Emily wiped her wet hands and picked up the ringing phone.
“Klaus, how nice to hear your voice. You’re in Geneva? Are you coming by? Yes I’ll be here all day, and it will be so good to see you. In about an hour, that will be fine. I can hardly wait.
When Emily opened the door she was startled to see a stranger standing in front of her. “Who… You’re not Klaus.”
Pushing his way past Emily, her mouth opened in surprise, Hans replied, “Yes I am, Emily, just let me in and I’ll explain everything,” and slammed the door behind him.
“Now sit down and shut up you little slut while I talk. My name, at the moment is not Klaus, it’s Hans - - - Hans Huber, and I am going to stay with you for a few days - - - least until I can figure how to get my emerald and go home to Argentina.”
“What emerald - - - Argentina - - - what are you talking about?”
Hans walked over to Emily and slapped her across her face. “I told you to shut up and listen.” Emily’s terrified eyes filled with tears and her fingers gripped the arms of her chair like the claws of a bird of prey gripping it’s catch. Pacing back in front of the terrified woman Hans almost shouted, “I am not who you think I am, but that doesn’t matter - - - you are just here to help me get the emerald that Christies has because it belongs to me … nothing more, nothing less. If you continue to do this - - - do just what I say - - - I may let you live. But believe me if you call the police or do anything to screw up me getting my emerald I will squash you like the vermin you are. And one thing more. All that sweet talk, all that love making before was just to mold you into my little helper. I do not love you; I do not even care for you. You’re body is disgusting and I do not want to touch you again except maybe to remind you every once in a while that you belong to me and I control your destiny, your very life.
Hans went over to Emily bewildered and cowering in the chair, her eyes wild with fear.
“Do you understand my little cherub slut?
Emily nodded quickly and tried to cover her face with her arms. Hans pulled her arms down and slapped her again leaving a bright red mark on her cheek.
“OK fine, now that we understand each other, this is what I want you to do. Call your boss at Christies, that Dr. Franz, or whatever his name is, and tell him that you have taken ill and won’t be in for a couple of days. I’ll listen to that call so don’t try anything funny. Then I want you to go to that little market on the corner and get enough food and beer for my little visit. That should take you only about 20 minutes. If you are gone more that it will the end of your life, so enjoy your last twenty minutes. And, if you make any calls or try to tip off anyone that I am here, I will find out, you can be sure, and I will make your prelude to death so painful you will scream for it to end.” He grabbed Emily’s chin and forced her to look at him as he smiled viscously at her. “Now get going and make that phone call. Oh and one more thing. If your phone rings at any time, I’ll answer it, do we understand each other?”
Trembling, she could hardly pink up anything in the small market near her apartment. Near the display of apples, she looked longingly at the telephone on the counter near the cash register.
“Is everything all right Miss Emily?” Startled at the clerk’s words she dropped the box of cereal on the floor.
“Oh yes, all right, I’m just not feeling very well and need a few things before I go to bed.”
“Well let me know if I can help.”
Her shopping basket filled with whatever her troubled brain could envision, she walked over to pay for the groceries. As the clerk started ringing the items up she reached for the telephone. “May I make a quick call, please?” Without waiting for an answer she dialed Dr. Franz’s private number. When Dr. Franz answered Emily whispered loudly, “Call Inspector Servette, Hans is in my apartment and is going to kill me!” She quickly hung up, and trembling, paid for her items to the bewildered clerk, snatched up the two sacks of groceries and ran out of the store.
Emily rushed into her apartment, slammed the door and headed for the kitchen.
“You had just 30 seconds or I would have blown you head off. Well, not really, because you see I rarely use a firearm. I would take much more pleasure in slitting your throat from ear to ear. What took you so long?
“I couldn’t remember what kind of beer you liked,” Emily responded as she opened the refrigerator door and began to put things inside.
Hans walked into the kitchen and leaned against the counter. “I really don’t care, just so long as it will give me a little buzz. What’s wrong with you? You seem a little nervous. Didn’t get any ideas about telling anyone about me did you?”
“No I didn’t Klaus, or Hans, or whoever you are. I just want you out of here and out of my life.”
“Now is that any way to treat your old lover?”
Emily tried to walk back into living room, but Hans caught her arm and twisted it behind her back. He walked her into the living room and threw her down into the green, faded, overstuffed chair. She cowered in that chair afraid to look at him. Hans walked over to a matching chair and sprawled into it.
“Let’s get another thing straight lady - - - I love hurting people and you can be sure I am very good at it, so don’t get any ideas about escaping out that back door either.
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!”