The Honorable Knight

by Patrick John Donahoe

  He jumped into the driver’s seat, opened the garage door with the clicker, backed into the street, then closed the garage door with the clicker. He drove slightly above the posted legal speed and agonized over why Leora had flown to Sao Paulo. He had explained to her about his father’s bias against anyone who was not part of his rich and powerful cadre of friends, and how they would be up against a brick wall if he tried to marry. He only hoped that his father would soften over time once he met Leora, but this summer’s revelations made that seem not even a remote possibility.

  Leora was waiting on the passenger-loading curb with a carryon bag by her side. Kurt double-parked next to a taxicab. Leora opened the passenger door, set her bag on the back seat and climbed in.

  The taxi cab honked his annoyance at being trapped against the curb, so Kurt made sure it was safe and sped away from the terminal. He turned to Leora and said, “I wasn’t expecting you.”

  “Are you angry with me?”

  “No, I could never be angry with you. It’s been an unbearably long summer without you.”

  Leora leaned across the center console and kissed Kurt on the cheek. “I have news for you that can’t wait.”

  Kurt slowed the Mercedes and turned toward her to pay attention to her news.

  “We are pregnant.”

  Kurt almost lost control of the vehicle. Swallowing hard he asked, “Are you sure?”

  “Sure, I’m sure. Are you displeased?”

  “Of course not! It’s just so unexpected.”

  “I came here to tell you in person, and meet your father and grandfather. I’ve already told my parents. They were disappointed that we are pregnant out of wedlock, but they want to put on a family only wedding in Calcutta before the baby comes. We have to let them.”

  Kurt’s mind reeled. What do I say to the love of my life? What can I say to my father? I could leave in the morning and tell him with an email from Munich. Of course that would be the coward’s way out. Leora is expecting me to tell my father while she’s here, but she doesn’t know my father like I do. She is so much braver than I am. She stood up to her parents in India when they mentioned arranging a marriage. Thinking I am a coward might be better than being subject to my father’s wrath. If I have to choose between my father and Leora, I choose Leora, especially with this revelation.

  Kurt didn’t know if his father would come home before going to dinner at Mani’s or if he would have Heinrich drive him from his office to dinner. If he was busy, which he always was, he would go directly to Mani’s from work. After all, he had his own executive washroom with shower and wardrobe and was fully capable of dressing for the evening at work.

  Kurt took Leora to a local diner and talked to her about their future together. He placed his hand on Leora’s two month’s along belly, but he couldn’t tell anything. Kurt decided he would man-up and go to Mani’s and tell his father of their plans in a public place. He hoped his father would be civil in front of his dinner guest and the other diners. Tomorrow morning, he and Leora would fly to Munich and make a life for themselves and their child, whether he had his father’s blessing, or not.

  Forty-Four

  Jacques pulled the rental car up to the curb as Desiree and Serena left Brandt’s office building. He opened the front seat passenger car door for Desiree and the back seat door for Serena and walked around the car back to the driver’s seat. Once they were all inside the car, Desiree said, “Brandt is as guilty as sin. We need to examine the contents of his personal computer.”

  Jacques pulled away from the curb and headed toward their alternate hotel accommodations. Using his skills at losing tails, he drove through the streets insuring that they couldn’t be followed. “What’s the plan?” he asked.

  “We learned all we’re going to from meeting Brandt in his office and the factory. He’s not doing his evil experiments there. He probably has a laboratory in the countryside. I need the files on his laptop,” said Desiree.

  Serena put her hand on Desiree’s shoulder, “Good job in there.” To Jacques she said, “Desiree slipped a GPS tracker into his laptop carrying case while I distracted him with making Caipirinhas, so we can track his laptop. If I can get access to his laptop, I’ll attach Snoopy and download all his data, but I have to figure out a way to get it away from him for a few minutes.”

  “If he’s paranoid he could find the tracker and the game is up,” said Desiree.

  Serena pulled her iPhone with its modified GPS app out of her purse and checked the location of the tracker. “The tracker is working and appears to still be in Brandt’s office for --”

  “We’re being followed,” Jacques interrupted.

