“‘Course,” I told her. “But we should get moving.”

And we set off across the snow.

25. Becker

25

BECKER

We arrived to interrogate the American, only to find the prison in uproar. I marched inside with my men, pushed my way through the chaos and found Werner, the prison warden, in his office with his second-in-command and five guards. We’d served together, back in our Special Forces days. But while I’d kept myself in shape, Werner had let himself run to fat.

He rushed out from behind his desk when he saw me, wringing his hands. “They got him, Otto. The American you were keeping here, they took him.” I could see the sweat glistening on his forehead. Disgusting. “The government already knows something happened: when the alarm went off, that sent them an alert. And the inspectors will be arriving in an hour. We have to come clean, Otto. Tell them everything.”

I looked around. “These are the guards who saw the intruders?”

Werner nodded. “We don’t know much. They were in military gear, well trained. They used tranquilizer darts and choked another guard unconscious. No one’s hurt, thank God. We hit their helicopter and we think it crashed a few miles away.”

I nodded absently, thinking. It was safe to assume these were the same Americans I’d run into in Berlin, trying to rescue their friend. This might actually be a blessing in disguise. Maybe I could still salvage the plan, if I kept the situation under control. “This is everyone who saw what happened?” I asked.

Werner nodded. “Yes, everyone.”

I drew my gun and shot him in the head. Turning, I killed the five guards with five quick, clean shots. They were poorly trained: even the last one had barely begun to reach for his weapon. Sloppy.

I turned to Werner’s second-in-command. “When the authorities arrive, you will tell them how the Americans broke in here and killed these men.”

The man stared at me, panting in shock and anger. Then he looked down at my gun. It wasn’t pointed at him, exactly, but it wasn’t pointing away from him, either. A warning.

“Yes,” he croaked at last. “What about the American we were holding here?”

“We weren’t holding any American here. They attacked the prison for reasons unknown and killed these men. Tell the government that I’m taking my team in pursuit.”

26. Erin

26

ERIN