Josh looked panicked by her response, as if he thought the situation might still be more volatile than it seemed.
“With you, no, I’m not. With Bill Brabham, yes, because the lowest of the low is on higher ground than Bill Brabham.” She looked skeptical, but he said, “You don’t have to take my word for that—you’ll see the proof soon enough.”
She looked ready to respond, but jumped a little when a phone on the desk behind her started to ring and vibrate about the surface.
“It’s Eric’s phone.” Dan gestured for her to pick it up and she looked at the screen and said, “It’s Bill.”
“Speak of the Devil. Answer it. But put it on speaker.”
“What do I tell him?”
“The truth. That I’m here, that I’ve killed everyone, that I’m threatening to kill you.”
She nodded but looked confused, and answered the call, saying, “Hi, Bill, it’s Callie.”
“Hello, Callie. Is Eric away from his desk?”
“No, Bill, there’s been . . . an incident.”
There was an awkward and lengthy pause, and Dan could imagine Brabham signaling to someone else at his end.
Finally he said, “What kind of incident, Callie?”
“Dan Hendricks, he’s here right now. He’s killed everyone except me and Josh.” Dan waved the gun at her and she added, “And he’s threatening to kill us, Bill.” There was another pause, and in the end Callie said, “Bill?”
“Callie, is Hendricks listening in right now?”
She looked to Dan for guidance on how to respond and when he gave her a relaxed nod, she said, “Yeah, he’s here.”
“We’ll take care of it.”
It took her a moment to realize Brabham had ended the call. She looked at the phone, and Josh looked at her.
It was Josh who said, “What now?”
“We’re leaving, but we’ll be able to see exactly who comes to save you. Okay, Josh, stand up, put your hands out in front, then come over here.”
Josh followed him and Dan loaded up his arms with the lunch order. It would help conceal the fact that he was cuffed, but it was more than that—he suspected neither of them felt like eating right now, but it would be a long afternoon.
“Callie, stand up, put your phone on the desk.”
“I didn’t have it with me. It’s in my purse.”
“Okay, come over here, reach into Josh’s pocket, take his phone and put it on the desk.” She did as he said. “Good, now let’s go, Josh you’ll be in front. Callie, we’ll walk together.”
“Where are we going?”
“I know you’re a smart woman, observant . . .”
She looked annoyed with herself for not seeing it before, and said, “You’re in the building across the street.”
She had an air of defeat around her now, as if they’d come up against an unmatchable adversary, and he didn’t want to tell her the more startling truth, that complacency had done for them, that they’d believed themselves secure without ever properly thinking it through.
Dan had developed a reputation over the years, for tracking people down, for snatching people off the street, making them disappear. What he’d learned himself was that it didn’t take superhuman levels of skill or expertise, it just took being better than the opposition, and the opposition normally wasn’t that good. He wasn’t special, just above average and, so far, that had been enough.
Chapter Thirty-eight
They’d been in Dan’s lookout for nearly forty minutes, not talking at all, just looking across the street. A couple of times a car had come along outside and Callie had craned her neck and looked down before leaning back again in resignation. Josh had been resigned from the outset, and was leaning against the wall, with no apparent interest in what was happening with his colleagues or his office.
They’d been silent for so long that Callie jumped slightly at the sound of Dan’s voice as he said, “Brabham lives out at Zehlendorf, right?”
“Yeah, he does.”
“You been out there?”
She nodded and said, “It’s a big old villa on the shore of the Wannsee.”
“That’s great, but how long would you say, to drive from there to here?”
“I don’t know. I guess, a half hour, forty minutes, depending on traffic.”
“They’re not coming,” said Josh, sounding like someone in a trance.
She knew it, but didn’t want to acknowledge what it meant, and said, “They assumed they’d be too late to save us. They’re probably concentrating their resources on securing Bill’s place. It’s what I would have done.”
“No, it isn’t. I’ve known you about an hour, Callie, and I can tell you right now you would not have hung two people out to dry like that.” She was still in denial, so he said, “And answer me one other thing. He asked you if I was listening in, but he didn’t ask to speak to me, he didn’t ask what I wanted. Why do you think that was?”