Shadow Warrior

by Scott, Trevor

  “Let our people know we’re on our way,” Jake said.

  27

  Vaduz, Lichtenstein

  It was almost 400 kilometers from Interlaken, Switzerland to Innsbruck, Austria. On a normal drive, Jake could make that run in less than three hours. But he wasn’t in a hurry to get there. He had a couple of things to do to prepare for any potential encounter with Jakov Koprivica. First of all, he needed to wait for more intel on the man, and that meant contacting his old friends at the Agency. He was still waiting for them to get back with him. Second, he needed to rest his old body. Although Anica had picked up the driving task shortly after dropping off the Italian with Jake’s friend at Swiss Intel, even she had gotten sleepy on the journey. So, several times they had pulled off the road and taken naps in the car.

  Now, in the capital of Lichtenstein, Jake decided to go to one of his tax haven banks and make a quick adjustment. Over the years he had opened bank accounts in Luxembourg, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Andorra and Belize. He had added cash to those accounts in safe deposit boxes, and held certain other items that could not be traced back to him. He also had weapons stored in various locations, from storage units in Montana to Germany and Austria.

  Jake had brought Anica into the bank with him, hoping to provide her with a little wisdom. The banker had just helped Jake retrieve his box and left the two of them alone in a small, private room.

  “You seem to surprise me daily,” Anica said.

  Jake opened his medium box and glanced at her. “I’ve been keeping storage boxes like this for decades. I still have a Swiss account, but have gotten rid of my safe deposit box when they decided to change their banking laws a number of years ago.” He would eventually need to let his son Karl know about all of his accounts in case anything happened to him. Not even Sirena knew the details of all of his accounts. Then again, she also had similar accounts. Just not as many, he guessed.

  “What’s the point?” she asked.

  Jake pulled out a Glock 19 and dropped the full magazine into his hand. Then he cycled back the slide to make sure he had not left one in the chamber. It was clear. He shoved the magazine back into the handle and racked a round into the chamber. Then he put the gun into a specially-designed holster inside his leather jacket.

  Next, he found a fat envelope and pulled out a stack of money—Euros and dollars. “This is much easier now with the Euro,” Jake said. “I used to keep Marks, Shillings and Francs in here.”

  Peeling off a number of bills, Jake then returned the rest to the box. He rummaged through the box to remember what else he had in there, and he found a photo of himself and Toni Contardo on the Italian Riviera. Toni was wearing a white bikini, her dark olive skin in perfect contrast and her raven curly hair flowing in the wind over her strong shoulders. Jake was wearing a tight white suit, his muscles in full display. He even saw the bandage on the side of his head where he had been grazed by a bullet in an operation on an aircraft carrier. Wow. That was a long time ago, he thought.

  Anica came around to his side of the table and looked at the photo. “Is that you?”

  “Afraid so. Don’t judge me by my shorts.”

  “You were hot, Uncle Jake.”

  “As opposed to my current state of atrophy.”

  “Well, you’re still hot. But this. . .” She bit her lower lip. “I can see why that hot girl is with you. Who is she?”

  “The mother of my son, Karl.”

  “You have a son?”

  “Long story.”

  “How old is he?”

  “A little younger than you.”

  “If he looks anything like you did back then, you should be setting me up.”

  He put the photo back in the box and closed it. That wasn’t a bad idea, he thought. But Karl was off with the Agency working somewhere undercover.

  “That would be a really good idea,” Jake said. “I think you two would have a great deal in common. Like you, he speaks a number of languages.”

  “What does he do?” she asked.

  Jake was ready for this question. “He’s a diplomat with our State Department.”

  “I see. Do you get to see him much?”

  “I saw him a couple of months ago in Iceland. Before that, we played around in the Baltic states for a while. I didn’t even know of his existence until a few years ago. He was an Army officer by then.”

  “This woman didn’t tell you? That’s terrible. Give me her number and I’ll call her and tell her so.”

  “She’s dead,” Jake said bluntly.

  “Oh. I’m sorry.”

  “We know the risks when we take on assignments with our governments,” Jake said. “It happens.”

  “So, she was with your Agency also?”

  “Yes. She was once the station chief in Vienna.”

  Neither said a word for a while.

  Finally, Anica said softly to Jake, “You were in love with her.”

  “I was. She was my first real love.”

  She put her hand on his arm. “I am so sorry.”

  He didn’t have time to mention Anna or Alexandra, two other major losses in his life. Jake was pretty good at compartmentalizing the death of these three women. He would usually drown out that loss with vast quantities of alcohol.

  Before calling the banker back in, he opened the box again and found two boxes of fifty rounds of 9mm hollow points, along with a second full magazine. With the Glock 17 he carried under his left arm, that would give him quite a bit of firepower. But the Serb would likely have submachine guns. His handguns wouldn’t hold up against those.

  “Let’s go,” Jake said. He summoned back the banker and together they locked the safe deposit box into its home on the wall. Jake would have to remember to come back and replenish this one.

  They got back to the Alfa Romeo in the parking lot across from the bank, but didn’t get in.

  “I need something to eat,” Anica said.

