I took off my helmet, removed my goggles, and pulled off the black balaclava I wore beneath, and then let him take a good long look at my face. I didn’t have to say my name, and I could see the exact moment when he recognized me. His eyes slowly widened, and his lips parted to say a single word.

“No,” he breathed.

I said, “Yes.”

CHAPTER 95

DAS VERARBEITUNGSZENTRUM

SECURITY OFFICE

Korporal Heinz Kepler looked up from the duty sheet he’d been filling out and stared at one of the twenty-eight video screens on the wall over his desk. Most screens showed nighttime stillness. A few showed guards patrolling the halls. However, there was movement in one of the exterior screens—the one covering the front gate. A big white Mercedes Vario was idling on the turnaround. It was similar to the supply trucks used to deliver supplies to the processing plant, but no deliveries were expected, and certainly not at this hour.

Kepler tapped his shift partner on the shoulder. “Hey, Grunner, look at this.”

Grunner, who had been reading a copy of Der Spiegel, looked up over his reading glasses. He grunted. “Lost,” he said. “Maybe looking for directions.”

The driver’s door opened, and a slim woman slid down to the ground. She had a blond ponytail sticking out of the back of a blue billed cap and wore a blue windbreaker, tight jeans, and a black leg brace around her left knee. She walked up to the fence and stared directly into the camera. The blonde blew a kiss to whomever was watching, then turned and walked toward the back of the truck.

“What the hell?” murmured Kepler.

They leaned forward to study the video.

Grunner touched the screen. “Hey, what’s that? Who’s that with her?”

CHAPTER 96

DAS VERARBEITUNGSZENTRUM

CELL 13

Casanova knew he was in trouble.

All the pieces clicked. I’d come in wearing nonregulation clothes and equipment and had not brought the usual kind of backup. No other guards with shock rods or Tasers. This was clearly off the books. That … and he recognized me. He knew he was in a very small room with Joe Ledger and a nasty dog.

He was bigger and heavier than I was, but he shrank away, backing up until he thumped into the wall, eyes clicking left and right as if magical doorways would suddenly appear. The door behind me was closed. The fact that the cell was soundproof was something he’d already know about.

That left him in the exact center of shit creek. Not a paddle in sight.

So he tried for it.