“Kat Yun. I work for Dr. Yang. He is a very important doctor here with much influence. Come back tomorrow, at this same time during my shift, Herr Horst. If I can manage it, I will have it for you then. I would like that reward before I give you the silver box. Do we understand each other?”
“Yes, we do. Till tomorrow then, and my company and I thank you so very much.”
Hans was so enthusiastic about the prospect of getting the emerald that he felt like celebrating. This might be easier that he thought. In his hotel room, he removed his disguise, showered, and began applying a fresh disguise. He felt like stepping out tonight, perhaps even at his old rendezvous, the Cobra Club. It was about time. He’d been excessively tense lately. Tonight he would don his party disguise: bushy blonde eyebrows and mustache with shoulder length hair. It was almost eleven when he finished, and the Cobra would be jumping, just the way he liked it.
At the club, he slipped through the entrance onto the floor and stationed himself along the nearest wall observing the people carefully to see if anyone seemed to recognized him. No one, so far, so good. He worked his way toward the bar, got a beer, and continued moving through the crowd with the bottle in his hand looking for a place to settle.
David and Miriam sitting near the stage were also scanning the crowd. David spied Hans at the bar and told Miriam the same guy he’d seen last time, he was sure, but now wearing long blond hair and a mustache. After losing him before David was primed to keep up with Hans this time. “I’ll be right back”, he said, and lightly patting the pistol under his arm, pushed through the yelling, laughing people toward the bar. The noise level was high tonight. A shot with a silencer would go unnoticed in this loud frenzied environment, he thought. At the bar, he failed to see the man. He turned, looking carefully for him. Damn, he had disappeared again. Moving around to the tables against the wall, he stopped, and scanned again until he finally saw his prey talking to a girl leaning against one of the support columns mid-way to the dance floor. They were about fifty feet away. Moving stealthily through the crowd, David closed in.
Hans, ever-watchful, spied David coming toward him over the shoulder of the girl he was talking to. That’s the Jew who followed me before, he realized. Abruptly he left the girl, moving into the crowd, still watching David. Hans ducked around a group singing happy birthday, and David lost sight of him again. Hans came around behind David and reached for his gun under his jacket at the small of his back. With David six feet ahead in clear range, Hans shot David in the back twice and once in the leg with his silenced gun, then turned and carefully walked through the milling crowd and out into the street.
Those who saw David fall thought he was just another passed-out drunk or a drug OD and moved away to avoid responsibility. However, when the blood started pooling on the floor around David, someone screamed above the noise. Others shouted to call an ambulance amid the panicked cries and screams that erupted. A crowd gathered around David.
Miriam, now unable to see David, got up from her table to see what the commotion was all about. Starting through the crowd, she heard people yelling “someone’s shot! Someone’s shot!” Did he shoot that bastard, she wondered, continuing to push through the throng until she came upon David lying face down and saw the blood. Quietly she dropped to the blood-slick floor and felt David’s carotid artery. His heart was still beating. Tears were running down her face. “He’s with me”, she blurted as someone supported her and helped her to stool at the bar. She couldn’t believe it! David shot! Before the reality set in there were several men in white coats pushing through the crowd still gathered around David. They carefully placed him on a gurney, and one of them shouted, “Who knows this man.” Several bystanders pointed to Miriam and she walked over and said, “I know him, he is my boyfriend. As they carried David out of the club one of the white coated men grabbed her arm and hustled her out of the club and led her toward the waiting ambulance. Miriam climbed into the back of the ambulance and sat down, sobbing as the attendants worked on David.
At the hospital, she showed her ID, and gave them David’s information. An orderly went through David’s personal effects to verify insurance. He told her to go sit in the waiting room and someone would let her know his condition as soon as they could. After minutes that seemed like hours, a doctor in scrubs walked up and said they were taking David to surgery now, it would be at least four hours before they could really determine his condition. Miriam nodded in a daze and slumped in a waiting room chair.
Miriam sat with her head in her hands, crying quietly. She was shocked and couldn’t believe what had just happened. After an hour of grief, she looked around at a few others waiting like her, and then got up to find a phone. As she rose a police officer approached and asked her what she had witnessed at the club. Through her tears, she gave him what little information she could, not wanting to divulge who they were or why they were in Munich. She said that they were from Geneva and here in Munich on holiday. She gave them the name of their Munich hotel, telling him she didn’t know what she would do now. He told her the shooter had gotten away. Did she know of anyone who might want to kill him? No, they did not have a description at this time. The policeman gave Miriam his card telling her to contact him if she remembered anything else that might prove useful - - - anything at all, when her head was clearer. He thanked her and said he must be going now to help with the investigation.
Finding a telephone booth near the hospital entrance she called Levi on his private line.
Hearing what had happened Levi said he would contact another agents in Munich to support her and continue with the investigation. They would contact her at the safe house but someone would come by the hospital to sit with her until she knew about David’s condition.
“Levi, I don’t need a baby-sitter. As soon as I know that David’s OK, I’m go to get that bastard Hans”.
“Wait a minute; you don’t even know it was Hans”.
