But the hook had been baited, and now they would just have to wait. There was no question of alerting Frend to the danger he might be facing because the lawyer would be nervous enough already. If the operation went according to plan, he would never even know he had been in peril. Just in case Mr Rafi attempted to access the hotel that night, two teams were placed outside, and a third team checked in as a married couple and requested one of two rooms on the third floor ‘for old times’ sake’, which left them with a view of Frend’s door. As an added precaution, a mini motion sensor barely an inch in height and half an inch in width was placed next to a power outlet between Frend’s room and the hallway leading to the stairs and elevator. If it was activated, an alert would be sent to the team in the room. Before he went to bed, Louis obtained a cast-iron guarantee from Harris: once the targets were in custody or neutralized, Harris’s people would not attempt to interfere with Louis’s plans for the Vuksans, and Frend would be allowed to proceed unimpeded to the meeting place. That night, Angel stayed with Louis, and a wake-up call was set for 3:30 a.m.

They barely slept, but lay awake and watched the dark settle.

Chapter LXXIX

Under more favorable conditions – in a more familiar city, and without his own head being on the block – Mr Rafi might have been less vulnerable to surveillance, but he needed the lawyer and, as Louis had already surmised, was banking on fear outweighing any temptation to engage in a double-cross. In this, of course, Mr Rafi was guilty of a profound error of judgment.

The American team had flown into Vienna on a Gulfstream jet from a regional airport in eastern Poland, where the CIA had maintained a base for rendition purposes since the start of the War on Terror. It was not, therefore, the unit’s first day at the office. They were already watching when, at 3 a.m., two cars took up positions within sight of the main and rear doors of the hotel, the first of the vehicles having initially circled the block three times. They counted four men, two in each car, although none was Mr Rafi.

The operatives in the hotel had taken turns to rest, but only a trio of drunks returning to their rooms in the early hours had disturbed the calm of the hallway, triggering the motion sensor. When Frend emerged from his room at 4:50 a.m., he shared the elevator with the female half of the team, who smiled at him but did not receive a smile in return, and was watched by the male half of the team, who was prowling the lobby with a coffee as Frend walked to the separate garage elevator.