The Nameless Ones by John Connolly

Chapter LXXVIII

The original call made by Louis was traced to a recipient device in a rented apartment located above an electronic repair store on Jurekgasse in Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus. The return call from Mr Rafi also came from Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus, this time from a Turkish restaurant on Preysinggasse, on the other side of the maze of railway tracks leading to and from the adjacent Westbahnhof station. Within the hour both locations were under surveillance, and efforts were being made to obtain and access footage from nearby security cameras. Three men and one woman, all believed to be from the same Turkish family, were found to be renting the apartment on Jurekgasse. As anticipated, none of them matched the description of Mr Rafi or his aide. The Turkish restaurant did not have a security system on the premises, and was not overlooked by any cameras nearby, which was almost certainly the reason Mr Rafi had chosen to contact Louis from there.

But the hook had been baited, and now they would just have to wait. There was no question of alerting Frend to the danger he might be facing because the lawyer would be nervous enough already. If the operation went according to plan, he would never even know he had been in peril. Just in case Mr Rafi attempted to access the hotel that night, two teams were placed outside, and a third team checked in as a married couple and requested one of two rooms on the third floor ‘for old times’ sake’, which left them with a view of Frend’s door. As an added precaution, a mini motion sensor barely an inch in height and half an inch in width was placed next to a power outlet between Frend’s room and the hallway leading to the stairs and elevator. If it was activated, an alert would be sent to the team in the room. Before he went to bed, Louis obtained a cast-iron guarantee from Harris: once the targets were in custody or neutralized, Harris’s people would not attempt to interfere with Louis’s plans for the Vuksans, and Frend would be allowed to proceed unimpeded to the meeting place. That night, Angel stayed with Louis, and a wake-up call was set for 3:30 a.m.

They barely slept, but lay awake and watched the dark settle.