Dr. Franz telephoned Inspector Servette and In a low conspiratorial voice, and spoke, “Inspector, this is Dr. Franz, and I have just had a most distressing phone call. It was from Emily, my secretary, and told me in a frantic, loud whisper that someone by the name of Hans was in her apartment and he was going to kill her. That’s all, because she quickly hung up. But she sounded terrified. What can we do?”
“You have done all you can. Thank you for your call. Just leave it to me and I’ll take care of everything. What is her address? Is it a home or an apartment building? OK and her apartment number? Thank you so much for the tip and I will let you know what’s going on when this is all over.”
Servette dialed a number and in a few seconds said, “Josef, Hans is back in town and holding Dr. Franz’s Secretary hostage in her apartment. The address of her apartment building is 75 Rue St. James, #27. Now don’t do anything there until David and Miriam get there. I think the three of you can take Hans out without his hurting Emily. I really want him alive, but don’t take any chances. You know he’s a vicious killer, so if you have to take him out, do it. I think you three have a better chance than if I sent in a whole hostage strike unit there. I don’t think he is aware that we are on to him. I’ll call David and Miriam and have them meet you on Sionnet just around the corner from her apartment building.”
Hearing two clicks on the phone, he knew Josef received his instructions loud and clear.
“David, I’m glad I caught you.” Survette relayed the same message to David that he had with Josef, but added, “I know you would like to kill Hans, but promise me that, if at all possible, you’ll try to take him alive. I think the GSG-9 would like to question him about all the damage he has been causing throughout Germany, especially in Munich. Also I am sure they would like to know what Bruno and his Nazi friends are up to. You can bust Hans up all you want, if that will make you feel any better, but please do not kill him. Will you please promise me that, David? David, David, you silence is deafening. Are you still there?” The loud silence at the other end of the phone made him slam the receiver into the cradle cracking it. “Damn you, David!”
When David and Miriam arrived at Sionnet Street, just around the corner from the apartment building where Emily evidently lived, Josef was already pacing the pavement, dressed in regular pants and an Eisenhower jacket over his shirt. When he saw the Mossad duo, he pulled out his pad and wrote: How do you want to do this? The three sat on bus stop bench and put their heads together.
“Any Ideas,” Miriam asked Josef.
He wrote quickly: It doesn’t look to me like you are dressed for battle, so let me knock on the door first. I’m wearing an armored vest and if he opens it, he won’t be expecting a throwing knife in each hand. If he sends the woman to answer the door, I plan to push by her quickly and let him have it with a knife wherever he is. Any better ideas?
David stood up, looked at Josef, and said, “NO, I appreciate you tactics, but he’s mine and I want to take him out - - - I don’t care what Survette says.”
Miriam looked at the two warriors facing each other and knew that she was a better shot than David, but doubted that she could beat the blades thrown by Josef.
“David, I certainly understand your feelings toward Hans, but let’s follow the Inspector’s request that we not kill Hans, at least not right away.”
David glared at Miriam. “Whose side are you on, anyway, partner?”
“Yours of course, but I suspect Hans won’t be taken quietly and it may take all three of us, especially if we what to save the woman.”
David shook his head. “Two against one, I guess I know when I’m out numbered.
However, mark my word; if that bastard makes one false move, I’ll blast him to Sheol, OK? Josef, I guess you get the door first. I will be slightly behind you and low to the ground. Miriam stay on Josef’s left just beside the door and try to work around Emily if she comes to the door. OK, team, let’s do this.
