The Captive Girl

by David Nees

  “Werden Sie mich töten?” the guard asked.

  “Are you going to kill me?” Evangeline translated.

  “Not unless you make me,” Jane answered in German. “Can you walk?”

  The guard struggled to his feet in answer.

  “You and I are going to help my man outside. If you do anything I don’t like. If you try to stop or slow us down, I’ll shoot you. Help me out and you’ll save your life. Verstehen Sie?”

  The man nodded.

  Warren arrived at the office out of breath. His face pale, his eyes wide with fear or excitement.

  “Warren, you help Aebischer walk. His foot is shot as well as his shoulder. Hold him on his right side. Evangeline you lead the way. Warren and Aebischer will follow. I’ll go next with Marcus and the guard. Dan you follow. If the guard tries anything shoot him.”

  “With pleasure,” Dan said, his voice a barely audible rasp.

  “Now did you get the ledger?” Jane asked.

  “No. I was working on that when I got taken out.”

  “Can you get it out of Aebischer?”

  “It’ll take some time.”

  “Marcus can’t wait. We have to get him to a hospital, one outside of Switzerland.”

  Dan thought for a moment. “We can go. The ledger will stay in the safe.”

  “Okay, let’s go,” Jane said.

  “We can’t all get in the elevator, we’ll have to go down the stairs,” Evangeline said.

  “Lead the way,” Jane said.

  The unlikely parade of wounded made their way down the stairs, down into the basement, and into the tunnel. They emerged after some effort from the manhole cover and limped across the road. It was 2 am in the morning. Low clouds scudded along covering and uncovering the three quarters moon; the air was chilly and the breeze had a bite to it.

  Once in the van, Dan helped Jane secure the captives. Then Jane opened the emergency field kit. She took out the clotting bandages and applied them along with disinfectant, first to Marcus’ wounds and then to Aebischer and the guard.

  “Time to go,” she said. She maneuvered the van back on the road and down the hill, heading back to the airport parking area.

  Chapter 42

  ___________________________________

  T he van stopped at the airport parking lot. It was 3:00 am. They worked without lights, not wanting to attract any attention from airport security.

  “Can you drive?” Jane asked Dan.

  “Yeah. I hurt but I can drive. Let’s put Marcus in my car. He can be ‘asleep’ in the back seat when we drive through the border control. It should just be a slow pass through. They don’t even need to look for the vignette since we’re leaving Switzerland.”

  “Good. I’ll drive the van. We’ll put the guard in your trunk,” she said to Dan. “Warren you take the other car. We’ll put Aebischer in your trunk.”

  “He won’t get loose will he?” Warren asked.

  “No.” Jane replied. “It locks from the outside. We’ll caravan. No one will know the vehicles are connected,” Jane said.

  The sky was thickening; the moon was becoming hidden behind an increasing cloud cover. The night was getting darker which suited Dan just fine. The three vehicles pulled out.

  They headed towards the city and connected to the expressway going around the top of Zürich. They stayed on the toll roads, making connections as they headed south to Lugano. They were headed to Como where they would cross into Italy, an hour from Milan. Jane called ahead to alert the consulate office about Marcus’s condition.

  Then she called Henry. It was 10:30 pm back in Washington.

  “We have the goods. You’ll need to send a cleanup team to Zürich. There’s collateral damage to remove.”

  “Anyone on the team hurt?” Henry asked.

  “Marcus. We’re going to have to get him to a hospital. It could be touch and go with him.”

  “Dan?”

  “He’s beat up but otherwise okay. You have the address of the mansion. I wouldn’t wait too long.”

  “I’ll have a team from Germany in there in the morning. How many bodies?”

  Jane took a quick mental count. “Six or more.”

  “This wasn’t supposed to be an all-out gunfight.”

  “It couldn’t be helped, believe me. Just get the place cleaned up. And Henry, send in a locksmith. There’s a safe in the office that we need opened. It has the ledger in it.”

