The day before the rally in both countries, Mitch arrived at the office early, his head running through a thousand scenarios. He had an hour of quiet time before John Windsor was due to arrive at his usual time at seven a.m., except today he arrived at six-fifteen.
“Coffee?” John asked sticking his head in the door.
“Are you making or buying?” Mitch asked.
“Buying. Let’s walk across the road.”
Mitch rose and followed John out of the office. John looked pressed and fresh. Mitch increased his pace to keep up.
“You’re looking drawn,” John said.
Mitch grunted. “It’s the blond hair, washes me out according to my housemate,” he joked. “I’ll be better in a day or so when I hope it’ll all be wrapped up.”
They entered the coffee shop and John ordered their regular take-away coffees.
“Anything to eat?” he asked.
“No thanks,” Mitch said.
“When did you last eat?”
Mitch rolled his eyes. “Lyn made me lasagna last night, Dad.”
John chuckled. “Good.” He handed over a ten dollar note and on receiving the change, threw it into a tipping jar. They moved aside to wait for their order.
“What’s the feeling upstairs?” Mitch asked.
“They’re keen to shut it down with an emphasis on shutting it down for good,” John said. “There’s a couple of agendas running there.”
“No doubt. Politics and humanity, gee which would win?” Mitch asked.
John took the two coffees, thanked the staff and handed one to Mitch.
“Thanks,” Mitch said.
They walked across the road, dodging traffic.
“Dan tells me he’s booked you in for an hour at eight this morning for your second counseling session and that you weren’t happy about it,” John said. He led the way up the stairs to their floor.
“I just asked him to wait until next week when the case should be closed all going well, but he wouldn’t. I don’t think that’s too much to ask,” Mitch said, stopping at his office. “We’re flat out at the moment and a few days isn’t going to make much difference to him.”
John exhaled. “It wouldn’t be a problem for anyone else Mitch, but you can’t blame him. With your avoidance record, you’re the boy who cried wolf. See you for a catch-up at nine-thirty.”
Ellen slept well on the plane; she made a note to tell Mitch and rub that in. Arriving in Berlin, she passed through customs and navigated her way to the exit lounge where she caught sight of Adam Forster, sitting and reading messages on his phone. He looked up as though sensing her and saw her. Adam rose, waved and came towards her. A number of women glanced at the tall man with the tied-back hair and confident air.
“Ellie, willkommen in Berlin,” he said.
“Thank you Adam, nice to be here, even if it is late and cold and I want to go to bed.”
He took her bag from her shoulder and threw it over his own.
“C’mon, the car’s this way.” He put his arm around her in a protective manner and moved her through the crowds milling around waiting to pick up luggage. “You’ll like our hotel and yes, we have separate rooms and bathrooms.”
“Great, that especially applies to the bathrooms.” She smiled. “Any news?”
“Nothing that won’t wait,” Adam said. “I’ll make you a tea when we get there, then you can hit the sack. We hit the ground running tomorrow and we’ve got a conference call in the afternoon our time, morning in Washington.”
“And I get to meet Eva,” Ellen said, following him into the airport parking lot.
He motioned towards a white sedan and unlocked the doors of the hire car. Adam opened her door before putting her bag in the back seat and going around to get into the driver’s seat.
“When did you get this?” she asked of the hire car.
“Mitch rented it for us on the day he left so we could get out to the suburbs and do some stirring and pick you up. Now I’ve just got to find my way back to the hotel,” he said, turning up the heat and concentrating as he moved the car towards the parking exit.