The Apocalypse Watch (41 page)

Alone with the German in the dim gray light of a wire-enclosed ceiling bulb, Moreau sat on one of the crates. “Make yourself comfortable, Doctor, we’ll be here for a while, at least until the police have come and gone.”

“But if they find me in here—”

“They won’t, the door locks upon closing. We were most fortunate that some idiot left it open. On the other hand, who’d want to steal anything here? Who could even carry anything?”

“We missed him, we
missed
him!” cried Kroeger, banging his fist on a crate, then sitting on the large wood box, shaking his bruised hand.

“He’ll call again,” offered Moreau. “Perhaps not today,
but certainly tomorrow. Remember, we’re dealing with a desperate man, an isolated man. But I must ask you, why is it so important that you find Latham?”

“He’s … he’s dangerous.”

“To whom? You? The Brotherhood?”

“Yes … to all of us.”

“Why?”

“How much do you know?”

“Everything, naturally. I am the Deuxième Bureau.”

“I mean specifically.”

“Very well. He escaped from your Alpine valley, somehow made his way through the mountain snows until he reached a road, and was picked up by a villager in a truck.”

“A
villager
? Now you’re the fool, Herr Moreau. The Antinayous,
that’s
who picked him up. His escape was arranged from inside, a traitor
inside
the valley. We must find that
Hochverräter
!”

“ ‘Traitor,’ yes, I understand.” Over the years the head of the Deuxième had learned to sense a lie when told by amateurs under stress. The vacuous desperation in the eyes, the words tumbling over one another, often accompanied by spittle forming at the corners of the mouth. As he studied Gerhardt Kroeger, the signs were all there. “So that’s why you must find him? To interrogate him before executing him, so as to learn the identity of your traitor?”

“You must understand, it was a woman, and she has to be someone very high up in the organization. She must be eliminated!”

“Yes, of course, I understand that too.” Beads of perspiration began to form on Kroeger’s hairline, and the underground room was cool. “So that’s it, the reason for your K Unit, the reason such an important man as yourself would come to Paris—to learn the identity of a traitor high in the ranks of the Brotherhood.”

“
Precisely
.”

“I see. And there’s no other reason?”

“None.” Two rivulets of sweat rolled down the German’s forehead, fell over his brows, and continued down
his cheeks. “It’s terribly warm in here,” said Kroeger, wiping his face with the back of his right hand.

“I hadn’t noticed it. Actually, I thought it was rather cool, but then, such events as this afternoon are not unfamiliar to me, and do not excessively fray my nerves. Off and on, gunfire has been a part of my life.”

“Yes, yes, that’s you, not me. I daresay if I brought you into an operating room during a particularly nasty procedure, you’d probably faint.”

“There’s no debate, undoubtedly I would. But you see, Doctor, for me to be at my most efficient, I must know everything, and something tells me you
haven’t
told me everything.”

“What more can you possibly need?” Kroeger’s sweat was more profuse.

“Perhaps you’re right, at times I’m overzealous. Then this is how we’ll proceed. When Harry Latham calls again, I will
not
phone you at the Lutetia, but instead take him ourselves. Once taken, we’ll treat him handsomely, and after a few hours I’ll reach you.”

“
Unacceptable!
” cried the surgeon, rising from the crate, his hands trembling. “I must be there when you find him! I must be alone with him before any interrogation takes place, away from all of you, for I’ll be discussing information no one else can overhear. It’s vital, and those are your orders from the Brüderschaft!”

“And if, for my own well-being, I don’t comply?”

“News of over twenty million francs deposited into your account in Switzerland could find its way to the Quai d’Orsay and the French press.”

“Well, that certainly is a persuasive argument, isn’t it?”

“I should hope so.”

“When you say ‘away from all of you,’ what do you mean?”

“Just what I say. I carry with me several syringes and various narcotics that will force Harry Latham to reveal to me what we must know.
Natürlich
, no one else may be in the vicinity.”

“You mean in a room by yourselves?”

“Absolutely not. Conversations in a room can be transmitted, as you claim my own hotel room is tapped.”

“Then how can we accommodate you?”

