Chapter Eighteen
Bonn, Germany
From his perch in the back of the van, Novikov had a view of all foot and vehicle traffic entering the area.
The panel van had extremely dark tint on the windows, allowing him to move about without fear of observation from outside.
If a police officer or security guard were to approach, he had a story about waiting to drive a delegation to the airport, and he had excess luggage and other documentation to prove it.
The story wouldn’t hold up in a court of law, but it would be enough to get him free of the area.
And if that failed, the former Russian commando was armed, had a well-crafted escape plan, and held no reservations about killing police.
There had been the usual foot traffic of employees entering the complex, many of whom Novikov recognized from the previous days of conducting static surveillance.
Then there had been a lull, with only a few individuals showing up.
He snapped identifiable photos of all of them, but now was when his clock started.
Novikov figured thirty minutes prior to the proposed meeting time until thirty minutes after would be the most logical window for his target to show up, and he readied himself accordingly.
He preferred not to go in blindly to any situation and had sent the name Nathan Wilde up to his employers for a name trace and any additional background information.
That had been late last night, and he knew it would most likely be a day or two until they got back to him.
In the meantime, he would have to identify the student by the right place, right time, and right demeanor.
At exactly nine forty-five two men in suits walked across the street and strode toward the guardhouse.
He snapped photos of both in rapid succession.
They both wore dark suits, one taller than the other, and strode with long and purposeful steps that seemed almost military in their cadence.
Instead of badging in they stopped and conversed with the guards, who appeared to check their names against a roster before allowing them to enter.
Could one of these men be the graduate student he was waiting for?
Novikov had expected one man, not two. Additionally, there was something in the way the two men moved, a sort of athletic yet easy rhythm.
Perhaps they were student athletes? He looked again at the photos.
They were definitely older. One appeared to be in his thirties and the other pushing forty.
A student and a professor? This was not what he had expected, and it gave him pause.
He waited until ten thirty. A few more individuals arrived at the compound.
One was a man he recognized, and the rest were women.
All badged in without delay. Strangely enough, the two men were the only ones to roughly fit the profile.
They had also shown up at the right time and were not regular employees.
Either the man he was waiting for hadn’t shown, or Wilde was one of the two he had seen earlier.
Either way, it would be more difficult to follow two men than one, particularly if they had any situational awareness, which judging by the casual way they had scanned the road as they crossed, was a distinct possibility.
Novikov knew the time of the meeting, but he didn’t know how long they would stay.
Of course Richter would not be showing up to the rendezvous; he was lying dead in his living room.
The man might wait an hour, or he might wait all day, which would also tell Novikov how motivated this Wilde individual was to acquire the report.
In that case, the student’s fate would be sealed.
Pulling out a smartphone recently purchased with cash and in disguise, Novikov did a search for hotels in the area and began calling them one by one, asking for Nathan Wilde.
Finally, he received confirmation from the Dorint Venusberg Bonn and asked to be connected.
There was no answer, which meant Wilde was likely not in his room.
Novikov pulled up a map of the area and found the hotel.
The location could not be more perfect for what he had planned.
It was a contemporary building with three floors and set back in a forest, making approach and escape relatively easy.
In the event that something went wrong, there would be multiple options for evasion contingencies.
He was beginning to feel more confident about the operation, even if he didn’t receive the target’s profile in time.
Novikov decided he would wait until the two men left the U.N.
They hadn’t arrived by vehicle and, being that the hotel was about two miles away, he guessed the two physically fit men had walked to the campus and would walk back.
When they left, he would leapfrog ahead in his vehicle, giving him at least thirty minutes to locate Wilde’s room and set up an ambush.
He didn’t know who the second man was, but if he got in the assassin’s way, then he would die as well.