Page 112 of Stuart Woods' Golden Hour

“We have plenty,” Lawrence said. “Show him.”

The next minute of the recording was spent discussing the pictures Jillian showed Braun of Billy Barnett from multiple sources.

“And you’re sure Barnett is coming to Berlin for the festival?” Braun asked when they were through.

“We are,” Lawrence said. “His film will be shown opening night, after which there will be a party to celebrate the commencement of the festival.”

After a beat of silence, Braun said, “And how do we get tickets to this event?”

“Jillian can email them on your behalf,” Lawrence said.

“Then why are you two still sitting here? Go on. Take care of it.”

Chair legs scrapped the floor and steps moved away from the table.

When Jillian and Lawrence had presumably moved out of earshot, Dieter said, “You have that look.”

“What look?” Braun said.

“The one you get when you have something on your mind.”

Braun huffed. “Do you have locations on the remaining agents?”

“I do,” Dieter said.

“Do we have enough men to cover them all at once?”

“All at once?”

“Yes! Did you not hear me? I want to know if we have enough people to hit all the remaining targets at the same time.”

“We do. What do you have in mind?”

“We get our teams in place right away, then you and I go to the festival and see if this Billy Barnett is who Jillian thinks he is. If so, we deal with him, then send out the word to terminate the others. Phase one complete.” He paused. “That’s doable, is it not?”

“Yes, of course. It will leave us a bit shorthanded here for dealing with Barnett, if heisFay.”

“You can keep a couple of your best men here and hire as many contract players as you think we’ll need. Better?”

“I can make that work.” From the tone of his voice, Dieter was not completely happy, but appeared unwilling to argue with his boss.

“Once this Fay and the others are dealt with, we move on immediately to Lance Cabot and Holly Barker. Is your plan ready?”

Dieter nodded. “I think you’ll like it.”

Teddy and Vesna shared a look.

“As long as there are zero complications, I will,” Braun said. “Successfully eliminating the head of the U.S. government and her top spy will be more than enough to convince the Kazakhs to hire us.”

“Then I’ll make it happen,” Dieter said.

Teddy and Vesna listened until Braun and Dieter finished their lunch and left, but the men discussed nothing else of interest.

“So…” Vesna said, once the recording was stopped. “That was…interesting.”

“Interestingis not quite the word I’d use.”

“Troubling?”

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