  Evangeline climbed into the back seat and helped Marcus drink some water. Dan watched in his mirror. She was attentive, checking to see that his bleeding hadn’t started again. She tried to make him as comfortable as she could, until Dan suggested that she climb back up front and just let him rest.

  They crossed at 6:30 am, just before the sun came up. An hour later they were entering the consulate grounds. The physician checked Marcus and said they had to take him to the hospital. James Springhouse called one of his contacts in the Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna or AISE. He assured the man that the U.S. was not conducting any covert actions on Italian soil but one of his investigators, working on uncovering a gun smuggling operation in France, was ambushed and shot. The story had been worked out by both Jane and James. The embassy doctor worked on Aebischer whose wounds were not life threatening.

  With Marcus in good hands, the team headed back to the safe house. After putting Aebischer and the guard in separate, locked rooms, Jane, Dan, Warren, Roland, and Evangeline sat down. Jane poured everyone a double shot of whiskey, even Evangeline.

  “Marcus going to be all right?” Warren asked.

  “We’ll know more in the morning. It’s best we leave things in the embassy’s hands at this point. I don’t want to get on AISE’s radar, and Dan certainly can’t.” Jane continued as they sat in the living room.

  “Do we go back? We don’t have the ledger.” Roland said.

  “Henry will take care of it with the cleanup crew,” Jane said.

  “Aebischer says it’s all in his head, and he might be right,” Dan said.

  Jane took a sip of her whiskey. “Or he could be trying to convince us to keep him alive…for the information. He’d probably dole it out slowly in any case.”

  “He could decode it on a similarly slow rate. He doesn’t know we have Pietro, who may or may not be lying about his ability to decode the book. In any case, I agree that Aebischer will want to make a case for us needing him.”

  “Along with Pietro,” Jane said.

  Evangeline was silent through much of the conversation. She barely sipped her whiskey. Warren watched her intently. She noticed his focus and smiled at him.

  “Fred,” Jane turned to her researcher who had stayed behind, “How’s our friend Pietro doing?”

  “He complains about the accommodations and keeps telling me how important he is going to be to our operation.”

  “But he doesn’t know what that is,” Jane said.

  “Yeah, but he’s sure it has something to do with terrorists and he’ll be key to unlocking the ledger. He’s a bit of a bore, frankly.”

  “Boring’s good sometimes,” Warren said.

  He went on to describe the operation and spoke glowingly of Evangeline’s role in turning the tables on a desperate situation. The girl blushed at Warren’s effusive comments. Dan could tell he was smitten by her.

  “She arrived at the right time, that’s for sure,” Dan said. “If Aebischer had gotten me in the elevator before Jane got upstairs, things would not have worked out so well.”

  “I didn’t know I could do that,” Evangeline said. She looked at Dan. “But seeing you, and remembering what you and Jane told me about shooting…it all happened so fast—”

  “The important thing is that you did the right thing,” Jane said.

  “I’ve never shot a gun before. It’s odd, but it doesn’t scare me. And I don’t feel bad about shooting the guard or my father.”

  “He would have hurt you to save himself,” Dan said.

 
; “I know that. I know what he’s done, what he’s capable of still doing.” She looked back and forth between Jane and Dan. “What will you do with him? Will you kill him?”

  There was silence in the room. Finally Dan spoke.

  “He deserves that, from what he did to your mother and what he’s done with his funding work for terrorists and criminals.” He shook his head. “I just don’t know at this point.”

  “Let’s all sleep on it. We’ve been up all last night. Let’s talk later this afternoon,” Jane said.

  As the team started to leave, Jane signaled Dan to wait behind. Evangeline caught the sign and held back but Dan told her to go and get some rest.

  “We not only have to go through the ledger,” Jane said, “But we have to deal with the pending terror threat. That’s got to be the first priority. We have to find a way to interrupt that operation. Later we can dig for all of Aebischer’s information about who the groups are and how the money flows.”

