The absolver vienna, p.12
The Absolver- Vienna, page 12
part #1 of Saint Michael Thriller Series
“Hallo, guten tag,” a classically handsome brunette with very little makeup and a tight, long ponytail greeted him from behind the granite-topped desk. The mirrored wall behind her confirmed her black pencil dress and heels were equally modest and tasteful. “Good afternoon, and welcome to the Hotel Sacher Vienna. How may I be of service today?”
He smirked at her correct assessment of him, but wanted to keep up his feigned Spanish origin. “Hallo, buenos dias.”
“Buenos dias,” she flawlessly replied as though she had always expected the conversation to take place in Spanish.
“Estoy registrándome durante varios días.” Michael presented his forged Holy See passport and a credit card tied to his apostolic pseudonym, Andrés Bethsaida. It’s hard to think of them as forged when a legitimate government issued both of them. They just happen to be in my ‘other’ name. When John gave the official state identification documents and credit card to Michael, he’d explained that their associated digital files had been slightly altered. Even though they’d been uploaded and shared with all manner of law enforcement and customs agencies across the globe, no one could connect actual photos of Michael to either of his passport images through facial recognition software. Love to know how they modified the digital file for my real U-S passport, but John claimed that info was too far above my paygrade.
Soft digital chirps from beneath the counter drew the clerk’s attention, and she pulled receipts out for Michael to sign. He reminded himself to use the pseudonym and returned them to her. The clerk provided his electronic room key, along with his credit card and passport. She seemed unimpressed with the Holy See citizenship, or merely unaware of its rarity. Best possible scenario is that she didn’t take notice.
“Esperamos que disfrute su estadía.” Her smile conveyed nothing but professional, sincere courtesy. We hope you enjoy your stay.
“Gracias. Siempre hago.” Michael secured his documents inside his overcoat and strode toward the elevator. I’d prefer the stairs, but that’s too abnormal for this crowd, unless I’m in five-hundred bucks worth of workout clothes. As he stepped into the elevator box, the attendant inside had already pushed 3, as though he’d somehow been alerted to Michael's destination. I wonder how surprised they’d be to learn I’m here to kill one of their only long-term residents. I also wonder if they’ll be more upset about losing the man or the carpeting he’s found on?
TWENTY
February 15, 2:00PM.
Hotel Sacher. Vienna, Austria.
After securing himself inside the opulent hotel room, Michael retrieved the intel packet from his brown leather messenger bag. He set it on a low glass coffee table in front of a gas fireplace. When he sat on an adjacent tan-and-maroon leather loveseat, he realized the plush two-cushion couch was the most comfortable thing he’d ever rested on. Makes me wanna give the bed a spin, just to kill the jetlag.
Michael took a moment and really soaked in the room’s impeccable furnishings. The oversized bed looked like two queen mattresses placed side-by-side with custom fitted bedding. Maroon, leaf-patterned velvet clung to the wall behind the bed and exactly matched the bedspread. Crystal chandeliers hung over both the bed and the coffee table. Light, eggshell colored walls rose to a starch white coffered plaster ceiling and fell to a beautiful, darkly stained and intricate wood floor. Two dark wood chairs with red velvet cushions sat beneath the right side of the glass wall opposite him, which overlooked the Royal Opera House across the street.
Just past that historic landmark and more important than the grandeur of his view, Michael saw the northeast corner of Austria’s Tourist Information Center. He didn’t know which yet, but one of the office windows in his line of sight belonged to Alfred König. And he’s been living in the room above me for two months. The man hasn’t been home in so long that he hasn’t even noticed his wife’s missing. It’s either not that unusual, or the servants don’t have the stones to tell him.
Michael stood up, moved a decorative bowl of candied walnuts from the coffee table, and pulled it closer to the loveseat. No other desk space. The room’s not designed for working executives, just the playboys and trust fund babies. With his best available workspace ready, Michael pulled the intel packet’s contents out onto the table. Along with the usual documentation, a plain black wallet-sized plastic card hit the glass. Michael saw a handwritten sticky note on one side: Beware of Polizei. He turned the card over, and the front side displayed a stylized calligraphy “KI” with König International inscribed beneath it. That’s a first. The mystery deepens.