“Who else would it be? David thought it might be Hans when he saw him in the club. I know it was that Nazi bastard, and I’m going to get him, if it’s the last thing I do!”
“OK, Miriam. But at least wait until your back-up arrives and you know more about David’s condition. And as soon as you know anything, please let me know. I’ll be standing by at this end with all the help you need”.
“Yes, I know, Levi. I’ll wait till I know something, and I promise I won’t go off half cocked. Thanks for your help - - - and understanding.”
After her conversation with Levi, she walked back into the surgical waiting lounge and a nurse asked if she would like to go into the doctor’s lounge to lie down. Doing so, she realized how emotionally drained she was and slept through the surgery and the rest of the night.
About dawn, a doctor tapped her on the arm and awakened her to say David was going to be okay but he would be laid up for quite a while. She could now go in and see him.
When Miriam first saw a pale David lying on the bed, asleep, with all the tubes and intravenous needles, she broke down. A nurse sitting near the bed got up so Miriam could sit. She pulled back the sheet to check him and Miriam could see just enough of the bandages that were wrapped around him. The doctor entered and told her he needed rest. Out in the hall he told her that two chest shots had gone clear through David’s torso. One had passed above his heart, miraculously not hitting any vital organ. The other had split a rib, punctured his stomach, damaging surrounding tissues, but they were able to set the rib and repair his stomach. His left femur had been broken by the third bullet, and they had repaired that with pins and a small metal plate. All he needed now was rest and time. They thought he would heal and be good as new, since he was in such good physical shape, but possibly with a slight limp. After the doctor left, Miriam went back in the room and slumped in the chair watching David sleep.
The next day, when Hans stepped inside the hospital room where Tam lay in his body cast, Kat got out of her chair and immediately told him there had been no silver box in
Tam’s personal effects.
“That’s impossible. You’re sure?”
“I went through it all twice- - -there’s no silver box, I tell you.”
“Can you find out who handled his things when he was brought into the hospital?”
“Okay, I’ll ask around, but for some reason his personal effects have been put in the hospital safe, and that’s unusual. Come back tomorrow, I’ll see what I can find out, and don’t forget that reward you promised me. Now get out of here. My head nurse is already asking why I am looking through Mr. Tam’s things and who I let into his room. I have to be very careful”
Angrily, Hans almost shouted, “Are you sure? You better not try to double-cross me.”
“Hey, I’m frustrated myself. I’m doing the best I can. I want that reward you promised, believe me, so I can get out of this crummy job. Do you think I want to spend the rest of my life cleaning up bedpans? Trust me; I’ll get you what you want.”
He left, angry and frustrated, but now knowing he would have to kill her and whomever she turned up that knew anything about his silver box. Trust, he thought - - - I never trust anyone except myself! As he walked down the hospital corridor he thought, I know Tam had it in the car when I ran him off the road. It must have been with his personal effects when they transferred him from that hospital in Geneva to this one. It must be in this hospital somewhere. I just hope to hell that Kat Yun can come up with something. As he walked down the hall, he unknowingly walked right past David’s room, and into the elevator, without knowing how close he was. Outside the hospital, he forced himself to remain calm until he could return to talk with Kat again.
The next day, all Miriam could do was talk quietly to a sleeping David who was hooked to all the machines the hospital could provide. He seemed to be held captive by apparatus untouched by who he was. She kept repeatedly to her comatose partner that she was there for him over and over hoping he could hear her. But there was no response at all. When she came to see him the third day, his eyes were opened, but he still seemed dazed, and only spoke a few words to her. She squeezed his hand and gently kissed him on his forehead. She told him she had decided they had to get out of Mossad. They could get married and raise a family, be happy; most of all, be safe.
“Did you go after that fucker, Miriam?” was his immediate answer.
“David, he was gone before I even knew you were shot.”
“Have you tracked him down yet?” David persisted.
“I’ve been here with you. We’ll get him when you’ve healed.”
“That may be too late. Go get him now, Miriam. Levi will get a replacement for me while I’m laid up.”
“He already has, David.”
“David, please….forget Hans and Mossad. We’re both going to be killed before we can raise a family…please.”
“Miriam, you’re just upset.”
“Yes David, I am upset. Promise me…please….”
He closed his eyes to avoid her pleas. “Miriam, I’m a little tired now…I need to rest.”
She had never seen him like this before. He did not deserve to be in a hospital bed. She felt so helpless, frustrated, and angry. Miriam began to cry.
David gently patted her hand, but kept his eyes closed.
The same scene repeated the next day, but David still would not acquiesce to her pleas to leave the Mossad.
“You have something for me Max,” Servette said, looking up from behind the pile of papers strewn on his desk.
“I hope so. I just had a call from Bruno Beinschmidt.”
“Our so-called friend in the Munich Police department?”
“The very one! Anyway, he just told me that David and Miriam were in a club in Munich and David thought he spotted Hans. David went after him and whoever it was, shot him. David is in pretty bad shape in a hospital right now.”
“That’s terrible! What do we do now? Does Levi know?”
