Greg Iles - The Spandau Phoenix

the key he'd used to enter her room. Praying he didn't have access to

any others, she flung the bedroom door wide, dragged his unconscious

body into the hall, then jumped back into her room and slammed the door.

She tried to lock it with the key, but it didn't seem to fit. She

cursed as the useless metal bent in the lock. Either she'd taken the

wrong key from Stanton, or the proper key only worked from the outside.

She thought of opening the door and searching him again, but she had

lost her nerve. Her entire body was shaking. Ilse lurched into the

bathroom and locked it with the flimsy door latch.

"Please hurry, Hans," she murmured. "God, please hurry."

7.55p.m. BurgersparkHatel, Pretoria When Hans Apfel walked into the

lobby of the Burgerspark, Yosef Shamir felt his heart thump with

excitement. Hans looked neither left nor right as he walked, but

marched straight across to the elevators set in the far wall. Yosef

lifted the walkie-talkie that connected him to Stern's room on the

eighth floor.

"Apfel has arrived," he said. "He's going for the elevators."

"Any sign of HauerT' asked Gadi Abrams.

"No. Should I wait?"

A pause. "No. Get up to Natterman's room."

Yosef scurried to a second elevator. Just as he stepped inside, he

glimpsed the broad back of a man wearing a dark business suit disappear

through the fire stairs door. "I think Hauer's here," he said as the

elevator doors closed. "He's coming up the stairs."

"Acknowledged," Gadi replied. "Get the professor ready to move."

Dieter Hauer crashed through the third floor fire door and hit the up

elevator button. The stairs were taking too long, and if anything rough

was going to happen in suite 811, he didn't want to be too late or too

exhausted to participate. After a brief wait, he darted into an empty

elevator and punched 8. The car whooshed up the remaining floors in

seconds. It took Hauer a moment to get his bearings, but within fifteen

seconds he was knocking on the door of suite 811.

Hans opened the door after scrutinizing him through the fisheye

peephole. "See anyone?"

Hauer stepped into the suite. "No, but I went through the lobby pretty

fast."

"The room's empty," Hans informdd him. "Do you think they'll call, or

send somebody up?"

"I think they'll call." Hauer glanced at his watch. "In one minute

we'll know for sure."

Gadi Abrams adjusted the headphones he was wearing and looked up at

Jonas Stern. "Hauer's inside," he said.

Stern nodded. "Let's see if anyone shows up."

The unexpected ring of the telephone in the Israelis' room startled both

Gadi and Stern. Gadi asked sharply, "Who t sides our own men knows

we're here?"

Stern tightened his lips. "No one. Except maybe the kidnappers."

He lifted the receiver. "Yes?"

"Someone's trying to hit us!" shouted a voice in Hebrew.

"The professor's stark naked!"

"Yosef.?" Stern said. "Yosef, what's happened? Where are you?"

"In the professor's room! Just after we left Natterman, someone came in

here looking for the papers. A woman. I used the phone because she

blew the professor's radio to pieces. He's hysterical!"

Stern touched the bulge in his pocket where the three Spandau pages lay.

"Yosef, stay whore you are. Stay on the line@' , "Telephone ringing in

Apfel's room," Gadi said, pressing the headphones to his ears.

"Yosef," Stern instructed, "wait five seconds, then start calling suite

811. Make certain the professor is ready, and keep trying until you get

through."

Yosef rang off.

Hans jumped a foot off the bed when the ringing telephone fulfilled

Hauer's prediction. Hauer glanced at his watch: eight Pm.

exactly. Hans darted between the beds and snatched up the receiver.

"Hello?"

"Sergeant Apfel?" said a male voice.

"Yes!"

"You know the Voortrekker Monument?"

"What? Wait ... yes, the big brown thing. I saw it as I drove into

town."

"Be there tomorrow at ten A.M. Come alone. Ten A.M. Do you have that?

The Voortrekker Monument. Ten in the morning. Alone."

"What about my wife? Will Ilse be there?' "You be there. If you're not

alone, she dies."

The caller broke the connection.

Hans dropped the receiver onto the floor, @ face slack.

"Well?" said Hauer. 'What did they sayt' Hans stood silent for several

seconds. "They want me to meet them tomorrow," he said finally. "At

the Voortrekker -Monument."

Hauer nodded excitedly. "That's a good place for us. Very public.

That's where I'll lay out our terms for the exchange.

What time is the rendezvous?"

A strange calm seemed to settle over Hans. His eyes seemed unfocus@d.

He sat down hard on the bed.

"What time, Hans?" Hauer repeated softly, his eyes straying to the

door. "What time is the rendezvous?"

Hans looked up, straight into his father's eyes. "Six," he said in a

robotic voice. "Six Pm. at the Voortrekker Monument."

Down the hall and around the corner, Gadi Abrams shook his fist in

triumph. "The rendezvous is at six," he murmured, "at the Voortrekker

Monument. Apfel's off the line, but I didn't hear him hang up." Gadi

pressed the headphones to his dark head. "No phone ringing. Come on,

Professor -- ." Suddenly Gadi jumped up and pulled off the headphones.

"the professor can't get through! Apfel didn't hang up the phone!"

Stern forced himself to think clearly. His well-planned operation was

unraveling around him. Snatching up the phone, he tried to call Yosef

and the professor. "Busy," he said.

"They're still trying to reach Hauer. That means the stairs won't be

covered."

"Aaron has to stay at the elevator box," Gadi said quickly.

"You've got to keep trying to reach the professor. That leaves me to

cover the stairs." The young commando picked up his Uzi and started for

the door. He had not heard it open.

With the mute surprise of a man watching the earth split open at his

feet, Gadi watched a small round fragmentation grenade rolling toward

him through the foyer. The door slammed shut.

"Grenade!" he shouted.

While Stern-a veteran of three desert wars and countless guerilla

actions@over behind the far bed, Gadi Abrams proved the boast he had

made minutes before about the sayaret matkal commandos. With the

reflexes of a gifted soccer player, he stopped the grenade's forward

motion with his right foot, then kicked it sideways into the bathroom.

Then he hurled himself backward into the space between the two double

beds.

Hauer was leaning out of the door down the hall, straining his ears for

the slightest sound, when Swallow's grenade exploded in the bathroom of

room 820.

"Donnerwetter!" he roared. "What the hell was that?"

Reaching back blindly, Hauer wrenched Hans through the door.

"Stay with me!" he commanded. "And don't use your gun unless you

absolutely have to!"

Hauer dragged Hans toward the fire stairs, away from the explosion. They

crashed through the metal door at speed, careening headlong down

concrete steps like teenaged hoodlums. As they passed a large,

red-painted 5, Hauer caught hold of Hans's jacket.and pulled him against

the wall. He clapped a hand over Hans's mouth and listened for any

sound of pursuit. At first he heard only their own ragged gasps.

Then a slow creak, as of someone attempting to silently open a disused

fire door, echoed through the stairwell.

When the crash came, Hauer knew that their pursuer had given up all hope

of stealth. He shoved Hans downward and charged after him.