out of reach of a telephone. As you are aware, we are trained like animals to succor our wounds out of sight until we are strong enough to make contact. We are all schooled in advanced aid to bodily punctures and the setting of broken bones."
"That's splendid. I'll turn in my license and send my patients to you."
"It's not a joke, mein He", we are simply trained to survive."
1 4Any other 'possibilities')"
"You're asking if they were captured, no?"
"Yes. 9 @
"We'd know it if they were. Our informers in the embassy would have picked it up, and the manhunt has been established beyond question. The French government has over a hundred personnel looking for our unit. We've watched them, heard them."
"You're persuasive. So what else? Where are you? Harry Latham must be found!"
"We believe we're closing in, sit Latham is under the protection of the Antinayous-"
"We know that!" Kroeger broke in angrily.
"But knowing it means nothing if you don't know where they are or where they've hidden him."
"We may learn. the whereabouts of their central headquarters within two hours, mein Herr."
" What? .. . Why didn't you say that before?"
"Because I'd prefer to present you with an accomplished fact rather than speculation. I said 'we may learn," we haven't yet."
"How?"
"Telephone contact with the Antinayous was made by the embassy's security chief, whose phone, like the ambassador's, is swept for intercepts. However, there's a sealed log of the calls he's made; our man thinks he can get a took at it and run a handheld photocopier down the list. Once we have the numbers, we can easily bribe someone in the telephone company to unearth the locations. From that point it is a process of elimination."
"It sounds too simple. It's my understanding that unpublished numbers are well guarded, God knows ours are. I doubt you can walk into the office of a telephone official and put money on his desk."
"We won't walk into any office. I used the word unearth and that's exactly what I mean. We find a worker in the underground trunk lines, for that's where the true locations are in the computers.
They have to be, for installations and repairs."
"You seem to know your business, Herr-what is your name?"
"I have no name, none of us does. I am Number Zero One, Paris. Come, I've arranged transportation for you. and we'll stay in constant touch, perhaps within minutes after you reach your hotel."
Sitting at the desk in his rooms at the Antinayous' Maison Rouge, Drew picked up the telephone and dialed the embassy, asking the switchboard to connect him with Mrs. de Vries in Documents and Research.
"This is Harry Latham," said Drew in response, to Karin's greeting.
"Can you talk
"Yes, monsieur, there is no one here, but first I have instructions for you. The ambassador summoned me and asked me to deliver them to you when you next called."
"Go on," said Latham, now his dead brother Harry, squinting, and listening carefully. Karin was about to send him a message.
He picked up a pencil as she spoke.
"You are to make contact with our courier number sixteen at the top of the' funicular in Sacro-Coeur at ninethirty this evening. He has communiques from Washington for you. . You understand, non?"
"I understand, yes," replied Drew, knowing that the French non, rather than the usual nest-ce pas, meant he was to disregard the information. Witkowski was setting another trap, based on the knowledge that Karin's phone was tapped.
"Anything else?"
"Yes. You were scheduled to meet your brother Drew's friend from London's Cons-Op office at the fountains in the Bois de Boulogne at eight forty-five, correct?"
"Yes, it was cleared."
"It's canceled, monsieur. It interferes with the Sacr& Coeur contact."
"Can you reach him and call it off?"
"We have, [email protected] We'll arrange another meeting."
"Please do. He can tell me things I want to know about Drew's last weeks, especially the details of the Jodelle business.. .. Is that all?"
"For now, yes. Did you have something?"
"Yes. When can I come back to the embassy?"
"We'll let you know. We're convinced it's being watched around the clock."
"I don't like this hiding out. It's damned inconvenient."
"You can always return to Washington, you know that."
"No! This is where Drew was killed, this is where his killers are.
I'm staying here until we find them."
"Very well. You'll call tomorrow?"
"Yes, I want more papers from my brother's files. Everything he's got on that actor."
"Au revoir, monsieur:,"
"Bye." Latham hung up the phone and studied the brief notes he had made, brief because he quickly understood the method of Karin's concealed