he would have slowed down or even stopped to maintain a tactical shadowing distance. Again, there was no point looking to confirm if he was there, and equally no point if he was still sitting at the bus stop.
Victor saw the traffic slowing and crossed a few seconds before the lights changed. The crowd followed. He hurried across – just a man who didn’t like to wait. If the man in the cap was alone he would now be rushing to close the gap, because he wouldn’t want to get trapped on the far side of the road when the lights changed back again.
But as Victor reached the other side of the road, he turned left, and in doing so saw the man in the cap on the far side, walking in the opposite direction alongside the park, not rushing because he knew he would draw attention by dashing across the road alone. But in attempting to stay undetected he had put a busy road between them. If Victor took a turning then he could easily lose his shadow.
So the man in the cap couldn’t be alone. There was a team.
There was no one nearby that registered on Victor’s radar, but they wouldn’t have known whether he was going to go left or right after leaving Schule’s and so couldn’t have put watchers ahead of him. So they were mobile. Two cars, because he would have easily noticed one car doing laps in an area of light traffic. Therefore there were at least five in the team, a passenger in each car as a driver couldn’t drive and watch out for Victor and also communicate with the man on foot. But cars couldn’t go everywhere, while they couldn’t use the same pavement artist for too long and not expect Victor to spot him. So there would be another team member in the back of each car, ready to be dropped off and follow Victor as necessary. That made at least seven, but with two cars there were most likely eight.
A sizeable team, and both a serious and telling statement. They knew who he was, or at least they knew of his capabilities, because no one hired eight men or women for a job they felt could be done by fewer.
They were proficient and resourceful, because they must have followed him to the doctor’s office and he’d only spotted one so far of at least seven, else they had known of his appointment in advance and had good intel. But no better than proficient, because the man in the cap shouldn’t have been waiting at the bus stop and no team put its worst member in such a primary role.
He maintained his walking speed. They weren’t a surveillance team of some Austrian agency, because if they were there would be no need to follow him so closely. They could have used a helicopter or the city’s CCTV network. This team wanted to keep close to him for a reason, but they weren’t going to try anything on a crowded street in the middle of Vienna in broad daylight. If they were unconcerned about witnesses they could have ambushed him outside the doctor’s offices. Instead they were following him, waiting for an opportunity that matched whatever criteria they had to meet.
He didn’t know what that consisted of, and there was no way of knowing for sure until it was too late. He’d identified one of the team. He needed to identify the others.
Their reservations about making a move in a crowded locale worked to his advantage. If he stayed where there were people he would stop them putting their plan into action. It would force them to improvise. When people improvised, they made mistakes.
He continued walking and calculating, his gaze sweeping across every person to judge and evaluate. He memorised vehicles that passed him. No one stood out. No vehicle passed twice. They were holding back, or the others were a lot better than the guy at the bus stop. Or both.
People walked by. He walked by others. The streets were crowded, but not crowded enough to hide him effectively, and the ever-changing mass of faces made it impossible to keep track of potentials. He could take any number of turnings onto less busy side streets, but maybe that’s what they were waiting for so they could move into action. A numerically superior force could not be combated in the open. They had too many advantages.
His best chance was at close range,