Nemesis: Innocence Sold

by Ross, Stefanie

  “Just a moment, Sven. What’s with you, Stephan? Are you in? I’ve rarely seen you this agitated.”

  “Of course, Captain. One more question like that, and we’ll speak to each other in clear terms on the terrace. To be honest, it would be a pleasure to beat up a member of the Rawlins family.”

  A barely visible smile played on Mark’s face. “Don’t give me a hard time because of my sister.”

  “Who else? I’d agreed last week to play babysitter tonight but had completely forgotten that in the heat of battle. When I drove off just now, she almost threw something at me.”

  Sandra had to suppress a laugh. As though they had no other problems—but the sympathetic looks and comments of his friends brought Stephan’s usual smile back. Daniel’s warning dig in the ribs was superfluous; she would never have missed the opportunity to experience in person how men, as it were, behave toward each other.

  As if a secret command had been given, Stephan then returned to the topic at hand. “I think we should ruin Kat and Lars’s evening off, or what do you think? If the business in Hamburg ends up involving freeing a hostage, you’ll be needed there, and we don’t have the personnel here to give Daniel and Sandra backup.”

  Sandra glanced at the clock. The intermezzo had lasted less than ninety seconds but released all tension. She was starting to understand that the casual tone had a secondary purpose and greatly increased the men’s solidarity.

  “Doc?”

  In contrast to Sandra, Daniel seemed to understand what his boss wanted from him. After hesitating, he nodded. “Actually, I had thought about having Tom, too, but if Stephan’s with us, it’s all right. Also, Kat and Lars can take over when we’ve checked the situation, and we’ll have time for you.”

  “Good. I’ll go with Sven and Dirk and form my own opinion. Jake will coordinate; Fox and Tom should stand by. Something tells me we’ll need every man tonight.” Mark grinned. “And every woman.”

  CHAPTER 19

  Nothing was left of the warm day. Sandra shivered, drew her shoulders up, and wished she had put on one of her fleece sweatshirts. It was time she had unrestricted access to her things again. Her head came up as a vehicle approached the parking lot, which was abandoned except for Daniel’s Mercedes, and she relaxed again when the vehicle drove past.

  She could hardly believe she had also been here this morning or what had happened since. In the darkness, the parking lot seemed much more sinister than in the dawn light. Every two rows of parking spaces were separated from the next two by beds whose knee-high plants prevented one from having an unobstructed view of the parking lot. Nevertheless, to her the site wasn’t ideal for such a meeting when they weren’t sure whether or not an ambush had been planned. On the other hand, the low plants would provide a certain amount of cover as long as they stayed close to the ground. A few lampposts gave off a dim light. Her brooding ended when Daniel appeared in front of her.

  “Put this on. My jacket’s warm enough.”

  “You . . .”

  “Stop arguing. You slept too little last night and haven’t exactly spent a quiet day at your desk today. You’re going to need your energy.”

  “Arguing? You always seem to know better, don’t you, Lieutenant? I know I’m cold; I just wanted to thank you.” Only Stephan’s presence prevented her from going into detail with regard to what she thought about his manners. Particularly as her boss was already coughing a little, and she could swear he was doing so to cover a laugh.

  Once again, a car approached, and this one came directly toward them.

  When Sandra instinctively felt for her gun, Stephan laid a hand on her arm. “That’s Kat and Lars.”

  Shortly thereafter, the Opel stopped beside them. “Park your car on the street near mine,” Stephan said.

  Lars grumbled and nodded. “I guess.”

  “You just had to drive,” Kat said and jumped out of the car. “What’s going on here?”

  Stephan quickly filled her in. “The light could be better. These lampposts on the lot and then the dark corners are a nightmare. I’d take the flat roof over the entrance to the swimming complex. Only interference seems to be a few trees and the traffic light. Can you think of something better, Daniel? And I hope you’ve brought me something nice.”

