Without Honor by David Hagberg Page B

one damning bit of evidence against him.
    â€œMen of his ilk don’t rush for their guns unless they mean to use them,” Mueller had said.
    But she had been so proud of him, until his recent bout of restlessness. Liese had been trying to get him into bed for the past year and a half without results. Only just lately she had come to think … to dream that he loved her. That she could tell him everything and that they could run. But to where?
    Marta could feel her eyes filling. It was still another thing they had not prepared her for at Worb. Big girls don’t cry, that was how it went in the song, wasn’t it?
    â€œYou either believe in your heritage or you don’t,” Mueller was saying gently.
    He was like a Jew with his guilt. But she knew what was coming next.
    â€œIt should never have gone on this long. I should
never have let you talk me into continuing. I should have seen the signs.” Mueller sighed, almost theatrically, although Marta knew it was for real. “If you can’t do this, tell me. Other arrangements will be made.”
    A sudden panic rose in her breast. She spun around. “No!” she cried. “You don’t understand.”
    â€œI think I do. Perhaps more than you want me to. But he must be neutralized. We cannot have an operation going on under our noses. He has a gun. He has been given his brief, apparently, and we must—Marta, I have to emphasize must— consider him a danger to Swiss law and order. To our peace.”
    If he meant by “a danger” that he was angry, then yes. Angry and dangerous. Kirk was all that and more. But dangerous to the precious Swiss law and order? No, she could not believe that, although there had definitely been something bothering him lately.
    There had been a time, she thought, when they spent most of their waking hours together in bed. In fact, they used to share a joke: Why rent an apartment when all they needed is their bed and a closet large enough for their clothes? Then they’d laugh. Who needed clothes?
    In the summer when it got warm, they wouldn’t stop. Sometimes they’d crawl out of bed and look back at the outlines their bodies had left in sweat on the sheets after hours of lovemaking.
    But it wasn’t all sex, was it? Liese with her antics proved that. She certainly was a beautiful and desirable young woman, but Kirk had never once even hinted that he might want to take her up on her propositions.
    â€œI know what you’re doing,” Mueller said sympathetically. “But you’re a professional.”
    A young couple came up the stairway hand-in-hand and hiked off in the opposite direction. Marta
watched them until they disappeared around the corner. Then she glanced up at the apartment she had shared with Kirk for nearly five years.
    An entire period in her life was coming to an end now, and she didn’t know if she was going to have the courage to see it through.
    Mueller had suggested someone else handle it. Kirk could be arrested and then deported back to the States. But in his present state of mind, that would be a very dangerous operation. There was no telling what he might do. Marta was convinced that he would never surrender. He would run. She could see, in her mind’s eye, what that might lead to. In that, at least, he was a danger to Swiss law and order.
    â€œI’ll do it,” she said, looking back.
    Mueller stared at her for a long time. “I’ll be here for you,” he said.
    She shook her head. “It’s all right, Johann. I can handle it.”
    â€œYou’ll need backup. I insist on it.”
    â€œNo,” she screeched. “Don’t you understand what I am saying to you?”
    â€œWhat are you saying to me?” Mueller asked softly.
    â€œIf he leaves Switzerland then it is over. You agreed to that.”
    â€œIf his brief includes an operation here … ?”
    â€œIf he leaves Switzerland,” she