Black Ops (Presidential Agent 5)

[ONE]

The Big Room

Das Haus im Wald

Near Bad Hersfeld

Kreis Hersfeld-Rotenburg

Hesse, Germany

1630 27 December 2005

Hermann and Willi Gorner went straight from the elevator to Onkel Billy's apartment, where Madchen and the puppies had been left. Onkel Billy and everybody else went straight to the bar.

The service in Saint Elisabeth's had lasted almost an hour. Otto Gorner had delivered the eulogy. Castillo had heard only a little of it. He hadn't known--as Otto conveniently had not mentioned his role in the services--that Otto was going to make himself a perfect target in the pulpit for almost ten minutes.

Castillo thought it quite possible--if unlikely--that Otto would be shot in front of his boys.

That didn't happen. Nothing untoward happened in the church, or in the cemetery later, if you didn't count the behavior of the goddamn press. When that had happened--both at the church and in the cemetery--Castillo suddenly had been conscious that press passes can readily be forged, and that the still and video cameras shoved in the mourners' faces could eas

ily have concealed a weapon, if not a modified firearm then a compressed air system to launch darts tipped with ricin or some other lethal substance.

That didn't happen either.

The only thing out of the ordinary at the cemetery was that Eric Kocian told Otto Gorner he was getting a little short of breath and felt dizzy and thought it would be best if he went back to das Haus im Wald rather than to the Friedler home.

Gorner wanted to call for an ambulance, but Kocian insisted that he would be all right once he had lain down for a few minutes, and that he would ask Karlchen to drive him to Bad Hersfeld.

The minute Charley had driven the Jag carrying Billy, Max, and Jack Davidson out of the cemetery, Castillo had asked Kocian if he was sure he didn't want to go to a hospital, or at least see a doctor.

"My medicine is in the house in the woods. Now just drive me there, Karlchen, at a reasonable speed, and spare me your concern. I know what I need."

Castillo thought he heard a snicker from the backseat, but when he glanced in the rearview mirror all he saw was Max putting his head on Davidson's lap and Jack ostensibly taking in the view of the glorious German countryside.

At the house, Delchamps, Torine, Yung, and Doherty were in the Big Room when Max led in Castillo, Kocian, and Davidson.

They all had watched as Kocian made a beeline for the liquor bottles and poured four inches of Slivovitz into a water glass, drank half, then smacked his lips and set the glass down.

"You want me to get you your medicine before you drink the rest of that?" Castillo said.

Kocian shook his head in disbelief, raised the glass, and finished off the Slivovitz.

"I just took my medicine, Karlchen, thank you very much."

Castillo laughed. "You old fraud! You weren't dizzy or short of breath!"

"Karlchen, which would have been kinder: To tell Gertrud Friedler that I thought I had expressed my sympathy enough and what I was going to do now was find the sonsofbitches who did this to him? Or to announce I wasn't feeling well?"

"Touche."

"Pressing my advantage, Karlchen, I suggest that in the morning you and I--and the dogs, of course--catch the nine-oh-five fast train from Kassel to Vienna."

"You do?"

"That will put us--after a nice luncheon on the train--into the Westbahnhof a little after five."

"You don't want to fly down?"