Josef, with a throwing blade in each hand approached door #7. David crotched down to the right of Josef, his left hand cradling his 9 mm Polymer Jericho, while Miriam was ready on the other side of the door pointing her Jericho “B” with both hands. Josef knocked door with the butt of one of his throwing knives and stepped back a couple of feet. Silence! Josef knocked again, and stepped back again. The door opened a crack and a female voice said in a trembling voice, “Who is it?” David reached over and pulled the door open violently. Josef dropped one of his knives, grabbed the woman’s arm and yanked her through the door, shoving her to the ground. Gunfire erupted from both inside and outside the apartment. Miriam fired several times, as did David, returning the shots from inside the apartment. Hearing a door slam, Miriam shouted, “He’s gone into another room. David knelt down and gently asked the sobbing woman what other rooms were in her apartment.
“Only a small kitchen and a bedroom,” She whimpered.
“I can see into the kitchen,” Miriam said. “He’s gone into the bedroom. Is there a window out to a fire escape in that room?” The woman nodded in the affirmative, her eyes filled with fear. David touched Josef’s shoulder and pointed to the bedroom door. Josef nodded and quickly headed in that direction, David turned and ran back out of the apartment shouting to Miriam cradling the petrified Emily, “I think he’s gone out the bedroom window and trying for the alley to the stairs. Bounding down the stairs two at a time, raced out the front door and sprinted around the building towards the alley.
Dusk was beginning to fill the sky as David fan down the block toward the alley between the buildings. As he rounded the corner, he saw a figure ride a fire ladder down to the ground firing several shots in David’s direction. Flattening himself in a shallow doorway, he returned a couple of rounds. Peeking around the doorway, he saw the figure hit the ground limping toward the other end of the alley. David stepped out of the doorway, took a two-hand stance and began firing at the fleeing figure. The figure groaned, stumbled, turned, and fired again at David. David, without moving fired back and the figure fell to his knees, said in a loud voice, “You Jew bastard!”, got up again and continued running into the darkening shadows. When David reached the street at the end of the ally, the figure had disappeared.
Josef at that very moment came around the corner, shaking his head when he reached David. He touched David’s shoulder and mouthed the word SORRY over and over.
David looked up and down the street and the realized that a city bus had just passed by and Hans had probably been able to get on it. He was gone! David cursed at the top of his lungs at the waxing moon.
He and Josef walked back up to Emily’s apartment and found that Miriam, with Servette’s help had taken Emily into her living room.
“She took a shot in the right thigh from Hans. We’ve stopped the blood and the ambulance is on its way.” Miriam explained to David who was now sitting on the flood, his head in his hands.
“I shot at him over and over, but the bastard got away.”
“How did he do that?” Miriam asked.
“Would you believe it, after I shot him he ran to the end of the alley and evidently commandeered a city bus that was passing by. By the time I got there, the bus was on its way and I couldn’t catch it. He was that close to me and I let that son of a bitch get away. That son of a bitch got away!”
CHAPTER 34
Geneva - - - Tel Aviv
Early the next morning, in the Geneva Police station sitting around the conference table, littered with Styrofoam coffee cups, paper plates with bits of leftover food, half-full bottles of water and empty soda cans were eight human beings that had bonded together during the past several months, seemingly because of a green crystal no bigger than a candy bar. In spite of the thick haze of smoke, coming from one end of the table, the atmosphere was up-beat and expectant. Conversation flowed easily.
Sitting at the head of the table, Inspector Servette banged on the table with a soda can and spoke. “I know you’re all wondering why I have invite
d you here today.” Several of those around the table snickered.
Miriam smiled and said, “You just want us to join the Geneva Police Department, don’t you Inspector?”
“Well I wouldn’t mind that at all, but I know Levi would object to that possibility.” Levi just smiled.
“I really want to wrap up this caper we have all been on for so many months, years I might add, and make sure all the loose ends have been taken care of. Now where do we stand? Dr. Franz, where do we stand concerning the Wittlesbach Emerald?”
