by Peche, Alec
Dubois and Willems took the opportunity to catch up on their email, as did Nick and Henrik. Both managed their own companies, although Henrik’s company had a much larger scope in the computer security area while Nick’s was more focused on his staff at the various hotels and the processes they followed to ensure the safety of the hotel guests. They both had common ground in security, but they had little overlap in their focus and nicely complemented each other’s strengths.
Angela and Marie had left and Nick, Jo, and Jill were about to step outside when Henrik got a call from his security people. He quickly had his three guests step back inside the home.
Chapter 20
“I’ve just received an alert from my men about an intruder,” Henrik said urgently. “As you know, I operate a software company, among other things, and so I have a server farm located on this property. Because of the need to secure that server farm, I have extraordinary security. I explain this as the farm was only added about five years ago, several years after Laura broke into this home. I won’t waste time telling you about all of the technology and staff that guard the farm and, indirectly, this house.
“When the car carrying Angela and Marie left the gate, an intruder stealthily entered before the gate closed. My men are transmitting the video feed of this person to my computer in this room.” Henrik clicked on a few computer keys and suddenly they could see a person in all black steadily progressing across the estate.
“Can you zoom in on the face?” asked Willems. “Is there just one man?”
“The face is covered up and there just seems to be one intruder,” replied Henrik as they stood watching the screen. “The question is whether the intruder is here for the server farm or for this house.”
They watched for a few more moments. “There, we likely have our answer,” said Henrik, pointing to the screen. “The person should have made a turn on the property if they wanted to find the server farm.”
“Henrik, are your men armed?” asked Willems.
“No. But I like to experiment with various security measures, so we’ll see if any of them work.” Henrik was rubbing his hands together and had the appearance of a man relishing a forthcoming battle of wits.
Jill couldn’t resist asking, “What is your estimate of when this man will reach the house at his current pace?”
“If this man makes it through all of my challenges, it will take about seven minutes. He is approaching the first challenge in about a minute.”
After a slight pause, Henrik said, “Damn, he beat me on the first challenge.” He had the energy of someone watching a soccer match. “He must have spotted the trip wire and hopped over it. Let’s see if he misses the next four wires.”
“Wow, you have five trip wires,” said Jill admiringly. “I feel lucky to have survived our walk this morning.”
“I have five course obstacles and many more trip wires to engage those obstacles. I had the wires turned off for you. I figured I would be a bad host if I allowed you to be strung up in a tree.”
“Is that what is going to happen to him if he misses seeing a wire?” asked Dubois. Both he and Willems had taken guns out of their holsters and were loading their chambers while watching the screen.
“That is one of several surprises. He should trigger the second obstacle now.”
Viewing the screen, which had no audio feed, they watched as the man seemed to have heard a sound and squatted, aiming a gun in a shooters’ stance. Dummies dressed in camouflage dropped from the trees around the man. He took a step forward to fire and stepped on a hidden net, which sprang over him, leaving him covered with its webbed netting. The net was designed to get caught on as many protrusions as possible and it caught the man’s waist holster, his fingers, and it even was sticking to the knit stocking covering his face. Jill couldn’t help but clap and gave Jo a high five. She would have offered the same gesture to the men, but she wasn’t sure it was in the culture of Europe to high-five each other.
The man took a knife out of his pants pocket, got free of the net, and starting moving forward again.
“Wow, I would have given up and tried to leave this property,” commented Jo. “It wouldn’t take more than that experience to tell me I wasn’t wanted here.”
“You, my friend, wouldn’t make a very good criminal.”
Henrik was back at the screen clenching his fists and shifting back and forth in an excited fashion. “Here comes the next opportunity.”
This time they watched as the man seemingly sunk into something.
“I have several quicksand bogs that I keep covered when there is no security risk, so that animals don’t get trapped in it. When we caught him on camera, the covers on the bogs were removed automatically. Let’s see if he knows his physics lessons on how to get out.”
“Should we just send Inspector Willems and Officer Dubois over to arrest him?” suggested Jill.
“No, as I don’t want to disengage my security and they would be at risk for some of the traps I have laid. I know where all the traps are laid out there, yet I would have a hard time negotiating the path. If the man doesn’t figure out in twenty minutes how to get out of the bog, then it’s game over and they can go arrest him, but some of my other surprises should leave the man more disabled than he is at the moment.”
They watched the man struggle some more. When it was clear that the man was tiring or getting cold since the quicksand was likely in the fifty-degree range, the struggle slowed. Finally the physics kicked in and the man either remembered or recognized that slow movements were the way out. After another five minutes, he had crawled out of the bog.
He sat winded on the ground, examining it for a safe place to sit and undo his boots to get the muck out of them. He was lucky they laced up his calves; otherwise, the bog would have kept his shoes.
Again Jill thought, Give it up and go home, but the man stood up and continued on his path toward the house.
“Henrik, what else do you have planned for our unwelcome guest?” asked Nick, who was clearly in the same entertainment zone as Henrik.
“Have patience, my friend, and wait and see.”
