Page 100 of Stuart Woods' Golden Hour

Teddy walked over and looked at the twelve-story, modernist building on the other side of the street. It was the reason this apartment was chosen. Occupying its top three floors was the headquarters for Braun Logistics and Security.

“This is Hans,” Vesna said, gesturing to the seated man.

“Hello, Hans,” Teddy said. “You can call me John.”

Hans made no sign that he’d heard anything.

“Hans,” Vesna barked.

He jumped and looked at her.“Ja?”

“Are you listening?”

“Ja, ja. He is John. I am Hans.” He turned back to the computer.

“I swear he’s good at his job,” Vesna said to Teddy.

“Which is all I care about,” Teddy said.

“Hans, can you give us a status report, please.”

“I need a moment,” Hans said. When he finished what he was doing, he swiveled around to face them. To Teddy, he said, “You are the boss?”

“I am.”

Hans gave Teddy the same up-and-down look Vesna had given him when she’d met him. “You do not look like a boss.”

“I didn’t realize there was a type.”

Hans frowned in thought. “Maybe it is good you do not look like one. Can fool many people.”

“Hans,” Vesna said. “Status report?”

Hans pressed the laptop’s space bar, and the screen filled with a four-by-three grid of video images.

He pointed at the top and middle rows. “These are feeds from every side of the building.” The feeds were all wide shots from cameras hidden around the perimeter. He then gestured at the bottom row. “Front entrance, parking garage entrance, loading dock, and rear entrance. The last is next to the loading dock.”

“No luck getting anything inside the building?”

Hans scoffed, tapped the space bar, and a new set of feeds appeared. This time there were two rows of four. The top row were all feeds from inside the parking garage, while the bottom was split between feeds from the building’s main lobby and from inside three stairwells.

“Ground floor on the stairwells?” Teddy asked.

Hans nodded.

“Drones?”

The man pointed up. “I have five on the roof ready to go, when needed.”

“Any sign of our people of interest?” Vesna said.

“No sign of Wenz. But Braun left thirty minutes ago.”

“Driving himself or chauffeured?” Teddy asked.

“Chauffeured. Black Mercedes-Maybach. I have the license number. When it returns, I’ll put a tracking bug on it.”

“Only if you can get close enough without drawing attention.”

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