She let some of the brandy dribble down her chin, her eyes fixed on
Stanton's. 'Lock the door,' she said. 'I don't want to be
interrupted.'
With an astonished gape Stanton turned around and lurched toward the
door. The half-full bottle of Remy Martin crashed against the base of
his skull like a glass avalanche.
He staggered and fell to the floor. Ilse rifled his pockets and found
the key he'd used to enter her room. Praying he didn't have access to
any others, she flung the bedroom door wide, dragged his unconscious
body into the hall, then jumped back into her room and slammed the door.
She tried to lock it with the key, but it didn't seem to fit. She
cursed as the useless metal bent in the lock. Either she'd taken the
wrong key from Stanton, or the proper key only worked from the outside.
She thought of opening the door and searching him again, but she had
lost her nerve. Her entire body was shaking. Ilse lurched into the
bathroom and locked it with the flimsy door latch.
'Please hurry, Hans,' she murmured. 'God, please hurry.'
7.55p.m. BurgersparkHatel, Pretoria When Hans Apfel walked into the
lobby of the Burgerspark, Yosef Shamir felt his heart thump with
excitement. Hans looked neither left nor right as he walked, but
marched straight across to the elevators set in the far wall. Yosef
lifted the walkie-talkie that connected him to Stern's room on the
eighth floor.
'Apfel has arrived,' he said. 'He's going for the elevators.'
'Any sign of HauerT' asked Gadi Abrams.
'No. Should I wait?'
A pause. 'No. Get up to Natterman's room.'
Yosef scurried to a second elevator. Just as he stepped inside, he
glimpsed the broad back of a man wearing a dark business suit disappear
through the fire stairs door. 'I think Hauer's here,' he said as the
elevator doors closed. 'He's coming up the stairs.'
'Acknowledged,' Gadi replied. 'Get the professor ready to move.'
Dieter Hauer crashed through the third floor fire door and hit the up
elevator button. The stairs were taking too long, and if anything rough
was going to happen in suite 811, he didn't want to be too late or too
exhausted to participate. After a brief wait, he darted into an empty
elevator and punched 8. The car whooshed up the remaining floors in
seconds. It took Hauer a moment to get his bearings, but within fifteen
seconds he was knocking on the door of suite 811.
Hans opened the door after scrutinizing him through the fisheye
peephole. 'See anyone?'
Hauer stepped into the suite. 'No, but I went through the lobby pretty
fast.'
'The room's empty,' Hans informdd him. 'Do you think they'll call, or
send somebody up?'
'I think they'll call.' Hauer glanced at his watch. 'In one minute
we'll know for sure.'
Gadi Abrams adjusted the headphones he was wearing and looked up at
Jonas Stern. 'Hauer's inside,' he said.
Stern nodded. 'Let's see if anyone shows up.'
The unexpected ring of the telephone in the Israelis' room startled both
Gadi and Stern. Gadi asked sharply, 'Who t sides our own men knows
we're here?'
Stern tightened his lips. 'No one. Except maybe the kidnappers.'
He lifted the receiver. 'Yes?'
'Someone's trying to hit us!' shouted a voice in Hebrew.
'The professor's stark naked!'
'Yosef.?' Stern said. 'Yosef, what's happened? Where are you?'
'In the professor's room! Just after we left Natterman, someone came in
here looking for the papers. A woman. I used the phone because she
blew the professor's radio to pieces. He's hysterical!'
Stern touched the bulge in his pocket where the three Spandau pages lay.
'Yosef, stay whore you are. Stay on the line@' , 'Telephone ringing in
Apfel's room,' Gadi said, pressing the headphones to his ears.
'Yosef,' Stern instructed, 'wait five seconds, then start calling suite
811. Make certain the professor is ready, and keep trying until you get
through.'
Yosef rang off.
Hans jumped a foot off the bed when the ringing telephone fulfilled
Hauer's prediction. Hauer glanced at his watch: eight Pm.
exactly. Hans darted between the beds and snatched up the receiver.
'Hello?'
'Sergeant Apfel?' said a male voice.
'Yes!'
'You know the Voortrekker Monument?'
'What? Wait ... yes, the big brown thing. I saw it as I drove into
town.'
'Be there tomorrow at ten A.M. Come alone. Ten A.M. Do you have that?
The Voortrekker Monument. Ten in the morning. Alone.'
'What about my wife? Will Ilse be there?' 'You be there. If you're not
alone, she dies.'
The caller broke the connection.
Hans dropped the receiver onto the floor, @ face slack.
'Well?' said Hauer. 'What did they sayt' Hans stood silent for several
seconds. 'They want me to meet them tomorrow,' he said finally. 'At
the Voortrekker -Monument.'
Hauer nodded excitedly. 'That's a good place for us. Very public.
That's where I'll lay out our terms for the exchange.
What time is the rendezvous?'
A strange calm seemed to settle over Hans. His eyes seemed unfocus@d.
He sat down hard on the bed.
'What time, Hans?' Hauer repeated softly, his eyes straying to the
door. 'What time is the rendezvous?'
Hans looked up, straight into his father's eyes. 'Six,' he said in a
robotic voice. 'Six Pm. at the Voortrekker Monument.'
Down the hall and around the corner, Gadi Abrams shook his fist in
triumph. 'The rendezvous is at six,' he murmured, 'at the Voortrekker
Monument. Apfel's off the line, but I didn't hear him hang up.' Gadi
pressed the headphones to his dark head. 'No phone ringing. Come on,
