“What are you going to do?” Schneider cried. “You can’t kill them here. They’ll hear the shots. Do you want them to arrest us all?”
“Schneider is right,” one of the other men said. “We should do it when they leave here, before they get home. It has to look like an opportunistic crime, as if someone wanted to rob them and then threw their bodies into the Nile.”
“You are right, Herr Benz,” Günter Fischer said, looking at the man who had just spoken, “and now we should go back to the salon or else the witch will realize that we’re plotting something.”
“But are you sure she recognized you? It’s impossible, your face has changed, I don’t think she could connect it with your true identity, Colonel Winkler,” Herr Schneider insisted.
“I want them dead, Herr Schneider, or else I will make you responsible for whatever the consequences are.”
Schneider could not support Colonel Winkler’s cold gaze.
Amelia stayed still where she was for several minutes more until she was sure that the men had left the office. She had to get Max out of there, and she asked herself if Bob Robinson really was nearby and on the lookout, as they had arranged he would be.
Bob had given her a small lantern, and told her that if Fischer was Winkler, then she should go to a window and make a signal. Something simple, just turning it on and off. Now was the time to do it.
When she came back to the salon, Herr Schneider was talking to Max, and Frau Schneider came toward her anxiously.
“But where have you been? I looked everywhere for you: I was worried.”
“I went out into the garden for a moment, I felt a little woozy, I didn’t want to say anything so as not to upset you or the baron.”
“My husband wanted to know where you were...”
“Well, here I am, no one gets lost in a house,” she said, forcing a smile.
Günter Fischer came up to them, and Amelia, in spite of the fact that the face she looked into was not the one she had known Colonel Winkler to have, was sure that it was him.
“So you are Spanish... well, well, well... You speak German perfectly.”
“It’s a language that I love as much as my mother tongue.”
“Do you like living in Cairo?”
“Sadly, we won’t be here very much longer. We are going back to Germany. We can’t deal with the homesickness.”
“Yes, our dear baron and Amelia will be leaving us in a few days’ time, they’re going back to Berlin. We’ll miss them,” Frau Schneider said, ignoring the tension in the air.
“So you’re leaving... And why did you decide to come to Cairo?”
“After the war we thought that it was probably best to leave the country for a while until everything calmed down.”
“And you don’t think that you’ll be in any danger in Germany?”
“I hope not, Herr... Fischer.”
He didn’t say anything else, merely nodded politely and left the two women.
“Poor thing, he must have suffered much. He used to be a very handsome man, but those operations...”
“Was he wounded?” Amelia asked.
“Oh no, it’s just so that no one recognizes him, neither him nor his father. You’ve realized, haven’t you, that old Herr Fischer is a scientist, one of the best ones Germany has to offer. The Allies would have given anything to have arrested him and forced him to work for them. But Fritz Winkler would have killed himself rather than work for the Russians or the Americans.” Frau Schneider had mentioned Winkler’s real name without realizing it.
“Yes, they definitely deserve our admiration,” Amelia replied.
“Of course, my dear, our admiration and our thanks. It can’t have been easy for them to live all this time in Spain, and it was very hard for them to get here. They should have come here more than two years ago, but old Herr Winkler nearly died after the first operation on his face, he got infected. Luckily he got over it, but he has been very ill, and his son, Colonel Winkler, didn’t want to take any risks. You were surprised that we lived in such a large house, weren’t you, my dear? Well, it was meant for them; Herr Winkler needs space to set up his laboratory, his office. I will look after them, and make sure that they’re not missing anything.”
They went up to where Max was seated, talking to Herr Schneider.
“Darling, I think it’s time that we left,” Amelia said.
“I’ll tell Wulff to go with you,” Schneider suggested.
“Oh, there’s no need! We arranged it that the taxi driver would come and pick us up now to take us home, I’m sure that he’s already waiting for us.”
“Wulff doesn’t mind, and I’d be happier knowing that you weren’t alone at this time of night.”
“Don’t worry, Herr Schneider, we know the driver, he’s like our chauffeur in Cairo.”
Wulff came up to them. To Amelia, the owner of the Café Saladin seemed even more sinister than usual.
“I’ll take you home,” he said so bluntly that it seemed impossible to refuse.
“Thank you, Herr Wulff, but we’ve already told our hosts that we have a taxi waiting for us. But we’re very grateful for the offer, aren’t we, Max?”
Amelia started to push Max’s wheelchair toward the exit. When Frau Schneider opened the door, the taxi was there waiting for them. The driver got out and was very solicitous toward Amelia and the baron.
“I’ll help the gentleman while you fold the seat and put it in the front seat.”
Neither Wulff nor the Schneiders could stop Amelia and Max from leaving in the taxi.
Two streets further on, they turned a corner, and the taxi stopped. Bob Robinson got out of a car that was parked a few feet away.
“What happened?” he asked straight out.
“It’s Winkler and his father, and they gave the order to kill us.”
“I’ll send to get Friedrich from your house, and I’ll get you to a safe place.”
“If you do that, they’ll know we’ve found them out and they’ll disappear. We have to take the risk that they will try to kill us.”
