Nowhere to Hide E-Book

Florian Matusek

• Herausgeber: WS
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 362

Beschreibung

The worst terror attack in decades threatens the energy supply of Europe. A manifest puts the blame on the lack of climate action by the European Commission. More attacks will follow if no radical change is implemented within 72 hours. An impossible race against time for Arnaud Navarro of Europol. He activates surveillance networks all over the continent in the search for the perpetrator. All evidence points to Italian software developer Samanta Di Vincenzo but Arnaud has his doubts. Everything seems to be too clean cut, too obvious. Is Samanta the terrorist they are looking for? The more Arnaud investigates, the less anything makes sense …

"A delightfully refreshing thriller from debut author Florian Matusek. On point with our current world affairs, I thoroughly enjoyed the fast pace and the amazing twists of the story. Thumbs up Florian, and a must-read for fans of edge of the seat thrillers!”

Jean-Michel Désiré, author of The Storyteller's Nights

Leseprobe

NOWHERE TO HIDE

Florian Matusek

First published globally in 2023 by Senpu Publishing

Copyright © Florian Matusek, 2023

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Book cover designed by Samantha Vanderhyden.

ISBN

978-9916-4-1930-4

PROLOGUE

Online Three months ago

Winter had just begun, and it promised to be one of the coldest ever recorded. Even down in southern Italy, no one dared to sit outside anymore. The streets were empty while the citizens of Europe made themselves cozy in their warm homes. In online forums, however, there was more activity than ever before.

r/climateaction. Posted by u/FightForTheFuture

„Europe is on the brink of collapse. Summers are getting hotter, and winters are getting wetter. In the south, forest fires and droughts wreak havoc. Farmers do not have enough water to feed their animals. Food stock is drying out. Spain and Portugal are becoming deserts.

Northern Europe is becoming significantly rainier, with winter floods becoming more common. Animals and plants that used to thrive in the northern climate are dying out and are getting replaced by new species coming from the south.

The poorer the country, the more dramatic the situation. There has been a drastic increase in heat-related deaths in some regions and cold-related deaths in others. And the wetness of the north brings new disease vectors for water-borne illnesses.

And what do politicians do? Nothing. They are ignoring the problem because special interests and profit are more important to them than the citizens of Europe. The only way for a turnaround is decisive action. Europe must stop using fossil fuels and change to renewable energy immediately. It must reduce energy consumption dramatically. No fuzzy 30-year goals that will not be met. This must happen now. It is the only way we and our children can survive.

We, the people, need to fight back and show Brussels and all the fossil fuel industry they feed off that we will not tolerate this inaction any longer. Radical change cannot come without radical action. Sometimes you need to burn down the old before something new can rise from the ashes.

Join me in our fight for the future.“

____________

DestructionKitten

„I’m in.“

TODAY

Tallinn 06:45 p.m.

Samanta’s eyelids became heavy. It was 6:45 p.m., and even though she shouldn’t drink any more coffee, she clung to her reusable cup while looking through the window. The Estonian capital of Tallinn was passing by as the bus made its way through the evening traffic. Now in February, jams were always an issue with icy roads, poor visibility, and thick snow falling from the sky. She watched the snowflakes dance in the air as they slowly covered the city in a white blanket. It would have been a beautiful sight if it weren’t for the cars, which turned perfectly white snow into a gray, dull mass of mud.

Most living districts looked the same: Houses built in the 1950s or 1970s without any regard for aesthetics or architecture. Big blocks of concrete after bigger blocks of concrete. In some parts of town, small detached wooden houses, which escaped the construction ambitions of the Soviet Union, broke the pattern. Plus, the central part of town still retained its beautiful mediaeval look with old but renovated houses, cobblestone roads, and the occasional mediaeval restaurant where you could enjoy a bear steak. But this was not where the bus was headed and where she lived. From her flat, she saw mostly concrete walls when she looked out of her window.

Sam was on her way home from work and, like every day, had to take the bus. In fact, at the central station, she would have to switch bus lines to make her way across town. It took her a while, but sitting on the bus also allowed her to think and reflect on the day.