  Serena pulled her compact and mirror out of her purse, and pretended to be applying lipstick while she checked out the driver of the car behind them through the back window. “That’s the man who left Brandt’s office just prior to our meeting. Brandt’s private secretary called him Heinrich; Heinrich Duran.”

  Jacques sped up as if he was trying to make the green light, switched lanes just before the light, abruptly stopped when the light just turned yellow, and watched the car which had been trailing them proceed through the light on their left. “I finally lost our tail. I wanted to make it look like we didn’t know which way we were going rather than purposely giving Duran the slip.”

  “Brandt is going to know there’s a male with us when his henchman returns to headquarters,” said Desiree.

  “Just tell him tonight that you met some gigolo on the street who offered to show you a good time,” Jacques joked.

  Desiree reached over the center console and gave Jacques a playful slap on the back of the head like Agent Jethro Gibbs used to give Agent Anthony DiNozzo on the television show, NCIS.

  Jacques jerked the steering wheel a tad to the right and then the left. “Oww, you wicked girl, you’re gonna make me wreck the car.”

  “Just keep your eyes on the road, chauffeur. We don’t need any backtalk from you,” Serena taunted.

  Jacques pretended to be hurt, but the girls ignored him. The light turned green, and Jacques continued his non-linear drive to their alternate hotel while on the lookout for Heinrich.

  Serena said, “Desiree, why don’t you meet Brandt for dinner and tell him I’m not well. You’re the CDC rep after all. And Jacques and I will get our hands on his computer one way or another.”

  “I’m not as good at undercover work as you are. Maybe you should have dinner with Brandt. He might trip me up and become dangerous.”

  “You’ll be fine. Take my Smith and Wesson bodyguard revolver.” Serena handed her pistol over the seat to Desiree. “It has integrated laser sights so if you have to shoot him it will make it easier, and it has an ambidextrous grip since you’re a lefty. If you have to shoot him, just put the dot on him and pull the trigger.”

  Desiree put the pistol in her purse.

  Waiting for the light to turn green, Jacques laid his right hand on Desiree’s arm and said, “You’re tough, Desiree. You can handle an old fart like Brandt. Serena and I will take care of Heinrich, and get that computer. We’ll probably have to burglarize Brandt’s house. I doubt he’ll leave the computer in his office overnight and he wouldn’t take it in to the restaurant.” Pulling into the hotel driveway, Jacques said, “Here we are ladies, welcome to the Mercure Sao Paulo Paulista.”

  Serena changed into a black full body leotard that came to her wrists and ankles, slipped a tight fitting black skirt over the suit, and put on some black ankle socks and well broken in black Nike sneakers. She put her NSA-developed Snoopy in a mesh knapsack she could wear over her shoulders when she needed free hands and feet, or she could easily carry it in one hand. Snoopy enslaved the computer’s hard drive, downloaded copies of all the data, photos, and videos into its own memory, then shut the laptop off and left no indications that the laptop had been violated.

  Serena watched the parking lot of the Comfort Inn from their second rented car while Desiree went to her room and changed in
to a tight-fitting but business-like skirt and blouse. She saw Desiree enter the hotel lobby to wait for the limousine to pick her up for dinner. Desiree’s job was to occupy Karl Brandt as long as possible so Serena could borrow Brandt’s laptop. While at dinner with Karl, Desiree would pump him for as much information as possible without being obvious.

  As Serena suspected, Duran, who had followed them when they left the company earlier, pulled into the Comfort Inn parking lot, approached the rental car they had used that afternoon and parked next to it.

  Duran got out of his car, bent down by Desiree’s rental car and attached something to the underside. He was going to track their car’s movements as they were going to track Brandt’s laptop. Duran returned to his car and waited.

  The limousine pulled up to the lobby entrance of the Comfort Inn and the driver went in to collect Serena and Desiree. Desiree came out with the driver. He opened the limo’s back passenger door and she got in.

  Serena watched Duran enter the Comfort Inn as the limo pulled away, probably to search their rooms.