  “I know a pizzeria about a block from here. Very good. Napoli style.”

  “I should watch my figure,” she said, “in case you decide to introduce me to your hot son. But we have to eat.”

  “That’s the spirit.”

  The two of them walked off toward the pizzeria, and Jake looked up at the swirling clouds over the mountains. That didn’t look good, he thought.

  •

  Sitting in a VW Passat a block away, the two men watched as the man and woman moved away from the red Alfa Romeo.

  The driver said to the passenger in German, “He doesn’t look so dangerous.”

  “But he is,” the passenger said. “We need to trust our intel on that.”

  “What’s the plan?”

  “Stick with him and wait for instruction.”

  28

  Innsbruck, Austria

  Sirena and Johann had spent most of the day simply wandering around the downtown of this Tirol city, finally enjoying a nice day of sunshine. But that would soon change, Sirena knew, since reports indicated that a storm was brewing and heading in from the Alps. They would even get some snow at higher elevations. Down in the valley around Innsbruck, precipitation would come in rain. The wind could make things even worse.

  She had been glad to get a text from Anica earlier that morning saying they would be driving back from Switzerland. With Jake driving, she would have guessed they would be here by now, but there was still no word of their arrival.

  The two of them sat at a coffee shop near the Inn River. Johann was wearing a hat and sunglasses, in case one of his colleagues with Polizei recognized him.

  “You look like the Unabomber,” Sirena said.

  “The what?”

  “Never mind.”

  Her phone suddenly buzzed and she pulled it from her purse. It was a secure file from an old friend with the Mossad. More information on Jakov Koprivica. This one came from a Russian source. It confirmed their previous information. This guy was a piece of shit. How the Austrians allowed the man to emigrate here was beyond h
er comprehension.

  “Important?” Johann asked.

  She explained this new information, but not how she had acquired it.

  “You seem to still have some important friends,” he said.

  “If you spend enough time in the shadow game, you make contacts that can help you.”

  “Like Jake.”

  She laughed. “He still has contacts at the highest levels of government.”

  “Which government?” Johann asked.

  “Exactly.” She left it at that. Then she said, “Anica knows where you live, right?”

  “Of course.”

  She got up and said, “Let’s head back there. In case they show up without calling.”

  Since they had walked downtown, it took them a while to walk the mile or so across the bridge to Johann’s apartment.

  Once they got into the ground-floor lobby of Johann’s apartment building, Sirena stopped him with a hand to his chest.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Did you notice the car about a block down the street?” she asked.

  He shook his head.

  “You need to be more observant. There were two guys inside. They were almost too obvious.”

  Sirena drew her gun.

  Johann was a bit shocked. “What are you doing? I live here.”

  Although Johann refused to pull his weapon, Sirena kept her gun ready as they went upstairs toward his apartment. Something wasn’t right, she was sure.

  They stopped at his door. The lock looked fine, though. She waved for him to unlock the door, which he did. Then Sirena rushed in, her gun sweeping the room.

  Sirena stopped suddenly when she saw the woman sitting in the chair at the far side of Johann’s living room.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Sirena asked.

  Sabine Bauer, Kriminal Hauptkommisar of Tirol, uncrossed her legs and set her cup of coffee on the table in front of her. “We need to talk,” Sabine said.

  Sirena put her gun back in its holster and took a seat across from the Polizei officer.

  “Can I get either of you something stronger than coffee?” Johann asked.

  “We’re on duty,” Sabine reminded her officer.

  Johann checked his watch and then said, “Since I’m currently assigned to Europol, my hours are different. We worked late last night.”

  “And you will be working late tonight as well,” Sabine said. “Now, sit down.”

  Johann took a seat on the sofa.

  “We have a problem,” the Polizei officer said.

  “Koprivica,” Sirena said.

  Sabine lifted her chin with acknowledgement. “He has friends in high places.”

  “I figured that much,” Sirena said. “Otherwise, why let such a despicable piece of crap into Austria?”

  “When he came in, our government was letting anyone with a pulse cross over and stay in Austria,” Sabine said. “It’s all about demographics. Europeans are like pandas. We are not breeding enough to sustain our population. So, we allow those into Austria who should never be here.”

  “We know this,” Johann said. “It’s changing Austria. And not for the better. We are losing our culture.”

  Sabine nodded in complete agreement. “You are right, Johann. Now, the new government has made positive changes. They have halted emigration of refugees. Made it much more difficult to come here. But Koprivica and his organization make a lot of money bringing people here and other countries in Europe.”

  This was not news to Sirena. It was one of the reasons she and Jake had taken a home in The Azores. “You said Koprivica has friends in high places. Do you have any names?”

  Sabine shook her head. “Not yet. Koprivica was not on our radar until he was discovered by Jake, Anica and the two of you. Since then, I have looked into the man’s background further—including with our intelligence sources.”

  “He should go before The Hague court,” Johann said.

  “That will take years,” Sirena said. “In the meantime, someone else will fill the void. The structure seems to have been built like a military organization. When one person gets taken out, another is elevated to the next higher position.”

