Her fear had subsided somewhat and her prevalent emotion was now one of anger. She also felt incredibly bored and needed to occupy her mind but then, an idea suddenly came to her. Since escape was not really an option just yet, she decided to switch on the television to try to find a local news station that would indicate where she was. Excitedly flicking through the channels, all she found was a blue screen indicating a lack of signal. She was out of luck; her jailers had pre-empted the possibility of using the television to fix her location and had disconnected all of the channels, leaving her only with the option of watching one of the numerous films stored on the media centre.
Gertrude forcefully jabbed the power button on the front of the TV and then threw the remote control at the bed in frustration, hitting the wall above it and causing a spray of plastic parts as it came apart and fell onto the pillows in pieces. She really was trapped in a gilded cage.
Frans Sprenger wheeled the small trolley along the corridor that led to Gertrude Verker's room and nodded at the guard placed just outside of the door. He grinned widely.
'How is our young friend?'
The guard turned to a flat-screen monitor next to him and harrumphed.
'She is quiet now, sitting on the sofa but she threw the television remote control at the wall a while ago. I think that she may be bored.'
'I don't blame her,' said Frans pursing his lips and knocking softly on the door, 'stuck in there with nothing to do. That is why I have brought her some entertainment!'
He grinned again and pointed to the bottom tier of the trolley.
The guard rolled his eyes and then stood up to unlock the door, swinging it open to let Frans pass.
At the sound of the light rap on the door, Gertrude looked up from the fashion magazine that she had been skimming through; she had discovered it at the bottom of the television cabinet and it was up to date but clearly purchased in The Netherlands and so gave her no further clue as to her whereabouts. The door swung open and the man from the van wandered in, whistling a jaunty tune and pushing a small trolley before him.
'Good day to you Miss Verker. I hope that you slept well and enjoyed your breakfast?'
Gertrude flipped the magazine closed and lobbed it onto the sofa next to her.
'Where am I? What is this place? Who are you?'
Frans smiled.
'I cannot tell you where you are, but I will say that you are in a very secure location, kind of like a castle; a traditional sort of place to be imprisoned, eh?' He chortled at his own attempt to lighten the mood.
Gertrude scowled.
'A castle? Just like in a fairy tale? Then you must be the ogre keeping me captive?' she sneered sarcastically. 'No, you are too small to be an ogre; you must be an evil dwarf or goblin. Is your name Rumpelstiltskin?'
Frans laughed impishly in spite of the baleful glare that she fixed him with.
'I have been called many things in my time Miss Verker but that is probably one of the least offensive! I must watch out just in case a valiant Prince comes to rescue you.'
Gertrude fumed at the dismissive response.
'Except that this isn't a fairy tale,' she snarled, 'and I am not the fair maiden locked up by the evil dwarf. I am just an innocent woman caught up in your criminal activities. It won't be Prince Charming that breaks down the door but the police and you will be arrested and go to prison for a long time for kidnapping me!'
'Kidnap?' Frans was taken aback. 'That would imply that we are asking for a ransom. No such demand has been made.'
She stopped for a moment, suddenly considering that she had been abducted to be forced into a prostitution ring or something worse.
'What do you want from me? There is no way I will be drugged up and used as a sex slave!'
Frans looked aghast.
'What? No, nothing like that will happen to you! You have entirely the wrong idea.'
'Then what can you want me for? Just let me go, take me back to The Hague and drop me off anywhere. I cannot tell the police anything, I don't even know where I am. Is this to do with the book? I cannot get it back for you, it is too late, the Americans have it now, they came to my flat and took it away. You must believe me? Why keep me here?'
Frans nodded slowly.
'Why keep you here? Well, for one thing, you know what I look like, but that is not the reason. I could produce ten witnesses that would swear I was in a different place for the entire time, maybe even in a different country; I could even produce the documentation that proved it. As for the book, you need not worry about that any more; you're not here because we want it back.'
He tried to adopt a conciliatory tone to placate her.
'Look, I have said before, we just need to keep you here for a week or so and then you will be freed. No harm will come to you I promise. You will be well fed and cared for, we will even get any special food in that you would like. We want you to be comfortable, although I realise that it is not the best of circumstances.'
Frans looked around the room and saw the broken pieces of the television remote control. He stiffened slightly and an angry frown appeared upon his face, he spoke sternly.
'You must not do that sort of thing though, there will be consequences -'
Gertrude paused for a moment before jutting her jaw out in defiance.
'- and what will you do?'
He suddenly grinned widely and pointed at her, dispensing with the faux anger that he had adopted.
'Not me! It is you that will have to get up off the sofa to switch the television on and off!'
Snickering mischievously, he then smiled again but Gertrude just shook her head incredulously.
'Come along now Miss Verker, I have brought you some books to read to pass the time. I thought that you might appreciate them if you are not so keen on watching films.'
He bent down and started to retrieve some hardback novels and smaller paperbacks, laying them onto the foot of the bed.
