He blew his nose with gusto.
“I don’t want that back. Throw it in the toilet or something,” Sarah helped him sit up on a toilet seat. “Deep breaths, there you go.”
“Who do you work for? Don’t make me ask a third time.”
Her interrogation target was hyperventilating. Richard truly believed that she was going to kill him if he didn’t give answers.
That was good. Fear is a powerful weapon.
“Sewage.. treatment… plant. No, don’t!” Dick wailed in a high pitched tone, seeing Sarah about to kick her with her toned leg. “I saw… I saw a body… blocking the pipes.”
“Go on,” Sarah said impassively.
“I didn’t know you were CIA,” the tall man said, drawing shaky breaths. “But the body was… it was gone. Adrian moved it. Then Dimitri… And Black Eagle, whatever that is.”
Sarah crossed her toned arms and looked at the shaking man sitting on the toilet seat. She recalled her training in Chantilly about how to identify if someone was lying.
Where were they looking? What was their facial expression? Just a few of the tells.
It wasn’t a foolproof process by any stretch of the imagination, but it was accurate more often than not.
Dick Mitey seemed to be telling the truth.
“He told me that he was my friend,” he sobbed. “Are you going to kill me?”
“If you do exactly as I say, you’ll live. We’re the good guys here, after all,”
Dick gulped.
“Are you CIA? Really?” He asked. His face was clouded over in uncertainty, and he was still shaking, although that had subsided a bit.
“I am. I’ve told you that before.” Sarah considered this for a moment and flashed her CIA identification badge.
Could it honestly be that this man, this Dick Mitey had traveled halfway around the world with a criminal organization just because he hadn’t believed that Connor and herself were truly CIA? It seemed unlikely to her.
But if that were true, it changed everything she’d ever thought about Dick Mitey.
Black Eagle, again? The group was making a significant push. She remembered Victor Sobokov and how afraid he had been.
“What do you want from me?” Dick wheezed, breaking her reverie.
“We need to talk. In a place more private than this one. You’re going to tell me everything that you know. I have reason to suspect that you’re in danger. This isn’t the best place. Will you follow me?” She touched his arm and made her voice huskier, more sensual.
From a young age, Sarah had learned that men often couldn’t easily escape her feminine charms. All it took was a little-feigned interest, a flip of the hair or a touch of their arm to make most men do whatever she’d like.
She could tell that it was working wonders on Dick Mitey. He was sitting on the toilet seat and holding his stomach in pain from her assault on his testes, but he was still evidently very aroused by her. She could tell by the small bulge which had appeared in his pants.
Fear and arousal is a powerful combination.
Just then there was a knocking at the door.
“Who is in there? I say, this bathroom should not be locked up!” said a voice from outside.
Shit, Sarah thought. Just my fucking luck.
The CIA operative looked at Dick. She could still see the tears which had streamed down his face. He looked haggard and upset.
Suddenly an idea sprang to her mind.
“Now, Dick, I need you to follow my lead, can you do that?” Sarah asked sensually, the one she never used with her superiors.
“I… I think so,” Dick said. He took a moment to compose himself.
“Good. Go over and unlock the door. Fix yourself up first… wait, don’t actually. Leave it all and unlock the door.” Sarah ruffled her hair and hiked her dress up just a bit further than before.
“What are you doing?” Dick asked. “I can see a bit of your bum. I mean, not that I mind, but my mama always said that it’s not proper to –“
“Just open the door and leave the fucking talking to me.”
Dick walked over and unlocked the door. Tobias Specht, the deputy mayor of Berlin whom Dick had met earlier, had Sarah known, walked in quite irritated.
“What is the meaning of this?” He demanded. “This is the only washroom on the floor!” He stopped and looked Sarah up and down.
Seeing Sarah, however, had stopped the sizeable German man stopped dead in his tracks, and a lecherous smile crept onto his face, almost indiscernible beneath his mutton chops.
Men, Sarah thought, they all think with the wrong head.
“We’re sorry,” Sarah murmured huskily, “we just saw an opportunity to have a little fun.” Sarah smoothed out her dress and fixed her hair in the mirror.
“Indeed! Dick, I didn’t think you had it in you! But why are your eyes so red? Have you been crying?”
“You see, Herr…” Sarah intoned sensually.
“Specht. Tobias Specht.”
“Herr Specht. It was his… first time. He got just a little emotional at the… climax,” Sarah intentionally slowed down her speech, drawing out each syllable.
“And he was with you? I find that hard to believe miss…”
Sarah froze, feeling ice water settle in her stomach. Out of all the things to blank on, I can’t even come up with a fucking name? She scoured her mind, but she was unable to come up with anything believable.
