The Hostage (Presidential Agent 2)

"Probably not. We can have it in the car on the way to Bad Hersfeld," Castillo said. He turned to Frau Schroeder. "I don't think you want to be involved in this, Tante Gertrud."

She put both hands on his cheeks and looked into his eyes.

"I wish to God you weren't involved in this, Karlchen," she said. "But since you are, don't you dare try to exclude me."

Fernando Lopez walked up. He wrapped an arm around Frau Schroeder's shoulders, kissed her on the cheek, and said, "Still taking care of ol' Whatsisname, are you, Frau Gertrud?"

"Somebody has to," she said. "Your grandmother is well, I hope?"

"Very well, thank you. If she knew I was going to make this grand tour of Europe, I'm sure she would have sent her love."

"How are you, Fernando?" Otto asked.

"I don't know, Otto," Fernando said. "I have the uncomfortable feeling that I have just become a file in some vast, Teutonically thorough database of suspicious people."

Neither Otto nor Gertrud responded.

Colonel Torine and Sergeant Kranz-who was towing an enormous hard-sided suitcase behind him-walked up to them a moment later.

"Everything okay, Seymour?" Castillo asked.

"Yes, sir. The authorities, who tried hard, failed to find any explosives or controlled substances in my luggage."

"Seymour, this is Mr. Goerner, who has been trying to straighten me out since I was in diapers, and this is Frau Schroeder, who keeps him on the straight and narrow."

"How do you do?" Kranz said.

"Herr Gossinger tells me you're in the Army, Herr Kranz?" Frau Schroeder asked, dubiously.

Kranz looked at Castillo, who nodded, before replying.

"Not exactly, ma'am," Kranz said in German. "I'm Special Forces."

"You mean," she asked, "with the beret, the green beret?"

"Yes, ma'am," Kranz said, "with the beret."

"How very interesting," she said. "And you speak German."

"Yes, ma'am. Most of us speak a couple of languages."

"And this is Colonel Jake Torine, of the Air Force," Castillo said.

"If you're responsible for keeping Karl-Charley-on the straight and narrow, Colonel, you have my profound sympathy," Goerner said.

"I think of him as the cross I have to bear as a righteous man," Torine said.

"Me, too," Goerner said. [FOUR] Haus im Wald Near Bad Hersfeld Kreis Hersfeld-Rotenburg Hesse, Germany 1310 27 July 2005 Frau Helena Goerner, a svelte blonde who was a Bavarian but who didn't look as if she would be comfortable in an embroidered dirndl and with her hair braided into pigtails, had lunch waiting for them when they arrived at Haus im Wald.

"Welcome home, Karl," she said in English, offering him her cheek to kiss as if he were a very distant relative entitled to the privilege. Then she did the same to Fernando.

"Dona Alicia, Maria, and your adorable children are doing well, I trust, Fernando?"

"Very well, thank you, Helena," Fernando replied. "And your rug rats? How and where are they?"

Castillo and Otto chuckled.

"Our children are here, but I wasn't sure if it would be appropriate for them to have luncheon with us."