Michael turned to the documentation. As usual, the first page contained government ID info and database photos. Alfred König, age fifty, five-ten, one-seventy, sandy hair, blue eyes. Really bright blue, gotta be colored contacts. Odd that he got his government I-D photos taken in them. Michael tried to identify a celebrity or someone personally known to him that resembled König, a technique he’d learned in the police academy known in military and intel circles as “Keep in Memory System.”
He snapped his fingers as it hit him. “The bad guy from SPECTRE. Christopher, something, maybe. The name doesn’t matter, that’s exactly who you look like, Alfred,” Michael explained to the photos before him.
The identity association accomplished, Michael moved on to the Executive Summary pages. The synopsis contained only analysis and conclusion: “Initial analysis supports allegations that target ALFRED König is an active and intentional conspirator in international narcotics trafficking (by volume: cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine) who uses his position in Austrian high society to avoid detection and apprehension. His recent drug shipments have supplied narcotics that directly caused dozens of overdose deaths throughout AUS and the region. Intel documents show König’s knowledge, acceptance, and dismissal of personal responsibility in deaths and growing addiction and subsequent crime rates. König is actively transitioning the majority of his import-export business to facilitate international drug trafficking from South America and Mexico into Europe and Russia. His communications indicate he will soon begin assisting the parent drug trafficking organization (DTO) to increase supply shipments into United States ports in the coming year.”
Michael exhaled and sat back on the loveseat. If all this is true, König’s an absolute monster. He flipped to the next page and began reading the document’s analysis:
“KNOWN BACKGROUND: The analysts and risk managers at Division of Intelligence & Counter Espionage advise this investigation will likely require extraordinary effort. The subject, ALFRED König, has established a number of front companies, forged documents, and false paper trails that required substantial effort to overcome. We have experienced great difficulty in deciphering the ‘black’ and ‘white’ sides of his business operations.
König’s business began failing three years ago, due both in part to his own financial missteps and unforeseen market changes in international shipping, as well as market disruption from emerging pan-global online retailers.
Psychological experts believe König’s behaviors and personality are consistent with narcissism and anti-social disorders. He seems blind to his own failings, ignorance, and relative inexperience with drug trafficking operations. He seems to rely on his social position/influence and masking techniques to evade detection and apprehension.
König responded to imminent financial difficulties by forming and growing relationships with illicit drug trafficking organizations (hereafter, ‘DTO’) in Mexico and South America. These criminal enterprises currently operate ‘superlabs’ to supply and profit from rising opiate demand across the globe. Review of his own communications to these respective parties indicate that each believes they have an exclusive partnership with König in which he refuses knowingly furthering the trafficking efforts of their competitors. König’s most sizeable trafficking partnership appears to be with the ‘SANTA LENA CARTEL,’ a DTO based in the Sinaloa province of west-central Mexico.
ILLICIT METHODOLOGY: Records and communications indicate the mutual trafficking efforts began with cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine (listed by decreasing volume). Border restrictions in recent years, especially from the Balkan overland routes to the east, have reduced drug shipments into Austria. KÖNIG took advantage of this reality and formed external partnerships to use his own corporate assets to evade detection and apprehension efforts. Shipment volume and frequency apparently increased with the parties growing trust of each other.
König employs several key employees within his company. This includes corrupt and bribed port authorities and customs officers who assist him to evade detection and apprehension, but internal communication makes clear none of his conspirators know the nature of the shipments or their contents. To date, shipments are primarily moving into Europe through Slovenia (Port of Koper). KÖNIG exerts control and influence over several key Port Authority police and customs officials there. The prepackaged contraband is then shipped via air and ground transit through ‘Koenig International’ transports to distributors across the region.