Right now, the latest tasks at work went through her head. Sam was working as a software developer in one of the up-and-coming Estonian start-ups. There were quite a few of those in the Silicon Valley of Europe, the birthplace of Skype. The company was developing software to let robots navigate on Mars by themselves, like a self-driving car but 140 million kilometers away. It made sense; remote-controlling a vehicle over such a distance was challenging, and the company’s mission was to let robots navigate by themselves. It was challenging and exciting work, and Sam enjoyed developing software for the firm.

She could vividly remember when the recruiter contacted her just six months ago. He had reached out at the exact right time in her life. Sam was still living in Napoli and was frustrated with her life. She had just decided that she needed a change of scenery, and the new job came just in time.

The pivotal moment of her realization had stuck with her ever since. She had been sitting in a cafeteria at the beach, opposite her now ex-boyfriend, and listening to him nagging about her appearance again. She should care more about herself, cover her freckles better, dress up a bit. Otherwise, she would never advance in her career. What would her boss think if she dressed like a homeless person?

And his rant had continued about why she was hanging out with some strangers online, late into the night, playing video games. What was so interesting about them? She should muster some discipline and go jogging with him at dawn. Why didn’t she change and make more of herself?

While looking at his angry face, Sam had thought: Such a bore. It had been such a beautiful day, and all he was thinking about was discipline. He couldn’t enjoy life! Why am I wasting my time with this idiot? I like my beautiful red hair and my freckles. And the way I dress. Besides, she had more fun with her online friends than with this guy. We have nothing to tell each other anymore. This is over. Maybe I should just change the environment. As a software engineer, I could get a job anywhere in the world. And that was when the recruiter had reached out—perfect timing. So she packed her bags and moved to Estonia and did not regret it since.

Sam looked at her reflection in the bus window next to her. Her shoulder-long, red hair contrasted with her emerald-green eyes. Her freckles, which she used to cover up with make-up in the past, she wore proudly since moving to Tallinn. Together with the small wrinkles around her eyes, which she got from laughing a lot—they fit her sunny character. Yes, she was attractive. Still, she had always had bad luck with men. Maybe I’m just too tall for them, Sam thought.

After moving, she quickly experienced the difference in cultures between southern and northern Europe. She was used to an active social life, meeting many friends, and getting to know new people. To sit outside late in the evening and to talk a lot. But she found none of that in Tallinn. People seemed cold and distant, staying in their warm homes rather than going out. When they greeted each other, they didn’t even shake hands, while Sam was used to kissing everyone she met on their cheeks.

But all was different once you were part of a group, and alcohol loosened the mood. Then they became social and started hugging each other. Often, this group of friends seemed to be even closer than she was with her friends back home. So, once you were part of a group, everything was fine, but becoming part of a group was difficult. It took time. This was why Sam was glad to have her group of online gaming friends.

She liked to play online role-playing games and stay up late at night, finishing the latest quest. She enjoyed solving puzzles and working together towards a common goal. Since her gaming friends were online, she could take them with her to her new home in Estonia. This was her social network at the moment, and she enjoyed their company while settling down in Tallinn.

Sam continued watching the snowflakes dance in the wind as the bus moved closer to her home. She dozed off from time to time so she could rest before another long night. This time not online but seeking adventure going out. Solving puzzles was fine, but from time to time, she needed an extra kick, an adventure. And tonight, that was exactly what she would get.

Brussels Day 0 7:15 p.m.

She was late for another meeting. No matter what she did, Lina Juska never managed to be on time for these. They were rushing down a corridor of a high-rise building in Rue Demot in Brussels, the seat of the Energy Directorate of the European Commission. Located in a side street, the gray, concrete building didn’t look like much, and most people wouldn’t expect that some of the most important decisions for Europe’s energy future were made there. On paper, the European Parliament voted on new legislation, however, in practice, the actual decisions were made in small meeting rooms in buildings like these.

It felt like Lina spent her time either sitting in such meeting rooms or rushing from one to the next. Her staff briefed her on the most important notes of the past hour as Lina tried to make a ponytail out of her long blonde hair, which didn’t look as fresh as it did in the morning. Short hair would be more practical, she thought. And it would make me look more serious in meetings.