“Virginia Delicate,” Dick called from the side, still holding his stomach.
“Yes, Virginia Delaquis,” Sarah followed up. “It is, how you say, French.” She adopted a slight French accent. She was hopeful that Tobias Specht didn’t notice the change. She doubted that he did, though, with how hungrily he was looking at her.
Sarah wondered why she had started speaking with a French accent. Connor would have been beside himself laughing at such a ridiculous thing.
But, looking at the bulky German politician, Sarah could see that her charade was working.
He actually believes this.
“Indeed,” Specht said.
“I am still indisponible for the next little while avec Dick,” Sarah said, changing between French and English “But perhaps afterward…”
She had spotted him earlier with a young and perky blonde. Intel had packages prepared for all the influential people at the party, and his suggested that the blonde was his mistress, not his wife.
It was a bold move to be spotted in public with a mistress, but men like Tobias Specht did not necessarily care about such minute details.
“Yes, indeed. Here is my business card. I shall compensate you much more handsomely than this wretch could.”
Sarah palmed Specht’s business card with a flourish and a wink.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me…” Specht pointed them toward the door.
“Yes, of course. Come with me, my dear.” Sarah grabbed Dick by the arm and walked him out of the washroom. They continued down the hall, arm in arm.
“Virginia Delicate?” Sarah asked under her breath as they walked down the expansive hall.
“I’m sorry!” Dick responded. “It’s all I could think of.”
“Nevermind that, asshole. We need to get you out of here, now. Will you be missed?”
Dick considered for a moment.
“No,” he finally said meekly, “I really don’t think so.”
“Good. We shouldn’t be seen together more than we already have. People will ask questions. We don’t want that. I’ll pull a car up front. Will you meet me there in ten minutes?”
“Are you one of the good guys?” Dick asked.
“As good as it gets,” Sarah said, not quite believing herself.
She’d been around for long enough to know that the line between “good” and “bad” was blurred. We see virtue in the things which we want to see as right. Anything against that is evil. But it’s all the same. Two sides of the same coin. Perspective and opinion were the only separators.
> “Do you want some shrimp appetizers to go? I don’t really like them, but other people seem to.”
“I don’t.” She marveled at his ability to compartmentalize and adapt. “Ten minutes. Don’t be late.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Dick walked around the ballroom trying to look inconspicuous for ten minutes. The crowd had begun to clear out as people went home for the evening slowly. He looked around. Gone now was the band playing classical music in the corner. Even the lights seemed to have adjusted, dimming slightly to set the mood.
For the first time tonight he couldn’t see Adrian anywhere.
“Probably off doing something important,” Dick said to himself. He didn’t quite know how to feel about anything, anymore. Had Adrian truly saved him back at the sewage treatment plant? Suddenly Dick found himself doubting everything about that night.
If he had just complied with the two agents in the first place, he wouldn’t be in this situation at all.
And then another thought: if Sarah did indeed work for the CIA as she claimed, then he was in some serious trouble back home.
He sighed and thought back to the fateful night in the sewage treatment plant. He should have known that they were more than just hired thugs. They’d had the badges, the guns.
They’d just been so rude. Dick thought that it wasn’t right for government officials to talk to anyone like that. Their mocking tones, their standoffish behavior. He hadn’t believed that they were with the CIA because they hadn’t acted like CIA agents.
Or maybe he’d been too scared, jumped to conclusions that weren’t right.
But now, not even two weeks later he was prepared to leave with one of those very same agents.
What’s the difference? He thought. Sarah Nieminen had the same foul mouth as he remembered from before. His Mama would have wanted to wash it out with soap, he was sure, if she had still been around.
Dick thought of Dimitri and seeing his brains sprayed across the concrete of the warehouse arranged like some impressionist painter’s favorite work. He shuddered involuntarily. That was the difference.
But Adrian had offered him friendship, had even shared some stories about his past. Dick considered staying for that fact alone. He forced himself to stop frowning. It was unbecoming to his features, after all, and his features needed all the help which they could get.
Even if Adrian was his friend, it didn’t change that he was involved in some things which Dick wasn’t comfortable being a part of.
He thought of the dress that Sarah Nieminen had been wearing. It hadn’t left a lot to the imagination except those parts which he really wanted to see.
She was different from Delilah in many ways. He had thought at one point that there wasn’t anyone who could be more beautiful than Delilah, but Sarah had accomplished just that, and effortlessly.
Delilah wasn’t beautiful to him anymore, anyway. Her mind wasn’t pretty, and that’s the part that counts the most, isn’t it?