  Serena walked to Duran’s car and stuck a tracking device onto the undercarriage of his car. They would be following each other. The irony was not lost on Serena, especially since Desiree’s rental car was going to sit outside the Comfort Inn all evening.

  She followed Duran into the Inn. She peeked around the corner of the hallway of the set of rooms they had rented, and saw Heinrich enter Desiree’s room.

  As long as he only searched Desiree’s room and her room, the decoy would be effective. Both rooms were set up to provide only the information they wanted discovered, such as tourist brochures, and questionnaires and correspondence showing Desiree was a CDC employee.

  Duran then broke into Serena’s room and within a few minutes exited. Her room again had only the minimum of travel requirements, bathroom and personal hygiene supplies and changes of clothes. When it was obvious he had discovered all he had come for, Serena fast walked back out to her car and waited.

  Heinrich exited the Comfort Inn and walked to Desiree’s rental car. Apparently frustrated by the lack of incriminating evidence in Serena’s and Desiree’s hotel rooms, he removed the GPS tracker he had installed minutes before. He returned to his car, sat inside for a few minutes, started the engine, and drove off.

  Serena turned on the tracker app she had on her mini iPad and watched the ‘bug’ move on the map as Duran drove away.

  Jacques, sitting in a third rental car, staked out Brandt’s Porsche, an easy target sitting in the CEO’s parking place. Brandt walked out to his car carrying his black laptop carrying case with the red flap.

  Karl had changed from his standard business suit into an expensive sports jacket and slacks, white shirt, and tie. He placed the laptop on the passenger seat and drove away. Jacques had placed a GPS tracking device on the undercarriage of the Porsche. The two monitors on his dash indicated that both tracking devices, the one on the car and the one in the laptop carrying case, were both working and collocated. The trackers made it easier to follow Brandt in the twisted maze of Sao Paulo’s streets. Jacques didn’t need to stay immediately on Brandt’s tail.

  Jacques followed Brandt to the restaurant. Brandt made no stops on the way, so the laptop was still in the car. Heinrich had driven to the restaurant and parked in the lot waiting for Brandt to show up. Brandt pulled into the lot next to his henchman and handed him the laptop through the open window.

  Jacques called Serena. “Brandt just handed the laptop to his henchman. I’m guessing Duran will take it to Brandt’s home.”

  “Thanks, Jacques. I’m tracking Duran. I’ll get there before him.”

  Serena drove to Brandt’s house and parked her car down the street. The gated entrance was meant to keep unwanted cars out of the driveway, not a lithe woman sliding on her back through the opening between the security gate and the sloped driveway. Serena hid by the garage door and waited for Heinrich to arrive.

  Serena watched Heinrich pull his car up to the security gate and open it. Duran drove up to the garage door, the door opened and Heinrich pulled his car into the four car garage next to a Fiat Bravo.

  Serena slid under the garage door as it closed.

  Heinrich entered the house through the door from the garage to the interior of the house.

  Serena waited for a minute, carefully cracked open the door to the interior and peeked in. The hallway was dark. Heinrich had moved on into the house proper. Serena crept down the hallway and peeked into the expansive living room. Brandt’s oversized Brazilian-style furniture provided many hiding places. She picked an overstuffed zebra striped-couch which provided a plain view of Heinrich, who had his back to her.

  The setting sun shone on Heinrich and the security box where Heinrich was standing and entering numbers. The box beeped when he turned off the intruder alarm. Heinrich probably had less than five minutes to enter the ‘turn off’ alarm code when he entered the house. Serena noted the last two numbers of the four he entered were a nine and an eight. She was too late to catch all four numbers he had entered, but the second number had the same tone as the third, and the first had a slightly lower tone than the fourth, so Serena guessed the numbers were 7998, the same as the number address of the Tridente Pharmaceutical Company. Serena had to hope if she entered 7998 into the alarm system the alarm would not go off on exiting the house.

  Heinrich turned on the living room lights, but unless he walked around to the back of the sofa he would not see her. Heinrich had laid the laptop case on an end table in plain view. He left the living room and went into the kitchen. Serena tried to keep Heinrich in view, but keeping eyes on him was less important than preventing him from noticing her, so she carefully kept herself unobserved.

