A tall stone wall wrapped around the entire cemetery, topped by wrought iron fencing with sharp points at the top of each rod. Some of the newer gravestones were in immaculate condition while the ones that dated beyond ninety years had fallen into ill repair. Some were barely legible. Others were crooked or falling over onto their sides. Occasionally, a mausoleum sprang up among the ordinary graves, an eternal tribute to someone who was willing and able to spend a little more in death than their less fortunate neighbors.
Sean followed Steiner through the winding maze of tall hedges, shaggy evergreen trees, and headstones. They arrived in the center of the graveyard, surrounded by dozens of stones that were marked from a similar era. Steiner stopped in front of one in particular. His face grew respectfully solemn as he stared at the name engraved on the stone.
"This is my father's grave," he said.
Max Steiner was born in 1916 and died in 1994. His wife, Lilia, was buried next to him, having died in 1985. Sean read the Biblical passage inscribed below the name and dates. It was one he recognized from the book of Psalms in the Old Testament reading, I will fear no evil.
A strange quote to include on one's headstone, but Sean figured it must have had personal meaning to the man, especially considering the older Steiner's close brushes with the Nazis. He'd likely seen a great deal of evil up close with his own eyes.
Over the name, Sean reread another line, one that both confused and surprised him. May Saint Sebastian watch over you.
Sean knelt down and passed over the line one more time. "What does this mean?" he asked. Steiner was still standing behind him with a regret-filled face.
"Which part?" Sean answered by pointing at the top sentence on the stone. "Oh. Saint Sebastian?" Sean nodded. "I am not entirely sure. Father rarely spoke of a patron saint. I would assume that was the one he chose, though I do not know why. He was never a deeply religious man. That fact always made me question why that sentence was on his headstone. It was what he wanted, though."
Sean thought for a second. "This isn't the first place I've seen that. It's in Ott's journal as well. The exact same line."
It could mean only one thing. The two were connected somehow and held a deeper meaning than Sean or anyone else had first suspected. The only question was what was that connection?
He pulled out his phone and sent a quick text message to Tommy, asking him to dig up all he could about Saint Sebastian. Sean leaned closer to the stone, staring hard at a small emblem etched into the surface. His eyes widened. Carved into the smooth stone was the shape of a bell, no longer than two inches and maybe an inch wide. Four numbers surrounded it. On the left side, a one. On top was a five. The right side of the bell and the bottom both had zeroes.
It’s 1500. The same number as the U-boat that was rumored to carry the strange object.
Sean's heart began to beat. How are the two connected? Why is Saint Sebastian mentioned twice? What does it have to do with the U-boat? And where did it end up?
The thoughts stormed through his mind, and he couldn't sort them all out at once. He stood up and turned around to face Steiner. "This has been very helpful," he said. "I hope I haven't taken up too much of your time."
"Not at all," Steiner smiled and shook his head. "If anyone can put an ending to this mystery, I would be most grateful. My father went to his grave with a very serious and deep secret. I believe that had he wanted to keep it completely hidden, he would not have left little clues lying around."
"I agree," Sean offered. His eyes narrowed at the sight of movement a hundred feet away, just beyond a row of headstones.
Sean instinctively grabbed his weapon and held it low, not wanting to alarm Steiner too much. The sudden movement took the older man aback. The weapon was also disconcerting. "What are you doing?" he asked, bewildered.
"Herr Steiner, stay here, and keep low. I believe we were followed."
Sean turned and ducked behind a wide headstone. Someone knew he was here, but how was that even possible? He peeked over the top and motioned for Steiner to join him. Steiner's immediate concern was reaffirmed when he glanced back the way they'd come and saw two men moving quickly, keeping low behind the headstones and other monuments as they approached.
He ducked for cover where Sean had holed up and waited for orders. "Who are those men? What should we do?"
"Not sure who they are," Sean said. "First I've seen them, although they could be the guys I ran into in Switzerland." It was impossible to know since the approaching threat was clad in scarves that covered half of their faces and wore black baseball caps on their heads. In the quiet solitude of the empty, small town cemetery, no one would see them and raise an alarm. Sean noted the silencers on the ends of the weapons the men carried.
He gripped his own weapon and snapped on a three-inch long, black metal box to his barrel. The suppressor was unlike any he'd seen on the market, a product from his friend at DARPA. This new kind of silencer was nearly half the length of standard ones, and didn't have to screw into place. Grooved clasps locked it onto the end of a weapon like a vice grip. In field tests, the prototypes had endured several hundred pounds of pressure before the metal succumbed and snapped free. On the up side, even when it did, the guns weren't damaged other than a few scratches, so the shooter could continue using the weapon, albeit in a much louder capacity.
Sean kept his back to the gravestone and looked toward the back of the cemetery. At the moment, the men were only approaching from the front, which meant they could go out the back door, if there was one.
"Is there a way out the other end of the cemetery?" Sean asked quietly.
Steiner followed his gaze toward a thick stand of willows, oak, and pine. The walls on either side extended over a small rise and beyond. The older man nodded. "Yes, there is a gate."
A little luck after all.
"But it is usually locked."
Of course it is.
Sean thought for a second and took a peek back around the side of the headstone. A splinter of concern shot through his spine. The men were gone. Either they had passed by, gone around a different direction, or…"
The stone next to his face exploded, sending fragments of gray shrapnel past his face. One of the broken pieces struck his cheek just below the eye, and he pulled back instantly. The spot on his face throbbed. Sean glanced back over at Steiner who stared at him with mouth agape.
"Is it bleeding?" Sean asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.
Steiner gave a terrified nod.
Sean pursed his lips for a second. He pulled his body back to where he'd been and quickly surveyed their right flank. Whoever the guy was that took the shot had gone back to his hiding place. An old feeling crept into Sean's mind, and he turned around just in time to see another attacker pop out from behind a pine tree on the left flank.
Sean fired four rapid shots, but range and accuracy was an issue with the compact weapon, no matter how good he was with it. Two of the bullets burrowed into the tree, the other two ended as plumes of dirt and grass near his target's boots.
Even though he didn't hit the man, the shots did enough to scare him back to cover. Three more muffled shots came from the center of the makeshift battlefield. Sean ducked back down as the rounds cracked into the hard front of the gravestone.
"We're going to have to make a run for it," Sean said. He leaned forward and fired two shots to the right, then two to the left. Both men had started to peek around the trees they were using for cover. Sean's volley sent them back. He poked the gun over the top of the headstone and fired two more. On the third trigger pull, the gun merely clicked.