Numbered Account

Joseph unlatched the box and handed him the field glasses. This was crunch time. Stay calm and the others will stay calm, too.

Franco rolled down the passenger window. He labored to place his head and shoulders outside the cab of the eighteen-wheeler.

Remo sucked on his cigarette. "Eh?" he inquired loudly.

"Only two lanes open," answered Franco, after pulling his body inside the cabin.

Remo tapped his forehead. "Two lanes. This explains why we go so slow."

"Which one is closed?" asked Joseph coldly. Say it's the left one. Keep everything according to plan.

"The left one," said Franco. "Everybody is being funneled into the center and right lane."

Joseph exhaled.

Remo blasted his horn and drew the big rig into the right lane.

***

Thirty meters behind the juggernaut, an undistinguished white Volvo turned on its blinker and followed suit. The driver played with a small gold medallion hanging from his neck. "Almost there," Moammar al Khan whispered, bringing the medallion to his mouth and kissing it lightly. "Inshallah, God is great."

***

"Your name?" asked Yves-Andre Wenker. He sat primly on the couch, forms splayed across his lap.

"Allen Malvinas. Must I introduce myself twice? The essentials are there, in my passport. You have it on the table."

Wenker eyed the travel document resting on the coffee table. "Thank you, Mr. Malvinas. However, I prefer a personal response. Date of birth?"

"November 12, 1936."

"Present address?"

"It is in the passport. On the third page."

Wenker made no move to pick up the passport. "Address?"

Mevlevi scooped up the passport and read off the address. "Satisfied?"

Wenker kept his head lowered and painstakingly filled out his precious form. "Years at this address?"

"Seven."

"Seven?" Sharp blue eyes peeked out from behind the thin spectacles. A strand of blond hair fell across his brow.

"Yes, seven," Mevlevi insisted. His leg was killing him. Suddenly, he was unsure. He swallowed hard and rasped, "Why not seven?"

Wenker smiled. "Seven is fine." He returned his attention to the paper resting in his lap. "Occupation?"

"Import and export."

"What exactly do you import and export?"

"I concentrate on precious metals and commodities," said Mevlevi. "Gold, silver, the like." Hadn't Kaiser told him a damned thing? This drab functionary was beginning to get on his nerves. Not the questions, so much, but the decidedly nasty tinge to his voice.

"Income?"

"That is none of your concern."

Wenker removed his eyeglasses from the bridge of his nose. "We do not sponsor wards of the state to immigrate to Switzerland."

"I hardly qualify as a ward of the state," Mevlevi objected loudly.

"Of course not. Regardless, we must have-"

"And who said anything about immigrating?"

Wenker slapped the stack of forms onto the coffee table. He lifted his chin, ready to deliver a stern rebuke. "Mr. Neumann told me specifically that you wished to purchase property in Gstaad in order to establish a permanent residence in this country. While on certain occasions we make exceptions for the granting of a Swiss passport, permanent residence is an absolute requirement. Are you, or are you not, planning on maintaining a permanent residence in Switzerland?"

Ali Mevlevi coughed, then poured himself a glass of mineral water from a bottle set upon the table. He preferred a country where a bent official at least had a little respect. "I misunderstood you. Mr. Neumann was absolutely correct. I shall be making Gstaad my principal residence."

Wenker sat lower in his chair. He offered Mevlevi a starched smile while he scribbled away at his form. "Income?"

"Five hundred thousand dollars per annum."

Wenker raised his eyebrows. "Is that all?"

The Pasha stood up, his face flushed and his lips quivering. "Isn't that enough?"

Wenker remained unruffled. His pen slid across paper. "That is enough," he said to his questionnaire.

Mevlevi grimaced and returned to his seat. He sensed his wound tear. A warm trail of blood inched down his leg. Just a little longer, he told himself. Then you can walk to the telephone, call Gino Makdisi, and find out what you already know- that your precious cargo is safely across the border and that Nicholas Neumann is dead.

Wenker glanced offhandedly at his wristwatch and then returned his attention to the form spread across his lap. He cleared his throat noisily. "Communicable diseases?"

***

Remo jerked his head into the cabin of the truck. His eyes played between Joseph and Franco. "They are checking every truck," he said. "No one is getting a free pass."

"Calm down," Joseph ordered, as much for his nerves as theirs. "Listen, both of you. Everything is going as planned. Who gives a good goddamn if they are checking manifests? Maybe they do it every Monday morning. We've got our man in the far right booth. He is looking for us. Relax and we'll get through this."

Remo looked out the window. The peaks of the Swiss Alps loomed before them like a distant gray specter. "I am not going back inside," he said. "Three years was enough."