Duty and Honor

EPILOGUE

True to his word, the same day Jack appeared at the front gate of Hugo Allemand’s estate with René in tow, his arm in a wrist-to-shoulder cast, the marshal opened his black leather-bound address book and started making phone calls.

Though Effrem, now back in Brussels and working with Mitch via phone, was still weeks away from fully assembling what Jack suspected would be more than enough evidence to prompt a German and EU investigation into Rostock Security Group, René Allemand’s account of his ordeal at the hands of Rostock had been more than enough to spur his father into action.

Despite the fact the marshal had retired from the military and withdrawn from the social limelight, his clout was significant. By midafternoon the first reports of anonymous allegations against Rostock Security Group and its founder were surfacing on European news networks and radio stations. The beating of the drum had begun. Marshal Allemand would soon be calling a press conference. He assured Jack he would not be the only person of influence standing before the microphones. Apparently Rostock had visited his hardball tactics on other VIPs across Europe: From Italy to Great Britain, Marshal Allemand had little trouble convincing his peers of what Rostock had been up to. Those who had balked at supporting the German’s endeavors but had failed to speak out were now only too happy to join the growing coalition. And before Allemand was done, Jack guessed, those who had covertly supported Rostock would have to choose between coming forward of their own volition and being exposed by the looming investigation.

Jack had gladly accepted Marshal Allemand’s invitation to stay at the estate for as long as he wished. With a deadline looming, he needed the time to think — but not about his decision, which he’d made even before they left Namibia. Playing shepherd to the impulsive Effrem and erratic René had been a brutal, eye-opening crash course in personnel management. Jack knew where he belonged.

While the choice was an easy one, the road he’d taken to it had been painful and costly.

Jürgen Rostock would fall, of that Jack was certain. Taken alone, that was a victory that would save lives in the future, but it had also taken lives beyond those of Peter Hahn and Kaitlin Showalter.

Three hundred twenty-two, to be exact.

Jack’s failure to stop Möller from sabotaging Kavango Dam’s flow control system had cost the lives of three hundred twenty-two men, women, and children who’d been unable to escape the deluge before it engulfed their villages and farms. Inevitably and predictably, Jack found himself replaying the same question in his mind: If he’d been quicker or smarter, could he have stopped it? There was no answer, he knew, but he also knew it would be a long time before he stopped asking the question.

As he had for most of the past several days, today Jack slept until mid-morning, then jogged around the estate and swam laps in the pool before playing a game of tennis with Claude.

When he came back into the house, Jack found René and Hugo seated across from each other in the solarium. Smiling, the marshal waved Jack over to the table and poured him coffee.

Jack asked René, “When did you last talk to Effrem?”

“Not for a few days. I’ve left messages, but he hasn’t responded. I hope that simply means he’s busy digging Rostock’s grave, and it’s not the other thing.”

“Other thing?” said the marshal.

“Möller,” Jack replied.

Back on the dam’s parapet, Jack had been expecting Effrem to swerve or brake at the last moment, but he’d done neither. Möller had died instantly, just as Eric Schrader had outside the Supermercado in Alexandria. For reasons he hadn’t quite fathomed, Jack was finding it hard to enjoy the irony behind the two men’s deaths. Jack suspected that whatever satisfaction Effrem had gotten from killing Stephan Möller had been fleeting and bittersweet. While Möller had tortured Effrem and ordered him burned alive in a hole in the ground, Jack believed Effrem was strong enough to get past that. But could he get past what he himself had done in retaliation?

On the positive side, whatever moral struggles Effrem might be facing, he wasn’t doing it alone. At Marie Likkel’s urging, Effrem had moved back home to the Likkel estate, where he and Belinda Hahn were, according to Marie, “getting to know one another.” Jack was glad for them both.

René, too, had a long, tough road ahead of him. Coming to grips with the damage done to him by Rostock may have already cost René his relationship with Madeline. The wedding was on hold, as was René’s future with the Army. Everything seemed tainted, he’d told Jack.

“Where do things stand with Alexander Bossard?” Jack asked.

Hugo Allemand answered. “One of my attorneys is in Zurich deposing him as we speak. Whatever you said to him, Jack, was more than enough to secure his cooperation. Once we have his deposition, we will make sure it reaches the proper authorities. It will be more than enough to tip the first domino. Jürgen Rostock, I suspect, is about to face a dramatic reversal of fortune.”

Jack had little trouble believing this. Like Bossard, Gerhard Klugmann, now recovering from his gunshot wound and certain Rostock was hunting for him, had been debriefed by Marshal Allemand’s legal team. The hacker was savvy enough to have realized that his former employer was no longer the winning team and that the best way to stay out of both Rostock’s crosshairs and prison was to cooperate. According to Allemand’s lawyer, Klugmann was a disturbingly immaculate record-keeper.

Jack checked his watch. It was three o’clock. Nine a.m. back home.

“Will you excuse me?” Jack said, and stood up.

He walked out the solarium’s side door and onto the lawn. He sat down in the grass. He pulled out his phone and hit speed dial.

The line clicked open, and the voice at the other end said, “Gerry Hendley.”

“Gerry, it’s Jack. I think it’s time we talk.”