She had already replaced her entire wardrobe because her stylist told her she needed to look more business-like, more conservative. I already switched to only wearing dark blue pant suits. Might as well cut the hair, too. No matter what women’s magazines suggested, it was impossible to look perfect after a twelve-hour workday. Yet somehow, it seemed to be the unspoken expectation of society that women always needed to look like they just woke up from a good night’s sleep, fully styled and makeup-ed. If this would apply to her male politician colleagues, none of them would have gotten very far in life.

This time, she had to attend a coordination meeting with a working group on new policies regarding the safety of offshore wind parks. They were an important pillar of Europe’s renewable energy strategy, and she wanted to push for more of them. Offshore wind parks were efficient and promising, but maintenance cost was a problem. They were built a few miles offshore, often in waters that were not easy to navigate, especially close to the posts, which meant that operators had to send helicopters every time something needed to be fixed, and that drove maintenance costs much higher than traditional wind parks on land.

This led some operators to cut costs by sending crews via boat, even though it was not safe, or using old helicopters to send them. Even though the European Commission wanted to support more offshore wind parks, it was understood that they could not compromise on safety. As Energy Commissioner, it was Lina’s responsibility to take care of it. And this was how she ended up in this meeting she was so late to again. She could just as well make her way to the next one already.

Just as she was contemplating if she should skip it, her phone rang—unknown number. She handed it to her assistant John to take it. Lina didn’t have time for unknown numbers. Her assistant picked it up and covered the microphone, whispering to her: „It’s Farkas.“

She got annoyed right away. „Him again? Tell him I’m late for a meeting and will call him back when I can.“

But he didn’t give in so easily. „He is asking if you had time to look at the latest amendment proposals,“ her assistant relayed what Farkas was saying. „Tell him ‘not yet’, and I really do not have time right now. And then hang up before he can steal any more of our time. Thanks.“

Lina wasn’t new to the Brussels circus. At 44, she was one of the younger commissioners in the European Commission but was already working in the European Parliament for a few years when she was asked to change to the executive branch of the European Union. There were a lot of aspects she loved about this job, such as actually making a difference in people’s lives.

The EU was often criticized for being run by a bunch of bureaucrats who were getting fat on big salaries paid for by the citizens of Europe. While quite a chunk of bureaucratic overhead was there for sure, everywhere she looked, she found people with ideals and the will to make Europe a better place. She was the same and liked to think that the other commissioners were, too. Lina was happy to work late nights and to sit in long and boring coordination meetings if it meant that she had the chance to change something. It gave her a purpose in life.

Besides, working long hours made Lina think less about her recent divorce. A long-distance relationship with this kind of job just didn’t work, with her in Brussels and her husband back in Lithuania. But the distance was not the only problem. Her husband was a defense lawyer, and his job was to win cases for his clients. He didn’t care what was right; he only cared about being right. For him, the truth was not absolute—it could be massaged and changed as one wished. It was just important to win. But Lina was different. To her, things were either right or wrong; there was nothing in between. She needed to be sure to stand on the right side of history and would fight for what she believed in.

This was why they regularly got into a fight. Her husband could not relate to the things she believed in. He told her to think more strategically and align with important people and lobbying groups to get ahead in her career. But she didn’t agree. In the end, they both had to concede that the divide between them had grown too large, and they filed for divorce. Thank god they didn’t have kids. That would have complicated things.

Nevertheless, the divorce hurt. Every time she was sitting at her desk, she saw the fountain pen he had given her. She liked it very much and didn’t want to give it away, but it brought back the hurtful emotions of the divorce. To help her forget, she poured all her energy into her new job. Finally, she could make a difference in this world, and the high-energy work didn’t leave any time to think about her personal life, which would have depressed her. In a way, this job was all she had at the moment.

Pal Farkas, on the other hand, was an example of what she did not like about her job. He was a lobbyist, one of many. This was another misconception about work in the EU. It was often thought that European politicians were in the pockets of lobbyists and that Europe was being run by big corporations.

