Page 140 of Stuart Woods' Golden Hour

She hadn’t disguised her voice. “Hello, Dieter.”

“What are you—”

“On your knees, hands behind your head, or I’ll start putting holes in you. On second thought, that sounds like a better idea.”

Dieter dropped to his knees and laced his fingers behind his head. Once one of the Strategic Services people had zip-tied Dieter’s hands together, Vesna looked around.

The man with Dieter who she didn’t know was in a similar kneeling position. Dieter’s buddy Rolf was sprawled on the floor, however, with a hole in the center of his chest that hadn’t been there before.

That accounted for one of the bullets. The second had hit one of the Strategic Services team in the arm. He was being attended to by one of his colleagues and didn’t appear to be in serious distress.

“Where’s Teddy?” Stone asked.

Vesna spun around, looking through the room, but both Teddy and Braun were gone.

“Shit,” she muttered, seeing the second exit. She pointed at a man and a woman from Strategic Services. “You two with me. Stone, can you keep an eye on things here?”

“Of course.”

Vesna and the two agents she’d picked left in search of Teddy and Braun.

Teddy raced after Braun, downthe narrow hallway that ran behind the interrogation cells.

Braun yanked open the door at the end and passed through seconds before Teddy did the same.

Beyond was a stairwell. Teddy followed Braun to the top and through a door that led out of the building.

As Teddy exited, a voice shouted, “Halt!” and three of the people on perimeter duty closed in on Braun, their rifles aimed at him.

One noticed Teddy and momentarily focused his weapon on him. When he realized who Teddy was, he moved his sights back to Braun and said, “Mr. Barnett, are you all right?”

“I am,” Teddy said.

The stairwell exit opened again and Vesna rushed out with two more security personnel. They brought their weapons to bear on Braun.

Teddy walked over to the man and smiled. “As I said, you were the one who didn’t know how this was going to turn out.”

53

Three hours later, two UH-60Black Hawk helicopters descended toward a field on the former Stasi base.

“Time for me to go,” Vesna said.

Teddy, Vesna, and Stone were standing near the interrogation building. She preferred that the CIA remained unaware of her involvement in the operation.

“Thank you,” Teddy said. “This would have been a lot harder without your help.”

“Obviously.”

They hugged.

“Take care of yourself,” Teddy said. “You know how to reach me if you ever need my help.”

“Stone, a pleasure,” she said and shook Stone’s hand.

He smiled. “I couldn’t have asked for a better date this evening. If you ever make it to New York, perhaps we can do it again.”

“Perhaps we can.”

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