Madeleine glared at him, and her voice came out icy. “Yes, thank you, I know very well what happened here. Your brother is still alive, though. That’s more than we can say about some of our colleagues. This company is my creation, and I’m responsible for every single person here. We will do everything we can to make sure whoever did this is held accountable.”
Hugo fell silent and his shoulders sank. “You’re right. Sorry—I didn’t mean to attack.”
Madeleine took a deep breath and said, “It’s okay, I understand you’re upset. We all are. But we have to regroup now if we’re going to have any chance of overcoming this.”
There was a knock, and the group turned around as one to see a female police officer standing inside the doorway.
“Hi, am I interrupting?”
Madeleine shook her head. “No, come in.”
“Thanks. I just want to have a few words with you if that’s okay.”
Madeleine stood, got her leg into position on her chair, and she and the officer went to the far corner of the conference room. Hugo couldn’t hear what they said, but as he watched, the officer produced photographs that they studied together. After a few minutes, the cop left the room without another word, and Madeleine rolled her chair back to the table and sat down.
“What was that about?” Freya asked.
“The people who attacked us were recorded when they left.”
Everyone stood up at one time and began shouting in astonishment.
Mikko said, “What? How? They destroyed the cameras here!”
“It was two blocks away,” Madeleine answered. “There are two cameras at the train station.”
“Of course. So they have pictures of them?” said Sussie.
Madeleine nodded. Hugo was torn. He should go to the hospital and be with his brother. And he should also call Lita—he had completely forgotten about her in all the commotion. He pulled out his phone. There were seven missed calls. He laid it face-down on the table.
“So, do we know who it was? Was that what the officer told you?”
“Not with a hundred percent certainty, but it looks like it might be someone we know.”
Sussie broke in. “Who?”
“Klaus Horst.”
Mikko pounded the table so hard the dust swirled. “That bastard! Was he the one who attacked us?”
Madeleine raised her hands. “Calm down, please. He wasn’t in the pictures the officer showed me. But Xi Liu was, and since Xi works for Klaus, we can be almost certain he’s the one who arranged this.”
“Time out,” Hugo said. “Who are we talking about? Someone you know?”
“Klaus Horst hired us two weeks ago to perform a mission.”
Hugo scrunched up his eyes. “‘Perform a mission’? What kind of mission?”
Sussie shrugged and looked over at Madeleine. “Now might not be the best time to go through this, you think?”
Madeleine hesitated. She had an instinct, a feeling about Hugo. He was Felix’s twin, and Felix was one of Novus’ best employees. Maybe—maybe—his twin brother was as capable as he was. She had heard rumors; this brother of Felix had been a Swedish special forces soldier—later an officer—and had also joined the special protection group. It was all in his file. The rumor also whispered about his legendary tolerance for pain. Assuming it was all true, if anyone was competent enough to shoulder his brother’s role, it was Hugo.
Madeleine turned her attention completely to Hugo. “Klaus wanted us to retrieve a Russian scientist and his discovery and hand them over to him.”
“You’re talking about kidnapping?”
“That’s not what’s important here. Call it what you want. That was the mission, and we started doing some preliminary investigations. But after our initial analysis, we decided the assignment wasn’t for us. So I contacted Klaus to let him know we were rejecting the op. That was two days ago.”
Hugo drew a line in the dust on the table as he pondered. “Let me guess. As a thank-you for that, he arranged for this attack. To teach you a lesson?”
“That’s the hunch. A man by the name of Xi Liu was with Klaus the two times I met with him. And Xi was one of the people in the pictures the cop showed me.”
A memory of Xi’s dark eyes flickered in Hugo’s brain. “So, what made you give up your assignment?” he asked.
Sussie was about to protest again, but Madeleine silenced her with a glance.
“Sussie managed to hack one of the Russian scientist’s servers and found some interesting information. It seems he’d invented a way to gain control over a human being.”
“What do you mean ‘gain control’?”
“He was creating a specially developed drug and injection that could get nearly total control over a person.”
Hugo shook his head. “I still don’t get it. It sounds like science fiction. So that’s what made you pull out?”
Sussie broke in, “No. When I was on the server, I found evidence that it had already been hacked. The tracks led to a server in Paris.”
“Okay, and?”
Madeleine got up and walked around the table. “Every time I talked to Klaus, there was a warning bell that rang in my head. Add that to the fact that the Russian had already been hacked . . . it all smelled funny. So to play it safe, I canceled the mission.”
“Well, that was a mistake,” Hugo said dryly.
“Apparently.”
5
He trembled. But he also knew it was only the adrenaline that was beginning to vanish from his body. The snow swirled as the car slipped under a red light.
“Take it easy! The last thing we need now is to get the cops’ attention. Slow down and follow the plan.”
Obediently, the driver eased his foot off the accelerator.
Xi Liu pulled off his helmet and scratched his scar. He pointed. “Take a right here. Make sure you take us through town without any problems.”
They continued through the city center, and by this time, the traffic had died down. It was still early morning and lunch traffic had not started yet. Xi took a few deep breaths and thought through what had happened. It had been a success; they had performed their mission with minimal damage, and considering how little time they’d been given for planning, he was very pleased.
The only problem was the late arrival. But it didn’t matter; whoever he’d been, there wasn’t anything he could do now. He pulled his mobile phone from his inside breast pocket and scrolled down the contact list. He tapped a name to dial, and a bright male voice answered.
“Yes?”
“It’s done. Mission accomplished.”
The man on the other end laughed. “Excellent! Very good job, Xi. Any problems?”
Xi recapped the mission in as much detail as he could and was careful not to omit anything. He had no doubt it would be noticed if he tried to do so.
“Fantastic job, Xi,” came the response when he’d said everything. “I knew there was a small risk that the person you described would find his way there, but I didn’t really think it would happen. The odds were minimal.”
Xi frowned. “You mean you knew about the guy who showed up at the end?”