“I’m not sure, but I would think that Miriam has been in touch with him”
“Well I might have something important for both you and Levi. One of my contacts, a policeman, was assigned to that big auction at Christie’s a couple of days ago, and he thinks maybe our killer has something to do with a huge emerald that was part of the auction.”
“What made him think that, Max?”
“Because there were two final bidders for the emerald, an Asian man, named Mr. Tam, and a rather over-dressed and garishly made up female, whose name he didn’t get. The Asian man won the emerald and both parties left the auction house, but my informant said it was obvious the lady was not a happy camper. Some later that same informant was called to a serious accident, where the Asian man’s car seemed to have been forced off the Cliff Road and he was seriously injured. A witness to the accident identified the car that ran Mr. Tam off the road as the same one the overdressed woman was driving when she left the auction house. He thinks that woman may have been a man in disguise.”
“Interesting, very interesting. If that is true, and it was Hans in disguise, I wonder why Hans wants that emerald. Maybe that’s where all that robbery money was for - - - to bid on the emerald.”
“Thanks Max. Good work! Will you continue to follow up on this, and see if Josef can find out anything from the streets? Levi might know some more about that emerald, also. I’ll check with him.”
“We’re on it, Piet.”
Hans returned to the hospital on schedule. Kat Yun said she was still checking on things. She learned that groups of patients’ personal effects were accidentally left in the hospital accounting office on the night Tam entered the hospital. There were more questions to ask, but she could not come on too strong with her queries. He would just have to wait. Seething, Hans left, again walking past David’s room.
“Levi, its Piet Servette. How are you today? I have some bad news for you, but perhaps you have already heard. Some shot David, and it may have been Hans in disguise. David is in a hospital in Munich and, evidently, will recover, but it is pretty serious. Miriam is with him and I am sure she will contact you soon with all the details. Now, have you uncovered any information on a possible connection between our psychotic killer and this emerald?”
“Glad you called, Piet. Yes, I know about David. Miriam called me from the hospital. She was hysterical at first, but true to her nature calmed down and gave me all the details. I offered to send in a replacement for David, but she asked me to wait for a day or so, but I did so anyway. Now about an emerald, according to our sources in Interpol, it seems that Hans Huber’s grandfather, who lived in Munich, once owned a huge emerald that at one time belonged to Bavarian Government. No further information at this time, but one theory centers around the fact that it seems that his grandfather may have disinherited Hans’s father. It is just possible that Hans thinks that emerald should be his and all this mayhem is revenge for the Mossad agents killing his father in Argentina in 59 or 60. Still haven’t made the total connection, in fact no one seems to know where the emerald went after Hans grandfather died. That’s about all I have, so far, but it sounds interesting. Since that auction took place in your bailiwick, perhaps you could persuade the people at Christies to tell you where their emerald came from.”
“Well, this situation is getting more and more interesting. Now we seem to have several entities after our emerald. Christies is pretty tight-lipped about their clients, but I will see if I can bend an arm or two. Thanks for your help Levi, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I known anything new both about the emerald and about David. Let’s continue to keep in touch, perhaps with this new situation, and with Miriam. I’m not sure what she plans to do now that David is laid up.”
“Will do, Levi, and thanks for your information.
Miriam continued pleading with David to marry her and get out of Mossad so they could be safe. Using the same arguments about raising a family and staying away from danger she even begged him on her knees: quit Mossad and marry her.
“That bastard will try again to kill
you as soon as you get out of the hospital. As soon as you are well enough we can sneak out of the hospital and go straight to my brother’s kibbutz, near Hebron, where you can continue your recovery and we will both be safe.”
“Miriam, will you quit it! We are not going to get married. And, I sure as hell am not going to resign from Mossad! You know me better than that. What is wrong with you?”
“David, I don’t want to lose you.”
“Well, you’re going to if you keep that up.”
“David, listen to me…”
“Miriam just leave! I’m not up to this today. And please don’t ask me again. The answer is no, and that’s final. No! Do you hear me?”
“David, you don’t mean that.”
“I do! How many times do I have to tell you? No, I will not marry you, and I will not leave Mossad! Now go, and if you ever think of bringing this subject up again, don’t come back. That’s it. Now leave, and let me get some rest.”
“David, you are not yourself right now. You’re weak and still dopey. When you feel better, you will change your mind.”
“That does it, Miriam! We’re through! Don’t come to see me again. I mean it. Never! Do you hear? No! No! No! Now get out! Goodbye!”
“David…”
“Leave!”
“David…”
David closed his eyes and refused to answer any further pleas. She sat without speaking for over an hour watching him, but when he opened his eyes, he was still angry.
“You have certainly killed what we had. Now get the hell out and stay out!”
He closed his eyes again. She continued sitting there crying quietly. Finally, she got up and left the hospital in despair. She walked like a zombie to their car, drove almost blinded by her tears to the safe house, ran in, flopped down on the bed and cried herself to sleep. The next day, when she went to see David, there was a guard at his door, and told her that David had asked him not allow her into David’s room. In a sobbing stupor, she returned home and did not get dressed for several days. She lay in the unmade bed, staring off into space, then, crying some more. She did not care anymore whether she lived or died - - - sometimes death even sounded preferable.
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