Jeffery Deaver - Watchlist

Faust folded the paper and fixed him with intense black eyes. “‘Unhappy master, who unmerciful disaster followed fast and followed faster, till his songs the burden bore; till the dirges of his hope, the melancholy burden bore of Nevermore, of Nevermore.’”

“I deplore people who play with other people’s lives.”

“So do I.”

“It’s over.”

“Let’s hope not, Colonel.” The man took a bite of food, which he seemed to relish. He then said, “One thing I’ve never thanked you for. My name.”

“Your name?”

“That was your creation. I believe you found some documents in a volume of Goethe’s masterpiece, and dubbed me after the hero.”

“You think Faust was a hero?”

“Protagonist then.” He raised his glass. “So here’s to selling our souls to the devil.”

Middleton let his wine glass sit, untouched.

They confronted each other’s stare. Middleton wanted nothing more than to reach over and wring the younger man’s neck.

Faust said, “The great Edgar Allen Poe died at Church Hospital, very close to here. Few grieved. The poor mad genius was placed in an unmarked grave. His last words: ‘Lord help my soul.’”

“It seems you identify with him.”

Faust shook his head. “I was thinking he was more like you. Condemned to walk the earth as a marked man. Walking down the avenue of life stalked by demons. Using his will to bend his torment into art.”

Middleton drank down his wine then slammed his fist onto the table. “You’re a criminal! A fiend! I still dream about the slaughtered children of Kosovo and Racak.”

Faust laughed into his fist, adding fire to Middleton’s anger. Then he held up his hand. “Easy, my friend. Why it is that you Americans always assume that everything is black and white?”

“In this case, it is.”

“So if it has a pink ribbon tied around it it’s a birthday present?”

“Maybe you didn’t pull the trigger yourself, but you backed the man who did.”

“Rugova was a pig. May he rest in-”

“I hope he’s rotting in hell.”

“He was useful.”

Middleton stabbed a finger toward his rival’s chin. “You stink of guilt.”

“I like you, Colonel. I need you. That’s why I must stop you from continuing to demean your own intelligence.”

Before Middleton could reply, Faust snapped his fingers at the waiter, who skittered across the dining room. “My guest here will have the lacquered octopus to start; for me, the pear and caramelized walnut salad. We’d both like the whole Bronzini. No salt.”

Faust lifted his glass. “Here’s to the beginning of our partnership. Success!”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Tens of thousands; maybe hundreds of thousands of people are counting on us, but don’t know it.”

“Music lovers?” he asked darkly.

“I know a great deal about you, Colonel. I’ve studied you carefully. You’re a man who is relentless in pursuit of what you consider a worthy goal. I hope you’ll excuse me if I say that your goals so far have been wrong-headed.”

The salad and octopus arrived and were soon treated to showers of fresh black pepper.

“I bet you the price of this meal that we’ll be working together by the evening’s end,” Faust offered.

Middleton nodded his acceptance.

In a small bookkeeper’s office in a corner of the lemon-and-brine-scented kitchen of Kali’s Court, M. T. Connolly sat listening with desperate attention to the two men at the table not 50 yards from her, their voices traveling through an earbud.

Kalmbach. At his disposal were hundreds of Bureau agents and yet, in a display of typically unnecessary bravado, he drove to Martha Jefferson Hospital by himself, unaware Connolly was behind him. Now, hours later, Kalmbach, with Dick Chambers in tow, had led her to Middleton. And Faust, who was beginning the next phase of his dissertation with an anecdote about his father.

Connolly listened hard. The bug was under Faust’s bread plate.

“… Invitations to dance made with simple nods,” Faust said. “The intense courtship… ”

She jumped as her cell phone rang. She stretched her leg and snapped it quickly from her belt. “This is Connolly.”

“Hello, Buttercup.”

She walked toward a corner, away from the kitchen staff ’s prying eyes. “Padlo,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “Where are you?”

“Sono a Roma,” he replied, his Italian accented with as much American English as his native Polish. “Someone wants to say hello.”

“Josef, wait-”

“Oh, and by the way, his English is… Actually, it’s non-existent.”

Connolly sighed as Faust and Middleton continued in her other ear.

“Buona sera, Signora Connolly,” an old man said nervously. “Il mio nome è Abe Nowakowski. Posso aiutarlo con il vostro commercio.”

“I’m sorry-‘Commercio’? I don’t-”

“Business,” Padlo said, taking the heavy black handset in the old man’s shop. “Which is still finding Middleton, I presume.”

“I’ve got Middleton,” Padlo heard her say. “And Faust.”

When Padlo repeated the names, the old man recoiled.

“They are together?” Padlo asked.

“Together, and negotiating.”

Nowakowski, who had lived in terror since the moment he first saw the Mozart score, said, “Dove è il Felicia?”

Padlo saw that the old man trembled. “A young girl,” the deputy said to Connolly. “Felicia Kaminski. Jedynak’s niece.” Recalling her photo, he began to describe her.

“She’s not here,” Connolly said.

“Harbor Court,” the old man told Padlo.

Padlo repeated the hotel’s name.

Not now, Connolly thought as she shut her cell phone.

Out in the dining room, Faust had made his play.

Faust said, “My father was a relatively old man when he married my mother. They met at a type of tango bar we call milangas in Buenos Aires. A scratchy Carlos Gardel record, seductive glances filled with subverted desire. Invitations to dance made with simple nods. The intense courtship begins with toe-tangling turns and kicks under crystal chandeliers. Before they speak, it seems to my father that they’re making love.”

“What’s your father got to do with this?”

“As a young man, my father was a chemist in Poland. He said my mother reminded him of his first wife, a gypsy, Zumella. She died in Europe during the war.”

“Along with million and millions of others. If we didn’t stop that mad-man we’d all be speaking German.”

“He called my mother Jolanta-violet blossom. He was a sentimental man. He met his first wife selling violet blossoms in Castle Square in Warsaw.”

“I fail to see what this-”

“Colonel Middleton, in all your travels or investigations for the government have you ever heard the name Projekt 93?”

“I don’t believe I have.”

“Are you familiar with the work of Gerhard Schrader?”

Middleton shook his head.

“A German chemist who experimented with chemical agents. He invented Tabun, which was originally used to kill insects, then adapted as a lethal weapon against mankind. The Nazis produced twelve-thousand tons of the stuff at a secret plant in Poland, code named Hockwerk.”

Faust dipped into a briefcase at his feet and removed a photocopy of a document from the Nuremberg Tribunal. “My father worked at Hockwerk. His name is fourth on this list.”

“Kazimierz Rymut?”

“You’ll note the asterisk, which refers to the footnote at the bottom. It might be hard to read so I’ll quote it for you: ‘This individual has been exculpated due to cooperation he provided regarding experiments conducted on human subjects.’”

“I’m not sure I know what that means.”