He was in the Reichstag.
As he entered he heard the roar of the crowd.
The procession of limousines that carried the leaders of the European community, the President of the United States and the President of the Soviet Union were arriving.
Time's running out, Marcus.
Things are coming to an end.
He quickened his pace as he reached the end of the corridor and climbed the wide stairs that led into the heart of the building.
Nobody challenged him; the excitement outside consumed everyone's attention.
Ch. 80
She stood at the window, looking down at the traffic jam below.
The ceremony at the Reichstag had bottlenecked the rest of the city; diversions and frayed tempers had become the norm for the day.
Nobody had contacted her. She'd tried to leave the room, but the guards had stopped her.
So she'd turned to what she was best at, what she was trained to do. She disseminated information, broke down the facts as she knew them.
It still didn't make sense. Except for one thing. It hadn't taken her long to realise the DDI had lied to her. The information she had given him had not been passed on. It wasn't the way the Agency worked. They were paranoid about information. By now, there should have been a team of de-briefers working with her; interrogating; probing; tricking; getting to the bottom of it.
But there'd been no-one.
Which meant they had their own plans; that they'd known what was going on all the time, ever since New Orleans.
The horrible alternative was that the DDI was working alone. Trouble was, she didn't know for which side.
She stared out of the window, could see the crowds in the distance in the expanse of space that was the Tiergarten. She couldn't see the Reichstag, only the Brandenburg Gate.
Be safe, Adam. Watch them. They're going to come at you from every side.
Then she knelt by the window and closed here eyes and tried to see him in her mind. She tried to communicate with him, to give him strength and warning. Finally, she started to pray, called upon a God she had long since ignored and forgotten. God wasn't the Californian way.
Behind her, the television screen showed the world leaders on the steps of the Reichstag, waving at the crowds as they climbed the great steps. When they had gone under the arch and through the entrance, the camera cut to the mass in the square. There was a sudden movement near the front and a tussle broke out between a group of policeman and some youths. Then it spread, more violent and more purposeful as it turned into a mob. A policeman collapsed, his face cut open by a flying brick. His colleagues pulled him to safety, and in their concern for him, lost their ground as the mob advanced.
Suddenly there was rioting.
The camera cut to the front of the building, to the great arch.
DEM DEUTSCHEN VOLKE.
For the German people.
Ch. 81
The Plenary Chamber was full; all the members of the Bundestag had taken their positions. They stood in anticipation of the German Chancellor leading in his honoured guests.
The Chamber was surrounded by four glass walls, a vast room within a room that was the Great Hall of the Reichstag. Two levels of viewing galleries ran round the Chamber and looked down on this modern House of Parliament. These galleries were lined with chairs for guests to watch the ceremonies.
Adam stood at the top of the stairs that had led up from the lower level. He scanned the Chamber, looking for Kaas or hoping to identify one of the others who had been in the chalet in Dresden. He saw no-one he recognised, so he moved along the wall, searching for the journalists' group that Kaas had been with. He soon identified the undercover security men scattered round the building. He decided to keep his distance from them. He knew most of them would have his photograph. As he moved he recalled the little charade they had played on him and Billie. There had been four of them, four armed gunmen bursting into the room with the lecterns and the banked seating, four of them playing their savage game of destruction.
He looked into the Plenary Chamber and saw the two lecterns, now empty in front of the President's Chair and the raised dias where the clerks of the Parliament sat. The lecterns looked out on the banked chairs where the members sat on three sides of the hall.
This is where the two Presidents would speak.
If the rehearsal in Dresden was accurate, the attack would come when they were both at the lecterns.
Adam frantically tried to recall where the four attackers had come from. Kaas, he'd come from the left. He searched there, but there was no group of journalists. He looked up to the first gallery level. Apart from the excited guests there was only one television camera looking down on the Chamber.
Two of the others had come from the right, close to each other. He turned his attention to that part of the hall. Once again there was no-one he recognised. The third had kept his distance, had fired from the back of the hall. He crossed the hall behind a line of anxious officials and climbed the stairs that led to the first level. As he did so, he looked out on the scene at the front of the Reichstag. He recognised the leaders coming into the hall, the Presidents of the United States and the Soviet Union as well as the British Prime Minister. The party had stopped there, shaking hands with Ministers and other dignitaries. That would take some time. Adam guessed it would be at least ten minutes before they came to the lecterns. Behind them, out in the square, he could see a fight going on between the police and a group of protesters. More police were joining in and trying to bring it under control.
'Where are you going?' asked the uniformed policeman at the entrance to the stairs.
'There's a riot started outside.' he replied. 'I've been told to double check no troublemakers have slipped in upstairs,' he replied.
The policeman nodded and let him pass.
The stairway led onto the first floor gallery. Behind the gallery there was a walled corridor with doors that led to offices and storage areas. The corridor was empty and Adam crossed it to the far side of the gallery. He opened the door carefully and looked out. The people in front of him were craning over the balcony, looking down on the Chamber and trying to catch a glimpse of the welcoming ceremonies going on below them.
One of the two Russian security men saw the gap in the door and nudged his partner. They were some twenty metres away and they pushed their way through the small crowd towards Adam. The sudden movement attracted his eye and he quickly let the door close and ran down the corridor, trying each door as he did. The fourth one along was unlocked, a small broom cupboard, and he slid into it. As he did so, he tripped over something on the floor, but caught his balance and quickly closed the door behind him. Then he felt for the lock in the darkness, found a bolt and turned it. He stepped back and waited for the searchers.
The security men tried each door in the corridor, looked through the keyholes and worked their way down. They rattled the door of the cupboard, then moved past. Adam heard them talking in Russian. One of the men laughed. From their tone he gathered that it wasn't an incident they were taking that seriously, but one they had to investigate. A minute after silence had returned, and knowing he was short on time, he ran his hand along the wall, feeling for a light switch.