“I’ll have a couple of men watch your house,” Bob Robinson said, accepting Amelia’s assessment of the situation.
“Alright? Can you get Winkler?”
“Our aim is to get Fritz Winkler, and we hope to do so.”
“Tonight?”
“No, I don’t think so, they’ll be on the alert. We can’t just burst into the Schneiders’ house, we’ll have to wait for them to come out.”
That night, neither Max nor Amelia slept peacefully, even though they knew that Bob Robinson’s men were watching the house.
“We have to go as soon as possible, we can’t wait two weeks to leave,” Max said.
Nothing happened the next day. Bob came to see them and reassure them, and also to listen to all the details of the dinner and what Amelia had found out.
“We have the Schneiders’ house under close watch, and I think that with the description you’ve given us of the Winklers they won’t escape. We’ve also increased the watch on this house, no one can come in or go out without us seeing them, and if we see anything suspicious we’ll act at once.”
“They’ll try to act soon, they can’t allow us to stay alive knowing what we know,” Max said.
“The strange thing is that they haven’t tried yet,” Amelia said.
“They lost their best chance last night, Wulff only had to take you somewhere out of the way and kill you, then steal whatever you had on you to make it look like a robbery and throw you into the river, just as you heard one of the men suggest. But now they need to think up a new plan. And they need to be careful, the Egyptians know who they are and leave them alone, some civil servants get hearty bribes, but it’s all on the condition that they are discreet. They can’t go around killing people in broad daylight,” Bob Robinson insisted.
“I want you to protect my son,” Max said.
“We will. Two of my men are following him whenever he leaves the
house, they’ll go everywhere with him, they’ll wait for him at the school door, but he won’t realize a thing, don’t worry.”
“Yes, I will worry. We should never have agreed to do this... ,” Max complained.
“But you did, and you are being paid for it, so you shouldn’t complain.” Bob Robinson didn’t beat around the bush and wasn’t prepared for the baron to ruin everything at this late stage.
“You have to kill Colonel Winkler or he will kill me. He doesn’t care about Max or Friedrich, it is me whom Winkler wants to see dead. And this time he’ll try not to fail,” Amelia said.
“My orders are to take Fritz Winkler, if possible without making too much noise about it. We don’t want problems with the Egyptians either. But if Colonel Winkler comes for you, then we will protect you, I’ve told you that already,” Bob Robinson insisted.
On January 2, 1948, Amelia received a note from Frau Schneider asking her to go shopping with her in Khan el-Khalili. Herr Schneider called Max to ask him to meet up with him and some other friends at the Café Saladin.
“Don’t go,” Max ordered her.
“I have to go, and you know it.”
“Do you want them to kill you? What do you think will happen if you go to Khan el-Khalili? You’ll disappear and then you’ll be found dead in an alleyway.”
“I’m going, Max. If I don’t, then they’ll suspect and hide the Winklers. They want to know if we suspect anything, if we recognized their guests. We committed ourselves to doing a job, and they have paid us for it, we have to keep our side of the bargain, and then we’ll go back to Berlin. I promise you, Max.”
They sent word to Bob Robinson and he ordered them to keep their appointments.
“If you don’t go then they’ll suspect you, and it’ll blow the whole operation out of the water. I am sorry for the risk that you are going to face. The most I could possibly permit would be for you, Max, to say that you weren’t feeling well, but Amelia, you can’t give any excuses, you have to go. They think that they know you, Max, so they think that if you suspected anything then you wouldn’t let Amelia go to the meeting with Frau Schneider.”
“Apparently they don’t know that when a man sells himself he stops being the same,” Max said, trying to control the anger he felt.
“Call me any names you want, but if I were you I wouldn’t worry. The work is like this, and the pay is good. There’s nothing more to talk about. But the people who do this job also believe in things,” Bob Robinson replied.
Max decided to go to the meeting at the Café Saladin, but before he went he made Bob Robinson swear that if anything happened to him or Amelia, then American intelligence would make arrangements for Friedrich’s care, and would ensure that he was educated in Germany.
“No one is going to kill you this afternoon, Max, they just want to check what you know. If you don’t leave the script we’ve prepared then they won’t suspect anything, but everything depends on you.”
Frau Schneider came to pick up Amelia. She was nervous and, normally so talkative, she scarcely spoke a word. As for Max, the taxi driver who worked for Bob took him to the Café Saladin with instructions to wait until his meeting was over and then take him straight home.
“Are you feeling better?” Frau Schneider asked Amelia.
“Of course, why do you ask?”
“The other night you said that you were feeling unwell...”
“Oh, it was hot and... Well, you know, things happen to women...”
They walked toward the old town and Amelia was surprised that Frau Schneider was walking so fast, as if she were keen to get somewhere.
“What are you going to buy?” she asked.
“Oh, nothing important, but I don’t like going to Khan el-Khalili alone, I sometimes think that it’s so easy to get lost in those little streets. I want to buy a present for my husband, and he told me about a jeweler’s that has lovely pieces at a very good price, I’d like to find him some cufflinks, I don’t know... maybe rubies or aquamarines. What do you think?”
