On a good day with light traffic and good weather, the drive would take two and a half hours. Miko had made the drive once a couple of years ago in two hours. But that was crazy driving and Miko had grown to his current age, forty-five, by not taking risks like that anymore. So, the drive with Jiri in the front passenger seat and Grago sleeping in the back had taken three hours. The dark Skoda cruised now along the Opern Ring in Vienna, the State Opera coming up on the left. “She never misses the opera,” Miko said. He turned right on the next road. He’d have to drive around the block and set up the car on an avenue facing the front of the opera house. That way they could see the woman’s Audi A8 limo pull up to whisk her away. “Are you sure the president won’t be with her tonight?” Jiri asked. Miko turned right again and drove slowly. “Two reasons, my friend. First, he’s attending a performance of the Boys Choir with the president of Argentina, followed by the obligatory viewing of the Lipizzaner horses.
