Emerald (39 page)

At the end of the day, Chief Beinschmidt decided that Hans must have the missing papers. Somehow he needed to force Hans to give back the papers, perhaps by threatening to arrest him. At their next GRS get-together, Gottschlag and Neuschondorf agreed.

Hans received a call the next morning ordering him to drop the papers in the mail, but he denied having them. Bruno threatened he would have him arrested by noon and Hans replied that he wouldn’t be around at noon and hung up. Enraged, Bruno ordered Gottschlag and Neuschondorf to handle Hans. But they didn’t have the faintest idea where he might be. His cell phone number didn’t give them a clue. They left frustrated promising results as soon as possible.

At lunch, Gottschlag complained to Neuschondorf that the Chief was getting too paranoid and bossy. Who really cared about Hans’ family tree anyway. He’d always done the job. Now if Bruno started pressuring him, they might lose him. How could they get Bruno to lay off?

Neuschondorf said he’d try talking to the Chief to see if he could bring him down a notch. But if he kept rocking the boat, they would need to do something about him. The three stingers coming from Argentina next month to implement their GRS plans in Germany, wouldn’t be happy if the Chief screwed things up. They needed Hans more than ever now.

Late Thursday evening the team from Israel landed in Buenos Aries.

After the couples passed through security and picked up their bags they took various cabs to the apartment building that Ringo had arranged, and settled in as a tour group, excited to explore Argentina.

Servette learned about the new Dagger murder by reading the small article in the newspaper. Chief Beinschmidt had not called in an update on the killing, so Piet called Levi to see if he had heard anything.

“No, Piet. I didn’t know anything about it. I wonder why Beinschmidt didn’t tell you about it? I appreciate you telling me because now it definitely looks like there may be a connection between the Munich police and the Dagger. It seems very suspicious to me.”

“Do you think we should mention any of this to Interpol?”

“Let’s wait until my team gathers more concrete proof, then we’ll have more to give them. In the meantime, keep your eyes and ears open. I think the Chief is getting a little paranoid as well as being almost dangerously careless. We don’t want him to suspect anything now. Who knows what he might do?”

When Marla, wearing a red wig, pushed the baby carriage down the sidewalk alongside the seven-foot fence circling the Klement Compound, only the taped crying of a baby could be heard while she spoke into the microphone attached to her collar while the crew in David and Miriam’s apartment listened and took notes. She reported there were two additional houses on either side of the large main house, a large, low building with a number of doors and one two-storied building set back from the others, just like the satellite photo. The sentries guarding the main gate were sitting on a bench outside a shack, just inside the gate, smoking and talking. Marla saw four others outside the main house, but could not determine if they were guards or simply men standing around outdoors. The fence itself had iron spikes six inches apart on top, but no other deterrents, and could be scaled with car. All the buildings were set back about a hundred feet from the fence.

Later that evening at the apartment, the six agents reviewed the details. Since Marla had seen no dogs, they could easily silence the guards and slip in. On the training-ground there were 3 barracks-like buildings that could probably house twenty people each. At night there had been no indication of a regular time for lights-out, so they decided that the people who lived there weren’t being kept under very strict discipline. Marla reported regular physical training and military exercises by groups of twenty or more that went on throughout the day, but there was no other evidence of a military presence. What looked like a large gymnasium could possibly be a warehouse and hold almost anything. The whole compound was surrounded by wrought iron fencing, Rolf told them. Marla couldn’t determine whether or not the fence was electrified. New Aerial photos had been taken to get further layout of all the buildings, barricades and electrical lines on the property, and Ringo would bring them later in the afternoon..

According to Ringo, no problems requiring police intervention had ever been reported during the thirty years the Nazis had occupied the place. People came and went from the compound in no regular pattern or schedule.

It would take some unusual circumstance to get a disguised group of workers on the grounds. David’s crew had pondered this numerous times, but still came up with nothing. Now after a visual survey determining what type of entry could be pulled off became the week’s main assignment for the Tel Aviv crew - - - to be urgently thought about twenty-four hours a day by each member, for creating a successful ploy superseded all else. After a week, if they could come up with nothing, they would have to enter the grounds by stealth. Learning all they could as passersby’s would help augment their information. Photos were taken by agents strolling the grounds, in simple disguises so their efforts would not be noticed by the Nazis. Rolf picked up the film every night at nine and returned prints at six the next morning after they had been scanned into the computer at the agency.