“Thank you Inspector, and thank all of you for helping to find the proper resting place for that wonderful emerald. If you are not aware of it, according to Max’s detective work in Munich, and I won’t go into all the details of his search, he met with a Herr Streun, curator of the Residenz Museum in Munich. Would you believe that is the very place to where the poor unfortunate Kleins willed their emerald? Not only that, but that Museum is the same place that the emerald was on display before it came into the possession of the Huber family, many, many years ago. SO - - - in spite of Hans, and thanks to the Klein’s, it seems our precious Wittelsbach Emerald will finally go home after all these years. Christies is making arrangements to sent it, or to take it, to the Residenz Museum via armored car as soon as they can, Right, Dr. Franz?”
“That’s correct,” The bearded, bespectacled man said as he furiously waved Levi’s pipe smoke away from his face. “And may I say we are, not only very glad to be rid of this troublesome gem, but to be able to send it back into the waiting arms of the Residenz where it belomgs.
Clapping filled the conference room but the accompanied animated conversation was cut short by the Inspector’s soda can banging again on the table.
“That is wonderful news, and all of you are to be congratulated. I understand that official congratulations will be sent to each of you from both the Residenz Museum and the City of Munich. However I must inform you that the final resting place of the Wittelsbach Emerald will not be mentioned publically n the media at all, for security purposes. You understand.”
Max broke in, “SO - - - Hans got away?”
“Yes, dammit,” David almost shouted, “He got fucking away!”
Servette responded, “Well he hasn’t gotten away yet. We have an all points bulletin out for his capture, and I suspect we will have him within 24 hours. After all, he’s wanted by the Munich Police, The Mossad, The GSG 9, as well as my own Police Department, and even Interpol is finally after him as well. David shot Hans at least two times, and he undoubtedly will need medical attention of some sort.
David mumbled, “Some marksman I was. He was supposed to die.”
The Inspector continued, “All of our hospitals, clinics and physicians have been contacted to be most careful and to notify us if they should see anything suspicious. And remember, he may not survive David’s shots after all.”
“Let’s hope he doesn’t,” Miriam interjected, looking at David.
“If he does,” Levi spoke up, “We’ll just have to go after him again.”
The conference room door flew open and a young police-woman ran in waving a paper and handed it to Servette. He read it quickly and then looked at those around the table, and smiled.
“My friends, it seems the GSG 9 has just captured three men wearing Franciscan, monk’s robes, driving a rented Mercedes near Oberhochsteg, German just before the border into Austria.
The fake monks aren’t talking, but GSG 9 believes they are better known to us as “The Three Stingers.”
Another round of clapping broke out.
Crumpling the communiqué, Servette continued, “Max, what has your intelligence turned up about the suicide of that Doctor at Munich University Hospital and his strange connection with our emerald?
All eyes were on Max. “It’s a rather complicated story, but as far as I have been able to piece it together, it started with an envoy from a Chinese Tong in Hong Kong sent to bid on the emerald at Christies then sell it to Dr. Chen Yang, the Doctor who committed suicide, so he could use it as a centerpiece for some weird healing con game in a new clinic he was going to build. I won’t go into details about that supposed healing using emeralds, other than to say there has been much speculation about the healing properties of various gem stones, including emeralds throughout history. Anyway, to make a long story short, when this Doctor realized that he was not going to get his hands on the Wittelsbach Emerald, his dreams for his new clinic collapsed and evidently he committed suicide by overdosing on a powerful sedative in his research lab. There are lot’s more there, but I think that’s enough for now.
Josef was busy writing a note that began circulating around the table. The note said: Strange that such a beautiful work of nature has been the cause of so much death.
Each of those around the table nodded thoughtfully as they read Josef’s note.
Simon asked, “So where do we go from here? It this the end?
David remarked angrily, “Well it’s not the end for me!” I’m going after that bastard, and believe me; I’ll finish him this time.”
Servette looked at Levi and said, “Levi, option is up to you, but I’m sure we all empathize with David, but I wouldn’t know where to start looking for him now. I’m sure he won’t be sticking around Geneva with my whole department on the look out for him. He can’t go back into Germany or the GSG 9 will grab him. My gut tells me that he may, somehow, find his way back near the Klement compound in Buenos Aires, and morph back into his myriad business interests there.”
