Page 64 of Stuart Woods' Golden Hour

“That’s because it is.”

“Does he have a name?”

“Several, actually. Check the other side.”

She looked at the list of names on the back of the photo, and her brow furrowed.

“Don’t tell me you know him,” Teddy said.

“Oscar Schmidt,” she said, rolling the name over her tongue. “It sounds familiar. Do you know anything else about him?”

Teddy relayed what Rick had told him. When he mentioned the guy had worked as a mercenary for a Bulgarian outfit, she smirked.

“That’s it,” she said. “Horne Solutions.”

“Never heard of them.”

“You know these groups. They come and go. Horne was swallowed up a year or so ago by a German company. Maybe Schmidt moved with them.”

“Do you know the name of the company?”

“Unfortunately. It’s called Braun Logistics and Security.”

“Never heard of them.”

“You wouldn’t have. They popped up about ten years ago or so. Until they purchased Horne Solutions, they concentrated solely on event and personal security.”

“Why do I get the feeling you don’t like them.”

“Where in the world did you get that idea?” she asked in mock innocence.

“The use of ‘unfortunately’ was a bit of a tell.”

She chuckled. “It’s not that I don’t like the company. I am not a fan of one of the men in charge.”

“Who’s that?”

“Dieter Wenz.”

“Now that name sounds familiar,” Teddy said.

“Only because you’ve heard me cursing him.”

It took Teddy a few seconds to connect the dots. “Is he the guy with the neck fetish? The one you were with in Cyprus on that—”

“He is. And please, let’s not talk about it any further.”

“Consider the topic shelved.”

Among Wenz’s many storied traits was his penchant to inject a knockout drug to the base of an abductee target’s neck to subdue them.

During the mission in Cyprus, Vesna had becomeromantically entangled with him until it ended in spectacular form when it turned out Wenz was working both sides and nearly got the whole team killed.

“Is there anyone you can check with to see if Schmidt made the transition to Braun Logistics?”

“If you are asking me to contact Dieter, that is not happening.”

“I was thinking someone who you’d be less likely to kill on sight.”

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