BERN
SWITZERLAND
COMMANDER STEFAN GLAMER OF Einsatzgruppe TIGRIS was on his cell, looking nothing like the suave civilian that Kyle had met at the bear pit. The commander was in a black jumpsuit with the legs tucked into the tops of flat black jump boots. His Kevlar helmet, flak jacket, and submachine gun were stacked on a table. “This man Jim Hall is a monster,” he said. The icy eyes betrayed no real emotion. It was a statement of fact.
Glamer, CIA Assistant Chief of Station Mark Brand, and a ranking team of civilian detectives had interviewed Swanson for hours in a private room at the canton police headquarters, prying for details of the attack. Kyle had tried every trick in the book to increase the memories of those moments, draining his thoughts into words. Colors, smells, invisible hunches, anything that might help. There was not much.
“The fellow you took down has been identified as nothing more than a contract hit man paid to kill you. Ignorant beyond what he was told and did not know who hired him. The van was abandoned a kilometer away from the hotel. It had been stolen, and the forensic people are going through it for evidence.” One of the detectives was drinking coffee, the sort of beefy, seen-it-all investigator who is found in almost any city in the world. He didn’t know about terrorism, but kidnapping was a serious crime. With every passing hour, the chances of solving it became less and less.
Mark Brand was almost an invisible man, average in every external way, which was why he was the chief administrator in the CIA office in Switzerland. The country had been the safe haven where spies came to meet for hundreds of years, and the goal here was to conduct intelligence work without rocking the neutral boat. He might as well not have been in the room at all.
“You people are going to continue to sit on the sidelines while one of your agents has been abducted by another one of your agents.” Swanson felt like spitting on the American.
“Technically, neither of them works for the Central Intelligence Agency. Ms. Carson had not yet been reinstated to duty, and Mr. Hall left some time ago. Also, our hands are bound due to an issue that I cannot discuss here.” Brand’s movements, even with his fingers, were precise and birdlike, and Kyle considered him to be a born pencil- pusher.
Swanson shook his head slowly. “You mean the deal you made with Hall to leave each other alone. You think that’s a secret?”
Brand shrugged. “The danger to a single agent must be weighted against potential damage.”
“So why don’t you just get the fuck out of here and let us work? Go back to your desk before your suit gets dirty.”
“I was instructed to help the Swiss police in any way possible.” Brand did not seem perturbed, and Kyle knew the CIA man was really in the room to hobble anything that might bring harm to the Agency.
Commander Glamer looked at the detectives, and they spoke in a rapid German dialect. One looked over at Mark Brand and snorted in derision. “All kidnappings have a reason, Gunny Swanson. Most of them involve a ransom, and that requires the kidnappers to make contact. Agent Carson has no family here, so the contact will come either to you or to Mr. Brand. Is that right?”
Swanson took out his wallet and extracted a single U.S. dollar. “That’s the reason,” he said. “Hall is after the cash in the bank. He will want to make a trade. If we keep watching the money, he will turn up. He is playing for millions of dollars.” Kyle fought to keep his thoughts on an even keel, worried about how long the routine logic of a law enforcement situation would apply to Jim Hall. Kyle had come to the conclusion that there would be a killing at the end of the road, and either Jim or Kyle would lie dead. Lauren was a pawn in the game.
The commander stood before a map taped to a cardboard backing propped on a tripod. He pointed to the business district of Bern, then used a fingertip to trace the perimeter where his men were already in positions. Police throughout the city were on alert, and more federal agents had been dispatched to support them. “He cannot possibly hope to get away. Our borders are sealed tight all around the country, and we have the area around the bank saturated. We are missing something.”
The room lapsed into thoughtful silence, and when a cell tone started to chime, all four of them reached for their own phones. It was the phone in Kyle’s pocket that was chirping, and he jumped to his feet when he saw the incoming number on the small screen. Lauren!
He pressed the TALK button and heard the hard voice of Jim Hall on the other end say, “Hello, buddy- boy.”
THE INSTRUCTIONS WERE AS precise as they were absurd, and Hall delivered it all with rapid-fire intensity. “Your number was on the phone in her purse. Listen up and don’t even think about negotiating. You want to see the bitch alive again, this is what you and your cop friends are going to do.”
There was a wave of steps to his plan. Each would have to be completed before the next could be initiated. First, he had something for the police, he said. His team had planted half a dozen small bombs throughout the city, and the detonators were attached to timing devices. As proof, he gave the location of the first one as being in the ancient clock tower in the middle of the old city. “Tell them that now, Kyle, and I will call you back in ten minutes. They need to know that I am serious.” He hung up.
Stefan Glamer and the two detectives went into action as soon as Kyle gave them the information. A terrorist attack against Switzerland, the most neutral country in the world, and being conducted by a former American spy, not a Muslim fanatic, was almost too much for them to comprehend. Glamer had a team at the clock tower within three minutes, and they found the brick of C-4 plastic explosive, attached to a timer detonator, exactly where Jim Hall had said it would be. Instantly, emergency calls were made to get every cop in the city out on the streets and searching for bombs.
“So they found it okay?” The opening words of the next call were menacingly humorous. “I would have hated to see that beautiful piece of art turned into a bunch of really old splinters, but, hey, that’s the game.”
“Let me speak to Lauren,” Swanson demanded, some power in his own voice.
“She’s not available right now, Kyle. The poor girl has had a rough time over the past few hours. You will see her soon.” Hall let the silence extend for a few seconds. “Now back to work. In four hours, at exactly nine o’clock this morning, a black SUV will pull up in front of the bank. Police will have a parking spot ready for it. The driver will remain at the wheel, and three other men will go inside the bank to meet a bank official with access to my safe deposit boxes. When the meeting takes place, my representative will tell the police the location of the second bomb, which is set to explode at nine thirty.”
“How many bombs are there, asshole?”
“Enough,” replied Hall. “My people will empty the boxes and take the cash in duffel bags to the SUV. By then, the cops will have found the second bomb, and I will give further instructions. There will be safe conduct all the way through the border at a point of my choosing.”
Kyle was jotting down the information on a white legal pad, with Glamer reading over his shoulder and making notes of his own. The commander wrote
“Shut up,” Hall barked. “We are out of time for this call. While that exchange is happening at the bank, you will be meeting me somewhere else, and I’ll swap Lauren for the cash and safe passage. Until I am out of danger, the bombs will only be disclosed one by one. Arrest anybody and I will turn this city to cinders. Remind them of what happened in Islamabad. Call you later with the address.” Hall laughed distantly and hung up and destroyed the cell phone. He had several spares.
Stunned silence engulfed the room. Commander Glamer leaned forward, hand on the table, and stared at each of them in turn. “He is leaving no room for negotiations. Just issuing orders for us to do this and do that and then the promise that something else will happen.”
Strangely, it was Mark Brand of the CIA who broke the silence this time. He knew a lot about making detailed