'See, we have numerous books here, a couple of Spanish authors translated into English but you speak the language very well I believe. Some more magazines, all in Dutch, even some history books. You should be able to find something to pass the time. There is music and lots of films on the media centre; you should be able to occupy yourself. If there is anything special that you want, just let me know.'
Gertrude just looked at him.
'I don't want your books, I want you to let me go!'
Frans moved toward the coffee table and started picking up the trays from the breakfast meal, clearing the space and cleaning up.
'It won't be long, I promise.'
The crockery and cutlery clinked and chinked as he loaded it onto the trolley and started to pull it backward out of the room.
'Be careful with that broken plastic on the bed, I suggest that you put the pieces in the waste bin, you wouldn't want to go to sleep laying on that, you might end up pricking your finger on a sliver of plastic and sleeping for a hundred years!'
Gertrude sneered sullenly and simply looked down at the remaining flask of coffee on the table as she heard the door being pulled shut and locked up.
Chapter XVIII
Vanity Fair
Jolene brusquely marched along the austere corridor leading from the office of Lieutenant Colonel Peterson of the 24th Military Intelligence Battalion based at Wiesbaden Army Garrison. The CO had given her a hard time and not just with her request for a secure office reserved specifically for her use, even though Kappel had previously indicated that he had cleared the way to get all the resources that she needed.
She knew that the CO had been deliberately obtuse, fully intending to accommodate her petition although obstinately questioning every aspect of the request. He had been particularly vehement in demanding to know why a Staff Sergeant in the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group had requisitioned a whole range of firepower from the armoury inventory, but she had foreclosed every question with a referral to the classified nature of their mission. Kappel's authorisation wa
s unimpeachable, but even so, the CO had made it perfectly clear that any fall-out from their operation would most definitely settle directly at her door.
Jolene reached the door to the office she had been assigned and punched in the secure code on the small metallic number pad for the electronic lock. A solenoid clicked and she pushed her way through, pausing to then enter the required number sequence to change the entry code; as far as she was concerned, the office was now out of bounds to all but her own team. Just as she had finished entering the new code and satisfying herself that it worked, Sergeant Stanley marched into the corridor with her requisitioned laptop tucked under his arm.
'Ahh, Sergeant,' she said looking up, 'good, I'm glad you're here. I want to go through the details of our two suspects and the spoof that you've obtained for me.'
'Yes Ma'am,' he replied flatly, following her into the office and closing the door behind him.
'So, what do we know?' she said, pulling out a chair from under the central desk and seating herself.
Stanley followed her lead and settled himself in, chugging the chair forward to get tighter into the table.
'A Rey Faber and Kate Akosua, identified by Langley through immigration details -'
He plugged in and booted up the laptop, speaking as it loaded and connected to the secure network.
'They're not on any watch lists and as far as we can tell and have never come to the attention of any friendly intelligence services.'
Stanley slid an identification card into the reader at the side of the laptop and entered his personal security code, quickly accessing the details that had been sent through earlier. He clicked on a file and a picture of a man appeared; the portrait looked more like a mugshot on the FBI's 'Most Wanted' web page than a flattering depiction of the sitter taken for a passport.
'Rey Faber, British national, born 1968, forty-one years of age - he was a Captain in the British commando battalion - he left in 1997 - he has been a freelance IT consultant ever since and primarily works through a company called Open-EZ which operates from offices in the US and UK.'
Jolene stared at the picture and noted the heavy brow that cast a shadow over dark brown eyes, the jaw slightly clenched and the shaven head, the whole expression exuding aggression and hinting at malice.
Stanley ran his middle finger over the touch-pad of the laptop and clicked the selection buttons a couple of times, bringing up a picture of an attractive black woman.
'Kate Akosua - a Ghanaian national by birth, born in 1981 and now twenty-nine years of age - she was emigrated to England as a baby, apparently as an orphan just after the Jerry Rawlins coup in 1981 - adopted by English parents, both now deceased - eventually trained as a nurse - she also currently works in IT as a freelance project administrator and works for the same company as Faber, Open-EZ in the UK. What do you think?'
Stanley looked at Jolene as she squinted at the screen.
'This is perfect, the RFID that we traced? That was part of a shipment of radio tracking equipment purchased by Open-EZ for use in their supply chain and warehousing solutions. We have Faber and Akosua working for the company that bought the chips, the book had one of those chips in it, Faber and Akosua are identified as the people responsible for abducting Gertrude Verker who was in possession of the book. The book is connected to the Sun of the Sleepless and this pair is in it up to their necks.'
She thought for a moment.
'Kappel has alerted British Intelligence, I say we take out the Open-EZ offices as soon as possible, get them to round up all the employees. This connection could go a lot deeper, I want a full forensic sweep of everything Open-EZ has ever done; we need to seize all of their computer servers. In fact, get Dale in here right now, I want a final confirmation of identity and then we can request Kappel to organise a raid with the British.'
Stanley leaned back and withdrew a phone, punching in the number for Dale Mallory and then waiting for a response as the line purred in his ear. He looked across and saw that Jolene was smiling; he could feel the sense of satisfaction emanating from her.