Then they saw the next obstacle that Henrik had rigged. He had seemingly heavy vine overgrowth in this part of the forest that surrounded the house. The vines were an extremely convincing fake of the real foliage. These vines were special, though: they were rigged with electricity, so each time the man tried to move a vine out of the way he got a few jolts. After taking a few shocks, he pulled something out of his waist holster and used it to slide the vines away. It reduced the man’s shocks but he couldn’t completely avoid the vines and continued to get shocked on camera.
“You know, Henrik, I have a few enemies that I would love to let loose in your obstacle course,” commented Nick with a huge grin. “Do you rent it out?”
“A lot of what you have seen in my obstacle course is computer-generated, a creative side effort of my programming staff. I probably shouldn’t be showing this to Dubois and Willems as perhaps it is not entirely legal to shock people.”
“Actually, I partially agree with Nick’s comment,” said Willems. “This might serve as a good course to train our special forces on will you rent it out to law enforcement? As to shocking people, I’ll just plead ignorance of German laws.”
“That might be a win-win for both of us. My company can learn how to make it more difficult, and your men can learn how to conquer it.”
After this little side conversation, they again focused on the screen. The man cleared the forest and they could see him at nearly two hundred yards away, heading for the house.
“Gentlemen, what are we going to do now that he has cleared the course and is getting closer to the house?” asked Jill, amused by the men’s behavior yet cognizant of the seriousness of an assailant coming for them.
“Who said he cleared the course? I believe I have one more obstacle up my sleeve, if he takes the bait I have planted.”
Sure enough, about a minute later, t
he finale of Henrik’s obstacle course was reached. The man had been zigzagging from tree to tree, getting closer to the house, when he hit Henrik’s last trap. One moment he was moving with stealth from tree to tree, and the next he was hanging upside down from one of the tree branches.
“Henrik, we definitely need to rent this course from you,” said Willems. “
“Do you think the man is armed?” asked Jo. “How will you get close enough to cut him down and arrest him without being hit by some weapon?”
“My team discussed that exact problem. If the person caught upside down had access to a gun, knife, or even pepper spray they could do damage to someone approaching. Shooting upside down is surprisingly difficult, but I wouldn’t want to place anyone’s life at risk.”
“How did your team solve this problem?”
“Nickelodeon,” replied Henrik.
“You have Nickelodeon in Germany?” asked Jo, surprised.
“What is Nickelodeon?” asked Dubois and Willems, their voices in unison.
Jill and Jo thought they knew what was coming: green slime. Seconds later, they saw they were correct.
Henrik explained, “The pulley that arranges our stranger so also has a bucket of green slime that oozes down the person. It makes it impossible to get a grip on any weapon. My goals in this course were to stop an intruder, not harm them or the environment in doing so, and allow me to be entertained through the whole process.”
Nick clapped Henrik on the back and said, “You did a great job achieving all of those goals. Let’s go meet him.”
Jill said to Jo, “Angela and Marie missed a great show. Maybe Henrik taped it and we can watch it again when they return.”
The four men went outside to get the intruder out of the tree. Henrik had placed a call to the German police and their ETA was about ten minutes. There would be many explanations required when they arrived, as they would want to know why the Belgian police and Interpol, who were out of their jurisdiction, were present at the German estate.
Jill wanted to know how someone had followed them here, and asked that question of Jo.
“Good question, Jill. We would not have been here unless we were kidnapped. Someone had to know precisely where we were located to attack this estate. I am starting to get this covert business and I would suggest that one or more of us has a transmitter planted in our purses or in our possessions.”
“My thoughts exactly; let’s ask Henrik if he has any technology that senses trackers rather than doing a manual search of our stuff,” suggested Jill. “It looks like the intruder is on the ground and handcuffed. Let’s go and see if, by chance, we recognize him, and ask Henrik our question.”
They ventured outside to look at the person that was face-down on the ground. Henrik and Nick were standing over someone with long hair, while both Willems and Dubois were on their cellphones. When Jill and Jo got closer, they saw why.
Now that the ski mask was removed, they could see it was Jessica Rathbone, aka Mary Smith. This would be the arrest of the decade, perhaps of the careers, of the two law-enforcement officers. In the distance they could hear the siren of an approaching German police car. Things were about to get messier, and Jill wished that Angela was here to question Jessica.
They decided it was best to leave Jessica where she was until the German police arrived. Given the green slime all over her, she would make a mess out of whoever had to take her away to prison. In the meantime, the woman was beginning to shiver from the time spent in the bog and the cold green slime.
Jill motioned Henrik aside and asked him if he had a tracker sensor. He quickly arranged for one of his security people to assist Jill and Jo in looking for a tracking device. Jessica might confess that she had followed a tracker, but there were so many more major questions to ask her. Jill would rather just get the question answered with technology instead. Shortly thereafter, with the assistance of Henrik’s man, they discovered sensors in two suitcases, Jo’s purse, and in Nick’s luggage.
