For Christ's sake, what the hell are you talking about? You're Lassiter, Harry Latham is Lassiter. Cut the bullshit, Harry."
"I hurt, oh, God, I hurt. Something's wrong with me."
"What is it, dear Harry?"
""Dear Harry'? Do you know how much that means to me? Have you any idea how much I love you, adore you, Karin?"
"And I adore you, Harry," said De Vries, suddenly finding the older Latham crying and falling into her chest.
"You know I do."
"I love you so much, so very much!" went on the semi hysterical babbling Harry as Karin cradled him in her arms.
"But I hurt so-"
"Oh, my God," said Drew softly, watching the astonishing sight across the table.
"We have to get him to a doctor," said De Vries, whispering.
"He began this in the car."
"You're damned right," agreed Drew.
"A head doctor. He was in deep cover too long. Jesus!"
"Call the em bass get an ambulance. I'll stay with y him."
The younger Latham got up from the booth just as two men carrying weapons came rushing through the entrance, both in stocking masks. The target and the kill were apparent.
"Get down!"
he shouted, pulling his gun from his hip holster and firing before the assassins had adjusted to the dim light. He took out the first killer and lunged behind the freestanding bar as the second man raced forward, his automatic weapon on rapid fire. Drew stood up,
squeezing the trigger repeatedly, emptying his magazine. The second assassin fell as the few scattered customers ran hysterically out the front door. Latham rushed from behind his worthless barrier. Karin de Vries was on the floor, her left hand still gripping his brother's arm; she had tried to drag him with her. She was alive, her right hand bloodied, but she was alive! But Harry Latham was dead, his head blown apart, a horrible mass of blood and white tissue, what was left of his brain in fragments, half out of his skull.
Drew, his mouth stretched in dread, shut his eyes in terror, then forced them open as he plunged his hands into his dead brother's pockets, pulling out his billfold and all other papers that could lead to his identity. Why? He was not sure, he just knew he had to do it.
He then pulled the sobbing Karin out from under the booth and, wrapping her hand in a cloth napkin, propelled her away from the terrible scene. He shouted to the management, who had fled into the kitchen, to call the police. He would make the proper inquiries later. It was no time to mourn the brother he loved, nor any moment to stare in remembrance at his corpse. He had to get Karin de Vries to a doctor, and then go back to work. The Brotherhood had to be destroyed, they had to be, if it took him the rest of his life, or if it took his life. It was a commitment he swore before any and all the gods there might be.
"You can't go to your office, don't you understand that?" said Karin, sitting on a gurney in the surgical annex of the doctor on the embassy's secure listing.
"The word will go out and you're a dead man!"
"Then my office has to be moved to wherever I am," said Drew, his voice low, insistent.
"I need all the resources we have, everywhere, and I'm not settling for anything less. The key is a man named Kroeger, Gerhardt Kroeger, and I'll find the son of a bitch, I've got to!