Chapters (50)
- Praise
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- EPILOGUE
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- Teaser chapter
“You changed it once, you could do it again. Leave me out on a limb. In this business that can be awkward. I need to know that you’re committed to this, Frau Warzok. It won’t be like buying a hat. Once an investigation is under way it’s not something you can return. You won’t be able to take it back to the shop and say you don’t like it.”
“I’m not an idiot, Herr Gunther,” she said. “And please don’t speak to me as if I haven’t given any thought to what I’m doing. It wasn’t easy coming here. You’ve no idea how difficult this is. If you did you might be a little less patronizing.” She spoke coolly and without emotion. “Is it the hat? I can take the hat off if it bothers you.” Finally she let go of her briefcase, placing it on the floor by her feet.
“I like the hat.” I smiled. “Please, keep it on. And I’m sorry if my manner offends you. But to be frank, there are a lot of time-wasters in this business and my time is precious to me. I’m a one-man operation, and if I’m working for you I can’t be working for someone else. Someone whose need might conceivably be greater than yours, perhaps. That’s just how it is.”
“I doubt there is anyone who needs you more than I do, Herr Gunther,” she said, with just enough tremor in her voice to tug at the softer end of my aorta. I offered her a cigarette.
“I don’t smoke,” she said, shaking her head. “My . . . doctor says they’re bad for you.”
“I know. But the way I figure it, they’re one of the more elegant ways to kill yourself. What’s more, they give you plenty of time to put your affairs in order.” I lit my cigarette and gulped down a mouthful of smoke. “Now, what seems to be the trouble, Frau Warzok?”
“You sound like you mean that,” she said. “About killing yourself.”
“I was on the Russian front, lady. After something like that, every day seems like a bonus.” I shrugged. “So eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we might get invaded by the Ivans, and then we’ll wish we were dead even if we’re not, although of course we will be, because this is an atomic world we live in now and it takes just six minutes not six years to kill six million people.” I pinched the cigarette from between my lips and grinned at her. “So what’s a few smokes beside a mushroom cloud?”
“You’ve been through it, then?”