Chapter Nine
Shönegarten
Blitz Laboratories was in Germany. Alex recognised the name, but he didn't know where from. He was there with Vicky Bennett, the American girl, at a café in Wesel, a small village. The café was called the Shönegarten, meaning beautiful garden, and, other than themselves, there were only three other people.
They were sitting at one of six circular tables outside on the veranda, Alex drinking Coke, Vicky drinking wine. She wasn't old enough, but she didn't care. What could the Germans do to her? Her parents weren't with her, so what did it really matter? Both agencies had given their agents some money to spend, and Vicky spent it on not things that she needed, but things that she wanted. Already, she had bought a handbag, a pair of sunglasses and a limited edition Iron Maiden vinyl.
She was the exact definition of a rebel, and her motto was "If it ain't broke, I'll break it." All she had done all trip was watch music channels and listened to her mp3 player. They had only been there four days, and already her clothes, nearly all black, coated the floor of their hotel room like a new carpet.
She also read a lot, but not anything of interest to Alex. She read murder mysteries, and anything about war. She liked gore and violence, and late at night watched pay per viewhorror films.
She was pretty, but Alex was still with Sabina, even though neither of them ever mentioned it. Vicky just wasn't his type, anyway. She was too loud, and they had different interests. Not that she wasn't a fun person. She was always in the gym, or playing tennis. One day Alex had been out in the town, and when he had got back, she had been playing strip poker with a German boy who she had met at a disco. Neither of them had many clothes on. When Alex had protested, she had asked to finish the game. He didn't want naked people running around the apartment, so he sent the German boy home.
The Shönegarten was a traditional café. It had a front window with all offers, like: Wesel Wurst €1.30. The tables all had red and white checked tablecloths, and hedges around the terrace, separating it from the other buildings. The rest of the village was designed in the same way, all white, with shuttered windows.
Vicky ordered another wine, and Alex another Coke. She also ordered a steak, rare, with chips and salad. She refused dessert, because, as she put it, German sweets are crap. As she tucked into her steak, Alex noticed something. A man had sat down on a table next to them. He was tall, wearing large sunglasses and reading a copy of the local newspaper. A waiter approached. An exchange was made, and then the man had a sudden outburst.
"Und wenn du doppelt so schlau wärst, wärst du immer noch doof! Geh und stürz dich von einer klippe!"
The man stood up, and pointed a gun at the waiter's head. Alex was first into action. He jumped up, and the gun was suddenly pointed at him. But Vicky was faster. A flick of her wrist, and her fork was jutting out of the gunman's leg.
He drooped to attend to his leg. Alex jumped forward, and the man fired, but missed. Alex grabbed his gun, and suddenly Vicky was there by his side, holding her knife and dessertspoon. The man started to stand up.
"Try it, buddy."
The police arrived soon after, to take the man away.
Apparently, he was a hardened criminal that the police had been trying to find for three years, without any luck. Hans Levine, he was called, and he was involved with everything: drugs, gambling, assassination, mugging, burglary, arson, printing counterfeit money, illegally dealing fake items over the black market, to name but a few. Another of the many things he did was manufacture bombs. It was very simple, and he had done it in front of the entire restaurant.
When he had entered the restaurant, he had ordered a bottle of wine. That's what the argument had been about – red wine was more flammable, but he had been given white.
All he needed was a piece of thin metal, with a piece of string fed through, and a small plastic explosive that would start the whole thing off. All he needed to do was attach the plastic explosives to one end of the string, and feed it into the bottle. The metal would balance in the neck.
When the flame reached the metal, the metal would melt. When it dripped into the alcohol, it would turn hot, expand, and set alight the plastic explosive.
The metal was melting as Vicky finished her steak. The wine would boil at an alarming rate when the metal hit. They had about twenty seconds to get well clear.
Of course, neither knew anything about it. Neither knew that, the restaurant was preparing for a special visitor. Neither knew that this was the favourite eating-place of Sven Atalay, advisor to the Chancellor of Germany. He would be there in about twenty seconds.
It was by chance that Alex saw the bomb. It had been placed on a chair, and since Alex and Vicky were at the end of the restaurant, it was facing towards them. At Sven Atalay's favourite table.
At first, Alex thought Hans Levine had left his bottle of wine there. He stood, and walked over. Then he saw the fuse, and the explosives. He grabbed Vicky, dropped more than enough euros on the table, and started to run, at the same time shouting, "There's a bomb! There's a bomb!"
Many people understood, and searched frantically for it. Others saw the panic, and ran anyway. One person grabbed the bomb, and tried to throw it, but it was too late.
Alex was on the phone to the ambulance. Perhaps if they were warned beforehand, they could get here in time to save someone's life.
That was when he saw Atalay, crossing the street. He ran forward to the man, and started screaming, "Don't go in there! There's a bomb!" The man clearly did not understand, and pushed the boy aside,
Vicky shouted something in German, something like "You'll be killed if you go in there!"
Atalay seemed to think this was a death threat, and suddenly, armed bodyguards had grabbed their arms and legs from out of nowhere.
That was when the bomb exploded. Everything seemed to happen at one.
The bodyguards dropped Alex and Vicky, and dragged their client out of harms way.
A fire engine and an ambulance hurtled around the corner and three firemen got out, each carrying face shields, in case of another explosion.
Several people were thrown into the air by the blast, and Alex and Vicky were knocked into each other, and thrown back across the pavement.
There was a serious wound to Alex's head, where the skin had torn on the pavement. Vicky had a scrape on her cheek, and a large bruise on her arm.
Alex closed his eyes, and counted the rhythmic beating of his heart. Tha-Thump. Tha-Thump. Then nothing.
Alex lay back, and seemed to fall, falling and falling forever. Then darkness.