Sure, commissioners did get invited here and there to dinner or a vacation, thinly disguised as a conference. But these were easy to handle. You could just refuse. The main and much more powerful tool of lobbyists was to be just so damn annoying. They were contacting you repeatedly until you broke and just gave in. It took a certain breed of human being for this: overly friendly while annoying as hell. Lina promised herself that she would concentrate on her wind parks for now and ignore that Farkas called her today, again.

DAY ONE

Oberberg 02:35 a.m.

Ding, ding, there was another one. He quickly clicked it away. Karl Herzog, the security guard on duty in the security operation center, was staring at a large wall of video screens in front of him. The four screens were illuminating his tired face. No other light source except the screens was present in the room. And it was Karl’s job to stare at these screens for hours on end.

They were showing video feeds of the numerous video surveillance cameras spread around the facility. Most of them were mounted around the perimeter and some within its walls in case someone was breaking in. From the outside, it looked like a perfect security system, like in a high-security prison out of a movie. The reality was that all these cameras led to a small room with a single person in it, the tired security guard, Karl Herzog. Besides the large screens, there were two smaller ones on his desk. But they were switched off since they were only used to investigate incidents and look at recordings from the past.

The security of the whole facility hinged on Karl Herzog being concentrated enough to look at every single alarm coming in. He was used to it, but that didn’t mean it was an easy task. The system was a technical masterpiece, it could do much more than it was used for, but Karl was never trained to use it. And he did not care to learn. So he continued looking at all the alarms coming in.

And alarms were commonplace. A fox wandering about, leaves on trees dancing in the wind, and many more inconspicuous events could trigger them. Unsurprisingly, there were days with few and some with many of them. Karl Herzog passed the time between the alarms by looking at his phone, checking his emails, and reading sports news—a player of his favorite soccer team received another yellow card!—scrolling through his social media feeds, and giving out likes and smiles. Sometimes he wrote about his slow life on the night shift at 02:00 a.m., and once he even posted a picture of the video screens, all of them black. He immediately received the expected responses from his friends: „Wow, I wish I had such an easy job“, „More relaxting than vacation in the Bahamas!“. They have no idea what they are talking about, he thought.

There were constant updates and changes to the system. Recently, Karl was attending a training where he was told that after an extensive study by NASA, they had found that people cannot concentrate for longer than 20 minutes at a time. Well, they don’t need NASA for that. They should have just asked Karl Herzog, he had thought, but he hadn’t said anything.

The result of this insight was that they had switched the operations to so-called Black Screen Monitoring. The idea was that as long as nothing happened, there was no point looking at video screens, which just made you tired and miss events. So Karl was now staring at black screens instead of green meadows. Only if something of interest happened, the relevant video feed would show up on the screen, and Karl needed to verify if it was a true or a false alarm.

There was an incident once. The facility was a central distribution hub, which transported gas from Russia through Ukraine and Slovakia towards here, Oberberg in Eastern Austria, where it was distributed further to Italy, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, and Austria itself. And a few years ago, an explosion next to a pipeline had triggered a small crisis. For security reasons, the pipes needed to be sealed and gas transport was halted. This caused a cascading effect and eventually a state of emergency in Italy as they ran out of gas.

This pipeline was the lifeline of the country—its main gas supply. If gas stopped flowing, Italy would be in serious trouble. This incident made everyone painfully aware of how important this facility was for the European energy infrastructure, and that a high-security standard was paramount. Consequently, the whole security system was overhauled and brought to the latest standards.

Karl Herzog could vividly remember the day when the new system was presented. The chief security officer had been guiding a group of EU experts through the facility, explaining proudly and in great detail how modern the system was, the latest state-of-the-art. How well it secured the facility and how reliably it operated. He had been pointing here and there, walking around the perimeter, and finally ending the tour in the small security operation center, where Karl had been sitting.

He had pointed at the video screens and highlighted the thermal cameras, which used artificial intelligence. „There is no need for manual surveillance anymore. These thermal cameras detect the difference in temperature between the environment and humans with an accuracy of 0.2 degrees centigrade, even in complete darkness. And the artificial intelligence automatically detects intruders on the video. No one goes undetected. We also have laser fences in the immediate vicinity and radar to check the wider perimeter. There is no way someone could break in undetected. This system is fool-proof!“ the chief security officer had explained.

