He looked at himself in the mirror and thought, today I will be Sailfish for the last time.
Pavel Zeman straightened his tie, stretched himself into his jacket and placed a few final items into the inside pockets. He turned around to look at the room. If things went according to plan, he would never see either this room or his personal possessions ever again. He would walk out of the hotel and shed the skin of who he had been for the past few years… or, if whatever was meant to happen didn’t happen, he would have to return to his confinement on the island again until he could be extracted at some point in the future.
But now, hopefully, it was time to take that leap of faith and leave that life behind. And yet, deep within him, there was a basic part of him that felt the urge to resist and stay in place. He supposed it was that feeling of leaving the normality of the womb; it was both necessary and terrifying at the same time.
He had already had the security briefing from his Personal Protection Officer, the bullet-headed Gergo, earlier that morning. In heavily accented Hungarian, the bodyguard had said, “Okay, Professor. We have a job to do. Okay. You work with us, we work with you. Okay. You have breakfast in your room, you relax, get ready, we have a busy day, okay. We are ready to leave twelve noon. We control everything; the elevator, the doors, the car. You don’t have to do nothing except walk. Okay?”
“I understand, yes,” Pavel had replied meekly.
“Out of the hotel, the car is waiting for us. I will be in the back with you. Ervin will be in the front with the driver. We have a twenty-minute drive through traffic to get to your appointment. We will be exactly on time. Okay?”
“Yes.”
“If something happens, something bad, a fight, a car crash, a drunk, whatever the fuck, you listen to us and you do as you are told. We will look after you, we will protect you. Okay?”
Pavel straightened his tie once more before putting on his thick overcoat and began to mentally go through the protocols of what was going to happen today… or at least as much as he knew right now; the recognition code, the meeting with the Fisherman at the doctor’s, passing of actionable intelligence and… well, after that he did not know yet. He just had to hope that his controller had everything in place.
The fiction must play, he thought. Even up until the last moment I must live the cover.
There was a knock on the door. He opened it and saw the hulking figure of Gergo. “Professor, we are ready. It is time.”
My name is Katerina Gruber and I am a sales executive with a Digital Marketing company in Salzburg. It even says so on my business cards and sales portfolio folder so it must be true, thought Sabina.
The fiction must play, she reminded herself. It had once again become her mantra.
She was sitting in the lounge area of the Hotel Grand Vienna, nursing a pot of coffee and studiously ignoring a plate of sweet pastries that she had ordered. Sabina, or rather Katerina, was dressed in a dark grey business trouser suit with open-necked white blouse. On the chair next to her were her props – a laptop computer, laptop bag, a sheet of marketing literature (for her fictitious client) and the obligatory smartphone. But the best prop of all was the wig that she now wore; overnight, she had been transformed from an elfin-style redhead to a shoulder-length brunette.
Sabina took a sip of her coffee, which was, of course, excellent, and casually glanced around the hotel reception area. In the time that she had been sitting here, she had earmarked the layout of the place; the reception desk, the elevators, the bar area, the restrooms and the concierge desk. She had a plan in her head, a template of how she would play it when she saw him.
Be casual, they had told her. Nothing rushed, you casually walk past. No need to make eye contact, he will either see you or he won’t.
The overnight train journey from Berlin had been long and tiresome. She had slept when she could, really only a few hours, because the tension of the next day’s events was already eating away at her. Then a blur as she had left the train at Vienna’s Central Station before catching a taxi and making her way to the Hotel Grand Vienna in her new persona as Katerina Gruber. She had assumed that someone was following her (or watching over her, as Margery, the nanny/bodyguard, had intimated as she had waved her off in a taxi) but whoever it was, she had not seen them and after a while she had forgotten about their supposed existence.
So far, she had ordered coffee, read through her sales brochures, accessed the wifi and pretended to look at the latest news headlines from around the world; then more coffee, more flicking through her phone and then back to the sales brochures. Sitting in a hotel foyer was not as easy or as comfortable as some people might think, she thought ruefully. Thankfully, she had been dismissed and ignored as just another corporate drone on a business trip.
She looked relaxed, cool and professional, but inside her stomach was churning, a ball of anxiety, a knot of nerves and all the while her eyes were constantly alternating between her watch and the world clocks above the reception desk. Time seemed to be standing still. It was 12.01, less than fifteen minutes until her brother was meant to be coming down to the hotel reception.
It had been months since she had seen her brother in the flesh, nearly half a year, and she wondered how this secret life had taken its toll on him both mentally and physically. Was he still the man she thought he had been, or had this life changed him completely?
Another glance at her watch; 12:10. Time to get into character, she decided.
She was having a final look through the sales brochure when a movement from the corner of her eye alerted her; the elevator. The doors opened and three men stepped out; one stocky individual leading the way, her tall, gangly brother close behind, and behind him another stocky bodyguard who was a replica of the first man.
She did as she was told, took her time, she breathed and stood casually. She was determined to time it correctly so as to intercept the direction of the three men at the most natural moment. She kept her stride regulated and headed towards the restrooms. Her face was up, eyes forward focused on her destination. Just a normal guest of the hotel going to the toilet, nothing to see here, she thought.
From her peripheral vision, she could see the trio approaching at an oblique angle; the lead bodyguard had spotted her and broke away from the pack, putting himself between her and his Principal as all protectors are trained to do. Sabina acted surprised when they were within a few feet and she acknowledged them with a polite “Entschuldigen sie bitte.” Excuse me sir, I’m sorry.
A quick glance at her brother and she was past them, heading to the restrooms and not looking back. The brush-past contact had taken perhaps three seconds. She made her way into the ladies room, which was thankfully empty, and stood at the sink. Her reflection stared back at her and then there was a sigh of relief and a smile. You did it, you did it!
For a few moments, their eyes had locked and she had seen a brief spark of recognition followed by a burst of surprise flash across his face. He had seen her, he had seen her.
The fiction must play.
There was a sense of unreality about it, he thought quickly. It was the equivalent of seeing a famous movie star working behind the counter at a fast-food outlet; jarring. His sister wearing a wig was the recognition code! His sister, here in Vienna, at the hotel!
He forced his feet to keep on moving and to not look back. He glanced quickly at each of the bodyguards, trying to gauge if they had noticed anything, but the two men were focused on moving their VIP forward out of the main doors, providing body cover and into the back seat of the Mercedes that was waiting.
Pavel was in a daze, the unreality of it all still had him in a fog. Then he heard the heavy clunk of the car’s central locking system and the order from Gergo to the driver to “Move out” and only then he came back to reality. His sister’s face had told him everything. He hadn’t been abandoned by the Fisherman, he was being protected and the extraction was going ahead.
Pavel stared out at the tree-lined streets as they left the ring road, passing the Vienna State Opera House and headed south to the affluent outskirts of the city centre.
Just a little longer, he thought. I am nearly free.