The Assassination Option Part 28

"Well, he said he heard your men speaking Russian."

"Guilty as charged," Ostrowski said. "He must have overheard Ludwig and me."

He nodded toward Mannberg.

"You sound English," the older CIC agent said.

"Guilty as charged," Max repeated, and showed him his DCI credentials.

"Gentlemen, I'm sorry," the older agent said, "but you're in the business, and you know how these things happen."

"Not a problem," Schultz said. "You were just doing your job."

"You going to be in town for a while, Cronley?" Agent Spurgeon asked.

"We're leaving tomorrow," Schultz answered for him.

"Pity," Spurgeon said. "I was hoping we could have a drink and swap tales about Terrible Tommy Derwin and other strange members of the faculty of Holabird High."

"Sorry, we have to go," Schultz said.

"I guess you know that Derwin is here," Cronley said.

"He's here?"

"He's the new CIC/ASA inspector general for EUCOM," Cronley said.

"Oh, yeah," the senior agent said. "The old one, Colonel Schumann, blew himself up, didn't he?"

"Him and his wife," Cronley confirmed.

"Well, we'll get out of here," the senior agent said. "I'm really sorry about this, Mr. Schultz."

"You were just doing your job," El Jefe repeated.

"If there's ever anything we can do for you, just give us a yell."

"Can't think of a thing, but thanks."

Hands were shaken all around, and the Vienna CIC team left.

When they had, Cronley asked, "What the h.e.l.l was that all about?"

El Jefe shrugged, then looked at his wrist.w.a.tch and said, "We'd better get going."

[SIX].

Cafe Weitz Gumpendorferstra.s.se 74 Vienna, Austria 1650 14 January 1946 When Cronley, El Jefe, and Finney walked into the Cafe Weitz, several of the waiters were drawing heavy curtains over the large windows looking out on the street. This would keep people on Gumpendorferstra.s.se, and on the trolley cars running down it, from looking into the cafe.

The curtains were drawn every night as darkness fell. During the day, the curtains were open, so Cafe Weitz patrons could look out onto Gumpendorferstra.s.se and the trolley cars.

But drawing the curtains did something else. During the day, looking out from the cafe gave the patrons a look at the empty windows of the bombed-out, roofless five-story apartment buildings across the street. With the curtains drawn, they were no longer visible.

And with the drawn curtains shutting out any light from the street, the only light in the cafe came from small bulbs in wall fixtures and in three chandeliers and small candles burning in tiny lamps on all the tables. This served to hide the shabbiness of the cafe's curtains and walls and everything else, and to offer at least a suggestion of its prewar elegance.

In one corner of the room, a string quartet (or quintet or s.e.xtet, it varied with the hour) of elderly musicians in formal clothing played continuously, mostly Strauss, but sometimes tunes from Hungarian light opera.

Cronley knew all this because he had come to the cafe three times before. So had everybody else. Cronley thought of it as reconnaissance, but Schultz called it "casing the joint."

After the first visit, they had gone back to the hotel, then, at Mannberg's suggestion, drawn maps of the cafe from memory. Very few of the first maps drawn agreed on any of the details except the location of the doors and the musicians, but the third, final maps drawn were pretty much identical.

It was decided that Cronley, El Jefe, and Sergeant Finney, who were all wearing OD Ike jackets with civilian insignia, would enter the cafe first and take the closest table they could find to the musicians. This would give them a pretty good view of most of the interior. Then Mannberg would enter, alone, and take a table that would be in clear view of anyone coming into the cafe. On his heels, but not with him, would be Maksymilian Ostrowski, who would take the closest table he could find to the door of the vestibule outside the restrooms, which, they were guessing, would be where, presuming she showed up, Seven-K/Rahil would take the money from Mannberg.

Or where agents of the NKGB would attempt to steal the fifty thousand dollars from Mannberg. Ostrowski's job was to see that didn't happen.

Cronley pointed to a table near the musicians, and a waiter who looked like he was in his mid-eighties led them to it and pulled out chairs for them.

A dog yipped at Cronley and he turned to see a tiny hot dog, as they called dachshunds back in Midland, in the lap of an old lady. About half the old women in the place had dogs of all sizes with them.

Cronley barked back at the tiny dachshund, wondering if it was a puppy or whether there was such a thing as a miniature dachshund.