But what he had failed to mention was that no single sensor worked perfectly. He was aware of that but had no good solution for it. So they had just installed more sensors to compensate for the inaccuracies. But each of them had its quirks. For example, whenever there was heavy wind, the artificial intelligence system triggered false alarms because everything in the image, trees, bushes, and the cameras themselves, was moving, and the system thought these movements were people.

On the other hand, during a snowstorm, the laser fence triggered false alarms because the laser light was reflecting on the snowflakes, assuming that each snowflake close to the sensor was, again, a person. The system just did not know if it was a tiny snowflake close to the sensor or a large human far away. The result was just a lot of false alarms.

Karl Herzog, the person who should know because he used the system every day, could have told many stories about it. For example, he knew everything about the wildlife that came out of the woods at night. He had a pretty good idea of how many deer, rabbits, and foxes there were. One time, the systems detected frogs, even though they were very small and should not trigger any sensor. But to his surprise, they did.

Who would have thought that frogs would jump towards the fence as a group—or was it a flock?—and trigger alarms just like a larger animal. The group was just large enough to trigger the sensors. Karl also had the feeling that the system was getting worse since they installed it. He wouldn’t have been surprised because they didn’t take the maintenance package, and the systems were just left as they were installed, slowly deteriorating. Karl sighed. „But nobody is asking me. All they want to know, they get from marketing brochures from security manufacturers. They are probably not even looking at how many false alarms I must deal with every day.”

Nobody was ever interested in helping Karl stay concentrated. So he devised his own strategies to stay awake and pass the time as best as he could. What helped was his smartphone, an automotive magazine, a thermos with coffee, and a box of cigarettes. He wasn’t supposed to smoke in here, but who would really care when he sat here alone all night? Not even his colleagues who were patrolling outside ever came in. Besides, there was nothing else to do.

Karl was bored, as he was every night. He had checked all the emails—nothing interesting happened here or in the outside world. Yes, of course, there had just been several false alarms. No wonder, there was this snowstorm outside, and the laser fence did not stop triggering false alarms.

Sometimes Karl liked to imagine that he could compete with the sensors, click an alarm away before the next one came in. It was almost like a computer game. Could the sensors trigger so many false alarms that he could not click them away fast enough? If so, his black screens wouldn’t remain black but would be filled with alarms all the time.

He had to think about this NASA stuff again. It‘s all nice and good to know that a security guard cannot see anything happening on video screens after 20 minutes. But has anyone looked at what happens after looking at false alarms for 20 minutes without a break?

What gave him comfort was thinking about the girl he had met a few weeks ago. He started talking to her at a poker game and was immediately enticed. His friends had said, „Karli has found his match,“ referring both to his quite decent poker skills and his not-so-decent personal life. Poker was really the only thing he enjoyed. He thought that he was not a great player but good enough to be better than his friends, which was what mattered.

Unfortunately, it was not the best place to get to know new people, not girls, anyway. If any girls came there, they were usually the girlfriends of one of his friends. But not this one. She came alone and was not a bad player at all. He liked her boyish look, not holding back, and looking for adventure. They fell for each other head over heels and met every day since. She hadn’t moved in yet, but it almost felt like it. Karl dreamed of taking her out on a road trip with the red cabriolet he had found in his magazine.

How long would it take until he could afford it? Maybe he should look out for a better-paid job. Then they could settle down with a nicer house, a bigger garden, and a dog... He dreamed how beautiful life would be with this woman. And she seemed to care about him too; tonight, she even brewed him his coffee for the night shift and gave him the thermos he used to stay awake. And right now he desperately needed it as his eyelids were getting heavy. He couldn’t remember going to bed so late, he was usually better at staying alert during the night shift, but now his mind drifted off, and his whole body was screaming to take a nap, just a quick one. Karl Herzog took another sip of coffee.

Another ding, ding brought him back from his daydream. He quickly clicked the pop-up of the false alarm away. The new system was now in operation for a year, but Karl was not sure it had achieved what it had promised. His job was just as boring as before they had all those fancy systems. The only thing that changed was that now he had even more systems he didn’t quite understand.

