“Well, who are you?” Hans shot back. “You’re certainly not a nurse!”
“Yes, I am a nurse, but a little more than that.”
“Well, to tell you the truth, I am from the company that Mr. Tam works for and he was carrying something very valuable when he was in that accident in Geneva. It’s key to a secret process we are working on and one that a number of other companies would like to get their hands on. It should be among his personal effects. Just between you and me, I think our company would be very willing to give quite a large reward to whoever helped me retrieve it. Are you interested? I can assure you that no one needs to know but you and me.”
“That sounds like a bribe to me.”
“No, no, I’m just saying that my company would most gladly compensate anyone for their help in recovering the item we think Mr. Tam was carrying when he had that terrible accident.”
Hesitating, the nurse relaxed a little. “What do you want me to do?”
“I need to check Mr. Tam’s personal effects. Can you help me? Can you get them for me?”
“I believe personal effects are kept in the hospital safe, but I’m not sure his have been put in the safe yet, since he just arrived. What are you looking for?”
“I really can’t tell you that because of the tight security of our company, but I can assure you that it should be in a small, locked silver box. I don’t think anyone here at the hospital would miss it and I will come back and tell Mr. Tam that it is safely back with our company as soon as he regains consciousness. What is your name, so I can make sure my company can reward you?”
“Kat Yun. I work for Dr. Yang. He is a very important doctor here with much influence. Come back tomorrow, at this same time during my shift, Herr Horst. If I can manage it, I will have it for you then. I would like that reward before I give you the silver box. Do we understand each other?”
“Yes, we do. Till tomorrow then, and my company and I thank you so very much.”
Hans was so enthusiastic about the prospect of getting the emerald that he felt like celebrating. This might be easier that he thought. In his hotel room, he removed his disguise, showered, and began applying a fresh disguise. He felt like stepping out tonight, perhaps even at his old rendezvous, the Cobra Club. It was about time. He’d been excessively tense lately. Tonight he would don his party disguise: bushy blonde eyebrows and mustache with shoulder length hair. It was almost eleven when he finished, and the Cobra would be jumping, just the way he liked it.
At the club, he slipped through the entrance onto the floor and stationed himself along the nearest wall observing the people carefully to see if anyone seemed to recognized him. No one, so far, so good. He worked his way toward the bar, got a beer, and continued moving through the crowd with the bottle in his hand looking for a place to settle.
David and Miriam sitting near the stage were also scanning the crowd. David spied Hans at the bar and told Miriam the same guy he’d seen last time, he was sure, but now wearing long blond hair and a mustache. After losing him before David was primed to keep up with Hans this time. “I’ll be right back”, he said, and lightly patting the pistol under his arm, pushed through the yelling, laughing people toward the bar. The noise level was high tonight. A shot with a silencer would go unnoticed in this loud frenzied environment, he thought. At the bar, he failed to see the man. He turned, looking carefully for him. Damn, he had disappeared again. Moving around to the tables against the wall, he stopped, and scanned again until he finally saw his prey talking to a girl leaning against one of the support columns mid-way to the dance floor. They were about fifty feet away. Moving stealthily through the crowd, David closed in.
Hans, ever-watchful, spied David coming toward him over the shoulder of the girl he was talking to. That’s the Jew who followed me before, he realized. Abruptly he left the girl, moving into the crowd, still watching David. Hans ducked around a group singing happy birthday, and David lost sight of him again. Hans came around behind David and reached for his gun under his jacket at the small of his back. With David six feet ahead in clear range, Hans shot David in the back twice and once in the leg with his silenced gun, then turned and carefully walked through the milling crowd and out into the street.
Those who saw David fall thought he was just another passed-out drunk or a drug OD and moved away to avoid responsibility. However, when the blood started pooling on the floor around David, someone screamed above the noise. Others shouted to call an ambulance amid the panicked cries and screams that erupted. A crowd gathered around David.
Miriam, now unable to see David, got up from her table to see what the commotion was all about. Starting through the crowd, she heard people yelling “someone’s shot! Someone’s shot!” Did he shoot that bastard, she wondered, continuing to push through the throng until she came upon David lying face down and saw the blood. Quietly she dropped to the blood-slick floor and felt David’s carotid artery. His heart was still beating. Tears were running down her face. “He’s with me”, she blurted as someone supported her and helped her to stool at the bar. She couldn’t believe it! David shot! Before the reality set in there were several men in white coats pushing through the crowd still gathered around David. They carefully placed him on a gurney, and one of them shouted, “Who knows this man.” Several bystanders pointed to Miriam and she walked over and said, “I know him, he is my boyfriend. As they carried David out of the club one of the white coated men grabbed her arm and hustled her out of the club and led her toward the waiting ambulance. Miriam climbed into the back of the ambulance and sat down, sobbing as the attendants worked on David.
At the hospital, she showed her ID, and gave them David’s information. An orderly went through David’s personal effects to verify insurance. He told her to go sit in the waiting room and someone would let her know his condition as soon as they could. After minutes that seemed like hours, a doctor in scrubs walked up and said they were taking David to surgery now, it would be at least four hours before they could really determine his condition. Miriam nodded in a daze and slumped in a waiting room chair.
Miriam sat with her head in her hands, crying quietly. She was shocked and couldn’t believe what had just happened. After an hour of grief, she looked around at a few others waiting like her, and then got up to find a phone. As she rose a police officer approached and asked her what she had witnessed at the club. Through her tears, she gave him what little information she could, not wanting to divulge who they were or why they were in Munich. She said that they were from Geneva and here in Munich on holiday. She gave them the name of their Munich hotel, telling him she didn’t know what she would do now. He told her the shooter had gotten away. Did she know of anyone who might want to kill him? No, they did not have a description at this time. The policeman gave Miriam his card telling her to contact him if she remembered anything else that might prove useful — anything at all, when her head was clearer. He thanked her and said he must be going now to help with the investigation.
Finding a telephone booth near the hospital entrance she called Levi on his private line.
Hearing what had happened Levi said he would contact another agents in Munich to support her and continue with the investigation. They would contact her at the safe house but someone would come by the hospital to sit with her until she knew about David’s condition.
“Levi, I don’t need a baby-sitter. As soon as I know that David’s OK, I’m go to get that bastard Hans”.
“Wait a minute; you don’t even know it was Hans”.
“Who else would it be? David thought it might be Hans when he saw him in the club. I know it was that Nazi bastard, and I’m going to get him, if it’s the last thing I do!”