  “I can do that if you let me get rough with him. He knows I’d like to kill him. I already told him that I would cripple him to get him to talk.”

  “Does he think we’d hold you back?”

  Dan shook his head. “I told him that you would arrange for him to be worked over for as long as it took to get the information we need.”

  “Is there any way we can do this without getting too brutal?”

  Dan looked at Jane. “You don’t want to go there?”

  “Not if there’s another way.”

  Dan studied the carpet for some moments.

  “Here’s what I’d like to do. I have an interest in Evangeline. I rescued her, got her to tell me her story. She’s gotten to me. We’ve got a connection between us and I feel responsible to make sure things come out well for her.” He shifted in his seat as if coming to a conclusion. “It helps balance the ledger for me.”

  “You have a crush on her? I can see she has one on you.”

  “It’s not that,” Dan shook his head. “I feel affection, for sure, but there’s something more. I need to make sure that this ends well for her.”

  “Your soft spot…for women and children.”

  “If you say so. I’ll deny it all.”

  He got up and grabbed Jane’s glass.

  “Another round?”

  Chapter 43

  ___________________________________

  T he next morning Dan went into the room where Aebischer was being kept. The man was lying on a mattress on the floor. He struggled to sit up when he saw Dan. He looked wary. His arm was in a sling and his foot was bandaged and in a soft cast.

  Dan sat on a chair facing him.

  “The doctor says your shoulder will heal. You’ll have some limited motion but the joint will work.” He spoke in German. “The foot is going to be more of a problem. It will heal but you will have a permanent limp.”

  Aebischer looked nervously at Dan. He had been given some relief from the pain. Dan knew that had worn off by now and guessed Aebischer didn’t want him to inflict more.

  “You know that I’d like nothing more than to take you out and execute you. Leave you in the foothills to be eaten by the wild boars, never to be found. It’s what you deserve. Your career is over. The only thing for you to decide is how it ends.”

  He leaned forward towards the man. Aebischer couldn’t help himself. He flinched, leaning back from the intensity that Dan knew was on his face.

  “Against my strong objections there is a scenario where you may get to live, not as a free man, but one alive instead of dead. Are you interested in hearing it, or do you want me to carry out my sentence?”

  “They wouldn’t let you just execute me. I’m too valuable.”

  Dan smiled. “Are you willing to bet your life on it?” He could see the doubt on Aebischer’s face.

  “What do you want?”

  “Two things. First you will sign a document declaring that you’ve decided to retire and go into seclusion and you are turning over all your assets to your daughter, Evangeline. She is going to take over all the wealth you’ve accumulated, the money, the hard assets, the real estate—all of it. Second, you’re going to tell me everything you know about the upcoming terrorist operation. Who the groups are, where they are, what they’re planning. They won’t get their funding, but I want more than that. I want to stop them from trying something now and you’re going to help me do that.”

  “I don’t—”

  Dan put his finger to his lips. “Don’t speak yet. If I don’t like the information you give me, if I don’t think it’s honest or helpful enough, I’ll execute you like I described. So weigh what you tell me carefully.”

  Aebischer swallowed. He spoke carefully. “I have much of what you’re asking, but not all of it. I made a point of knowing enough to understand my exposure, but not enough to be complicit.”

  “You are complicit. You’re just fooling yourself. But we’re going to start with your declaration. I will have someone from our legal department come over and draw it up. It will be notarized and witnessed, all very legal. And, it will be done today. We don’t have much time.”

  “Why should I turn over everything I’ve worked for, everything I’ve accumulated? Will you leave me destitute? I’m a man of substance, a man of means,” he continued. “What right do you have to do this?” His face grew red and a look of rage replaced the one of caution. “I worked hard. I was thorough in doing my job, that’s why I got wealthy. So what if some of my work enabled terrorists? They were only working against the Jews who are trying to control the world’s finances. They were a blot on our European cultures, even before the war and it hasn’t gotten any better.”

