The Milieu Principle

by Malcolm Franks

Matt sat at a square wooden table by the large round hearth placed in the middle of the room, on the first floor of the guest hausen. From his vantage point he could see the two corner entrances into the Grand Place from where he expected Vogel to appear.

  The view directly across to the Hotel de Ville, the town hall, was obstructed by a giant decorated Christmas tree in the middle of the large square. The Grand Place looked as it sounded. A huge square in the old part of town bordered on every side by tall fifteenth and sixteenth century buildings.

  Ornate stone décor littered the walls of the tall structures, none more so than the Town Hall where layer upon layer of detailed miniature statues clung to the sides of the building. An opulent and awe inspiring sight.

  Apart from the town hall most of the other places looked as though they had been converted into restaurants or public houses, usually occupying between two to three floors each. The remaining levels appeared to harbour office space which, Matt had decided, would attract very high premium rentals due to the exquisite location.

  At most there were six routes in and out of the Grand Place, one at each corner and two small alleys between the buildings on the side of the square where Matt sipped his lager. The area was heavily populated as usual. He hoped the bright street lights of the square would help to reveal his contact, should she choose to appear at the appointed time.

  The last drops of lager emptied from the glass into his mouth. His watch read seven fifty-nine and he looked at the empty message box on his mobile.

  Matt considered ordering another drink to settle down and wait a while longer. More and more people were beginning to gather and fill the square for the evening.

  A tall shape entered the Grand Place from the lower corner entrance, to the right of the other side of the square. Dressed in full length black winter coat, replete with fur edgings on the cuffs and collar, the woman’s blonde hair could be seen from underneath the rear of the Cossack hat upon her head.

  It was Vogel.

  He checked the prepared message. Delayed by 5 minutes it said, and pressed the send button. There was little time for the sweep. He quickly made his way down the stairs, latching on to the end of a group of revellers stepping out of the building into the square.

  The two narrow alleys were clear of people so he headed for the uppermost corner on his side of the Grand Place. He could see the warm breath of a person blowing into the darkness, the air from the lungs hanging in the night air. The shadowy figure, wrapped up from the cold in heavy coat and thick scarf, whispered into his collar. He had to be one of a team.

  Matt lifted the heavy cosh from his pocket. Nearing the dark shape the opening conveniently emptied of people, giving him the opportunity for a short swing of the weapon which thudded against the back of the man’s head. Matt caught the man’s fall and dragged him onto the bench at the other end of the corner opening. Curious pedestrians looked at him as he straightened the man’s form on the bench. Smiling back, he cupped his hand and raised it to his lips to suggest the man was drunk. The revellers thought nothing more and continued on their way.

  Matt ripped at the earpiece and radio from the unconscious body, and attached them to himself. All he could hear were German sounding voices. He double checked his watch. Six minutes after eight. There was no more time.

  The next message instructed the contact to move towards one of the alleys on his side of the square, allowing him to watch for movement. A figure from each of the opposite corners trailed Vogel, keeping a distance of around ten yards.

  He took the straight route to the first, passing the contact as he walked briskly forward without her noticing him. The cosh dug into the pit of the man’s stomach and he crumpled to the floor, shorn of breath and doubled up in pain. The impact of Matt’s knee to the head rendered the man unconscious and he slumped to the ground.

  People gathered to help the stricken figure and Matt rounded the growing crowd, circling the Christmas tree to come up from behind on the third minder, a beast-sized shape of a man. Matt stretched upward as he powered the solid plastic shape into the back of the target’s neck to make sure he would stay down.

  Vogel turned to inspect the commotion. She hadn’t seen him. Hurriedly he sent the next text and he saw her read the message.

  His eyes darted around the growing mass, searching for the fourth target he was unable to locate. He cursed as he moved towards the next position, monitoring Vogel’s movements as he walked.

  She disappeared into one of the side alleys and he spotted a smaller, slender-framed and slightly-built figure following from behind. The woman was speaking frantically into the radio, trying to raise the others. She used the word ‘hilfe’, which he knew to mean a cry for help. No matter, it had to be done. He caught up with her as she entered the darkness of the alley. Sensing his presence the woman turned sharply to defend herself. The cosh hammered against the roof of her skull and she collapsed to the floor.

  Striding out of the other side of the short alley he passed Vogel standing just down from the bistro. Now thirty yards apart, the subsequent message instructed Vogel to walk down to the next street corner and turn right.

  Matt sped the half distance of the cobbled street to reach the glass door of the Hotel before the contact. He made to the room on the third floor, where the light was already on.

