"You can see how they built that wall to keep the river out." Stephanie used a laser pointer to indicate what she was talking about. "The vaults are perfect for storing wine and food. The temperature would be cool, constant in summer or winter."
Stephanie tapped a key. The monitor switched to a moving video in color.
"This is a video taken by a cruise ship line that goes up and down the river. Gutenberg's château is ideal from an advertising point of view because it's a beautiful example of old European architecture. I thought you might see something useful."
They watched as the video moved past the château. The remains of a crumbling dock stuck out into the river from a narrow shelf next to the wall. Set in the wall at the end of the dock was a rusted metal door. The door looked old and immovable. The château looked romantic and picturesque.
"That door doesn't look like it's been opened for a hundred years," Nick said.
"Where does it go?" Selena asked.
Stephanie brought up the drawing. "Into the vaults. They would have used it to unload fresh produce and goods from the river."
"That's our way in," Ronnie said. "We can't go in through the front. The fake delivery or repairman bit won't fly here."
"I wish we had more Intel," Nick said.
"There's never enough Intel. Besides, think of all the times when the Intel we had was wrong."
"Yeah, but that doesn't stop me from wishing we had more. Run the video again, will you Steph? I thought I saw something."
They watched as the château started to slip by.
"Hold it there," Nick said. The picture froze. "There. On top of the wall."
"I see it," Ronnie said.
"What are you looking at?" Selena asked.
"See that shiny line? The sun must've caught it just right when they were filming. You have to look close, it's really hard to see."
A shimmering, hair thin line ran along the top of the wall a few inches above the tips of the broken glass.
"Trip wire," Ronnie said. "If he's got that, he's got cameras and some kind of backup alarm system as well."
"I wonder how many guards he has," Selena said.
"More than we'd like," Nick said.
"There's always one guard at the gate," Stephanie said. "There's the chauffeur. Probably a dozen staff inside, but some of those would be noncombatants. Cooks, housekeepers, people like that."
"All that tells us is that we don't know how many are in there. With Krivi and Mitchell and the others gone, he has to be paranoid as hell. If I were him, I'd have armed men all around me."
"How do you want to play it?" Elizabeth asked. "We need to move before he sends someone else out with one of those canisters."
"Ronnie's right," Nick said. "We'll never get through that front gate."
"You want to try that door?" Ronnie asked.
"Right now it looks like the best shot," Nick said. "But if we have to blow it open it will alert everyone inside."
"We could go over the wall," Selena said. "That wire shouldn't be much of a problem."
"We could, but we'd be exposed on top. Gutenberg must have security cameras. We'd be sitting ducks up there and when we drop down, there's no cover until we reach the house. Time enough to send out the goons. It's a kill zone."
Ronnie said, "I can use the plasma cutter. It will go right through that old metal."
"How soon can you leave?" Elizabeth asked.
"Give us an hour to put our gear together," Nick said.
CHAPTER 60
The raft was a rental from a company in Geneva that specialized in supplying whatever was needed for tourists with a yen for seeing the Rhône up close and personal. Clouds covered the moon. The château was a dark mass looming out of the night. In their black gear, the three of them were just one more bit of darkness.
The raft bumped up against the rotting remains of the old dock. Ronnie tied off and they climbed up onto the flat area next to the wall of the château. Nick shone a light on the rusted metal of the ancient door. A metal plate in the center held a large keyhole.
"Can pick that lock?"
Ronnie peered into the keyhole. "It's solid rust. Be quicker if I cut it away."
He took the plasma unit from his pack. It was compact and self-contained, good for about twenty minutes, long enough for most uses in the field. Ronnie donned goggles, turned it on and began cutting. The torch made a bright, blue flame, showering sparks as he cut. The metal glowed red on either side of the cut as he moved the beam around the lock plate. After a few minutes he shut down the torch and took off his goggles.
"That should do it."
He stood and used his knife to pry the plate away from the door. It fell onto the ground.
"Give me a hand," Ronnie said.
Nick and Ronnie pulled on the door. Flakes of rust broke away but it didn't move.
"Again," Nick said. This time they felt movement. "Once more should do it."
They pulled. The door came open with a screeching sound of tortured metal.
"They must've heard that in Geneva," Nick said.
"As long as they didn't hear it up top," Selena said. "Are we going in or not?"
They stepped into the lowest vault of the château and brought out their flashlights. The arched ceiling of the vault was made of fitted stones. The floor was of stone. Old barrels and crates and pieces of lumber littered the floor. A thick layer of dust lay over everything. A narrow flight of steps rose at the far end to the next level.
"No one's been here in a long time," Nick said. "I wonder if they even know that door is there."
"They will after we leave," Ronnie said.
"Let's climb. Weapons free."
They charged their MP-5s. The sound of the bolts going home echoed in the stone space.
The steps led to a closed wooden door. Nick pushed against it until it showed dim light from the room beyond. They opened it further and stepped into another vault. This one had been converted into a furnace room. Three low wattage bulbs hung from the ceiling, shedding light enough to see a modern gas fired boiler positioned against one wall. A four inch gas main descended from the ceiling to a large, spoked valve and then over to a meter and control console on the side of the boiler. The panel held more valves and several gauges. They could hear the low sound of the pilot light burning. Pipes rose from the boiler and branched out along the ceiling.
"That's a serious furnace," Ronnie said. "Look at the size of that gas line. I'd hate to see the heating bill."
"Gutenberg can afford it," Nick said. "The next level up should be the ground floor. I don't see steps."
"There's another vault through there," Selena said. She pointed at an open archway on the wall opposite the furnace. They headed over to it. Nick held up his hand.
Wait.
He took a quick look into the next room and signaled them forward.
They entered a wine cellar lit by dim, overhead bulbs. On one side, racks of wine and liquor bottles stood in dusty rows, five shelves high. A wide aisle ran down the middle of the vault, toward another set of steps leading upward. On the other side of the aisle stood a dozen round, steel cylinders, each about four feet high. Nick had seen cylinders like that before. They were the kind used by crop dusters.
He walked over to them. Each one was marked in red.
SR