She looked out over the Platz, wishing she could catch sight of Damon. He was in such danger. He was an intelligence operative working on foreign soil. If the Germans caught him, he would at least be in for a long, possibly uncomfortable interview. If Nigel wasn’t willing to negotiate for him, Damon might disappear. It wouldn’t matter that England and Germany weren’t enemies. No one would want to admit they had the information on the bioweapon.
How had the waiter known her name?
The question flipped through her brain, stopping all other thought. The suite was under an assumed name. Damon had paid for it with a safe card, one set up with SIS. Her name hadn’t been involved in any way.
Yet he’d thanked her as Miss Cash.
Bugger, the Germans were already here.
She pushed through the door and then her stomach threatened to roll.
Simon was slumped over the desk, his tea dripping onto the carpet below. Chelsea’s head was thrown back. Charlotte had slipped to the floor.
Not a one of them was conscious. Please don’t let them be dead.
“You really should have some tea,” Candice said. She stood in the middle of the room, a gun in her hand. Though her voice shook slightly, she held the gun like she knew what she was doing.
“Did you kill them?” Tears filled her eyes, but she was determined to remain calm. She had to figure a way out of this. She could handle Candice. She had to.
“No. They’re just asleep and you should be, too. I don’t want to do this, but do you understand how hard it is to move up in my world? If you aren’t gorgeous and don’t have great connections, you end up on some bloody town paper reporting nonsense about local gentry. That’s not going to happen to me.”
“Miss Jones is getting a promotion. You see, my employers run several of the world’s largest news agencies,” a familiar voice said.
Terror threatened to take over. She wasn’t dealing with German intelligence. Oh, it was so much worse.
Basil Champion stepped into the room.
“Hello, Damon’s whore. It’s so good to see you again.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Damon tapped the communications device in his ear. “Chelsea? Are you there?”
“Hey, I hate to pull you away from all your talk, but Walt’s going to be here any minute, and he might run if he hears you talking to your bloody self,” Carter said.
Technology could be so frustrating. He forced himself to focus. Chelsea would get it back on line. She seemed very competent. And he had to hope they weren’t supremely fucked. “We have a slight change of plans.”
He needed to keep the Aussie calm.
Carter couldn’t help but draw some notice. The man was at least six foot seven. Germans weren’t small people, but everyone looked a bit tiny compared to the Aussie. Damon wasn’t used to being forced to look up at anyone. “What’s gone wrong? Damn it. He should be here any minute.”
“We’re going to need to get him to the embassy.” Both the British and the American Embassies were in the plaza behind the Brandenburg Gate. The American was closest and Taggart had informed him that Tennessee Smith was inside, awaiting the outcome. Or more than likely waiting to see if he could get his hands on the package. Apparently he wasn’t the only one.
Damon had to hope their plan went down properly. The addition of the American operative put a kink in everything, but Ian assured him that Ten was in. Tag and Tennessee had spoken during the train ride to Berlin. Jesse and Jake were ready to do what needed to be done. They’d been forced to think on their feet. Not even the women knew what he and Ian had decided to do.
Which was good, because some people might consider what they were about to do treason.
Brody Carter wouldn’t. He’d been the one to come up with the plan in the first place. Too often soldiers only followed orders and not their consciences. This was not going to be one of those times.
“The Germans are looking for Walter. And they very likely aren’t the only ones. Before our system went out, Chelsea said she found some communications between Walter and some German woman.”
Carter cursed, pulling on his ball cap as he shook his head. “Horny bugger. I told him he couldn’t contact anyone. Damn it. She worked in his department.”
“The good news is she didn’t knowingly work for The Collective. The bad news? She decided to inform on him to her government. I can’t imagine this hasn’t gotten out. We have to get Walter to the embassy. We could all find ourselves in a German holding tank talking to their intelligence, and they will get him to hand over the goods.”
What Walter Bennett had in his hands was a weapon of mass destruction. Every government in the world would want it. Every single one of them would kill to get it or keep it out of every other country’s hands.
Carter nodded. “All right. We have to find him first. I don’t know what the fuck this is.”
Damon stared out over the Holocaust Memorial, understanding a bit of Carter’s confusion. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, as its designer had named it, consisted of over 2700 concrete slabs in a grid pattern. From the outside everything looked uniform, as though the slabs were all of the same height. It was very different when Damon walked through to get to the other side. The ground was uneven, sloping in places. One moment he could easily see the tops, and the next he’d been staring up as though he’d gone underground. He’d walked a straight line to the other side but if he’d gone even once off the line, he would have found himself lost.
That massive maze stood between him and the embassy. He wondered what else would be in the way.
Jake Dean walked by, his eyes on a map of the city. “Comm’s down.”
“Yes, I got that.”
“Jesse’s going back to the hotel. Ian doesn’t like it. He can’t get Simon to answer his cell.”
A cold tendril of fear laced through him. “Penelope?”
“Not answering hers either.” Jake put his phone to his ear, looking for all the world like he was talking to someone on the other end. “You handle this. We’re going to figure out the rest. Tag’s on the other side of the…whatever it is. I’ve got to move to the embassy in case we actually get the package. I have to be in place or this could all go to hell.”
“Do you have what you need?” Jake was very important to the plan. He had to be in place.
Jake nodded. “Yes. When Jesse calls, we’ll let you know what’s happening.”
He couldn’t panic. Panic was what whoever was causing the disruption wanted him to do. Weston was deadly. If someone attacked the suite, he would likely be able to handle it. For that matter, Charlotte Taggart wasn’t exactly a shrinking violet.
And neither was his Penelope. She’d killed a man when she had to. She could do it again.
“There he is.” Carter sighed beside him. “God, it’s a miracle he hasn’t got himself murdered by now.”
Carter stepped away, moving toward the trees that lined the road, and Damon got his first look at Walter Bennett. The scientist was a lanky man, looked more like a kid really. Though he knew Bennett was in his thirties, his face was younger, more open than any man who had managed to create one of the deadliest bioweapons in the world should look.
Damon turned away, not wanting to scare the man off, but he strained to listen. He had to stay close because Taggart had no idea the target had arrived. Dean had moved out of his sight line, likely doing long turns around the memorial.
“What the hell happened? I nearly freaked when you didn’t call after Helsinki,” Bennett said.
“I ran into a bit of a mess. And you’re in further than you realize. Why the hell did you talk to Heidi?” Carter sounded brutally annoyed.