Then he ordered a pilsner, the same for Finney, and El Jefe said he would have a pilsner and a Slivovitz.

"What the h.e.l.l is that?"

"Hungarian plum brandy. Got a kick like a mule."

Cronley was tempted, but resisted. If they were going to meet a top-level agent of both the NKGB and the Mossad, he obviously should not be drinking anything that had a kick like a mule.

"And ask him if they have any peanuts," El Jefe said.

"I brought some, when they didn't have any last night," Finney said, and produced a tin can of Planters peanuts, opened it, and put it on the table.

The tiny dachshund barked.

Cronley looked at him.

"Franz Josef," the old lady said in English, "likes peanuts."

Cronley offered Franz Josef a peanut, which he quickly devoured.

"Is that a full-sized dog, or is he a puppy?" Cronley asked in German.

He felt Finney's knee signal him under the table, and saw that Mannberg had come into the cafe.

"Franz Josef is four," she said, this time in German.

"He's so small," Cronley said, and fed the dog another peanut.

He took a closer look at the woman. She wasn't as old as he had originally thought, maybe fifty-something, or sixty-something, but not really old. She had rouged cheeks and wore surprisingly red lipstick.

"Good things come in small packages," the old lady said.

"So they say," Cronley said. "Would you like a peanut? A handful of peanuts?"

"You are very kind," the old lady said in English. "A kavalier."

Cronley offered her the can of peanuts.

"A what?" he asked.

"You know, a man in armor on a horse. Thank you for the peanuts."

"My pleasure," Cronley said, and fed Franz Josef another peanut.

Finney's knee signaled him again, and he saw Max Ostrowski walk across the room, take a table near the door to the restroom vestibule. Then he leaned a chair against the table to show it was taken and walked into the restroom vestibule.

Cronley saw an old woman wearing an absurd hat and two pounds of costume jewelry march regally across the room and enter the restroom vestibule.

s.h.i.+t!

Whatever is going to happen in there is now going to have to be put on hold until the old lady finishes taking her leak.

"Let me taste that," Cronley said, pointing to Schultz's Slivovitz.

El Jefe handed him the gla.s.s, and Cronley took a small sip.

His throat immediately started burning, and he reached quickly for his beer.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," El Jefe said, chuckling.

Five long minutes later, Cronley asked rhetorically, "What the h.e.l.l's taking that old woman so long?"

Three minutes after that, the old woman finally came out and marched regally back across the cafe to her table.

"How long have you been in Vienna?" the old lady with the dog asked.

"This is the fourth day. We leave tomorrow."

"You're in the Army?"

"I work for the Army. I work with kitchen equipment."

"You Americans do everything with a machine."

"Yes, ma'am. We try to."

Finney's knee signaled him again and he saw Mannberg stand up and walk into the restroom vestibule. A moment later, Ostrowski followed him.

The waiter delivered the beer and the Slivovitz.

Finney paid for it.

Ostrowski came out of the restroom vestibule and sat at his table.

A minute or so later, Mannberg came out of the vestibule, laid money on his table, and, standing, drank what was left of his pilsner.

Then he walked out of the Cafe Weitz.

Ostrowski got to his feet a minute later and did the same thing.

I don't know what the h.e.l.l went on in the bathroom, but obviously Mannberg somehow found out Rahil/Seven-K wasn't coming.

s.h.i.+t!

I wonder what spooked her?

El Jefe had obviously come to much the same conclusion.

"I don't know about you two, but I'm going to go back to the hotel," he said.

"Yeah," Cronley said. "So long, Franz Josef."

The dog yipped at him again.

Cronley gave the can of peanuts to the woman.

"It was nice talking to you," he said.

"Yes, it was," she said. "And I thank you and Franz Josef thanks you for the peanuts."

"My pleasure. Auf wiedersehen."

Cronley, Finney, and El Jefe had gone to the Cafe Weitz in the Ford staff car. Mannberg had taken the streetcar from Ringstra.s.se, and Ostrowski had walked.

They returned to the Hotel Bristol the same way.

When Ostrowski walked into the lobby of the hotel, Cronley, Finney, and Schultz were in the dining room.

When they saw him, Schultz asked, very concerned, "Where the h.e.l.l is Ludwig? We should have brought everybody back here."