Chapter 39

39

Forty minutes later, Teddy entered the apartment that served as their safe house to find Vesna on the couch with a washcloth over her eyes, Hans at his chair by the window engrossed in his laptop, and a large red suitcase sitting in the middle of the living room.

“I take it Kevin made it,” he asked.

Vesna lifted one end of the cloth, glanced at him, then dropped it again. “Fifteen minutes ago.”

“Where is he?”

She pointed toward the hallway. “He locked himself in the bathroom.”

“He what?”

“He thinks I killed you and am here to do the same to him.”

“Why would he think that?”

“You will have to ask him that.”

“I take it that cloth over your eyes is related.”

“Very perceptive.”

“What happened?”

“I was sprayed in the face.”

Teddy’s expression turned concerned. “He maced you?”

“Not mace,” she said. “From the taste, I believe it was mint breath spray. Luckily, most of it hit my chin, or I would have killed him.”

“Were you holding a gun when you answered the door?”

“As one would in our circumstances. I did not, however, wave it in his face, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I didn’t think you would, but I had to ask. Are you okay?”

“I do have fresher breath. Does that count?”

Teddy went down the hall and knocked on the bathroom door. “Kevin?”

A gasp came from inside, then Kevin said, “You’re alive?”

“Very much so. I understand you met my friend Vesna.”

“I expected you to be here, so when you weren’t, I thought…I mean, you should have told me someone else would be here.”

“Come on out, Kevin. Everything’s fine.”

Teddy returned to the main room and was getting a bottle of water from the refrigerator when Kevin entered.

“Welcome to Berlin,” Teddy said.

Kevin frowned. “I’d rather be at home.”

“And I’d rather be on a beach in Bali,” Vesna said, the cloth still over her eyes.

Teddy said, “Kevin, Vesna. Vesna, Kevin.”

“Hi,” Kevin said awkwardly. “Uh, I’m sorry about earlier.”

“For hiding in the bathroom?” Vesna asked. “Or attempting to blind me?”

“Oh my God. Did it get in your eyes? Are they okay?”

She removed the cloth and sat up.

“Do they look okay to you?” she asked, widening her eyes so the red was unmissable.

“I’m so sorry. I-I-I didn’t know who you were.”

“Do you mace everyone you don’t know?” Teddy asked.

“It wasn’t mace. It was—”

“Breath spray,” Teddy and Vesna said at the same time.

“We know,” Teddy added.

Kevin bit his lip. “I am really sorry. I promise, I won’t do it again.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Vesna said.

“There are three bedrooms,” Teddy said. “You’re in the one with twin beds. You’ll be sharing with Hans. Hans, say hi to Kevin.”

Hans grunted without looking at them. Kevin grunted back, then cocked his head and walked over.

“Cool setup.” Kevin crouched to get a better look at the equipment under the table. “Is that the XC twenty-three twenty-four?” he asked.

Hans looked at him for the first time and smirked. “The twenty-three twenty-four C .”

Kevin’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

Kevin reached toward one of the black boxes, but before his fingers reached it, Hans slapped his hand away.

“No touching,” Hans said.

“Sorry, man. I don’t like people touching my stuff, either.” He stood up. “I’ll, ah, I’ll just get settled in.”

He grabbed his suitcase and headed to his bedroom.

“How did things go at the restaurant?” Vesna asked Teddy.

“Let’s find out.”

Teddy sat beside her and opened the monitoring app. The data from the bug was broken into ten-minute segments for easy listening. He checked the latest segment first and determined that Braun and Dieter had already left the restaurant, so he turned off the bug.

He then played the first audio segment. For a minute or so, there was more talk between Braun and Dieter about the woman they needed to “deal with,” which Teddy was sure had to be Danielle Verde. He’d already texted La Rose to make sure the security team continued to protect her.

At approximately the same time Teddy had been exiting the restaurant, the man he’d guessed was Braun said, “Lawrence, what are you doing here?”

“I’m sorry to disturb you, Mr. Braun.” The voice was that of the man who’d been on the stairs with the woman Teddy had kept from falling. “Jillian found something that I thought I should show you right away.”

“I can’t have you just standing there,” Braun said. “Have a seat, both of you.”

Chairs moved across cement.

“So?” Braun said. “What is it?”

“I-I-I think I found Teddy Fay,” Jillian said.

Teddy cocked his head, while Vesna glanced at him, but neither spoke.

“You thought that before when you said Roland Turner was Teddy Fay, so why should I believe you now?”

Vesna reached out and paused the playback. “Who’s Roland Turner?”

Teddy started to shrug, but then stopped, his brow knitting. “If I recall correctly, there was a Roland Turner on the commercial shoot in Budapest. He assisted the director. Not sure what his actual title was.”

“And they thought he was you?”

“It sounds like it.”

“Does he even look like you?”

Teddy closed his eyes to remember. “Vaguely. About the right age, similar height.”

He hit play.

“T-t-to be clear,” Jillian said, “I never said he was Fay. I said he could be. That’s why I continued looking into him.”