“Servette’s right David. You, Miriam and I need to return to Tel Aviv, take a short rest and then plot some strategy.”
David eyes flashed and he started to stand up when Miriam put her hand on his shoulder. “Levi’s right David. I know you want Hans dead, but we’re both tired and if we keep going this way we’ll make mistakes we’ll be sorry for. We can get Ringo to keep watch on the compound for us, and when and if Hans crawls back into his lair, we can fly south and get him. Remember we still have those bugs on our side.”
David slowly nodded his head, sank back into his chair, and mumbled, “I guess your right.”
Josef had been writing another note while this conversation was going on and he got up and walked around to Servette and handed him the note.
Servette read the note, smiled and looked at his friends sitting at the table.
Josef says that he would like to prepare a special dinner for all of you before you return to your homes. Would tonight at 7 for cocktails and 8 for dinner fit into your plans?”
Miriam said excitedly, “That would be wonderful! I have already been privileged to be blessed with one of Josef’s gastronomical delights and I would postpone my flight home several days, no matter what David and Levi say, to sit again at your table, Inspector.”
Servette looked at the others, “What do you say?”
They all spoke up in the affirmative or nodded enthusiastically.
“Well, I guess that’s it. This gives you time to make your travel arrangements before you come to my home and stuff yourself with wonderful, mysterious delights. If you need any help with flights or your hotels, just let my secretary know. Again I want you all to know how grateful I am for both your friendship and your help. I think we made a great team, but I sincerely hope I don’t have to call on your services again. If there’s nothing else, I’ll see you tonight.”
The El Al 747-200 left the tarmac of Geneva Cointrin airport at 11:15, ten minutes behind schedule and began its steep climb to her cruising altitude of 27,000 feet. Pressed firmly against the silver leather seat David stretched out as much as he could, closed his eyes and felt Miriam reach over and squeeze his hand. He wondered what lay ahead for them, now that Levi had indicated this assignment was over. The many conversations he and Miriam had had over the course of the last several years about retiring from the Mossad bothered him. He had to admit he was getting tired of this cloak and dagger stuff and it might be nice to relax and not have to worry about
who was going to try and take you out next. But, marriage and a family – that was another serious, very serious step, and he really didn’t know if he was ready for that yet. He knew what Miriam wanted. She had made that very plain many times.
The big jet leveled off, he opened his eyes, the “fasten seat belts” sign was now off and he saw Levi moving quickly down the aisle toward them.
“How about you two joining me upstairs for a glass of champagne to celebrate?” Without waiting for a response, he turned and walked toward the stairs leading to the lounge. David raised his eyebrows and looked at Miriam questioningly.
“Well why not, especially if Levi’s buying.” Miriam responded and began pushing David to get out of the cramped seat.
Joining Levi at the small bar, the pair noticed that there already were two flutes of champagne waiting for them.
“Don’t waste any time, do you, boss.”
“I thought I’d share a little surprise with you before we get home. The Prime Minister called just before I left for the airport this morning and told me, as a favor to her, to give you two a month off before I find another simple little assignment for you. He chuckled, and continued, I argued with him that with all that free time on your hands there’s no telling what trouble both of you might get into, but she was adamant, and who am I to ignore Golda.”
Miriam almost choked when he used the prime Minister’s first name.
Noticing her reaction, Levi continued, “And if you ever repeat that I used her first name, you’re next assignment will be in Siberia. So enjoy your flight home, finish up your written reports to the powers that be and be on you way. Oh, one more thing. Would you at least let me know where you are every week or so?”
They finished the bottle of champagne, chatted calmly for a few more minutes, David shook Levi’s hand and Miriam gave him a tight hug and a kiss on his bearded cheek, which he tried to avoid and they retreated down to their seats.
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