Suddenly, the buzzer of the door to the security operation center rang. Karl was startled and immediately felt adrenaline rush into his veins. This never happened. He was supposed to be alone in here. There were just a few guards patrolling outside, but they never came into the operation center. Karl was not expecting any of his colleagues to check in.

He got up and went to the security lock, an entrance made up of two doors for security reasons. Essentially, one had to be let into the first door, then wait until it closed and the second one opened. This added an extra layer of security and prevented people from sneaking in behind another person when they went inside. He checked the security camera of the door to see who it was. He couldn’t believe his eyes, immediately opened both locks and said, „You?“

He couldn’t hear the response to his question as the world became a dark veil of nothingness, and Karl Herzog collapsed on the floor.

Brrr, brrr. Brrr, brrr. In his dreams, Karl Herzog thought, Not another false alarm, but then he woke up and realized it was his phone vibrating in his pocket. He was surprised to lie on the floor of the security operation center, not remembering what had happened. He felt dizzy, and it was hard to concentrate. He had a hard time focusing on anything, his left and right eye looking in different directions. He rubbed his face and tried to focus on finding the strength to talk. Karl pulled his phone out of his pocket to find that it was his supervisor calling.

„What the hell is happening down there?“ A polite greeting was apparently not required.

„What do you mean?“ was all Karl could respond, still dizzy.

„The control panels that regulate the compressor are completely destroyed. Someone must have entered the facility to mess with them. I don’t have to tell you that this means we had to turn off the gas. There is nothing coming through the pipes anymore. This is a shit show. I have everyone from our CEO to the ministry of infrastructure and the chief of police on my back. All of them got woken up in the middle of the night. Now tell me how this could have happened. How could anyone have broken into this facility without you noticing?“

Karl briefly considered telling his supervisor about the NASA study but immediately discarded the idea as not helpful in the current situation. He told him all he knew, which was not much. The last thing he could remember was drinking his coffee in front of the black screens. The next thing he knew was being woken up on the floor by the buzzing of his phone. Karl sighed as he understood that this would be a long night. And not a boring one at that.

The Hague Day 1 07:00 a.m.

Arnaud Navarro’s alarm rang at 07:00 a.m. sharp. His eye sockets felt like someone had punched him in both eyes at the same time. Slowly, he turned a few times in bed to gather the strength to get up and open the window shades, which he achieved after pushing the snooze button on his alarm clock three times.

After he had sat up in his bed, he looked at the new fitness tracker on his wrist, which informed him how he slept. He got a sleep score of 51 out of 100, which his tracker considered „Very bad“. He didn’t need this fancy device to tell him that. His brother had given it to him last Christmas because he thought it would magically improve Arnaud‘s fitness. It hadn’t. But it did inform him that his level of fitness was not great, that he slept badly, and that he needed to move more. He knew all that before. Another nonsense gadget.

He couldn’t understand why nowadays people got more and more technology to do things for them while all these devices did was create the illusion that life got easier. It didn’t. They only made us depend more on technology, and we lost the ability to trust our gut feeling. And right now, his gut told him he needed a coffee and a croissant.

Getting a decent breakfast was the hardest part about living in The Hague. As a true Parisian, Arnaud didn’t ask for much for breakfast—a simple espresso and a croissant would do. Both wasn’t easy to get a hold of here, though. Luckily, he had one of these new hip coffee places right around the corner where they served drinkable espresso, but he would have to get his croissant from somewhere else.

He slipped into his tracksuit that he once bought in a sudden touch of ambition to start jogging and went down to the coffee place. He was living in Casuariestraat, close to the main railway station and a big park. It was a small flat in a two-story, old building, very typical for the Netherlands. It didn’t have an elevator, which probably was a good thing for his fitness.

The park around the corner would have been perfect for jogging, if he were the jogging type, and if it wouldn’t just be so hard to gather the energy for it. He was also living right next to the old town, and, in general, it was a nice place to walk around in the small streets and parks all around.

