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“I’m okay. About my reaction earlier, it was just such a shock.”
“Completely understandable,” I said, leading her over to the bed. We lay down, and she snuggled into me, my arm around her and her head on my chest.
“We had a bit of a falling out. I mean, there wasn’t much reason for us to talk after I graduated. It was when she suggested I work for her. I was polite, of course, but I told her my dream was to do intelligence work. My degree was in international relations and diplomacy, so not an exact fit, but I had completed the training necessary to become an agent.” Schön shook her head as if she’d just remembered something.
“What?”
“She was the one who suggested Uncle Henri contact Oskar Schmid.” She shuddered. “I hated him from the moment I met him.”
“Good instincts,” I commented.
“Yet I considered the leader of a human trafficking ring my mentor.”
“Think about it, though. Your gut told you not to work for her.”
“I felt so guilty. She’d done so much for me. I can’t help but think it was all manipulation.”
“I know you told Nemesis you wanted to move forward with the Gozo op, but if there comes a time you change your mind, say so. Remember, I’ll be undercover with you. If I sense any hesitation on your part, we’ll talk it through and come to a decision about proceeding together.”
Schön looked up at me and cupped my cheek with her palm. “You’re a good man, Magnet. You’re also a highly effective commander.”
“Now is not the time, but there are so many things I want us to talk about. Personal things. Between you and me.”
“I want that too. First, though, we need to find Mrs. Strousberg or whatever her name is. Maybe it’s Mrs. Rávdos.”
More than anything, I wanted to tell Schön what she meant to me, that I was in love with her. I longed for us to make love, but as I’d said, now was not the time.
Instead, I held her in my arms until we both slept.
24
MAGNET
Schön and I were scheduled to be on the second-to-last helicopter flight out the following morning. Some of the team had left in the predawn hours and made the three-hour drive to Zurich to cut down on the number of flights needed.
Macht, Fuchs, Drachen, and Ehren were remaining in St. Moritz and would continue investigating the ties between Schmid, Godwin, and the woman we all referred to as A.
In the brief I’d read outlining everything discussed last night after our call with Nemesis ended, Macht reported a team had gone to the chalet believed to belong to Carissa Strousberg and found it empty. Since it was isolated, none of the neighbors they questioned recalled ever seeing anyone come or go from the property.
That A didn’t maintain a residence here reinforced the theory she’d left St. Moritz with Godwin on the helicopter Zeppelin and Verity saw depart.
Ares was working with the NRO to see if they could supply any footage of either Xavier Vella or Selene Pavia in St. Moritz.
After Schön’s discovery of the woman disguised as Charlene Vella-Borg, facial recognition pulled up several more images of her in and around the resort town. What we didn’t have were any specific crimes we could tie her to.
I still felt confident that, once the conversation between her and me progressed far enough, I could switch modes from flirtatious to interrogatory. Showing her one or two images would be enough to make her believe her arrest was imminent.
The plan, as it stood now, was for me to visit the restaurant first and convince Charlene to leave the premises with me under the auspices of taking our conversation outdoors. Schön, then, would engage Francesca Vella in the same way she had the first time.
What we were unsure of was whether Schmid had alerted A that we were close to discovering her identity. Maybe he believed we were close to finding his connection to Godwin. Regardless, the plans for the op had to include protection detail for the three of us going in undercover, as well as for Francesca Vella and her daughter, Charlene. We couldn’t risk either woman being silenced either through disappearing or being murdered. For now, they were our strongest links to identifying and locating A.
Schön was quiet when we woke, got ready for the day, then packed the small amount of items we’d each removed from our luggage and the things she’d retrieved from the chalet. My guess was she was equally deep in thought about the upcoming op. At least, that was what I hoped was happening rather than her being concerned anyone would judge her for her connection to A.
When we went downstairs, Verity, Zeppelin, Oleander, and Poseidon were waiting.
“I’ll make no apology. I’m first,” said O.
I had no idea what she was talking about until I saw her approach Schön and wrap her arms around her. Neither woman spoke, nor did Verity when she approached and did the same thing.
