Greg Iles - The Spandau Phoenix

the elevators, and around the corner. Gadi and I will be in that room.

Yosef will be watching the lobby.

Aaron will be in the basement. Professor Natterman will wait here."

Stern tugged at the flesh beneath his chin. "Before we intercept Hauer

and Apfel, I intend to let the kidnappers make contact in whatever way

they choose. I suspect that they will call suite 811

and instruct our German friends to meet them at a different place.

If they attempt to seize or kill the Germans, however, we will

intervene.'5

Stern looked over into the corner. There, in a large open suitcase, lay

the fruits of onle of the telephone calls he had made from Natterman's

Wolfsburg cabin. A Jewish arms dealer of Stern's long acquaintance had

had the suitcase ready when Stern arrived at his Johannesburg home this

afternoon. In the suitcase lay five short-barrelled Uzi submachine

guns, four silenced .22 caliber pistols, two of five walkie-talkies,

silencers for the Uzis, and a small hoard of ammunition.

"Obviously," said Stern, "Professor Natterman must make our initial

contact with the Germans. Of the five of us, Captain Hauer knows only

him. Hauer is likely to shoot anyone else who exposes himself too soon.

Ideally, the professor will make the contact by telephone. When Yosef

sees the Germans enter the lobby, he will radio Gadi and me in room 820.

Gadi has already bugged suite 811, so we will be monitoring what

transpires after Hauer and Apfel get inside. After the kidnappers have

made their contact, we will call Professor Natterman here.

Professor, you will immediately call suite 811. If you reach Hauer or

Apfel, you will give the little speech we went over together."

Natterman nodded attentively.

"If you cannot reach them-because of a busy signal or anything else-we

will go to the backup plan. Gadi and I will observe the Germans as they

leave suite 811. If they take the stairs down, we will radio you here,

whereupon you will walk immediately to the stairwell and wait for them."

Stern smiled encouragingly. "You don't need to run, Professor.

The stairwell is less than twenty meters from this room.

Hauer and Apfel must cover four floors before they reach you.

Natterman nodded again.

"If they take the elevator down, however, it gets a bit more

complicated. In that case Gadi will radio Aaron in the basement, and

Aaron will stop the elevator.between floorshopefully between the fourth

and third. I will radio you"Stern pointed his finger at Natterman-"and

tell you to go to the elevator shaft. Yosef will be here with you. He

will have come up from the lobby, after making certain that Hauer and

Apfel are not being followed. He will pry open the elevator doors for

you, and you will speak to Hauer while he is trapped below you. He'll

probably be trying to get out through the roof anyway."

Natterman looked anxious. "The elevator scenario seems rather

complicated."

"It's the only way we can insure contact without frightening Hauer away

or getting killed ourselves."

"Why can't I just wait in the lobby for them?"

Stern sighed heavily. "Because we would then risk frightening the

kidnappers away. And the kidnappers, Professor, are the men I came to

South Africa to get."

Natterman looked glum. "Can your men do All they're supposed to?

The timing seems close."

Gadi Abrams grinned. "We are sayaret matkal, Professor," he said

proudly. "This is child's play for us."

Stern shot him a dark look. "Hauer will not be child's play, Gadi.

You boys have trained with GSG-9, so I shouldn't have to amplify that.

Captain Hauer is an extremely dangerous man. Don't underestimate

Sergeant Apfel either. He is under unimaginable pressure, and a man

like that is capable of anything."

Gadi nodded. "Yes, Uncle."

Stern glanced at his watch, "Let's move. Twenty minutes to the

rendezvous, and we still need to test the radio reception from the

basement."

As one, Stern, Gadi, and Aaron collected their weapons from the suitcase

and moved toward the door. "Good luck, Professor," Stern said, then

they went out.

As Stern moved toward the elevators, Gadi fell back beside him and

whispered, "I didn't want to alarm anybody, Uncle, but what happened to

our body armor?"

Stern grimaced. "Another buyer came along and offered more money."

"But why give the Professor the one vest we have? You should be wearing

it."

Stern shook his head. "Natterman may have to stand in the stairwell and

wait for Hauer and Apfel to come running down. There's a strong chance

Hauer kvill fire a reflex shot before he even recognizes the professor.

That's why he gets the vest."

In room 401, Professor Natterman sat with the walkietalkie clenched in

his hand. It was sticky hot inside the armored vest. He wanted to take

it off, but he reasoned that if Stern had given him the only vest they

had, he probably needed it. Setting the walkie-talkie on the table, he

stood and stretched. His joints ached terribly from all the una( tomed

exercise. He had been on his feet for less than a minute when the door

slid open.

Facing the professor stood a woman wearing an expensively cut red skirt,

a white blouse, and a red hat. She carried a Vuitton handbag in her

left hand. It took Natterman several moments to realize that she also

held a gun.

Swallow stepped inside the room and closed the door.

"I'vd come for the Spandau papers, Herr Professor," she said in a crisp,

low voice, her British accent unmistakable.

"Would you be so kind as to get them for me?"

"I ... I don't have them," Natterman stammered.

"Stern has them?" Swallow asked sharply.

Stunned by her knowledge, Natterman said, "Who are you?" ' Swallow's

lips drew back, exposing her small teeth in a fierce animal glare. "Does

Jonas Stern have the papers?"

With a fool's courage Professor Natterman grabbed for the walkie-talkie

on the table. Swallow destroyed it with a threeshot burst from her

silenced Ingrain machine pistol.

"Take off your clothes," she ordered. "Every stitch."

When Natterman hesitated, Swallow jerked the Ingrain in his direction.

"Do it! " While Natterman, pale and shaking, removed his clothes,

Swallow began searching the hotel -room.

CHAPTER THIRTY

7,40 P.N. Horn House: ThO Northern Transvaal Deep in the basement

complex of Horn House, Alfred Horn shepherded his Libyan guests through

a maze of stainless steel and glass and stone. Huge ventilator fans

thrummed constantly, forcing filtered air down from the surface one

hundred meters above. An intricate network of cooling ducts maintained

the silicon-friendly environment required by the formidable array of

computers purring against the walls; the brittle air also extended the

life of the manifold chemicals and weapons stored here. The Libyans

surveyed the labyrinth of tubing, hoods, and pipes in reverent silence.

Only young Dr. Sabri, the Soviet-educated physicist, found it hard to

suppress his enthusiasm as he toured the lab. Most of the visible

hardware had been produced by one or another of the various high-tech

subsidiaries of Phoenix AG, but the man who controlled them all was

about to reveal a product of very different pedigree. Horn gradually

led the Libyans toward the rear of the basement, where something

resembling a giant industrial refrigerator stood gleaming in the

fluorescent light. Stretching from floor to ceiling and wall to wall,