It remains unclear at this time what external organization(s) or individuals have bought, or are buying, König’s contraband. Communications, both internal and exterior to the company, indicate most shipments transit from ports in eastern Mexico, with lesser shipments originating in Columbia and Venezuela. Records show the transit of three-to-five weekly parcels from Koper to KÖNIG at his Vienna office. This is expected to be smaller, kilo-sized shipments that he personally sells for additional profits.
Further, external communications, along with corroborating investigation show König’s illicit shipments are confirmed responsible for at least one-hundred-eighteen overdose deaths in central Europe in the past six months. Investigation also reveals a portion of König’s shipments are sold to black market medical personnel engaged in illegal euthanasia and assisted suicide. This rise overwhelmingly emanates from König’s recent additional trafficking efforts in fentanyl, a highly dangerous opioid narcotic up to 100-times more potent and lethal than heroin. König discussed the deaths in written comms with SANTA LENA (DTO) contacts before all involved parties agreed to dismiss the deceased as ‘an unavoidable cost of doing business.’ König specified he would instruct downstream affiliates to more dramatically cut the fentanyl to lower its potency before its sale to the end user. It remains possible that König’s retail sales affiliates are disingenuously presenting the fentanyl product as heroin to addicted users. This indicates the dramatic, unaltered potential for substantial numbers of overdose deaths as König continues to supply fentanyl to illicit and unscrupulous street-level dealers. Immediate corroboration is required, as analysts expect König to accept a massive shipment of fentanyl due to arrive in the Port of Koper on or about 20-February. If the conduct of his organization and extended hierarchy remain unchanged, our risk management expects hundreds, and potentially thousands, of overdose and assisted suicide deaths in the coming weeks.
“OFFENSES AGAINST HUMANITY AND MORAL LAW.” Michael skimmed the section only enough to confirm that it reiterated König’s alleged offenses involving Drug Trafficking, Scandal, Intentional Homicide, Euthanasia, and Assisted Suicide. He sighed and turned to the next page. I’ll never understand how men become so selfish that they’re willing to trade all the lives around them for their own comfort and wealth. I guess I’m not ever supposed to. Michael refocused on the document’s details.
“CORROBORATION EFFORTS: Current analysis indicates the greatest probability for success lies within König’s office inside the Tourism Information Center building. Use additional caution as a State Police station is located in the west wing of the same building. Security and surveillance systems have not been upgraded to allow remote incursion by our internal staff. Intercepted communications indicate König’s life is excessively habitual, which may ease surveillance and corroboration efforts. As it appears that he rarely returns to his Vienna estate or his family’s castle in Rappottenstein, our analysts recommend focusing investigation and corroboration efforts on his hotel suite #D41 at Hotel Sacher and his office in the Tourist Information Center. Please find the enclosed RFID access card for entry into his office. Due to his physical security measures, this card is required to both enter and leave the facility. Sources indicate a door-lock release button may also be found under his desk, if required.
DEVIL’S ADVOCATE: Intel staff has grave concerns regarding the absolute reliability of the source statements, and it wishes to reiterate the need for objective, irrefutable evidence in light of her public, occasionally scandalous lifestyle. Based on the length of their relationship, it must be considered that, up to this point in time, the source has been a willing participant and conspirator with her husband. If possible, attempt to corroborate her motivations and fears. Additional exculpatory documentation recently came to light through an independent financial insurance audit that Lloyd’s of London conducted on König International (deemed fiscally sound for business loan expansion and additional insurance policy issuance).
CAUTIONS: König holds a ‘Waffenpass,’ a permit from the Austrian government that allows him to possess and transport single-shot and semiautomatic firearms. It is best to expect him to be armed inside any structure that belongs to him or inside his own vehicles. Exercise such caution in and around his leased hotel suite, as well. END OF DOCUMENT.”
Michael set the papers aside, stood, and looked across the street below, called Operngasse, at the opposing building that housed König’s business office. Alright. That’s what I love about John and his desk-nerds, they give me a lot of ‘who’ and ‘what,’ but leave all the ‘how’ up to me. Seems like the bad guys always decide the ‘when,’ as ironic as that seems.