  Sabine agreed with a nod. “You are correct. If you have ever had a mouse in your house, you will know that there is never just one. At least not for long. You can’t just catch one and be done. You must catch them all.”

  “Kill them all,” Sirena provided.

  “I am Polizei,” Sabine said. “I must work within the law enforcement guidelines.”

  Smiling, Sirena said, “That’s why you got Jake involved. You knew that he would do anything to find Anica. But once Jake gets on a case, he doesn’t stop until he gets every last rat.”

  Sabine said nothing now.

  Was this all a set-up from the beginning, Sirena wondered? What if Sabine set up Anica? If she had died that night on the Innsbruck bridge, she could have still come to Jake to find Anica’s killer. Could Sabine be that callous and calculating? Sirena would like to hope not, but she had seen too much crap in the past to at least not posit the proposition.

  “Who do you trust within your organization?” Sirena asked.

  “Why?”

  “Because you must trust those two plain-clothed Polizei officers in the car out front,” Sirena said.

  “You caught them?”

  “It was hard not to.” Sirena tried not to look at Johann.

  Sabine hesitated briefly before saying, “They went to the Polizei academy with me. One is from Salzburg and the other from Graz. So, yes, I trust them completely.”

  “They are still patrol officers,” Sirena surmised.

  “Yes, but they were also trained in our Army. The important thing is that I can trust them.”

  “Do I know them?” Johann asked.

  “I doubt it,” Sabine said.

  “You asked for them specifically. Wouldn’t that alert someone that could be connected?”

  Sabine shook her head. “No. Officially, they are on vacation.” She stopped and shifted her gaze to Johann. “Where is Anica and Jake?”

  Good question, Sirena thought. Since Johann said nothing, she took the question. “They’re on their way. Should be here any moment. You better tell your men downstairs to back off.”

  “Why?” Sabine asked.

  “Because if Jake sees them, he might be inclined to do something to them.”

  Sabine pulled out her phone and typed a quick text. Then she said, “They’ll go a few blocks down by the river.”

  Sirena checked her watch. She was starting to worry about Jake. What was taking him so long? She found her phone and texted him.

  29

  Western Austria

  Jake was in the passenger side of the Alfa Romeo, while Anica drove far too slow along the Autobahn about twenty kilometers west of Innsbruck. He had gotten the information he needed and was going over the data, while he kept an eye on the two men in the car behind them. Yeah, he had caught the men surveilling them when he came out of the bank in Lichtenstein. But in this case, he had simply let the men follow him. Why? Before they even left Vaduz, Jake had gone to the trunk to pretend to get something. That’s when he found what he was looking for—a GPS tracking device. He didn’t think for a second that the Italian had left it behind. No, this had been slipped in Jake’s trunk by his old friend with Swiss FIS, Hans Disler, when they had transferred Caspari from the Alfa to the intel officer’s Mercedes. So, the FIS wanted to have a stake in Jake’s actions. He didn’t blame Hans for trying. Jake would have done the same thing. Now, Jake had to decide if he should call Hans and tell him to call off his people, or simply let the men follow him as back up. He had decided to let them hang back there for now.

  “Are you going to answer that text?” Anica asked.

  Jake came out of his reverie. He found his phone and saw that it was Sirena. He texted back, saying they were about a half hour out.

  Sirena came back at him, saying Sabine was with them, an
d she had called in a couple of old friends from Austrian Polizei she trusted.

  ‘Is she sure?’ Jake asked.

  ‘Yes. Friends from the academy. Stationed in Salzburg and Graz.’

  He needed to talk with Sirena, so he hit the green button to call her.

  “Hey,” Sirena said. “What’s taking you?”

  Jake explained how they had been up all night, and had to sleep a little along the way. He also mentioned their stop in Lichtenstein and the two men who were following them.

  “You could have planted the GPS on another vehicle and lost them,” she said.

  He had done that in the past a number of times. “I know. But I trust Hans.”

  “Trust but verify,” she said.

  “We plan one more stop for gas just before entering Innsbruck,” Jake said. “I’ll talk to the men at that time.”

  “Be careful.” She hung up.

  That was strange. She never ended a call that way. Was she getting closer to him than he thought? Perhaps.

  “Everything alright?” Anica asked.

  “I think so,” he said, and then explained the two men that Sabine had brought in to help.

  “She must really trust these officers,” Anica said. “Word is that she stopped trusting after her relationship with her former boss fell apart.”

  “Well, the man was married,” Jake reminded her. “Was he screwing around on her?”

  “That’s the story.”

  Jake had never gotten along with Hermann Jung. He had wormed his way into the position when Franz Martini, a good friend and associate of Jake’s, started having problems because of complications with cancer. Martini had been reasonable; Jung had been a total tool. Now, Jung was gone and Sabine Bauer ran the show.

  “Pull into that gas stop ahead,” Jake said.

  “What are you going to do?”

  He smiled and shrugged. “I’ll improvise.”

  She pulled in and moved to the forward pump. Jake got out and tried his best not to look back at the car with the two Swiss intel officers inside, but he could see that they pulled into the restaurant area of this pit stop on the Autobahn.