  His voice rose as his rant increased. Dan sat there watching the hate spew out of his mouth.

  “Don’t try to sound so virtuous. You abused your elder daughter, had a daughter by her, killed her, and then were going to start abusing the younger daughter.” Dan spit on the floor. “You disgust me.”

  “What do you know? I wanted to keep my blood line pure. Not let my daughter couple with some low bred scum. It’s better to keep it in the family.”

  Dan only shook his head. The man was not sane. No one would penetrate his rationalizations for what he had done.

  “None of that matters now and I don’t want to hear you try to justify your disgusting actions. You ruined two lives, maybe three. Who knows what happened to your wife. Right now you need to understand that your old life is over. It’s gone. Your wealth is gone. You will never see or touch it again. But if you cooperate to my satisfaction, you may keep your life.”

  Dan stood up. “Here’s a chance to do right by Evangeline. You will never touch your wealth and so you have to leave it to her. Do that and you take one step to keeping your life.”

  Aebischer looked up at Dan. There was a calculating tone in his voice.

  “You guarantee you will not kill me if I do what you ask?”

  Dan shook his head. “No guarantees. But you avoid a sure bet I will kill you. It’s a step in saving your sorry ass.”

  Aebischer looked long and hard at Dan. There was no softness, no give in Dan’s expression. He looked at Aebischer like something to be eliminated, disposed of. The man finally sighed and nodded in assent.

  The embassy sent over a lawyer who only knew that a Swiss banker wanted to help the CIA and needed to turn over all his assets to his daughter since he was going to disappear into the U.S. protection system. The document spelled out numerous bank accounts. The real estate consisted of the Zurich mansion, a villa in Locarno on Lago Maggiore, an ancient townhouse in Florence, and a ski lodge in Zermatt with a view of the Matterhorn. The luxury yacht, Nordstar, was included in the document. Catchall phrases, “including, but not limited to…” were put into all the listings since no one wanted to leave any items in doubt.

  When it was done the attorney left. Dan and Jane were given a copy to read, yet unsigned.

  “I can hardly believe you got this. Evangeline is now a very
wealthy woman,” Jane said after reading through the document.

  “Probably three to five hundred million dollars.”

  “Can she handle all of that?”

  Dan smiled. “I don’t know. What I do know is that Warren would like to help her. Did you notice him? He’s in love.”

  “A man’s fantasy. An angel with a hot body who fights like a tiger.”

  “Maybe not every man’s fantasy.”

  “She’s the perfect waif, and the perfect temptress. I know about these things.”

  “You do?” Dan leaned over to her and whispered into her ear. “Are you one of those?”

  Jane laughed and shoved him away. “You know better than that.” She flexed her biceps. “This is not waif material.” Then she turned serious. “She’s in love with you. And now she’s worth millions of dollars. Is this where you get off the train?”

  Dan looked thoughtful. He suspected an ulterior motive in Jane’s question. “It could be enticing, but I’m not ready to get off yet. I still feel like this is my calling for the present. Besides she only thinks she’s in love because I was the first man to really help her, not try to take advantage of her.”

  “I don’t know. She’s a powerful combination, especially now with all that money.”

  “Well, we’ll just have to help her stay on an even path, won’t we?”

  Jane changed the subject.

  “What about point number two?”

  “We get this signed and then we’ll get what he knows out of him. I want you to help me debrief him. When this is signed,” Dan waived the document, “he’s close to being irrelevant. We can get into the safe and we have Pietro.”

  “Who may or may not know anything about the codes.”

  “It will help pressure Aebischer.”

  Two notaries were called to the house, one Italian, one from the U.S. embassy, along with several witnesses, all part of the embassy staff. They watched Aebischer sign four copies of the document and attached their signatures to it as well. When the papers were signed and sealed, they left with no knowledge of what was going on beyond what they witnessed.