will have Travers take you back to your place for a few hours, and they will collect Dittenhofer. She’ll come here and I’ll have Berlin station watch over her.” He sighed. “And I’ll call McCormick back and get Zoya a badge for tonight.”
Court didn’t say anything. He just looked at the floor.
“How copy, Violator?” Hanley asked.
Court shrugged. “Solid copy, boss.”
Hanley looked at both men now with a finger in their faces. “Remember this. Failure is not an option.”
Court sighed after hearing this cliché. “Failure is always an option, Matt. It’s just not the desired option.”
Zack said, “Six is not wrong about that. I’ve seen him fail.”
Hanley let it go, and changed gears. “You still look like shit, Court. I’m going to need you to clean up before the party. It’s an art show, can’t have you walking around looking like you’ve got typhoid.”
“Yeah, I’ll get on that.”
* * *
• • •
Court and Zack left Hanley in the library and headed outside, out on the driveway. Here they climbed into the back of a Suburban driven by one of Chris Travers’s Ground Branch operators, with another in the front passenger seat, for the lift back to the Spandau safe house. Court was furious with Zack that he’d roped Zoya into this plan of Hanley’s, but he retained the presence of mind to know that Zoya would have kicked his ass if he had kept her out of it.
Zack said, “We need suits and ties and shit for tonight, right?”
“Yep.” Court said it distractedly, his mind somewhere else.
“Want to go shopping?”
“Not particularly. Last time I tried that, it didn’t go so well.” Court’s focus was fully on Zoya now, on protecting her, and not on the mission at hand.
Zack nodded to himself, then smacked the driver’s seat. “Teddy. How ’bout you and Greer drop me off at a mall somewhere? I’ll get some duds for tonight for me and Six, then catch a cab back to Spandau.”
Teddy looked in the rearview. “Roger that, gramps.”
Zack smacked the back of the seat again, then turned to Court. “Dude, Mirza has got himself another crew of shitheads, and I agree they know something we don’t about what’s gonna go down, but if the shit hits the fan, we’ll adapt and overcome.” He added, “Anthem might end up being the help we need, just like last night in the factory.”
Court nodded. Zack was right, but Court’s affection for her still made him protective.
SIXTY-EIGHT
Court arrived at the safe house just after Zoya and Annika, who had been out unsuccessfully hunting for Spangler. The German former Stasi official wasn’t returning Annika’s texts or calls, his house was empty, and it looked to the women as if he’d left in a hurry.
Spangler, it was clear enough to all, had gotten the hell out of Berlin.
Annika Dittenhofer was shuffled limping into the Suburban with Teddy and Greer, and she immediately informed them she wanted them to take her to Chausseestrasse, the headquarters of German federal intelligence.
At this Teddy laughed a little, and Greer, who now sat in the back with Dittenhofer, politely but firmly explained that she had not, in fact, climbed into a taxi, and she’d be taken where she’d be taken, and neither of the men wanted to listen to any lip about it.
She puffed up her chest in a show of defiance, but a look from Teddy through the rearview at her convinced her to drop her protest.
The Americans had her now.
* * *
• • •
In the little flat on the third floor of the apartment building, Zoya checked Court’s bandage on his arm and decided to re-dress it with clean wrapping. While she did this he told her about his conversation with Hanley. He wrapped it up with, “So, he knows you are here, and he wants you to come tonight. Personally, I think—”
“Personally,” she interjected, “I think it’s the right idea.”
“Right. Me, too, of course.” Court wasn’t going to argue with her. He knew where that would lead. Instead he looked at his watch. “It’s almost two. Hanley wants us back at Tegel at seven.”
She looked him over, touched her hand to his forehead, and asked him how he felt.
“I’m okay.”
“You don’t seem to have a fever, but your skin feels clammy. Your shoulder and arm have to be hurting from everything that happened at the factory last night.”
“I’m on painkillers.”
She nodded, then said, “Will you be on painkillers tonight?” There was no judgment in her voice.
“Of course not. I will keep them handy for