Scene 13

The «Equipment» was easy to find, thanks to the satellite maps. In films when a secret agent gets his apparel for his mission, a U-boat appears or at least a mysterious «Uncle» with a large suitcase full of luxurious toys. Maille's armament hung in a plastic bag on a door beneath Fort Fujairah.

Nowadays one can trace a DF-transmitter, like the one in Koslow's watch, through a mobile phone. The «Buro» was somewhat peculiar in that regard. On the grounds of «security against bugging», as it was called, one worked with transmitters that could be located or traced with only a few special gadgets (called «trackers») – leastwise within a range of 150 km. Inside the bag he found such a gadget, which looked like a crude dictaphone. He switched it on and it immediately began to search for transmitters. The minutes ticked past – Maille was reasonably certain that Koslow had been brought once again to another place. And the time seemed to support his view. But then he heard a very soft but distinct signal tone – the tracker had found something. He looked at the display monitor and there was indeed a target-circle to be seen on the tracker's schematic map – that the coordinates pointed to a place about 50 km west of Al Dhaid, north of the main street, in the surroundings of a nameless place in the middle of the desert, where, according to a symbol, stood a mosque.

Maille decided to drive out to the place in order to assess the situation carefully.

The gadget functioned well – and if nothing else interfered, it would be able to lead him to the professor within an hour. Maille's mission would then come to a finis – he would have finally found the answers to all his questions and be able to fly home to the tripe of Maître Seugrem, the cool commentaries of Marie Soussent and to Odette's banana flowers in fiery lemon sauce.

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