and your team are doing a fantastic job, and I really do want you to know how much I appreciate all that you’ve accomplished despite the hand-wringing you witnessed today.”
“The entire IC is to be commended. You have some really top-drawer people running the show. But I promise you, we won’t relax. You’re absolutely right to worry about the Chinese and the rest of the bad guys out there. They’re relentless, but so are we.”
“Please convey my best wishes to Elias. I hope the launch goes well.”
“And what may I tell him regarding our War Cloud bid?”
“Tell him that all bids have been submitted and are being reviewed, just as the law requires.”
“Yes, of course. I’ll do that.”
They shook hands. “Have a safe trip home, Amanda.”
Foley resisted the temptation to play mother and advise her that a schoolgirl crush on the high school quarterback was no way to organize one’s life.
6
BERLIN, GERMANY
Dieter Hansemann exited the Blissestrasse U-Bahn station, the last train of the night. He jammed his hands into his coat pockets against the slight chill breeze and headed south until he reached the Mexican restaurant on the corner and turned left onto his street.
The late-night auditing marathons over the last month had become a predictable thing, and had taken their toll on the thirty-five-year-old banker. But it was worth it. He was close to finally nailing down the project he’d been assigned.
Very close.
Mature elm trees lined both sides of the narrow street, spreading their branches high over the asphalt, bent over and nearly touching like the angels’ wings on the Ark of the Covenant.
A small fenced park stood on his side of the street, a pleasant place to jog when he actually had the time to do it. He looked forward to the day he’d be there again. He hoped before it began snowing in the next month or two.
Passing by a park entrance gate, he heard a commotion. A woman’s plaintive cry against a man’s harsh, accented voice. Dieter stopped in his tracks and squinted through the gloom. The couple were little more than shadows in the distance, partially hidden from the street. The tall man raised an arm high before swinging it down with a curse in Arabic.
Dieter hesitated. Nothing could put his work at risk. But honor won out in the space of a single breath, and the athletic German dashed toward the fighting couple.
When he got close he shouted “Halt!” but kept at a dead run straight for the bigger man’s broad torso. The woman, a redhead, cried out, “Hilf mir!” just as the bearded Araber backhanded her across the jaw. She tumbled to the ground in a whimper as the man whipped around, facing Dieter down with a crooked smile and a sharp blade.
The banker didn’t slow. He juked left, then right, forcing the other man—an Egyptian—to shift his weight. Dieter juked left again, and just at the moment when the bearded man transferred his weight between his feet, Dieter lunged forward with speed, blocking a weak strike by the other man with his left forearm and smashing his right elbow into the side of his skull.
Dieter’s strength and momentum put the man on his back, scattering the blade. The German’s CQB training took over. Straddling the Egyptian between his thighs, Dieter pinned his neck to the ground with his left forearm as he launched right-elbow strikes at his face, partially blocked by the bigger man’s counterpunches.
The German’s furious attack ended with the explosion of white-hot pain in his back. Instinctively, he rose up and reached for the wound, only to feel the heavy knife blade plunge again between his shoulders, this time severing his spinal cord. He was dead before his face smashed into the pavement.
“About fucking time,” the Egyptian said. He rubbed his swelling face.
The redhead reached a hand down and helped him to his feet.
“I’ll grab his shit,” she said, wiping the bloody blade on the back of Dieter’s tweed coat.
She robbed him of his wallet, iWatch, iPhone, and a gold crucifix hanging around his neck.
“Too bad,” the woman said. “He is a beautiful man. Sehr schön.”
“Let’s get out of here.” The man held one hand to his aching face.
“Wait.” She rolled Dieter onto his back with her booted foot and snapped photos of his lifeless face with her Galaxy phone.
“Now we leave.”
The two of them sped quickly across the park, but not at a run, lest they draw attention to themselves. They climbed into a 2018 silver BMW 5 series