He considered his next steps. If I had more than five days, I could ask John for König’s financial records to see where his money trail goes. No such luxury, so the next step is to confirm which office is his. Start with a simple walk through the building. Should be easy and natural to play a dumb tourist who doesn’t sprechen. Michael rummaged through his luggage and donned a pair of high-end Swiss hiking pants with subdued internal cargo pockets. He retrieved a hard-sided case from his own diplomatic pouch that held an anesthetic dart gun and three syringes of antidote. The case barely fit inside the internal thigh pocket, which meant he couldn’t quickly or clandestinely retrieve it. Thankfully, a set of handcuffs disappeared easily into the corresponding pocket. I’d prefer not to run into König yet, but God works in mysterious ways, so I need to be prepared to take advantage of any opportunity that arises.
The sticky note that clung to the black access card reclaimed Michael’s attention. ‘Beware of Polizei.’ That’s right. In addition to avoiding König, I also need to avoid the police station that’s housed on the far side of his building. Those guys are gonna be so pissed when they find out what he was doing right under their noses.
TWENTY-ONE
February 15, 4:35PM.
Hotel Sacher. Vienna, Austria.
Michael had just returned from his reconnaissance walk through the Tourist Information Center and again sat inside his extravagant hotel room. He’d moved one of the smaller chairs behind the hallway door, which placed Michael as far from his windows as possible. A set of thermal binoculars allowed him to see inside Alfred König’s office. Can’t let the setting sunlight reflect off the binos right back at the target. The low, late winter sun descended just over the roof of König’s building and almost directly over his target. Also gotta avoid looking into the damned sun with these again. He aimed the binos so only the bottom portion of König’s office filled the top half of his lenses.
The thermal imagers displayed colors based on relative temperatures. Winter temps outside allowed the occupied offices to shine bright red and people inside to appear mostly light pink. König’s pink two-dimensional image had been sitting behind his desk for most of the last hour. Gotta be quittin’ time soon, especially for a man of his stature. Then I’ll have a new challenge of deciding how to follow him around the hotel without gettin’ made.
The extended idle time reminded Michael of Rome, and the hours he’d spent waiting outside Pietro Isadore’s apartment the night he killed the man four months ago. His mind replayed a brief portion of the events that lead to Isadore’s death before settling on Michael’s subsequent confession to Monsignor Hernandez. He’d gone to his mentor to confess his guilt for unintentionally killing the man, but, Michael hadn’t yet revealed his conduct and assignment to Hernandez. Instead, he’d couched his words and feelings around his continued inability to deal with aggressor and victim confessions, and at being forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. At one point, he’d even asked H if he believed God had more mercy on men who committed suicide to stop themselves from taking another victim. They’re all so selfish, Michael had told his mentor. They just want whatever they did to be okay, regardless of how their actions affect anyone else. If they really had remorse in their heart now, they wouldn’t have committed their sins then. Maybe the best thing some of these guys could do would be to commit suicide so theirs is the only additional life they destroy! They know what’s inside their heart, what goes through their mind, and they know God didn’t put any of that evil there!
Michael sighed and brought himself back to his present reality. He wanted to focus on König, but watching his target do nothing soon allowed Michael’s thoughts to wander back to John’s covert training program and the field exercises he completed there. I got around most of John’s rules of engagement. Even found some creative solutions that didn’t violate the R-O-Es. This investigation shouldn’t be any different. If I had more time, I could use a forged identity and try to go undercover, maybe contact König directly and convince him I’m interested in distributing his new product. I’ve only got four days to stop this shit from killing off a new round of addicts and emergency workers. Shipment arrives on Day Five. Not enough time, but it’s gonna have to be. Hundreds, maybe thousands of lives are at stake, but I can’t break my vows and go to the authorities. He smirked at the familiar and uncomfortable scenario before him. Yep. It’s all in line with John’s training, and I’m gonna have to be on the lookout for a creative solution.