“So is this new person another ‘could be’?” Braun asked. “I don’t want to get my hopes up only for you to have made another mistake.”

“I didn’t make a mistake before,” she muttered.

“Technically, this new person is also a could be ,” Lawrence said quickly. “But we’re more confident than we were about Turner.”

“Who’s Fay supposed to be this time?”

“Jillian?” Lawrence said.

There was the sound of movement.

“This man,” Jillian said.

Teddy had a bad feeling she was showing Braun the photo that Teddy had seen on her tablet.

“I assume he has a name,” Braun said, an edge still in his voice.

“He does,” Lawrence said. “It’s Billy Burnett.”

“ Bar nett,” Jillian corrected him.

Vesna sucked in a surprised breath.

“What makes you think he’s Fay?”

“This photo was taken at the commercial shoot in Budapest where Danielle Verde was injured,” Jillian said. “That is her on the ground, and as you can see, Barnett is running toward her.”

“Perhaps he was only reacting to her being hurt,” Wenz said.

“If Fay is supposed to be involved in the film festival, Barnett fits the bill,” Lawrence said. “He has a film playing there, doesn’t he, Jillian?”

“He does. Storm’s Eye .”

“Good for him,” Braun said. “I still don’t see how this means he’s Fay.”

“There’s more,” Lawrence said. “Tell him, Jillian.”

“Um, okay,” she said, clearly reluctant. “Barnett is in Europe on a press tour for his new movie. His first stop was in Rome, then he went to Venice.”

“He traveled there on the same train Oscar Schmidt was on,” Lawrence said.

Except for the distant clink of dishes at other tables, the recording went silent for more than a quarter of a minute.

“He was in Venice?” Dieter asked.

“Yes,” the woman said.

“How long?”

“A couple days.”

“So, he would have been there when Rick La Rose was.” From the way Dieter said this, Teddy thought it was aimed at Braun, not the other two. “Venice, Budapest, and soon Berlin…”

“Do you have a better picture of him than this?” Braun asked, sounding excited now.

“We have plenty,” Lawrence said. “Show him.”

The next minute of the recording was spent discussing the pictures Jillian showed Braun of Billy Barnett from multiple sources.

“And you’re sure Barnett is coming to Berlin for the festival?” Braun asked when they were through.

“We are,” Lawrence said. “His film will be shown opening night, after which there will be a party to celebrate the commencement of the festival.”

After a beat of silence, Braun said, “And how do we get tickets to this event?”

“Jillian can email them on your behalf,” Lawrence said.

“Then why are you two still sitting here? Go on. Take care of it.”

Chair legs scrapped the floor and steps moved away from the table.

When Jillian and Lawrence had presumably moved out of earshot, Dieter said, “You have that look.”

“What look?” Braun said.

“The one you get when you have something on your mind.”

Braun huffed. “Do you have locations on the remaining agents?”

“I do,” Dieter said.

“Do we have enough men to cover them all at once?”

“All at once?”

“Yes! Did you not hear me? I want to know if we have enough people to hit all the remaining targets at the same time.”

“We do. What do you have in mind?”

“We get our teams in place right away, then you and I go to the festival and see if this Billy Barnett is who Jillian thinks he is. If so, we deal with him, then send out the word to terminate the others. Phase one complete.” He paused. “That’s doable, is it not?”

“Yes, of course. It will leave us a bit shorthanded here for dealing with Barnett, if he is Fay.”

“You can keep a couple of your best men here and hire as many contract players as you think we’ll need. Better?”

“I can make that work.” From the tone of his voice, Dieter was not completely happy, but appeared unwilling to argue with his boss.

“Once this Fay and the others are dealt with, we move on immediately to Lance Cabot and Holly Barker. Is your plan ready?”

Dieter nodded. “I think you’ll like it.”

Teddy and Vesna shared a look.

“As long as there are zero complications, I will,” Braun said. “Successfully eliminating the head of the U.S. government and her top spy will be more than enough to convince the Kazakhs to hire us.”

“Then I’ll make it happen,” Dieter said.

Teddy and Vesna listened until Braun and Dieter finished their lunch and left, but the men discussed nothing else of interest.

“So…” Vesna said, once the recording was stopped. “That was…interesting.”

“ Interesting is not quite the word I’d use.”

“Troubling?”

“Better.”

“Why would he want to kill your president and your director of the CIA? Were either involved in Golden Hour?”

“Neither were. My guess would be Braun’s going after them because they’re symbols of the government that greenlit the mission.”

“That makes sense, if you’re a psychopath.”

“Which I’m pretty sure Braun is.”

“You may want to warn your CIA friends that their boss and their boss’s boss need to watch their backs.”

“I’ll make the call.”

“You may also want to come up with an excuse for Billy missing the festival.”

“Perhaps.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps? I was thinking something more along the lines of ‘Hell, yes.’?” She studied him for a moment. “Don’t tell me. You have something else in mind, don’t you?”

“More the inkling of something else.”

“Care to share?”

Teddy shook his head. “Not yet.”

“Then how do you want to proceed for now?”

“Just as we’ve planned.”