He walked towards the exit. It was beginning to get late, and most of the party guests had started to clear out. The only people who seemed to be left were those in the military dress uniforms and the expensive suits.
“Where are you going, my boy?” Adrian seemed to appear out of nowhere.
“It’s late; I’m beginning to feel a little tired.”
“The pool is closed at this moment. No reason to leave early.”
“I’m not in a swimming mood Adrian.”
“Are you sick? At the very least let me drive you back to your hotel.” Adrian grabbed onto Dick’s arm; his hand dug into the soft flesh of Dick’s upper arm.
“I don’t think that’s necessary. I’d rather walk. Ow! You’re hurting me.”
“Listen, my boy; it would be rude to leave the party early, do you understand?”
Dick didn’t, not really, but he said that he did.
“Good,” Adrian responded, loosening the grip on Dick’ arm slightly. “Now come. Abelard has summoned us, and we shan't miss it.”
Dick sighed. Adrian wasn’t asking him. It was a demand. Sarah would be upset. He pictured her fiery eyes and crossed arms. There wasn’t anything he could do to help that right now, though.
“Lead the way,” said Dick Mitey, wondering what he had gotten himself in to.
#
Adrian and Dick stood in the antechamber to a massive room with double doors. The cavernous room yawned open like the abyss. Inside Dick could see about two dozen important looking men and women.
“You enter first. Do you see that chair close to the front? That one is reserved for you. Go on now, my boy! I’ll rejoin you shortly.”
Dick stumbled into the room. It seemed to him as though the eyes of everyone in the room fixated on him. That was impossible, though. He was a nobody who had no business attending events such as this one.
He sat down in the uncomfortable wooden chair that Adrian had pointed him towards and tried to ignore the unfamiliar feeling of eyes on his person.
Sarah was undoubtedly wondering where he was. It had been way more than ten minutes now. Was she angry? Probably.
In the limited time he had spent with her she had always seemed to be mad about something. It scrunched up her beautiful face.
People were always more beautiful when they smile. Always.
Dick woke from his reverie to the sounds of the significant wooden double doors closing. They shut with a bang, momentarily stopping the chatter in the room. He looked up at the stage and saw Abelard Lochte standing with that big unnatural smile on his face. He looked larger than life.
It wasn’t wholly unnatural, though. Dick would have believed it himself if he hadn’t recalled the cold, dispassionate person in the big office the other day.
Abelard pushed his euro style glasses up his nose and opened his arms in a welcoming gesture and then began to speak.
“My friends!” His unnaturally deep voice resonated through the room. “I thank you for joining us here today. Danke schön.” The chatter in the room died down. Everyone was laser-focused on Lochte.
He bowed deeply.
“We have brought you captains of industry here together to ask for your help, as I know that every one of you have pledged your support a hundred times over. Our goal, which at one point was nigh unattainable, is now within our grasp!
“Many of us here today are high ranking members of the Bundestag – the German parliament. You come to us angry, as well you should! Your children do not have the same opportunities which we did. The balance of power has shifted from the great leaders of our glorious past to these grovelers, kissing the boots of America and the European Union.
“The leaders of this great nation have done all in their power to drive our once proud nation to the ground. Well, I say no more!”
The crowd, at first restless, had begun to stamp their feet and voice their approval. Dick looked around and saw a cold and calculated logic in their eyes.
It’s all a show, Dick thought. But why? For who?
Dick felt very scared. He crossed his thin legs and tried to look nonchalant.
Abelard’s rhetoric reached a fever pitch.
“Those in this room who are close to me know my ambitions. I too, like you, have been a prominent member of the Bundestag for more years than I can count. I say that the time is now to place your faith in me, for I will reward you many times over! I will bring this nation into the twenty-first century, and I will establish our rightful place at the top of the civilized world!”
The cheers were unbridled and pure. The politicians began to chant Abelard’s name in a raucous and infectious manner.
But then Dick saw Adrian appear on the stage, and whisper something in Abelard’s ear. They conversed for a few seconds before Adrian stepped back, crossed his arms and looked directly at Dick.
Abelard spread his arms again, but this time in a calming gesture.
“My friends!” His deep voice rang across the hall over the harsh German voices. �
��My friends, I have some disturbing news.”
The crowd quieted down immediately. A shiver went down Dick’s spine as he saw the control which Abelard possessed over the powerful men in the room.
“I have just received word that our beloved Alfred Gunter Katzmann…” He paused for dramatic effect, “is dead.”
The crowd, frenetic in their passion beforehand, suddenly became morose.
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