  Puzzled, Sandra watched as Daniel took a flat box from the trunk of his Mercedes and handed it to Kat. With a few motions that betrayed her many years of practice, Kat assembled a delicate-looking gun and hung it on her back. “I hate to admit it, but I might need some help getting up there.”

  “Come on, then,” Daniel said.

  “Kat used to be a sniper with a police commando unit,” Stephan said.

  Lars came sprinting toward them and watched Kat and Daniel walking away. “How much time do we have left, boss?”

  “No idea—a few minutes, I’d guess. It’s almost time for us to make ourselves invisible and leave the stage to Daniel and Sandra.”

  “Are you sure there are going to be problems, then?”

  Sandra was expecting an evasive answer and was surprised when Stephan nodded. “Completely sure. If Sandra noticed that Lüttgens already seemed nervous this morning, his buddy wouldn’t have failed to notice this, too, and we know by now how these guys deal with elements of uncertainty. I’m convinced they’ve given him a long leash and will strike as soon as they know who he’s meeting.”

  That sounded logical, but Sandra was still surprised by the precise prediction. “How do you know that?” she asked.

  Stephan’s grin looked like a snarl. “Because in the past I’d have done exactly the same thing. The hedge over there. The cover’s only mediocre, but we’ll have them in a pincer; I would rather not have cross fire.” He bent over the trunk and took out two headsets and threw one to Lars. “Take that. Kat’s already wired up.”

  Daniel returned on the double and had apparently caught Stephan’s instruction. “Are you sure about the hedge?”

  “Do you have a better suggestion?”

  “No. I’m just worried about your duds.” The reference to Stephan’s normally fashionable and expensive clothing earned Daniel a mock punch.

  “I’m touched by your concern, but these are from Dirk’s wardrobe. Or do you think I should have kept my white T-shirt on?” Stephan asked while he stowed extra magazines in the thigh pocket of his black pants.

  Lars surveyed his boss from head to toe with a flash of envy. “Great. You’re running around in special unit combat gear, and I’m ruining my best jeans here,” he said as he moved toward the agreed-upon site.

  “Watch out for yourselves,” Stephan said and followed his colleague.

  “Why haven’t you changed your clothes, by the way?” Sandra asked when she thought about how not all the men had exchanged their clothes for black pants, sweatshirts, and bulletproof vests before they had driven off.

  “Because I don’t want them to be able to see that I belong to a special unit from a hundred yards away. Grab a headset, but hide it under your hair as best you can. Up ahead—that could be him. Concentrate on what’s going on behind him. Stephan?”

  “In position.” Stephan’s voice came through the headphones.

  A light-colored van, a Ford, drove into the parking lot and stopped. Remembering Daniel’s warning, she concentrated on the street rather than the slowly approaching vehicle. A barely perceptible reflection captured her attention, but no matter how she tried she could not make out any details. “There’s something else there. Perhaps someone with his lights off?” she said.

  “Kat?” Daniel asked.

  “I can offer you a black BMW. Stopped in the middle of the street. One man getting out and looking in your direction. He has something in his hand. Could be a night-vision device. Now he’s leaning into the car and . . . Well, great. He has a machine pistol if I’m not very mistaken. Three men are getting out. Either all four are fat, or they’re wearing vests. A pretty mess, but my caliber will at least knock them down, and their legs are un
protected. Doc?”

  “Wait until you have a sure shot. Wait for a direct threat or action from them.”

  “The sight of the machine pistol’s enough for me, but you’re the boss,” Kat said.

  The van stopped inside the circle of light from a lamppost a few yards from their Mercedes, and Sandra gasped when she noticed the two children in the backseat. Daniel didn’t like the sight, either. “Change of plans. You take the vehicle and bring the family to a safe place. We can’t risk them getting hit.”

  Although everything in her protested, she didn’t object. Daniel was right; the safety of the woman and children took precedence.

  “Doc? Another one from that direction. All-terrain vehicle, souped-up jeep or something, also stopped on the street. Two men; driver stayed inside.”