  Eva-Maria’s frightened face looked up at him from the unmade sofa bed, pushed up against the long whitewashed wall in the narrow room. The door of the stand-alone single wardrobe, pointing sideways to the main door, was open and he slammed it shut.

  “Go, upstairs,” he instructed, and she stepped hurriedly to the open brown wooded stairs to the right at the end of the room, leading up to the mezzanine.

  Turning the light off, he followed. After drawing the curtain to the small window at the bottom of the steps, they stood next to each other by the large double bed.

  Minutes passed before the gentle rap on the door sounded.

  Matt pressed his finger to his lips to signal the young girl to remain silent and stepped quietly down to sit on the bottom stair.

  “Enter,” he said loudly.

  The door pushed open, allowing the glare of the corridor lights to invade the darkness of the room. A shadow from the tall figure was thrown across the hard, nylon fibre carpet. Matt took the gun from his pocket and crossed his arms over his lap, holding the torch in his other hand.

  He held his breath, half expecting a rush of armed police officers to burst into the room. The seconds ticked by, his ears almost deafened by the clicking of the mechanical hands on his watch.

  The figure cautiously stepped through the doorway and stood at the end of the room.

  “Shut the door,” he said calmly.

  The sound of the catch slipping into the lock told him she had followed his instruction. He shone the torch into her face, causing her eyes to squint.

  Vogel had arrived.

  “Take off all your clothes and throw them over here,” he demanded.

  The figure stood still, her stance openly defiant and her face unyielding. He turned the torch off, and waited.

  Silence

  A few moments ticked by before a shuffling noise began. The sound of a heavy coat dropping to the floor was followed by noises of further layers of garments being angrily discarded to the carpet.

  She threw the clothes over to the bottom stair by his feet. He felt each item, checking for wires and transmitters but there was none to be found. The torch shone back across the room to the woman, standing boldly in her acutely feminine lingerie. He turned the beam back off.

  “I said all of them.”

  Her anger could be felt from where she stood, rising ever more rapidly close to boiling point. She chose to obey. The remaining garments were clean. Once more the torchlight fell upon her aggrieved expression and slowly wound down over her naked body.

  A tall woman of slight and slender frame, she carried no excess weight he could see. The waist was narrow, the body trim and sha
pely. Matt saw Ms Vogel was a natural blonde.

  “Turn round,” he demanded, and she twisted to reveal her long back with its creamy white still youthful looking skin. There were no wires or microphones taped to her body so the beam of the torch meandered around the floor at her feet, revealing only bare carpet.

  “Okay,” said Matt, throwing the clothes back. He left the torchlight shining upon the huddled mass and waited until she’d lifted the final item off the floor.

  “Lights, Eva-Maria,” he called up.

  The brightness of the artificial light made them all blink furiously, almost resulting in the young woman losing her balance and falling down the steps.

  Vogel’s face lit up with unfettered joy.

  “Eva-Maria!” she screamed, “I have been so worried for you, child.” Vogel opened out her long arms in offer of a comforting embrace to the young woman.

  The teenager’s eyes enlarged with incredulity and fear as she moved behind Matt, expecting him to provide a protective shield from her jubilant superior.

  Vogel’s arms fell to her sides, dismayed by the young girl’s reticence to approach.

  “Stay away!” shouted Eva-Maria to the older woman. “You placed me in mortal danger. I could have been killed!”

  “No, no, I would not do such a thing,” Vogel exclaimed defensively, her voice begging forgiveness. “How could I know what would happen, I do not have the capacity or the authority to make such a thing happen. I would never have placed you in such danger. You must believe me.”

  Eva-Maria clung firmly to Matt, wrapping her arms around his waist, terrified he would release her into danger. Gradually he coaxed her forward and put a reassuring arm across her shoulder. She immediately buried herself into his warm, secure hold.

  Vogel gazed at the stranger’s affectionate, almost paternal, defence of her own daughter. Emotions stirred inside, making her senses prickle. Feelings she had locked away into the dark recesses of her brain, more years ago then she cared to remember, came rushing to the surface of her mind. Lost for words, she envied the apparent adoration the young woman afforded to Matt.

  “Eva-Maria, I would never hurt you. I would never have you hurt child. I can not bear for you not to believe me.”

  She opened her arms again in a welcoming gesture, her face contoured with anxiety and apprehension.

  “Come child, come to me, please.”

  “It’s alright,” Matt soothed to Eva-Maria. “She means you no harm.”

  In slow motion, the young girl stepped cautiously towards the tall imposing figure of her boss. Inches separated them when Vogel reached forward with her arms and snatched Eva-Maria into her grasp.