She saw his look and quickly drew a wide grin.
'This is exactly the link I was hoping for Sergeant, it is all coming together.'
After wandering over to the 24th MI Battalion HQ and finally locating their new office, Dale sat staring at the laptop screen and concentrated on the photographs of the two suspects. Jolene loomed over him, frowning and wondering why it was taking so long to confirm their identity.
'Well?' she abruptly enquired.
Dale mused over the images a bit longer.
'Yeah, I am sure that is him and as for her, definitely. She had bleached blonde hair but I'd recognise her face anywhere.'
He moved closer to the screen, scrolling the contents as he read the details.
'That's interesting,' he suddenly said.
'What?' Jolene enquired suspiciously.
'The Akosua woman was adopted.'
'- and?'
'Well, Paula Krom said that all of the Vril Society Sisterhood girls were orphans.'
'So?'
'Well, I just thought that it was interesting.'
'Interesting?' Jolene paused and then crossed her arms. 'We already have enough information to link these suspects to the Sun of the Sleepless, so, could you be more specific? Have we missed something?'
Dale looked to Stanley and then back at Jolene.
'Well, it just seems like a connection, you know, this Akosua woman is an orphan and all of the Vril girls recruited by the Sun of the Sleepless during the war were orphans, it just seems relevant.'
'Perhaps you're thinking that there is some kind of adoption racket going on?' she asked, entirely derisively.
'I didn't say this was about human trafficking, I just -'
Jolene interrupted him.
'Alright, I get your point; let's just concentrate on the facts - you've been spending too much time with Jackson.'
Turning around from the screen, Dale crossed his arms in a defensive posture.
'So what now? Do we know where they are? Are we going to pick them up?'
His questions were clearly barbed and aimed to point out that just because they had identified their suspects, it did not bring them any closer to detaining them.
Ignoring the condescending tone, Jolene stared at him and continued.
'The Deputy Director will confirm with the British authorities that we want a raid on the Open-EZ premises and all of the employees rounded up. Clearly, we'll do the same thing in the US but it seems likely that they were using the UK as a base of operations.'
'What about Gertrude Verker?' Dale queried.
'What about her?'
'Well, we've done nothing to track her down, have we? We don't know where Faber and Akosua are, they could be anywhere and just because we know who they are it doesn't bring us any closer to capturing them. In the mean time, Gertrude could be chained to a cellar wall sitting on a piss soaked mattress for all we know. We should be doing more to look for her. Her only hope is the Dutch police and we're not even helping them.'
Jolene's lips puckered as if she had just swallowed a mouthful of particularly tart lemon juice.
'Actually, the Dutch police have been pulled off the search for Gertrude and contrary to your opinion, by identifying Rey Faber and Kate Akosua we are a step closer to being able to locate and capture them. The rest should be obvious.'
'Jesus wept!' Dale exclaimed exasperatedly. 'Why did we call the police off? Now that we know who we are looking for we could put it out as a simple kidnapping and get some input from the public, somebody might recognise them. We're wasting time and Gertrude shouldn't be caught up in this, waiting for us to quietly find her kidnappers. The Dutch already had a lead on the vehicles that she was taken away in, we could have let them track it to where she was taken and they could have found our terrorists for us! Even we could have done that, once the Agency knew there was a connection we could have had a satellite covering the whole region.'
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A snort chugged from Jolene's nose.
'You think that we have satellites floating around doing nothing? We needed further evidence, proof that there was a connection. You sat through Jackson's presentations, everything we found was conjecture and guesswork, besides, if we'd let the police follow up they would have eventually barged in as if it were a simple abduction. There is more at stake here. We couldn't afford for the Dutch police to locate her and in the process, scare off the group not only responsible for taking her but also for the threat against our nation, or have you forgotten about that again? For all I knew, any bungled police action could have precipitated retaliation and I just couldn't take that risk!'
Dale was incredulous and muttered to himself as he considered the games that were played in the name of national security.
'Anyway,' continued Jolene, 'if they had wanted her dead then they would have killed her back at her apartment. They even let you live didn't they?'
Dale rubbed his jaw in remembrance of the kick delivered by Akosua that had knocked him unconscious.
'They're not going to kill her so let's just concentrate on finding Faber and Akosua.'
'This is completely crazy,' Dale muttered dourly, 'we shouldn't have to wait to find Faber and Akosua before we follow up the lead on Gertrude. Crazy.'
Jolene's reply was spoken in an icy tone.
'Get it through your head Officer Mallory, Gertrude is secondary to our mission. We need to find and secure our targets. Using the Dutch police to locate her would compromise our primary objective. We will find her when it is appropriate to do so. In the mean time, I am positive that she will be kept alive even if she is uncomfortable for a while.'
An awkward silence followed and was only broken when the phone in the room suddenly started ringing. Jolene and Dale stood staring at each other as the loudly warbling couplet cycled a few times more, eventually prompting Sergeant Stanley to reach over and briskly lift the receiver to his ear and listen.
Sun of the Sleepless Page 35