Command Authority

57

CIA analyst Jack Ryan awoke to a determined knock at his hotel room door in Zug, Switzerland. He looked at the clock on the bedside table and saw it was just after four a.m. He rolled quickly out of bed and unlatched the door; it was all the way open before it occurred to him that even though he was an analyst and not an operative, he was working in the field, and it might have been a good idea to look through the damn peephole before flinging open the door.

C’mon, Jack. Pay attention to what you’re doing.

It was Nick Eastling in the hall, and Jack could immediately tell the man had been up for some time.

He could also tell something was wrong.

“What’s going on?”

Eastling said, “I need to come in.”

“Sure.”

Eastling entered, and Jack shut the door behind him. Both men moved to chairs in a comically tiny sitting area.

Jack said, “You just getting back from the safe house?”

“Yeah. Been on the phone with Century House and contacts at the embassy in Zurich.”

“What’s going on?”

“The explosion tonight at the Restaurant Meisser. There were fourteen dead.”

Jack couldn’t read the man’s face. He looked simultaneously excited and confused.

Nick added, “One of the victims was Marcus Wetzel.”

Jack cocked his head. “And he is… who, exactly?”

Eastling gave a long sigh. “You would find out soon enough, anyway. He was our source in the bank. He was Morningstar.”

Ryan put his head in his hands. “Oh my God.”

“Yeah. He was dining with another man, who survived. He identified the body.”

Ryan stood. “You still think this was random?”

“I… obviously… Of course not. I’m no bloody fool, Ryan. Morningstar was murdered. I have to think it was the same actor who killed Tobias Gabler.”

“I’m glad you’ve come around.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve come around to the fact the bankers were murdered, but not David Penright.”

“How can you be so certain of that?”

“Because German leftists wouldn’t have much interest in David Penright, now, would they?”

“German leftists? What are you talking about?”

“One of the bodies found in the explosion in Rotkreuz was identified as a twenty-five-year-old German woman named Marta Scheuring. The location of her body was curious, it gave the Swiss reason to stop what they were doing and focus on her. She was found in the kitchen, near the gas lines, but she did not work in the restaurant. They are assuming she brought some sort of explosive into the place, but when she tried to set the timer, the bloody thing went off in her face.”

Jack assumed there was more. “How do they know she wasn’t just looking for the john?”

“You mean the loo, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Because coincidences like this don’t occur. Marta Scheuring was closely affiliated with the Red Army Faction. She has two arrests in Germany for subversive acts. She lives in Berlin. They found her address with her identification in a backpack she’d left in an alley behind the Meisser.”

Jack knew all about the RAF. He also knew they did not normally operate in Switzerland. “Why would RAF blow this restaurant up?”

Eastling shrugged. “I don’t know. I do know I am heading to Berlin. Century House has been in contact with the German police. The Germans will raid her flat, and I will be there when it happens.”

“What about the other guy?”

“What other guy?”

“The man the Swiss police picked up at the Meisser restaurant. The man who was taken away in the squad car?”

Eastling said, “Oh, him. He escaped custody. Picked his cuffs and wrestled a gun away from one of the cops. He cuffed the coppers together, back-to-back, around a light pole in the city center near the Bahnhof. Looks like he left on the train.”

“Surely he was involved, too.”

“Might have been. Probably RAF. Maybe I’ll find out more in Berlin. As I said, I’m off in a few hours. You are welcome to join me, although I can’t speak for the Germans. Might want to get that cleared with your home office.”

Jack rubbed his eyes. “Two days ago you heard that a girl from Berlin was drinking with a British agent who was then killed, working on the same case where all these other people have been killed. Now a German woman tied to RAF is also tied to the other deaths.

“Do you really think the death of David Penright was just a coincidence? Why not go back to the bar where Penright died and show them the picture of Marta and ask if it was the same woman?”

“We’ll pass it on to the Swiss, who I am quite certain will do just that. But there are German girls all over the place. If Penright had not been chatting up a German, he would have been with an Aussie or a Kiwi or a Frenchie or some Swede. The girl in the bar doesn’t matter.”

Eastling continued, “We will go to Berlin, look at the RAF evidence there, and if it somehow should lead us back to David Penright’s death, we will act accordingly. In the meantime, don’t you bloody tell me how to do my job!”

Ryan said, “That’s fine. Let’s go. But I want to be involved in the exploitation of the intelligence found in the location in Berlin. I don’t want to be standing on the sidelines.”

“Not for me to say, Jack, old boy. Take it up with the Huns.”