Marie and Angela arrived back at the estate with new passports, amazed at what they had missed. Nick had replayed the video for them, and with the knowledge that the intruder was in custody, they could fully enjoy Henrik’s obstacle course. They even watched it a second time just to enjoy the green slime at the end.
Angela took the lead on compiling a list of questions they wanted Jessica to be asked by her interrogators. There would be a fight as to which country would prosecute her, but the odds were on South Africa, where she had killed so many nursing-home residents. Before she was extradited, she divulged everything. She might in the future be labeled criminally insane since she was so proud of her work. In that pride, she bragged about each death, describing how good she had felt when she sat Laura up, and gazed into Chloe’s eyes as she choked her to death.
Jessica was so thrilled to have an audience to boast about her killing skills to that it was difficult to divert her to other topics, like money, the relationship with the other consortium members, Charles Taylor, and Williams. Much to Henrik’s relief, Jessica revealed that she put one million euros into Chloe’s bank account, hoping to drive an ax between Laura and Chloe. When Chloe had told Laura what Jessica was trying to do, Laura sent word back through the consortium to Jessica to get out of their lives. Henrik was happy that he not misjudged Chloe’s genuine affection for Laura.
There would be months of questioning ahead for Jessica as she had been involved in so many crimes in several countries. Even tiny Sierra Leone wanted to interview her on the atrocities she committed against its villagers near their diamond mines.
After the briefest of jurisdiction squabbles, it was agreed that Jessica would be returned to Brussels to be charged in the deaths of Laura Peeters and Chloe Martin. The Belgian police had a paddy wagon that could be hosed down to get rid of any of the still-dripping slime.
Mr. Bok had been questioned that same afternoon and gave investigators new material for questioning Jessica. They had learned that just after Laura swallowed the diamonds, Bok took the EpiPen out of Laura’s purse and crushed it under his boot. She must have cleaned it up before she went left for the day, because no one mentioned finding broken glass in the store. Laura probably thought she would replenish her EpiPen supply once she met Chloe for dinner, since Chloe carried a spare for Laura in her purse.
They group was sitting on a terrace at Henrik’s house after law enforcement had left with Jessica. His security staff had reset the obstacle course so it was ready for the next intruder.
“Henrik, it looks like we have wrapped up your case in a much shorter time than expected,” commented Jill. “Perhaps we should re-do that contract since I didn’t put as much work into the case as we expected.”
“I would rather attribute your success to you and your brilliant team, and for knowing who to bring in from law enforcement. I am happy that the world is safe from Jessica. I have also made some new friends. I hope you will return here on your next visit to Europe.”
“Henrik, we are so sorry about the loss of both Laura and Chloe. You seemed to have had a wonderful relationship with both women that I would guess has left a hole in your life. Although it is a small filler of an empty heart, I think you should invite law enforcement here to train, as it will intellectually engage you and give you respite from your grief.”
“Jill, you may be right. It felt so good to have my security system tested today. It is the first time I have smiled in weeks.”
Jill received an email later that evening from Willems. He wrote:
‘Jessica continues to talk about her exploits. Our police psychiatrist has never seen the degree of narcissism he sees in her. If we didn’t already have Laura’s list, Jessica would be a great source of tracking all illicit payments over the years. She has even verified 90 percent of the agents we thought had been bought off in this case.
Mr. Williams was captured as he tried to leave the airport in Stockholm, Sweden. He apparently took a series of ferries to get out of Belgium in pr
eparation to fly home to South Africa. He had fake identification, but Interpol had put a facial recognition alert out to all EU members to stop him from trying to leave.
Upon questioning he knew of Jessica’s role in the death of the two women and her position in Taylor’s organization, but simply didn’t care. Williams’ only goal was to protect the consortium, and his role was simply removing any documents of their involvement with Charles Taylor. Now, he sat in jail in Sweden, waiting to be extradited to the location of the trials for the consortium CEOs.’
Jill, Jo, Marie and Angela had packed their suitcases and would be arriving back only a day later than their original itinerary.
Nathan had been invited to stay with Henrik until he finished visiting his clients. Nathan liked Henrik and agreed to his suggestion.
The five friends and their new acquaintance, Nick, had their last quiet night together, enjoying drinks in Henrik’s spa and chatting about unimportant things. It was the perfect end to their most unusual vacation.
Epilogue
Jill said goodbye to her friends at the Brussels airport. With the commission they had earned from Henrik, their vacation account was well padded for their next holiday. They had not decided where they were going next year in the spring; there was just so much of the world to see.
While they had lost a lot of sleep due to several late-night adventures, and there were more than a few tense moments, the four women all agreed that they had really enjoyed Belgium and the Netherlands, and had seen everything on their list of attractions.
Nick had added value to their vacation by taking them to restaurants they would not otherwise have been to and showing them the beautiful park in Brussels. The added days in Germany had given them a glimpse of spending time in Europe more as a resident than a tourist. Jill thought they would see more of Nick in the future, as it appeared he wanted to pursue a long distance relationship with Angela. He had also discussed his plans to set up a business in the United States, perhaps with Henrik as a partner, or subcontracting himself to Jill as cases came her way.