  “Shit,” Daniel said between gritted teeth but coolly walked toward the van. He bent down to the open window on the driver’s side. “You were followed by two vehicles. Get out. You’ll help us get the situation under control and arrest those guys. My colleague will take your family away from here.”

  Lüttgens became paler. When his wife was about to protest, he shook his head and got out. “We’ve talked about this. This is the bill. But I will not hide; I’ll do my job.” He looked directly at Sandra. “Please take care of my family. They’ve done nothing wrong.”

  “I give you my word.”

  Daniel pressed a small object into her hand. “Jammer” was his brief explanation. “Watch out for yourself.”

  Sandra nodded and slid into the driver’s seat. “Put your seat belt back on,” she told the woman.

  “He hasn’t done anything really bad,” the woman said.

  “Later,” Sandra said and put the car in reverse. “First we have to get you and the children out of here alive.” She drove off, racing across the parking lot. The best defense was always a good offense. She hurled the Ford over a strip of grass and onto the street, got the skidding vehicle back under control, and pushed the accelerator all the way down.

  She heard Kat’s warning. “One of them has jumped into his car and is following you.” One pursuer was still better than an uncontrolled exchange of fire in the parking lot with the family in the middle, Sandra thought; then she had enough to keep her busy, steering the Ford through nighttime Ahrensburg at top speed. Without respecting red lights or traffic laws, she set a course for the city center and cursed as a pair of headlights came into view in her rearview mirror. Certainly not a harmless motorist out for a pleasure cruise. She couldn’t outrace her pursuer; the Ford’s engine was too weak. Sandra desperately sought a way out; then she found the answer. Finally the shortage of parking spaces in the city would be good for something. “Hang on—it’s going to get hairy in a second. How are the children?”

  “Seat belts on. They’ve been sleeping ever since Volker called you.”

  “It’s better that way.”

  She could already see the row of parked cars on the left-hand side some distance away. She switched off the headlights and looked for a space. Without slowing down, she jerked the hand brake. Next to her, Lüttgens’s wife screamed, but the Ford reacted as intended. With smoking tires, it came to a stop at a ninety-degree angle to the street in one of the rare cross-parking spaces. “Head down. We can’t let them see us.”

  Without hesitating, Lüttgens’s wife followed her instruction. In the rearview mirror Sandra watched the jeep race past them without slowing down.

  “We’ve got some peace for the time being, but that won’t last long. We need . . .” A pair of headlights appeared behind them. Sandra froze. Just a taxi letting out a passenger. “Wait here.” Sandra jumped out of the van and ran across the street. When she had gotten to the other side, she held her identification card under the nose of the dumbfounded taxi driver. “LKA. Sorry, I need your car. Get out, now. Police emergency.”

  The driver, probably a student earning a few extra euros, was so bewildered that he got out without objecting and didn’t start arguing until he was standing next to her.

  “Don’t worry, you’ll be compensated for everything. But don’t say a word to anyone except my colleagues.” Sandra ignored his agitated words and got in. She adjusted the seat; the guy was so big she couldn’t even reach the pedals. The Mercedes was a few years old but had considerably more power under the hood than the Ford. She turned the taxi around and stopped directly behind the Ford. “Hurry and get in. Do you need help?”

  “But the child seats?” said Mrs. Lüttgens.

  “We have more pressing concerns at the moment. Get in the back, and hold those two. Come on, do it!”

  Within a few seconds Lüttgens’s family was in the taxi. The door had hardly been closed when Sandra drove off. “We’ve lost them. At least for now.”

  Mrs. Lüttgens praised her. “You did a great job.”

  “Thanks. By the way: Sandra Meinke, LKA, Hamburg. How are the little ones?”

  “Susanne Lüttgens. And my daughters are still sleeping. Children are unbelievable; nothing wakes them. What are we going to do now?”

  “Take a long route back to badlantic. We’ll stay out of sight and won’t show ourselves until my colleagues have the situation under control.”

  “That sounds good. I’d like to get back to my husband. He’s not a criminal. I have a sense of how all this looks to you, but it’s not like that. You have to believe me.”