“An automobile of my own choosing,
not
one of yours. I will drive Latham somewhere, administer my chemicals, learn what I must learn, and bring him back to you.”

“No execution?”

“Only if I’m followed.”

“Again, I understand. It seems I have no choice.”

“Time, Moreau,
time
! It’s extremely important. He must be found within the next thirty-six hours!”

“
What?
Now I don’t understand you at all. Why thirty-six hours? Does the earth stop moving around the sun then? Please explain to me.”

“Very well, it’s what you perceived, what I haven’t told you.… Remember, I’m a doctor, some say the finest cranial surgeon in Germany, and I will not dispute that judgment. Harry Latham is insane, a combination of schizophrenia and manic-depressive syndrome. I saved his life in our valley, operating to relieve the pressures that caused his illness. In looking over my notes, I found a horrible realization. Unless given medication within six days after he escaped, he will die! He’s reached four and a half of those six days. Now do you see? We must question him before he takes the name of the traitor to his grave.”

“Yes, now I do understand, but, Doctor, are
you
all right?”

“What?”

“You’ve grown quite pale and your face is drenched with perspiration. Are there pains in your chest, perhaps? I can have an ambulance here in minutes.”

“I don’t want an ambulance, I want Harry Latham! And I have no chest pains, no angina, only an intolerance for slow-witted bureaucrats.”

“Would you believe I understand that too? For you’re a learned man, a brilliant man, and in addition to my devotion to your cause, I’m honored to know you.… Come, we’ll leave now, and I shall press my energies to their zenith.”

Out on the Champs-Élysées, Moreau and his field
officer saluted as Gerhardt Kroeger climbed into a taxi, then headed for their Deuxième vehicle. “Hurry!” said the veteran of Istanbul and more posts than one could name. “That bastard was lying to the point of swallowing his spit! But what was he lying about?”

“What are you going to do, Claude?”

“Sit and think and make several phone calls. One to the eminent scholar Heinrich Kreitz, the German ambassador. He and his government are going to dig out some records for me whether they like it or not.”

D
rew Latham, attaché case in hand, presented himself at the Inter-Continental’s front desk. He placed on the counter an American Embassy requisition order for a reservation and a military identification card. They were swiftly picked up and studied by a formally dressed hotel clerk who pulled a card out of his file.

“
Ah, oui
, Colonel Webster, you are a most welcome guest. The embassy requested a mini-suite and would you believe we found one for you. A Spanish couple left early.”

“I’m very grateful.”

“Further,” said the clerk, reading the card, “you may be having visitors, and we are to call you before giving them your room number,
n’est-ce pas
?”

“Quite correct.”

“Your luggage, monsieur?”

“I left it at the concierge’s desk and gave him my name.”

“Excellent. You are a traveler, then.”

“The army has me going from one place to another,” said Drew, signing the register.
Anthony Webster, Col., U.S. Army. Washington, D.C., U.S.A
.

“Ah, so interesting.” The clerk spun the registry pad around and withdrew the hotel record.

He raised his eyes and tapped his bell. “Take
Monsieur le Colonel
to Suite 703, and inform the concierge to send up his luggage. The name is Webster.”

“
Oui
,” replied the uniformed bellman. “Follow me, monsieur. Your luggage will arrive in a few minutes.”

“Thank you.”

The elevator ride to the seventh floor was uneventful
except for a middle-aged American couple who were arguing. The woman, hair bluish and neck and wrists replete with jewels, berated her obese husband, who was wearing a wide-brimmed Stetson.

“Lucas, you can at least be pleasant!”

“What’s to be pleasant about? Ah cain’t git a real limo, jest one of those tiny jobs you can barely put yer ass in, and nobody speaks American till you give ’em a tip, then you’d think they were brought up in Texarkana.”

“That’s because you won’t learn the money.”

“
You
did?”

“I shop. Do you know what you gave the last taxi driver?”

“Hell, no, Ah jest peeled off some paper.”

“The fare was fifty-five francs, roughly ten dollars. You gave him a hundred, which is nearer twenty dollars.”