The agents scanned the perimeter for infrared security devices. None were found, but later they decided that there could be some along the gardens and farmland bordering the training ground. To find out, Forbes, Lenny and David would scale the fence tomorrow night and check, each one taking a different side. Each woman would stand watch for her man, keeping in contact via walkie-talkies that looked like hearing aids. They also were to remove and later replace the leather sheaths that had been laid over the spiked-top fence where the men had scaled. The men memorized the path they’d take. With darkened faces and camouflage clothes, on a moonless night, they entered the grounds. David shimmied on his belly between the rows of vegetables to not disturb the plants. He managed to crawl much of the way, speeding the process. He paused to get the lay of the land and saw that the spruce trees lay just twenty feet ahead. He saw no fence or wires, so he edged closer. Latin music drifted across the field from one of the barracks off to his left where he could see several men hanging around smoking and talking under a circle of light that shined on the group. As he neared the tree-line he stood up within their shadows and surveyed the grounds. This stand of mature spruce was fairly thick, from four to ten feet deep. He whispered the details of the scene, specifying the location and size of every building to Miriam on the walkie-talkie attached to his collar. He told her he had detected no infrared sensors or security trip-wires yet.

Suddenly, David froze when he saw a man not more than ten feet on his right facing him pissing into the trees. The man buttoned his fly, turned and walked away. David did not move for several minutes. From his position he could not see where the man went. Slowly, he took a small step to the right, testing the ground so no twigs would snap. Insects buzzed around his head. He crouched down on his stomach and saw the man leaning against a shed holding a rifle. The man had earphones on and was smoking a cigarette, tapping his foot to the beat of the music coming from within the building. David rose and moved to the other end of the shed, stepping cautiously then freezing, repeating his movements. No one else seemed to be around, but David could not be certain and waited. No light came from the shed. Suddenly another voice speaking Spanish asked the man what was going on, to which the man replied: “Nada.” It had to be very near because neither of their voices were elevated beyond normal conversation level.

“We might as well go in then.” said the voice.

“Okay,” the man in view responded as he slipped down the earphones and fell into step alongside the other man who also carried a rifle.

David watched as the two walked off toward the barracks. They entered the circle of light and joined the conversation with the others. Laughter suddenly broke out among the men. David moved swiftly to the shed and planted two listening devices, one inside and one out. He stepped quickly back into the tall trees. No face under the light turned in his direction. David scooted back through the vegetables like a child racing in a crawl. He asked Miriam if the coast was clear, and on her affirmative, he climbed over the wrought iron fence and grabbed her in a kiss of relief. Theo pulled up in his van, Miriam removed the fence spike-shields and they jumped in and sped off.

David cleaned up, took off his camouflage shirt and pants, and went with Theo to a local bar, a couple of blocks from their apartment building, to join the others. Several of the others were already there. A hovering waitress took their order. The group spoke with each other in quiet, cryptic innuendos about how their explorations went but did not discuss the details. After a couple of drinks, they left the bar and walked together along the Buenos Aires sidewalk from each streetlight circle of light to the next, to their apartments with a sliver crescent moon overhead. Before parting, they agreed In the morning final plans for the Compound “invasion” would be made.

The next morning Miriam opened her eyes and saw a glimpse of David’s bare ass as he pulled on fresh shorts and reached for his tee shirt, to pull it over his head. She got up with her back to David, took off her pajama top and put on her bra hoping he watched. She slipped down her pajamas, pulled on white panties, then jeans and turned to strut into their small bathroom.
Had he ignored her? She really didn’t know, but hoped not
. Their small apartment had no real privacy, but there was something about their studied lack of attention that had a foundation of intimacy. It felt comfortable to each of them now that they had become open and honest about their relationship. Miriam knew she was in trouble if David tried anything, but he didn’t seem to going in that direction. Evidently they had established a working platonic friendship.

By end of the week, the operatives decided that stealth was the only way to fully enter the compound. They met in David and Miriam’s apartment before going to dinner to made their dated decision. Tomorrow at two-thirty in the morning, they would move, first disabling the front guards with tranquilizing darts then enter the three houses to plant their bugs. The next night, they would try for the buildings on the training grounds. Forbes had managed to plant a bug on the lean-to the same night as David.