A third man, unknown to Harris’s people, and wearing the livery of a limousine driver, was looking at his phone in an easy chair, just as he had been since arriving at the hotel shortly before 4 a.m. He looked up when Frend appeared, put his phone in his pocket, and got to his feet. As he prepared to follow the lawyer, the man with the coffee moved in, narrowly avoiding spilling his hot drink on the driver. The man apologized in German, by which point the woman was directly behind the driver, who felt a gun in his back at the same moment that the operative in front of him produced another pistol.

Meanwhile, the oblivious Frend descended to the basement parking lot. It took him just under five minutes to get to his rental, arrange his bag and coat, and exit the facility. By then the four men waiting outside had already been disabled, one of them fatally, having made the mistake of instinctively reaching for the gun by his side as the vehicle was being surrounded. He was killed with a bullet from a suppressed Beretta carrying a seventeen-round sand-resistant magazine, a throwback to its owner’s military service in the deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq.

This unfortunate incident took place at the front of the hotel, while Frend left from the rear, so he remained unaware of the details of what had occurred. On the other hand, he did see two figures on the ground beside a nondescript Nissan parked near the garage door as he drove off, six armed and masked men surrounding them, and two cars blocking one lane of the street. He thought he spotted the Austrian flag on the sleeve of a nearby figure dressed in full operational gear, with a combat shotgun held at port arms. Frend briefly slowed down, taken by surprise, before resuming his progress and doing his best to ignore whatever was happening. It might have been something to do with him, but then again, it might not. These were, after all, troubled times. Yet he was not entirely surprised when his phone rang moments later, and the by now familiar distorted voice said, ‘You see? I told you we’d take care of you.’

Frend checked his rearview mirror. There were cars behind him, but he could not tell if they had followed him from his lodgings. He heard sirens in the distance.

‘Who were they?’ said Frend.

‘The men on the ground? We’ll have to wait and see, but I’m guessing they could point you toward Mecca without a compass.’