  Serena heard a refrigerator door open and the ‘pop’ of a beer can pull tab.

  Heinrich returned to the living room, sat on a zebra-striped recliner, put his feet onto the coffee table with his shoes on, and leaned the recliner back. He retrieved his cell phone from his inside jacket pocket and made a call. “Hello, Mr. Brandt. . . Yes, I know you’re at dinner. I followed them after they left your office, but lost them in Sao Paolo traffic. They had a man driving them. . . No, not a local. You need to ask them who the man was and what he was doing with them.”

  Heinrich stood and walked around the room agitated while he talked. “Maybe the man and the assistant went out sightseeing for the evening. The second girl was not in her room at the Inn. . . No, there was nothing suspicious in their rooms. They may be what they appear to be. There was no evidence of where the other woman went this evening except for a Sao Paulo Museum of Art brochure on her nightstand. . . Yes, I know it closes at 6. I’ll check out her hotel again and see if she has arrived back, and check in with you again. Your laptop is safe here in your living room.” Heinrich ended his call and settled back down on the sofa. He took two long swallows of beer, belched like a longshoreman, crushed the beer can in his right hand, then retreated into the kitchen and threw the can into the trash.

  Heinrich returned to the living room and walked to the security alarm control box. Serena watched his fingers punch in the code and listened to the audible tones. The four numbers he punched in were 7998. Heinrich, the secret policeman, and his boss, the terrorist, were so paranoid, yet they used the same code to set and release the security alarm, the numerical address of the pharmaceutical company, Serena shook her head in amazement.

  Heinrich walked down the hall to the interior garage door and went into the garage. Serena heard the garage door open and close. Heinrich was going back to the Comfort Inn to check if she had returned to her room.

  Apparently, Brandt’s paranoia was healthy enough to worry about Serena ditching out for dinner because she was ill, then not staying in her hotel room. She would go to the restaurant and join them with a credible story of why she had ditched dinner once she had all of Brandt’s laptop data in hand. She didn’t want to put Desiree in danger because of rampant paranoia.

 
When she was sure Heinrich was safely away, she punched the code back in to the security box to turn off the motion sensors before she removed the laptop out of its case and plugged into Snoopy. She pressed Snoopy’s ‘on’ button, and then pressed the laptop’s power button ‘on.’ Snoopy’s red LED ‘on’ light lit, the laptop turned ‘on,’ Snoopy connected to the laptop, and all the data, photos, videos, music files, Excel files and Word files began downloading into Snoopy’s one terabyte chip memory.

  Serena removed the tracking device that Desiree had inserted into the laptop case accessories pouch. Within minutes Snoopy’s green LED light lit up and Serena unplugged Snoopy, replaced the laptop in its carrying case and placed it on the end table in the exact orientation Heinrich had left it. Neither Snoopy nor Serena left any evidence of laptop tampering.

  Serena needed to exit Brandt’s house and reset the alarm without setting it off. She had watched Heinrich enter the code to silence the alarm when he entered the house. She assumed she had only one minute to enter the correct code and was 95% confident she knew the correct sequence. The only thing to do was to try and hope for the best. Brandt must not know that his house had been breached. Serena went to the control box and entered the sequence, 7998. Fortunately, it worked and the green light lit up. Serena left by the front door, slipped under the security gate, and fast walked to her car where Jacques was waiting.

  Forty-Five

  Desiree felt uncomfortable in the limousine on the way to Mani’s. Brandt had not ridden there with her, and she was on her own. The chauffeur stopped the limo in front of Mani’s, opened the door for her, and she walked inside. The maître d’ welcomed her and assured her that Mr. Brandt had called and would arrive at any moment. He had insisted that she order a drink and an appetizer while waiting. Desiree studied the restaurant with its white walls, open beam ceiling, brown window frames, and padded standard chairs. It seemed comfortable enough to put the patrons at ease, patrons from the management of large Sao Paulo companies and young lovers out for a romantic evening.