Free Private Berlin by James Patterson, Mark Sullivan

rushing waters will take him deep and far away.
    I get out, chilled but not caring.
    I get the satchel and fling it in the back of the Mercedes. Then I drag the tarp and the carcass of my friend the computer
     genius to the river. I roll the bundle into the river, pull the tarp, and roll his body into the water.
    The thief’s body is already out of sight.
    I quickly fold the tarp and put it beside the satchel in the ML500.
    I hurl the helmet into the river. I start the motorcycle, put it in gear, hold the brake, gun the throttle, pop the clutch,
     and let go.
    The bike roars forward, flies off the bank, and disappears.
    I have to hurry back to Berlin now. I can’t take it any longer. I have to check the slaughterhouse.
    I have to make decisions about its future, my friends.
    Terrible decisions.

CHAPTER 21
    MATTIE PUT HER right eye to Private Berlin’s retina scan at six forty-five on Monday morning. She’d slept fitfully. Her eyes were bloodshot
     and puffy. She wondered if it would affect the scan, but it did not, and the bulletproof doors hissed open.
    Dawn was just breaking when she walked through the glass hallway above the park. No lights had been turned on yet. She was
     the first to arrive.
    Or so she thought. When she entered the lounge area, meaning to start coffee brewing, she flipped on the light. Someone groaned
     loudly.
    Mattie jumped and looked at the couch. “Who’s there?” she demanded in German.
    Jack Morgan sat up from the other side and looked at her blearily. “I don’t speak German, Mattie. What time is it?”
    Like many Germans, Mattie spoke fluent English. “Ten of seven,” she replied. “Jack, I’m sorry I didn’t…”
    Private’s owner waved a hand at her and got to his feet. He wore a pilot’s leather jacket, jeans, and low-heel cowboy boots.
     A tall, lean man who always seemed in a hurry, Morgan pushed back his dark sandy hair and said, “Don’t worry about it. They
     say you’re better off staying up, right?”
    Mattie smiled. She liked Jack Morgan. He was smart without being overbearing, and he owned the company but didn’t act like
     God.
    He came over to her. “How are you?”
    Mattie shrugged and started making coffee. “As well as you can be when you find out that your…uh, colleague and friend is
     missing except for a tracking chip dug out of his back.”
    “It’s why I came,” Morgan said sympathetically. “The moment I heard.”
    “When did you get in?”
    “About an hour ago,” Morgan said. “Thirteen-hour flight.”
    “You must be beat,” Mattie said, flipping on the coffeemaker. “I can bring you up to speed on what’s happened while you’ve
     been in transit. Do you want to go have a real breakfast somewhere?”
    “Coffee’s fine for right now,” Morgan said, taking a seat at the lounge table. “And I would appreciate a briefing, but first,
     because it was bugging me the entire flight, why did you and Chris break off your engagement?”
    Mattie made a puffing noise and looked away from him. She rarely talked about her personal life except with Katharina and
     her aunt. But her boss had just flown thirteen hours to help her find Chris. She figured an honest answer was the least she
     could offer.
    In a strained voice Mattie said, “We had a whirlwind romance shortly after you hired me. We were engaged in six months. But
     I eventually found out that Chris was a troubled man, Jack. There was a part of him that I could not reach, that I could not
     know. He never talked about his childhood. But there was something from that time that haunted him. The longer I was with
     him, the more I could feel how large a space it occupied in his soul. I pleaded with him to tell me, but he refused. Finally
     I decided I couldn’t marry a man with so much unknown inside him, no matter how much I loved him. It wouldn’t have been fair
     to me. And it would not have been fair to my son, Niklas.”
    “So you ended it?”
    Mattie nodded. “One of the most