Free The Last Compromise by Carl Reevik Page A

Above Clarke there was only the top level of the Commission.
These people were not bureaucrats, not even senior advisors. These were
politicians. Maria Schuster-Zoll, the German member of the European Commission.
    ‘And
she’s not interested in your guy or anybody in particular,’ Tienhoven said,
sitting back down at the little table he’d just left. ‘She probably doesn’t
want to know any details, let alone names. But she lets us know that she wants
us to liaise with the German foreign intelligence authorities to help them check
out someone specific in the atomic energy department. Someone in Luxembourg.’

6
    The lunch break
was nearly over, they couldn’t stay forever.
    But
they lay there in such a tight and warm and comforting embrace. This was
precisely what she wanted to do. Stay forever. Of course this was silly, a
stupid thing to even think. And she would stop thinking it in a few moments. There
were certain realities in life which they both knew very well. They weren’t
teenagers. Not even newlyweds. Almost the opposite.
    ‘Sorry,
wait a second,’ he whispered to her.
    He
freed himself from her embrace and went to the bathroom to take the condom off.
Anneli watched him disappear from view. Of course she would wait a second. This
was part of it as well, in the end. This was not the anticipation, not the
excitement. Not the mutual pleasure, not the selfish pleasure. Not the skin,
not the open mouths, not the gliding touches, the breathing. But it was just as
much real. In the movies people had unprotected sex all the time, even with
complete strangers. But she had a husband. And children.
    She
looked up. He came back and lay down next to her, still naked, his face turned
to hers, his arm resting on her body. He didn’t say anything. He was just
looking at her. She was now looking at the ceiling. The curtains were drawn,
the pale grey sunlight shone weakly around the edges.
    ‘We
have to get back,’ she said, quietly. But she didn’t move.
    He
didn’t reply. And he didn’t move either.
    They
just lay there for a long while in the warmth of the hotel bed. They had warmed
it up themselves with the heat of their bodies.
    Finally
she sighed. She took his arm off her body and forced herself to get up. She started
looking for her clothes.
    Viktor
turned around and tried to remember where he had put his glasses.
     
    Brussels
     
    ‘You
meet with the German secret spy guy,’ Tienhoven said.
    ‘Me?’
Hans was still sitting at his boss’s little table. He was not entirely
comfortable with this idea, although he immediately felt the thrill. A certain
heat pressing from the inside against his chest. He knew it well. But this was
going very fast. Just a moment ago he’d felt like he was getting ahead of
himself with that Bulgarian theory of his, and now it was already turning into
a joint clandestine operation with the intelligence service of the largest
European Union member country.
    ‘This
is not an official investigation, remember?’, Tienhoven explained. ‘This is just
experimental research, with a little probe. We haven’t questioned anybody, we
haven’t seized any files or computer drives, we haven’t suspended anyone or
anything.’
    ‘And
this means?’
    ‘If
I get involved already now, at my level, our mutual boss Geoffrey Clarke will
want to cover himself. He will bring in Nathalie Bresson from the legal
service. If you know what I mean.’
    Hans
knew what he meant. In her previous life Bresson had worked at the ministry of
justice in Paris. She was brainy but cautious, as you presumably had to be in her
position. But Hans knew that his boss held a more explicit opinion. Tienhoven had
never been to law school himself, but he had dealt with a lot of members of
various legal professions. And he was convinced that French universities didn’t
teach people to find solutions. They taught them to be afraid of the professor.
Which meant the graduates were worthless when it came to solving