Some tourists were already on the streets at this early hour, but he observed business types, who were stiffly walking in a brisk stride, working at one of the numerous international organizations in town, probably for the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court. Surprisingly, those were two completely different institutions, the former being a UN organization to settle disputes between nations and the latter being an independent court to try crimes against humanity.

Arnaud went around the corner to Bleijenburg street, closer to the old town, where he found the coffee house he was looking for. The hipster bartender with a long beard handed him his espresso with an overly friendly smile. He must have remembered Arnaud by now. With his medium-long black, wavy hair and unshaven look, Arnaud stuck out in the Netherlands.

Arnaud would compare his own looks to Antonio Banderas, but others would rather think of Javier Bardem instead: A 50-year-old born in Paris to Spanish parents. With his coffee in hand, he went to a mini-mart right next door and bought one of those shrink-wrapped croissants that had as much to do with the real thing as an Americano with a Ristretto. It was the best he could do right now.

With his two most prized possessions, he quickly made his way home again, because he already felt the cold creeping in under his tracksuit. It must have been well below zero degrees this February morning. He looked at his fitness tracker, but it wouldn’t tell him how cold it was. That would have been a useful feature.

Everybody was talking about global warming, but now he couldn’t feel any of it. It was the coldest day he could remember since moving here, so he was careful not to slip on the icy road as he tried not to spill the coffee. Finally in his warm home, he drank it and ate the croissant. He was still eating these terrible artificial shrink-wrapped things because they reminded him of home.

Arnaud’s parents had moved to Paris from northern Spain before he was born, and if you asked them today, they would probably still say they are Spanish. But he couldn’t feel more French. It was his home, and he was proud of it. So when he relocated to The Hague for his ex-wife, it was not an easy move for him, leaving everything behind: the exhilarating thrill of Paris, the passionate and, yes, a little arrogant but lovely Parisians, and all his friends he grew up with.

Now he was living in a city with a quarter of the population of Paris, and while it was a nice town, „exhilarating“ was not the word he would use to describe The Hague. If he had known that they would divorce a year after, he probably wouldn’t have moved. But now it was not only him living here but his five-year-old daughter too, and he wouldn’t want to miss seeing her for the world, even if it meant just on the weekends.

Besides, Arnaud had a job at Europol now. Europol was another one of those international organizations headquartered in The Hague. Founded in 1998, the lesser-known cousin of Interpol was of similar size with similar tasks. As the law enforcement agency of the European Union, it was tasked to investigate organized crime and terrorism by working together with EU member states. Europol didn’t have any executive power but was somewhat the central point of contact for any serious cross-border crime in Europe.

When something happened, they were the ones getting the heat of the European Commission and the Council of Europe to get it sorted out. Arnaud had found a job as an inspector in one of the operations departments, the European Special Operations Centre, or ESOC. And he thought he was quite good at his job, at least when they didn’t force one of their latest high-tech toys that blew their budget on him.

This reminded him to get ready for work. He was supposed to be in training for a new system they were introducing. While he would have nothing against accidentally being late and skipping it, he would probably get in trouble for doing so again. He finished his coffee, jumped into the shower, and got ready.

Arnaud was walking to work, as it was just around the corner. And he was planning to use the time to talk to his daughter. He powered up his phone to dial the number of his ex-wife but was immediately bombarded with missed calls and text messages by his boss Gusta. It wasn’t very surprising to him. She panicked quite quickly, though the number of messages was more than usual. He ignored them and called his ex-wife, who picked up after some rings.

„Hey!“

„Hi.“

„I was hoping to talk to Zoé quickly?“

„Oh, how nice of you to think of her! How about instead of calling, you pick her up from kindergarten once? Or spend the weekend with her? You are her father too, you know.“

„Yes, yes. But you know that I have a busy work schedule. I want to see her, but there is just so little time.“

„You know what? The problem is not time; the problem is priorities. If you wanted to see her so badly, you would just make time. You need to prioritize your family life, Arnaud.“

„Yes, darling. May I speak to her now?“

„Sure, I’ll hand her the phone.“

„Allo?“ came a soft voice from the other side of the line.

„Zoé, mon chérie! Are you getting ready for kindergarten?“

„Oui, Papa. Today, we will make carnival costumes! I want to be a dragon!“

„Wow, I cannot wait to see that! You will be a great dragon, darling,“ Arnaud said.

