Toni and Kurt had nearly dropped from exhaustion. They slept until evening, so they could return Lt. Budd to his room under the shroud of darkness.
Kurt woke to the sound of his watch alarm. Toni was sleeping on the sofa. He sat and watched her for a while. Her performance had been nothing less than spectacular. She earned an Academy Award as far as he was concerned. Her skin looked so soft; her high cheek bones and strong jaw were more beautiful than he had ever seen. Finally, he shook her to wake her up.
"Toni? We've got work to do."
"Jake, leave me alone," she said softly.
Jake? Who the hell is Jake?
Kurt shook her again-this time more violently.
"Toni! Get up," he said more loudly.
Finally her big brown eyes opened and looked directly at Kurt.
"Kurt?"
"Yeah, Kurt, not Jake," he said, disturbed. "Who the hell is Jake anyway?" He sounded more like a jealous boy friend than he wanted to or had the right to. "Never mind."
"No, it's okay. Jake Adams is a guy I know, or used to know. I haven't seen or heard from him in over a year and a half. We were close."
"Did you work together?"
"Not really." She paused for a second, smiled. "He worked as an Air Force intelligence officer at the Rome Embassy before he was reassigned to Germany. He also worked for the Company after he resigned his commission. He came to Italy a lot. His specialty is computers. We had a…relationship. He left the CIA and Europe over a year ago."
Kurt went to the refrigerator and got a cold beer.
"You remind me of him a little."
"How's that?" he said and then took a big gulp of beer.
"Well, I don't know. You look a little like him. Could we change the subject, kid?" Toni pleaded. "I've got a headache. I think it's from all the yelling I did in Italian. I think we got everything we need from him."
There was a pause.
"You were a pro in there," Kurt complimented. "I learned a lot, and I really appreciate that."
"Thanks. You weren't half-bad yourself."
They both seemed a bit uncomfortable.
"Let's go, kid," Toni finally said. "We've gotta get this Bozo back to the post before someone misses him."
Kurt went to the interrogation room, lifted Lt. Budd over his shoulder once again, and carried him to the car. It reminded him of numerous times in high school when he had to carry his friend home after a night of drinking. After setting him in the trunk, Kurt and Toni drove back to the post to return him to his room. In the morning he'd feel like a truck ran him over, but his memory would be nonexistent.
CHAPTER 12
Jake found a room in a small town on the outskirts of Bonn. He brought only a small bag with a change of clothes and a suitcase with his equipment into his room. The suitcase resembled a metal camera case that he carried on the plane with him. It contained a laptop computer with a fax modem enclosed in a firm rubber insert, and various other small electronic devices. The small tracking transmitter was still under the front seat of the Passat, so there was an open spot in the rubber.
It was nearly an hour past the time he was to call Milt Swenson. Jake punched in Milt's private number.
After a pause and a few rings. "Hello," said a voice from Portland.
"Jake Adams!" After he said his name he put his hand over the mouthpiece quickly and looked toward the door. He thought he heard a noise outside his room.
"Is everything all right?" Milt asked.
"Yeah," he said calmly. "I just thought I heard someone in the corridor. I've got some news. Bundenbach Electronics. Do you know anything about that company?"
There was a pause. "Yeah, I've heard of them," Milt said derisively. "But they're no IBM. Why do you ask?"
"They hired Gunter Schecht, a former German Intelligence agent, to follow me."
"Why would they do that?"
"I don't know, but I need some information," Jake said. "Could you run a background on Bundenbach and fax it to my modem here." Jake gave him the telephone number to his room.
"No problem," Milt said. "I should be able to get that in about an hour. Anything else?"
"No! If I need you, I'll call you there or at your private home phone. I won't be available much."
"Jake, what does this company have to do with Charlie Johnson missing?" Milt asked.
Jake thought for a moment. "I'm not sure. But I'll find out."
"Thanks, Jake."
Jake plopped the phone back in its crevice.
The information from Milt would be helpful, but Jake also knew he needed a German perspective on Bundenbach Electronics. When he worked in Germany, he had access to numbers to various foreign government agencies and some private companies and banks. Most of the intelligence agencies and police, like the German Polizei, changed their access codes every three months. So he wasn't sure how many would work. Jake quickly linked his laptop computer to his phone line. The numbers were hidden on his hard drive in different places.
He'd have to work fast so he could free his modem and not miss Milt's transmission. Within a few minutes, Jake had accessed the German equivalent of the U.S. Commerce Department. He down loaded about ten pages of information on Bundenbach to his hard drive. That would take him a while to translate into English. He wasn't really sure what to look for. He hoped that whatever it was would jump out from the page.
After about a half hour of meticulously translating boring statistics on Bundenbach Electronics, Jake switched off the LCD screen, turned off the light in his room and went to sleep.
It had been one of the hottest days in San Remo history. The Italian Riviera was speckled with sun worshippers hiding under their colorful umbrellas. The afternoon sun had skirted its way around the balcony of Jake's hotel room overlooking the aquamarine Mediterranean. He stood against the twisted metal railing with only his tight white tennis shorts and his black sunglasses hiding his nakedness. The intense sun over the past week had tanned his body to a golden brown.
Jake glanced back into the room. A soft breeze fluttered the sheers next to the open sliding glass door. Toni lay asleep on the bed following long, passionate lovemaking. Sex had become a staple of life like a good wine and pasta or the smell of the wondrous San Remo flower gardens.
Other women on the beach below couldn't compare to Toni's natural beauty, Jake thought. Her perfectly rounded breasts, firm butt and long, tight legs would excite any man. Her curly, black silky hair flowed delightfully over her broad shoulders. She could have easily had a successful modeling career, but instead, the adventure of the CIA and Europe beckoned her. Jake was thankful. He smiled at her beautifully naked form.
Jake moved inside and slipped off his shorts. As he flipped off his sun glasses and threw them to a chair, he rolled onto the crumpled sheets of the large bed, slid his hand across Toni's smooth shoulder, and kissed her on the nape of the neck. She scrunched her neck and sighed.
"Um…again?"
He slid his hand down to her smooth, firm butt and then between her legs to her wet, curly mound.
"Yes!"
They had only two days left. They had to make the most of them.
Jake woke in darkness and disoriented in his new room. Sweat beads on his forehead chilled him-reminding him that he was in Germany and not basking in the Italian sun with Toni Contardo. Was she still working in Italy? If she had her way, that's where she'd be.
Jake switched on a small desk lamp. He looked at the phone on the desk. He still had Toni's number. Did she still live in that second floor apartment in Rome? Maybe he'd call her later.