He knew about the military installation near the German–Polish border, home to the largest multinational training ground in Europe.
“You’ve been all over the chatter this morning,” Danny said. “NATO listening stations picked up your theft of a plane and the unauthorized flight, monitoring the transmissions. The Belarusians were waiting to shoot you down.”
“You could have warned us,” Cotton said.
“You know the drill. We can’t let them know that we know what they’re doing. Was all that related to what I asked you to do?”
He nodded. “That’s a yes.”
Danny chuckled. “It seems there’s a lot more here than meets the eye. Thankfully, the good folks at the base offered me a ride to come see what happened to you.”
“We appreciate your attention.”
Danny was looking around. “Where’s the other parachute?”
“There wasn’t one,” Cassiopeia said. “We share everything, except toothbrushes and ice cream cones.”
Danny shook his head. “What was that like?”
“Horrible,” she said. “But necessary, under the circumstances.”
The older man smiled. “That’s an optimistic way of putting it.”
“Have you ever had the pleasure?” she asked.
“Once. A long time ago. In the army. I decided then and there not to ever jump out of a plane again.”
“I’m with you.”
Cotton was allowing his old friend the luxury of building up to what he wanted. He sensed that the problem remained serious.
“Did you find out anything about Hanna Cress?” Danny asked.
“Bits and pieces. We needed another day or so. I was trying not to draw attention, which obviously didn’t work out.”
Danny shook his head. “We have a mess. Three days ago I watched Cress die, poisoned by a cigarette laced with cyanide inside a police interrogation room. We now know the cigarettes were supplied by the duty officer, who says another inspector, supposedly from Berlin, provided them when the woman requested smokes. Nobody, though, seems to know anything about that other inspector. Who, what, where, when? Nothing. He looked and acted official. Now he’s gone.”
“No cameras?” Cotton asked.
“Plenty of them. But not a single shot of the guy’s face. He was careful.”
“Which signifies a pro.”
Danny nodded. “Exactly.”
The helicopter waited out in the clearing, its blades still turning at low speed, churning up the tall brush.
“By the way,” Danny said, “President Czajkowski sends you greetings from Warsaw. I had to call in a favor with him to get permission for this incursion into Polish airspace. Oddly, once he knew you were involved, he said I could do whatever I wanted. No questions asked. Care to explain that one?”
Cotton smiled. “You’re not the only one with favors owed.”
“I want to hear more about that. But at the moment the clock is ticking, and I still need your help.”
Danny Daniels was one of the smartest people Cotton had ever known. He’d been elected president of the United States twice in overwhelming victories. They had a long history, accentuated by Danny’s close relationship with the Magellan Billet and Stephanie Nelle. That had been all business at first. Now Danny and Stephanie were an item, Danny divorced from his wife and openly seeing Stephanie.
The Magellan Billet was all Stephanie’s creation. A special unit within the Justice Department composed of twelve agents, most with military or legal backgrounds, who worked exclusively at her direction on some of the most sensitive assignments at Justice. It had been Daniels’ go-to agency for trouble resolution. But not so much with the new president, Warner Fox. In fact, the Billet’s days were probably numbered.
“How is Stephanie?” he asked Daniels.
“Still suspended from her job, but not actually fired. She made it perfectly clear that she did not want my help and I was to stay out of her fight with the White House. Nothing. Nada. God knows, it’s been hard. But that’s what I’m doing.”
Last week, while Cotton had acquired some future capital in the president of Poland’s eye, Stephanie had incurred the wrath of the president of the United States, earning a promise to be fired.
“Fox is letting her twist in the wind,” Danny said. “It’s his style. To her credit, she’s handling it okay. Thankfully, she’s civil service, so she gets a hearing. It’ll be closed door and classified, but still a hearing. That’ll take time. There’s nothing I can do about any of it, but watch.”
“Yet here you are in the woods of eastern Poland,” Cassiopeia said. “With a NATO chopper at your disposal.”
Daniels chuckled. “It’s good to be me.”
“We came into this blind,” Cotton said, “thinking it was a quick meet and greet to gather some intel. It’s obviously more than that. Maybe you should open our eyes.”
“There’s an election coming in Germany. Did you know that?”
They both shook their heads.
“National parliamentary voting is about to begin. Once done, the newly chosen Bundestag will meet and choose a German chancellor. To win that post, a candidate must achieve a majority of all the elected members in the legislature. Not just his or her party. All of them. The Germans have a name for it. Kanzlermehrheit. Chancellor’s majority.”
“Sounds like a tough job to get,” Cotton said.
“It is, considering the number of political parties in Germany. About forty at last count. Even worse, the votes for chancellor in the Bundestag are by secret ballot. So nobody knows how anyone else votes. That allows a great deal of shifting alliances.”
Unlike in Congress, where the vote for Speaker of the House was public, with each member having to openly declare their support or opposition.
“And here’s the rub,” Daniels said. “It’s the German president who proposes a nominee for chancellor. That’s usually the person who heads the party that gets the most seats from the election. But if that person can’t get a chancellor’s majority, then the Bundestag elects its own candidate. If it isn’t able to do that, then things really get messy. Luckily, all of the chancellors since 1949 have achieved a majority on the first vote, so they’ve never gotten beyond that scenario.”
“Until now?” Cotton asked.
Danny nodded. “It’s shaping up to be a mess. It’s Ringling Brothers all over again. A virtual three-ring circus come to town, which could take a bad bounce in many different directions. Then six months from now it gets worse. That’s when elections to the European Parliament will be held. A once-in-five-years event when member states choose their national representatives. And there are big problems taking shape there. How Germany goes now could well be how the European Union goes then.”
Cotton was beginning to appreciate the gravity of the situation.
“The German chancellor also has enormous power,” Danny said. “He or she chooses all the cabinet ministers. The entire German government is shaped by whoever holds that position. Currently the chancellor is Marie Eisenhuth. A friend to the U.S. Also a decent person who tries to do the best she can for her country. But there’s a second candidate, one who is trying to take her job.”