Page 135 of Stuart Woods' Golden Hour

Dieter and his friend draped Teddy between them and moved quickly through the building to what Teddy assumed was the delivery area.

He heard an idling engine nearby and thethunkof a vehicle door opening. He was then hauled into what he assumed was the van Strauss had reported seeing.

After the door shut, Dieter said, “Go, go!”

The vehicle began to move.

“Where are the others?” Dieterasked as the van neared the venue’s exit.

“No idea,” the driver said.

The skin on Dieter’s arms began to prickle. Before his concern could grow into something stronger, however, three sets of headlights appeared on the road behind them.

He called Andreas.

“Yes?” Andreas answered.

“You should have been waiting at the exit for us. What happened?”

“Sorry. A few of the men were late getting back.”

Unfortunately, that was to be expected when working with subpar personnel. “Any other problems?”

After a beat, Andreas said, “Nothing.”

“Are you sure?”

This time the answer came right away. “Everything was quiet, just like we thought it would be.”

“Good. Proceed as planned and stay alert.”

Dieter hung up.

In the back seat ofthe last of the three sedans, Andreas handed his phone back to Vesna. The delay in meeting up with the van had been due to a combination of making the engines operational again and waiting for Vesna and Stone to reach the vehicles.

“You almost ruined things for yourself,” she said, referring to his pause in answering Dieter about problems.

“It’s okay,” Andreas said. “He doesn’t suspect anything.”

“You’d better hope that’s true,” Vesna said. “Now, where exactly are theyheaded?”

50

Dieter didn’t relax until thefour-vehicle convoy reached the gates of the Braun Logistics property, hidden in a forest outside of Berlin.

The driver tapped a remote and the fence rolled out of the way. Once the last of the sedans behind them passed through, the barrier moved back into place.

Originally, the facility had been a base for the Stasi, the East German secret police. Though most of the buildings now were new construction, a few of the originals remained. All were dark tonight, as any employee who might have been present had been given the day off.

The van’s destination was one of the legacy buildings, set off a bit from the others.

The unassuming two-story concrete structure hid a multilevel basement where the Stasi had conducted interrogations. Though they weren’t used as often now, the lower levels served the same purpose for BLS’s illegal activities.

Braun’s Mercedes-Maybach was parked near the detainee entrance, but the man himself was not present.

As the van pulled in next to the Maybach, Dieter said to Rolf and the other man in the back, “Get him up.”

Dieter hopped out, circled around to the back, and opened the doors.

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