  It was the hug of a relieved and grateful mother to a child brought back from peril into safety. Vogel looked to the ceiling in heavenly gratitude before fixing her gaze upon Matt. The natural authority had completely deserted her, replaced instead by a mother’s tenderness towards her child. Eva-Maria started to sob quietly in the woman’s arms.

  “Johannes is dead, my brother is dead,” she cried.

  Her distress brought tears to the rims of Vogel’s eyes. Matt considered whether they were genuine. At the Wolfgangsee he had wondered if it was Vogel who had betrayed him. Even he could not believe she would contemplate imperilling her own daughter.

  Impossible to conceal with pretence, he decided.

  A touching scene under normal circumstances, it meant nothing to him now. There was too much at stake, too much to do and not enough time to do it. He had to move things along.

  “You were followed,” he said coolly, throwing the ID card of the first man he’d downed in the Place, onto the unmade sofa bed. “You don’t strike me as the careless type.”

  Releasing her grasp on the young woman she picked up the document and read inside, before dropping it to the floor.

  “Local Police bodyguard,” she replied. “Security has been tightened after the shooting today. It is believed you are the one responsible.” Vogel informed, returning Matt’s steady stare. “Even as we speak they search for you.”

  “But it is not true,” sobbed Eva-Maria. “He did not kill Piotr. I would be dead if not for Matt.”

  “Yes, and this is why I have come,” she said in response to the young woman’s support of him. “I am grateful to you for Eva-Maria‘s life Mr Durham. I will help you if it is possible.”

  Matt wanted to trust her, not least because she was the only person left able to help him. He remained uncertain, unsure as to her motivation, whether he could put his faith in her.

  “Once I have shown you these files you may decide it is not possible.”

  Vogel continued to hug her priceless daughter.

  “You must allow me to get Eva-Maria to a safety. Then we will be able to talk.”

  “She is not safe here?”

  “No person is safe with you. Not even I am secure in your company.”

  Her words cut deep. Images of the people he had met along his journey flashed through his mind. They were mostly all dead.

  She reached into her shoulder bag and produced a mobile phone, holding the item up to the light for him to see.

  “You will let me make the call?”

  He hesitated. Knowing he had few options, Matt nodded in agreement and she dialled the number. The call took seconds to complete.

  “They will meet us at the corner of the street. I will return in one hour,” she informed him.

  “No, no, I do not want to leave Matt, I want to stay here,” shrieked the agitated young woman.

  She tried to free herself from Vogel and return to his side, but the older woman gripped her tightly. Matt realised a decision had to be made.

  “Eva-Maria,” said Matt quietly. “She is right. You will be safer under the protection of Ms Vogel. It is too dangerous for you to be with me.”

  The struggle ended as abruptly as it had begun. The young woman looked across to him, her watery eyes surprised by his suggestion.

  “I promise,” he said, slowly. “You will be fine. Trust me, Miss Vogel will ensure you come to no harm.”

  Matt considered saying more then concluded it was not for him to reveal to Eva-Maria the secrets of her parentage. While he had doubts about his own trust for this woman, he was convinced she would do everything needed to protect her own daughter. And she had far more resources available to her with which to do it.

  Eva-Maria made a further attempt to elude her mother’s grasp, prompting a sharp reaction from Matt.

  “Eva-Maria,” he called tersely. “You heard what Ms Vogel said. Even now the authorities search for me. On my own I have a chance, with you I have none. I do not want you with me.”

  He had spoken harshly, coldly, leaving Eva-Maria with no doubt he wanted to abandon her to Vogel. The hurt in her eyes was evident, almost causing him to relent. But it had to be done. In a fit of blind temper she pulled herself free from Vogel and yanked the door open before storming out into the corridor, without bidding him farewell.

  Vogel’s gaze to Matt softened in the realisation he had put Eva-Maria’s safety above his own.

  “One hour and I will return. That is my promise,” she said, before leaving.

  Matt closed the door and turned off the lights. Making for the window he opened it wide to let in the evening chill and looked down into the narrow street below. The smell of the flavours of the Italian food, being cooked at the take-away in the building opposite, wafted towards him. They mingled with the sound of the belly dancers’ music as it drifted into the night sky from the adjacent restaurant.

  Hidden from view, he could hear people chattering as they wandered through the street. Their good humour and festive spirit a total contradiction to the loneliness he felt. Matt wondered if he had made the right decision, letting Vogel go free.

  Then, he saw them, at the end of the street. A large black Mercedes saloon pulled up and the two women disappeared into the back seats. Off it sped, into the night.

  At least Eva-Maria was
safe.

  Chapter Thirty

  A Fugitive’s Tale