“Ah’ll be swaggled. Mebbe that’s why he kept winkin’ at me when you got out, sayin’ in perfectly good English that he’d be outside the hotel most of the night and I should look for him.”

“
Really!
” Fortunately, the door to the sixth floor opened and the couple walked out.

“I apologize for my countrymen,” said Drew, lacking for anything else to say as he saw the raised eyebrows of the bellman.

“Don’t,
Monsieur le Colonel
. Later tonight it’s quite possible the gentleman will be on the pavement looking for that taxi.”

“
Touché
.”

“
D’accord
. This is the Paree of their dreams,
n’est-ce pas
?”

“
C’est vrai
, I’m afraid.”

“It’s all harmless.… Here is your floor, monsieur.”

The suite was small, a bedroom and a separate living area, but it was charming, very European, and what made it rather outstanding was a bottle of Scotch on the small bar. Witkowski must have had pangs of guilt, which were definitely appropriate. Latham hated the goddamned uniform. His chest, his waist, and his rear end were encased
in a cloth tube. Why weren’t there massive resignations in the armed forces on the basis of clothing alone?

The bellman gone, Drew waited for his suitcase, which held a basic change of civilian clothes, taken from his flat by a blond-wigged Karin. He removed the suffocating tunic, poured himself a drink, turned on the television set, switching the channels until he found the CNN station, and sat down. The current news was on sports, mainly American baseball, which did not interest him; when the hockey season arrived, it was different.

The doorbell rang; it was a young bellboy with his suitcase. Drew thanked and tipped him, astonished to hear him say, “This is for you, monsieur.” The wide-eyed youngster gave him a note. “It is, how do you say,
confidentiel
?”

“That’s good enough, thanks very much.”

Call Room 330. A friend
.

Karin? It was so like her very unpredictable behavior. They were lovers now—more than lovers. There was something between them that no one could take away.
So
like her!

He picked up the phone, studied the printed instructions, and dialed. “Hi, I
made
it,” he said, the moment the phone was picked up.

“Hey, man, then it
is
you!” said a male voice on the line.

“
What?
Who are you?”

“C’mon, Bronco, you can’t recognize your old roommate from the Manitoba Stars? It’s Ben
Lewis
! I saw you in the lobby. At first I thought I was seeing double, but I knew it was you! ’Course, then you took off your hat and I figured I was nuts, until I watched you walk to the elevators.”

“I … I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Get with it, Bronc! Your right foot. Remember when your ankle got sliced by a guy on the Toronto Comets? You healed in a few weeks and came back on the ice, but your right foot was always angled, just slightly, to the left.
Nobody who didn’t know you would notice, but I did. I
knew
it was you!”

“Okay, okay, Benny, it’s me, but you can’t say anything to
anybody
. I’m working for the government now and you’ve got to keep your mouth shut.”

“Hey, I understand, pal. You know, I played for the Rangers for two seasons—”

“I know, Benny, you were terrific.”

“The hell I was, I got cut on the third.”

“It happens.”

“Not if I were you, pal. You had it over all of us.”

“That’s history. How did you find me, Ben?”

“The concierge’s desk. I asked where the bag was going.”

“They
told
you?”

“Sure, because I said it was mine!”

“Christ, you do bring back memories. We’d go to an expensive restaurant in Montreal, the check would come, and if it was too large, you’d say it belonged to another table, or another one after that, until it was small enough for you to accept it. What are you doing in Paris?”

“I’m in the fast-food business, representing all of the majors; they recruit jocks like you and me ’cause we got big muscle and they hype our reputations. Would you believe my résumé says I was a
star
on the Rangers? What do they know over here? I was a second-rater, but I fill out a jacket.”

“I never filled out one like you did.”

“No, you didn’t. You were like a Toronto paper said, ‘all raw sinew and speed.’ I wished the hell they’d said that about me.”

“Again, that’s history, Ben, but I have to tell you once more. You’ve got to forget you saw me! It’s terribly important that you remember that.”

“Sure, old pal.” The man named Lewis burped, then hiccupped twice.

“
Benny
,” said Latham firmly, “you’re not on the sauce again,
are
you?”