State Of The Union

Harvath watched until he saw what appeared to be two or more men huddled close together move quickly across the screen. “Can you enhance that?” he asked, leaning forward on the couch, excited by what he might have just witnessed.

“No problem. Let’s watch it again with full zoom,” said Schroeder who punched a series of commands into his Avid.

They watched it again and this time it was obvious that there were three men, two of whom looked to be half carrying a third as if he were drunk.Or incapacitated by a Taser.

“Marc,” said Harvath. “Show it to me again, but this time can you run it in slow motion?”

“Of course,” answered Schroeder who ran it back again.

“Shit,” exclaimed Harvath after watching it a third time. “They enter from one side of the frame and in a matter of seconds exit out the other. You can’t see any faces at all. It’s almost as if they were purposely trying to avoid the video cameras.”

“Either that, or they got lucky,” said Herman.

“Is there anything else you can do to enhance the picture, Marc?” asked Harvath.

“We can run it again with the mathematical filter.”

“Do it.”

Harvath watched again and though the image was slightly better, it still wasn’t good enough. The surveillance tape had caught three men moving together across the street, two seeming to half-carry another, but even with all the enhancements, the quality wasn’t good enough to identify any of them, not even Gary. The disappointment in the room was palpable.

Harvath sat there staring at the screen as the video footage continued to unfold. He couldn’t believe that they had come this far only to be turned away with nothing. He was getting ready to get up from the couch when, all of a sudden he yelled, “Stop!”

Both Max and Herman stared at him as Marc paused the feed.

“Run the tape backwards five seconds and play it again,” said Harvath.

Schroeder did as Harvath instructed and ran the footage again.

“I don’t see anything,” said Max.

“Neither do I,” replied Herman. “What are you looking at?”

“Run it again,” was Harvath’s answer, “but this time take it back and start it from where the men walk out of the frame.”

Schroeder rewound the tape to the appropriate point and let it play.

“Nothing,” said Max, frustrated.

“Scot, it’s an empty street scene,” added Herman.

Suddenly, Marc Schroeder sat up straighter in his chair. He couldn’t believe his eyes. He swiveled around, looked at Harvath and said, “Lower screen right?”

Harvath nodded in reply.

“Lower screen right?” argued Herman. “There’s nothing there.”

“Yes there is,” returned Schroeder. “Right on the very edge. I can’t believe I didn’t catch it. I’ll put a spotlight on it for you.”

Moments later, with the lower right hand portion of the screen highlighted, they all saw it. Just barely in frame, was the back of a late model BMW with part of its license plate visible. Then it was gone.

Chapter 24

Karl Überhof’s apartment was located just off Unter den Linden, once one of the best known boulevards in all of Europe and the preeminent thoroughfare of East Berlin. With the information they had gathered from the bank footage, Marc Schroeder was able to scan the digital stills from the traffic cams until they had found what they were looking for. A black BMW had in fact blown through a red light at the intersection of Grunewaldstrasse and Goltzstrasse. By comparing the time code stamped on the digital traffic cam photo with the time code on the bank footage, they knew they had a match. The picture gave them a complete license plate number, which jibed with the partial they already had. With one phone call, Sebastian was not only able to get the registration information on the car, but his contact was able to fax him the drivers’ license photo of the man it was registered to-Karl Überhof. Though the quality wasn’t the best, it was still good enough for their purposes.

Harvath had been against storming Überhof’s apartment, especially after what had happened at the Capstone safe house. Though he didn’t believe Überhof had any idea they were on to him, at this point, he was their only lead. After weighing all of the potential outcomes, Harvath decided they would be better off shadowing him to see where he might go.

Sebastian didn’t agree. He and his men had checked Überhof’s parking garage and had verified that his black BMW was there, which likely meant that the man was upstairs asleep. Sebastian wanted to surprise Überhof in his bed, confront him with what they knew, and force him to talk.

‘And if he’s a professional?’ Harvath had asked. How long might it take until they finally broke him? What if they couldn’t break him? What if they screwed up and killed him? What then?