“We’ve run that request, sir. The numbers were too high.”
“I know. But this time also search for unsolved murders around the same time as the missing persons.”
“That will take some time,” Andreas complained. “What do you hope to find?”
Gustav wasn’t sure about that. But he had a hunch. “We might have run into a shadow war of some kind.”
“Shadow war?”
“Yeah. What is the first rule of assassination?”
Andreas hunched his shoulders.
“Kill the assassin,” Gustav said.
“I see. So, perhaps I can link various murders in Europe to missing persons, and then overlay that with our dead bodies.”
Gustav smiled. “I knew there was a reason I brought you with me from Munich.”
Andreas closed his laptop, got up, and headed for the door. “I’ll need to work on this at my desk,” he said.
“Keep me informed,” Gustav said. And then he was alone in his office. Finally, a direction. But he wasn’t entirely sure he liked the way this was heading. Even if they could link all of these deaths together, how would that help them? They still had no motive or suspects. But they did have one potential victim. This Jake Adams. He had somehow escaped the hit, though. And now he was being sought by Interpol, Austrian State Polizei, and the German Polizei. So someone hadn’t only sent the Turks after this American, but a second hit team. And this Adams had taken out all of them. He’d have to meet this man.
15
Jake and Alexandra got to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in the early evening the night before, after crossing the German border just west of Trier on the Autobahn. Jake needed clothes, so the two of them did some late shopping in the downtown area along the tourist-laden pedestrian mall. Bags in hand and wearing new clothes, including a thin leather jacket, Jake checked into the Grand Hotel Cravat on Roosevelt, in the center of it all in Luxembourg City. The hotel was close to the main train station, close to tourist attractions, and, more importantly, workers there were used to seeing tourists — which the two of them were attempting to portray. Jake alone had checked into the hotel with his Canadian passport, and the place was large enough to not notice or care when a beautiful and elegant woman like Alexandra stepped through the front door alone and went to the room. They couldn’t have her check in with him, since she only had her personal passport with her and someone could eventually tie the two of them together. Their room was on the ninth floor overlooking the Place de la Constitution. They’d eaten dinner at the hotel restaurant and had a few drinks before retiring to their room early. As beneficial friends with needs, they’d made slow yet passionate love and gone to sleep early. At least she had. Jake had gotten up and stood at the window watching the city lights and the cars passing by on the road below, his thoughts to the days ahead and those of the past few months. It hadn’t been that long ago that he and Anna had stayed in similar places, never really discussing the future, but living for the moment. All that changed in the mountains of Austria two months ago. Having just asked her to marry him that weekend, he had only a short time to contemplate the possibilities of their future together. Maybe that was the problem. It hadn’t given him much time to consider the consequences of settling down. Could he have done so? Now he might never know for sure. There was no doubt that he loved Anna. And money wasn’t a problem. After that Bulgarian case they could both live the rest of their lives without working again — if they’d made that choice. Jake’s problem was deeper. Even though Anna had agreed to marry him, he wasn’t entirely sure he could have gone through with the marriage. With both of their jobs they would have never seen each other. That had killed his ten-year marriage to Toni. They had always been at least one country away. After they both knew their union was over, Jake had tried to add up the actual time they had spent together. About a year, he figured. These thoughts racked his brain on and off all night, until he was finally exhausted enough to crash on the bed next to Alexandra.
Monday morning Jake and Alexandra slept in before going downstairs for a quick bite and vast quantities of thick, strong coffee. Jake had stayed in Luxembourg a number of times over the years, but not at the Grand Hotel Cravat for a few years. And then he’d used a different name and passport. He had ties to Luxembourg, having first opened a bank account there while working for the CIA in Germany. He’d kept the account while assigned to different countries in the CIA, and found no reason to get rid of it after leaving the Agency. The banking laws of Luxembourg, although having changed somewhat recently, were still more favorable than those in Switzerland. More private too.
Now, Jake stepped across the street and then glanced for a second up at the hotel, where Alexandra would be moving the bags to the car. He checked his watch. It was nine thirty. Moments later and Jake walked through the front door of his bank. He’d last been there a couple months ago when he shifted funds from an electronic transfer from a Swiss bank, via Bulgaria, and converted some to cash. After Anna died, and he recovered from the gunshots, he hadn’t thought about the money that much.
An older distinguished gentleman in a fine Italian suit recognized Jake and greeted him with a hand shake. “Nice to see you again, Mr. Adams,” he said discreetly. “How may I help you?”
“I’d like to close my account Tyson.”
The banker went pale.
“I’m just kidding,” Jake said. “You used to have a sense of humor.”
The man sighed heavily. “Apposing forces. My sense of humor has fallen as your account has risen.”
“No worries. I just need access to my safe deposit box.”
The man led Jake into the vault and left him in a private area to open his box. It was the only area in the bank without cameras, but Jake still kept an eye out, just in case they decided to change that policy. They hadn’t.
He had the largest box available and it was quite heavy. Inside he removed a hard plastic handgun case and pulled out another Beretta PX4 Storm. He was sure he hadn’t shot anyone with it. He then found a roll of bubble wrap, unrolled it, and took out another barrel. Glancing toward the door, Jake quickly pulled his Beretta in the holster, broke it down, and within seconds swapped out the barrels. Now he had two clean .40 cal automatics. He also grabbed a couple of extra full magazines, shoving them into his coat pockets. He ran his hand across a container with personal items, but left them there. Instead he found two stacks of 50, 100 Euro bills. Ten grand should do him, he thought, without having to use ATMs. He shoved them into inside jacket pockets, closed the box, and put it back into its slot before calling the banker back to lock his side.
Jake smiled and shook the man’s hand. “Nice to see you again, Tyson.”
“When are you coming to live in Luxembourg for good?”
“I don’t know if I do anything for good?” Jake quipped.
“Good point. Have a great day.”
Jake smiled and left.
He turned right and went down the block to the corner, waiting there for the light to change. Checking his watch, he figured Alexandra would be picking up the car by now and would eventually come around the block to the front entrance. The light changed and Jake started across the wide boulevard. Halfway across, a silver Mercedes turned right so Jake stopped to let it pass.
The car slowed. Something wasn’t right.
Jake saw the windows come down and the two guns almost immediately. His reactions were swift but he had no place to hide. As he shifted to his right he drew the Beretta from his pocket and rolled to the ground just as he heard the sound of gunfire.
Bullets whizzed over his head as he returned fire.
He struck the driver’s door and the rear passenger door with three rounds each before he rolled again to his right.