They walked into the old town and Frau Schneider slowed her pace, looking to the left and to the right as if waiting for someone to tell her where to go. Amelia didn’t take too long to see that they were following a shortish man, dressed in traditional clothes, who always walked a few paces ahead of them. They went on moving into ever more twisty and narrow alleyways.
“Are you sure we know where we’re going?” she asked Frau Schneider, who seemed more and more nervous.
“Don’t worry, my dear, I’m very good at orienting myself, I don’t think we’re lost.”
The man who seemed to be Frau Schneider’s guide stopped in front of a dark doorway, then carried on walking. Frau Schneider stopped in the doorway and indicated to Amelia that she should follow her.
“It’s here, yes, this is the address.”
They climbed up some narrow stairs that ended in front of a door, which Frau Schneider pushed open to let Amelia go in first.
She could see nothing for a few seconds, but then her eyes began to grow accustomed to the dark, and she suddenly heard the door shut behind her. She turned around, looking for Frau Schneider, but she had vanished.
“Come in, Amelia,” came a voice that she recognized immediately. It was Colonel Winkler.
“Ah, Herr Fischer! I didn’t know we were going to meet you here,” Amelia said in an innocent voice, while taking a quick look around the room to see that she was alone with Winkler.
“You didn’t know?”
“No, of course not. Where is the jeweler’s? It’s a slightly strange place, don’t you think?” Amelia could now see that Fischer was seated in a chair, the only chair in the room, and that he seemed to be hiding something in his lap.
“Enough! You know who I am, don’t you?”
“Of course, Herr Fischer, how could I not know you?”
Colonel Winkler stood up and could only take one step forward. He didn’t have time to realize how, but he felt something hit him in the face. The darkness had made him unaware that Amelia was taking her hand out of her jacket pocket, and that in her hand she held a pistol. He died realizing that Amelia was shooting him.
She did not stop shooting until she had emptied the magazine. She shot him in the face, the gut, and the heart. She couldn’t stop shooting him because she was afraid that he was still alive. Then, when she saw him on the floor, motionless, in the middle of a pool of blood, she calmed down a little. She heard no noise, as if the shots hadn’t alerted anyone. She turned around and ran back the way she had come until she reached the doorway, then slowed down so as not to draw attention to herself. She wore a handkerchief over her head, but even so it would not be difficult for someone to remember her features and describe them when they found the body of Colonel Winkler and were looking for suspects.
Suddenly a man came up to her and she recognized him: He worked for Bob Robinson.
“What happened? I saw Frau Schneider coming scared out of this house you’ve just left. Who was waiting for you?”
“It was a trap. Colonel Winkler wanted to kill me, but I killed him.”
“You... but... what! You weren’t meant to kill him, no one ordered him to be killed. Bob’s not going to like this, and Albert James even less,” the man said as he grabbed her firmly by the arm.
“Let me go! The colonel wanted to kill me himself and he wasn’t going to wait to see if I had recognized him or not. He knew I had, so he needed to kill me as soon as possible. If I hadn’t killed him, then you would have found me dead. Now he’s dead. What’s happening with Max?”
The man did not reply. He made a sign to two other agents whom Amelia had not seen.
“Colonel Winkler is dead,” he told them.
He grabbed hold of Amelia’s arm again and pulled her out of Khan el-Khalili.
“I have to go and look for Max.”
“No, you’re not going anywhere. You haven’t fulfilled your part of the plan. I’ll take you home and we’ll wait the
re for Bob and Albert James, and I swear that I will not let you move an inch away from where I am.”
“Albert is in Cairo?”
“He arrived this morning.”
Max came back two hours later. His face was tense.
“What happened?” Amelia hugged him as soon as she saw him come back into the house, helped by the taxi driver who worked for Bob.
“I don’t know. Schneider made me answer all kind of questions: about you, about what we were going to do in Berlin, about Friedrich... but neither of the Fischers was there, neither the father nor the son. Herr Schneider seemed to want to keep me busy, I don’t know, it was all very strange. Wulff was very nervous and didn’t do anything apart from look at his watch. He told his assistant that he was going out for a while and left the café without saying goodbye. And what about you, how was your shopping trip with Frau Schneider?”
“It all went well, don’t worry.”
Bob Robinson came to the house an hour later, along with Albert James, and they seemed to be feeling a mixture of anger and euphoria.
“Albert, I didn’t know you were here!” Amelia said, happy to see him.
“Bob told me, and I came along in time to help you with the operation. But you...”
“You put us in a tricky situation. You shouldn’t have killed Colonel Winkler,” Bob interrupted.
“What!” Max exclaimed in shock.
“I didn’t have any choice, if I hadn’t killed him then he would have killed me.”
“You don’t know that,” Bob protested.
“He was carrying a pistol. Do you think they’d arrange for me to go to an abandoned house in Khan el-Khalili in order to drink tea? It was him or me.”
“And you shot him, even though I ordered you not to. My men were close behind you.”
“But they couldn’t have stopped him from killing me, how could they have managed to do that? He would have shot me and would have left the house peacefully, just as I did. Your men would have found me dead.”