'Who are you calling?' Hauer asked.
'None of your goddamn business,' Hans snapped. 'You can cover your
friends with GSG-9 men, but you can't take twenty minutes to save Ilse?'
'Hans, you don't understand-'
'Eva?' he said loudly.
'Hans!'
'Yes. Eva, I want you to look outside your door and-' 'Listen to me,
Hans! Someone is tearing your apartment to pieces right now! That
tells me they haven't found her yet!'
'What? You've seen Ilse?'
'Seen her? I sneaked her out of the apartment tonight just before the
stinking Russians got her! What the hell have you done?'
'Russians!'
Hans's exclamation brought Hauer out of his chair like a cannon shot.
'Tell me, Eva, hurry!'
Eva related the story of their escape from Kosov's team, ending with
Ilse fleeing into the dark alley. Hans slammed his fist against the
table. 'But you don't know where she is now?'
'No, but she told me to give you a message.'
'What message?'
'Mittelland.'
'That's it? One word?'
'That's it. Mittelland, like the canal. I guess she didn't want me to
know anything.'
Hans shook his fist in exultation. 'Eva, that's it! I know where she's
gone.'
'So get her, you damned fool! And you'd better get some serious help. I
don't think your Polizei friends are up to it.'
She paused. 'And if you come up on a young fellow called Misha .
.
'.YesT' 'Kill the bastard. Send him to hell. He cut my face.'
Hans felt his heart thump. 'What happened?'
'Just find Ilse, Hans. If anything happens to that girl, you're going
to answer to me. And stay the hell away from her-e. Your apartment
sounds like a Bremen bar fight.' Eva hung up.
Hauer grabbed Hans's shoulder. 'You said Russians.'
'Eva said Russians came to the apartment looking for me.
'How does she know they were Russian?'
Hans shrugged. 'She's been around, you know? She's an old barmaid who
turns a few tricks for rent money. She got Ilse out of the building,
but that's all she could tell me.'
'It must be Kosov,' Hauer muttered. 'The quiet colonel from Funk's
polygraph session. He knew that test was rigged from the start.
Did Ilse have the papers with her?'
'I don't know.'
'For God's sake, Hans, you've got to start thinking like a policeman.'
'I don't give a damn about those papers!'
'Quiet! You'll bring Ochs in here. And you'd better give a damn about
those papers. They may be the only thing that can keep us or Ilse alive
now.' He held up a forefinger.
'You said you knew where Ilse had gone. Where?'
Hans's eyes narrowed. 'Why should I tell you?' he asked, suddenly
suspicious. 'Christ, you might have brought me here just to find out
where she is. Where the papers are!
God, you might-2' Hauer slapped him, hard. 'Get hold of yourself, Hans!
You brought me here, remember? You've got to trust somebody, and I'm
all you have.'
Hans scowled. 'Wolfsburg,' he said quietly.
'What?'
'Ilse's grandfather has a small cabin on the Mittelland Canal, near
Wolfsburg. It's an old family retreat. The professor must have been
working there and Ilse found out. God, I hope she's made it.'
His face clouded. 'But how could she?
I've got the car!'
'Train?' Hauer suggested.
'She didn't have any money at home.'
'All women have money at home, Hans, believe me. They hide it for
emergencies we never think about.'
'Captain, I've got to get to Wolfsburg!'
'I agree. But before I give you the keys, you're going to listen to me
for ten minutes. Then I'll figure out a way for us to get out of
Berlin. You know you'd never make it without my help.'
Hans knew Hauer was right. He could never evade Funk's dragnet on his
own. 'Ten minutes,' he agreed.
Hauer sat down and leaned forward. 'You've got to understand something,
Hans. Early this morning you stumbled into a case that I've been
working on for over a year. That's what I meant about Steuben.
There's more that needs protecting at his house than his wife and
children. There's a fireproof safe full of evidence that he and I have
compiled over the past year. Until a couple of hours ago, I had no idea
that Spandau Prison had anything to do with this case, but now I'm
almost certain that it does.'
'What the hell are you talking about?'
'Those papers you found at Spandau aren't just some relic from the past,
Hans. The Russians haven't gone crazy searching for a museum piece.
Those papers pose a very serious threat to someone now-in the present.'
Hauer took a cigar from his pocket and bit off the tip.
'Before I tell you anything else, you must understand some thing very
important. Right now, as we speak, Germanythe two Germanys-are very
close to reunification.'
'What? '
'I don't mean it's going to happen tomorrow, or next week. But six
months from now ... a year ... maybe.'
'Are you mad?'
Hauer paused to light his cigar. 'Most Germans would say so,' he said.
'And they would be as wrong as you are. Tell me, as you grew up, didn't
you notice all the societies who clamor for the reunification of the
Fatherland? I don't mean administrative committees plodding through
mountains of paper; I mean the hard-core groups, the ones that exist