  Their gazes met in the rearview mirror, and oddly Sandra believed her. “He’s taken a step in the right direction, anyway. My boss will give him a fair chance and help him.” Sandra wouldn’t have been able to say whether she had been thinking of Daniel or Stephan as her boss, but in the end it didn’t matter.

  In the opposite lane a jeep came toward them at excessive speed but paid no attention to them and was out of sight after a few seconds. “Someone seems to be looking for something,” said Sandra.

  Quiet laughter came from the backseat. “Looks that way. By the way, why is it that there’s never a speed trap around when you need one?” Mrs. Lüttgens asked, making Sandra laugh.

  “Murphy’s Law. Your nerves are pretty steady, by the way. I was afraid you’d get hysterical.”

  “Then perhaps you should know I was with the police myself until my first child was born—only as a junior officer, but still . . . And with two children with their heads full of nonsense, you have to have nerves of steel, too.”

  When they were a few hundred yards from badlantic, Sandra heard a hissing from her headphones, then Daniel’s voice, overlaid by the sounds of gunfire. She stopped the taxi on the side of the road. “We’ll wait here until my colleagues have the situation under control,” she said in a hoarse voice.

  Daniel cursed and ducked even closer to the rear wheel of the Mercedes. He hadn’t imagined it playing out like this; he feverishly considered his options. He had thought of every possibility except their opponents opting for a firefight. These guys were smooth customers and absolutely unscrupulous; they knew what they were doing, and up to now their defense had held. Although Stephan and Lars changed their positions after every shot, they had practically no cover and were very much at risk. After Kat had succeeded in putting the men on the defensive, one of the bastards started watching the flat roof. He was probably using a heat scanner and was aware of each of Kat’s position changes and prevented her from getting off a shot.

  If Daniel didn’t come up with an idea that would save them soon, they would have a serious problem. Slowly but steadily, the enemy was advancing. Their goal was obvious: Lüttgens. Up to now the policeman’s nerves had remained steady, and he was on their side, but Daniel sensed a deep anger in the man squatting near him, and at any moment that anger could provoke him into acting irresponsibly. “Kat? Get ready. I’m going to take on your barnacle. When he’s concentrating on me, take him out.”

  “All right, Doc.” He could hear anger in her voice as well. She must have hated sitting up there and not being able to do anything.

  “Stephan
, Lars, get yourselves some decent cover when the magic starts.”

  “Are you going out? I’ll go out to the right at the same time. That should split them and keep them occupied,” Lüttgens said.

  “It’s going to get damned hot,” Daniel said.

  “I know that, but after all, I brought the bastards with me. Give the signal, and tell me how to play it.”

  Daniel cautiously peered over the trunk. “Run to the fuse box or whatever that is, and take cover. Don’t waste time aiming—unaimed fire’s enough. Speed’s decisive.”

  “You mean I should be faster than the bullets. Great plan,” Lüttgens said, already pushing himself into the right starting position.

  Daniel wondered how the policeman had gotten involved in this thing; he liked his manner. He was looking forward to the explanation, but there would be time for that later.

  “Go!” Daniel said and sprinted away from the Mercedes, toward the man who was annoying Kat. As he had expected, the men immediately targeted him. He changed directions and rolled away. Kat was standing on the roof firing at the man. With a scream, he collapsed. Enemy fire fell silent, then abruptly resumed, this time directed at another target: Lüttgens. He couldn’t worry about that, though a loud scream froze the blood in his veins. He sensed the policeman had been hit. Running in a fast zigzag, Daniel reached the entrance to the swimming complex and threw himself to the ground next to the man Kat had taken out. The two thigh wounds were no doubt painful but were not life threatening. The guy was reaching for his pistol. With a blow to the temple, Daniel ensured the man wouldn’t be a danger to anyone for a while. Together with Kat, he opened fire and sighed with relief when their enemies retreated to their vehicles. “Stephan? Lars? Report!” he said.