„Papa?“

„Yes?“

„When will I see you again?“

„Soon, very soon!“

„When?“

„Uhm...“ Arnaud was about to talk about the importance of work again but realized how ridiculous it was to tell that to a five-year-old. Hearing the soft voice of his daughter on the other end made him rethink.

„Uhm... how about I pick you up from kindergarten today, and we go play in the park?“

„Oh yes, oh yes, thank you, Papa!“

„I love you. See you later today. Bisous.“

„Bisous.“

Arnaud quickly talked to his ex-wife to let her know that he listened to her and would pick up Zoé today. He was making his daughter a priority and would spend time with her today. He felt proud of himself, like the grown-up man that he was.

When Arnaud arrived at Europol headquarters in central The Hague, he went straight for the elevators but quickly realized that he didn’t know where he was supposed to go. He looked at his phone to find out where the training took place.

„Catapulting law enforcement to the 21st century with automatic facial recognition. Meeting room: B1M44. 09:00—17:00.„

He released a long sigh as he read the meeting invite. Arnaud knew there was no way around this and headed towards the elevator to make his way to meeting room B1M44, just when Gusta intercepted him furiously.

„Damn it! Why can’t I reach you again?“

„Uhm—“

„That was a rhetorical question! You should be reachable, for god's sake! All hell is breaking loose here since 05:00 a.m.! I need you to jump on an urgent case right away.“

She seemed even more enraged than usual, the color of her face resembling a strawberry rather than a healthy peach. This had to be serious. Arnaud couldn’t have been happier for the distraction but didn’t want to seem too eager to get out of the meeting. „I’m supposed to be in training for the new facial recognition system—“

„Forget it. This is important! Walk with me,“ she insisted as she led him to the elevator and took him to the fourth floor, where her office was located.

Gusta Jansen was the head of the ESOC and the point of contact for other agencies and outside stakeholders. It was mainly a political job, but he was lucky to report directly to her, so he got important information first and, most importantly, the most interesting assignments. On the flip side, he had to deal with her temper tantrums. They exited the elevator and walked down rows of workplaces where investigators were looking at their screens.

„So what is this about?“ Arnaud asked.

„How nice of you to ask. A gas distribution facility in Austria had a major incident. And this is not just any facility. It’s a central hub to distribute natural gas coming from Russia to a third of the European continent. I cannot overstate the importance of this. For the past five hours, no gas has been flowing, and I assume you can imagine what this means during the coldest February we have seen in years.“

„People freezing, riots, energy shortages, production standstill, economic disaster. All in all, pretty bad press,“ Arnaud said.

„Exactly. I just got off the phone with Italy’s minister of the interior. They are considering announcing a state of emergency if it continues during the day. I will have similar conversations with representatives from the other affected countries. Plus, I have the Energy Commissioner texting me every 15 minutes to find out what happened.“ Gusta was talking fast while walking faster, and a big vein on her forehead Arnaud had never seen before was becoming visible. He could almost smell the adrenaline that was powering this woman right now.

„All signs point towards an act of terrorism, even though we do not have any details yet. I want you on the next flight to Austria and meet with our local colleagues, get a closer look.“

„The next flight? Are we sure this cannot be done over the phone?“

„I assume I do not need to explain that this incident is very time sensitive and even more political. Everybody is looking at us now. Solving it quickly is our number one priority at the moment. And if you want to keep your job, you better solve it.“

Arnaud sighed. „Yes, madam.“

„Get moving right away and turn your frickin phone on!“ she yelled as he was already out the door making his way to the airport. No time to pack.

On the way to the airport, the impact of what had just happened sunk in. He wouldn’t be able to pick up his daughter. He hadn’t made her a priority as he had promised. Shit. But there was no choice; stopping a terrorist was important. Zoé would understand. No, she won’t. Shit. He texted his ex-wife about the change of plans and promised to make it up to both of them. This was bad. If they weren’t divorced already, it would happen now. He felt bad but quickly focused on his new case as he arrived at the airport to take the next plane to Austria.