‘Except ulcers from worrying about Mossad catching you before Interpol do,’ added Eddie.
The Nazi leader was still defiant. ‘But you cannot open the vault. Even if you kill me, my men will soon come looking for me — you will have to leave here or die, and once you are gone, they will open the vault and find the spring.’
Nina stared hard into the repulsive man’s eyes, just as his gaze had once drilled into hers to seek hidden truths… and this time, it was she who caught a flicker of fear. ‘No,’ she said quietly, remembering something from her first visit to his study. ‘No, they won’t.’
‘I assure you that they will!’
‘I don’t think so. You’re the only one who knows the vault’s combination, aren’t you? You hid it from the others when you opened it before.’ Kroll tried to maintain his angry mask, but now the others saw the worry behind it. ‘That’s how you keep your power, isn’t it? You’re the only one who can give them the water, so they have to follow your orders or they start getting older, just like everyone else. And you’ve all gotten so used to staying young, you can’t bear the idea of ageing.’
‘Even without me, they will open the vault soon enough,’ he growled.
‘But only to get the water. Rasche and the others aren’t as convinced by the legend as you, are they? Now that your hiding place has been exposed, they’ll just take what they can and run. Your dream will die with you.’
Kroll’s silence spoke for him. Eddie pushed his gun against the German’s head. ‘Okay, unless you think your magic water’ll cure a bullet in the brain, you’d better open that fucking door in the next five seconds. Fünf, vier, drei…’
‘Englisch Schwein!’ the Nazi hissed — but he still reached to turn the combination dial. Eddie waited until he heard a click, then shoved Kroll away and pulled the handle.
The steel door swung open, revealing the treasures inside. ‘Not a bad collection,’ said the Englishman, seeing the glint of gold and jewels. ‘Alexander’s was better, though.’
‘And Alexander’s wasn’t stolen,’ Nina added. Banna moved alongside her to gaze in wonderment at the relics. The metal fish was not in sight. ‘Okay, where is it?’ Kroll said nothing. ‘Eddie, see that big jar at the back? Can you smash it?’
Eddie grinned. ‘Love to.’ He raised his gun.
‘No, wait!’ Kroll gasped. ‘I will get it.’
‘I’ll watch him,’ said Zane. He pushed Kroll forward with his own weapon.
Nina and Banna moved to let the Nazi into the vault. Zane stood at the door, MP5 locked on to the obese man. Kroll licked his lips as he glanced back at the Israeli, then he lifted the twin of the Antikythera Mechanism off a case and opened it to reveal the Andreas relic. ‘It is here,’ he croaked.
‘Great,’ said Nina. ‘Bring it out.’
He reached for the bronze fish—
‘Herr Kroll!’ called a voice from the hallway. ‘Wir haben noch sie nicht gef—’
The door opened, a harried man in his forties rushing in — only to stop in alarm at the sight of the intruders as they whirled to face him. He shouted a warning and groped for his holstered gun.
Eddie pushed Nina aside and fired. The new arrival fell backwards in a spray of blood. Zane turned back to cover Kroll—
The astrolabe smacked hard against the Israeli’s head. He stumbled away from the entrance. Eddie also spun, but Kroll had already dropped the mechanism and pulled the startled Banna to him as a human shield. The Nazi retreated into the vault, grabbing the door’s inner handle and using his considerable weight to haul upon it.
Eddie took aim through the rapidly narrowing gap, but he couldn’t shoot without hitting Banna. The last he saw of Kroll was a snarling half-smile, then the door closed with a heavy bang.
Nina ran to the vault, hearing a rattle as the combination tumblers were reset from within. ‘Damn it! We’ve got to get it open!’
‘There’s no time,’ Zane said. Shouts came from outside the building as the Nazis reacted to the gunfire. ‘We need to get out of here!’
Eddie grabbed a chair and hurled it through the window. Wood and glass disintegrated. ‘Quick route,’ he said.
‘But what about Ubayy?’ said Nina, with a helpless look at the closed vault.
Zane ushered her to the new exit. ‘We can’t help him.’
Eddie knocked out the remaining daggers of glass, then climbed through to a lawn behind the house. Nina followed. ‘They’ve still got the relic!’ she said. ‘They’ll be able to use it to find the spring—’
‘Herr Chase!’ A strained whisper from nearby.
Eddie searched for the source, spotting movement behind a bush. ‘Roland?’ he called.
The young man emerged from the shadows. He had changed into a Nazi uniform since the Englishman last saw him. ‘Yes! I went to the red hut, but when I saw you were not there, I thought you had either run for the ruins or come here after Herr Kroll.’ He regarded Nina grimly. ‘Dr Wilde, what you told me, about Macy — it was true.’ A glance at his left arm — then he tore off the swastika armband and threw it aside.
‘Yeah, it was,’ she replied as Zane landed behind her, ‘but we don’t have time to talk about it.’ A crash from inside as the front door was kicked open.
‘Follow me,’ said Roland, running down the lawn. The others hurried after him, Zane limping from his leg wound. ‘I know another hiding place.’
A wooden fence surrounded the garden, but it was quickly vaulted. Eddie glanced towards the centre of the compound, seeing men heading for the house. The Nazis had regrouped and were now out for vengeance. ‘Where do we go?’
‘This way.’ The young blond led the way to the rear of a barn. The ground sloped away into a drainage ditch, exposing part of the structure’s foundations. Roland went to a particular section of planking and pulled at it. The boards came away to reveal a dark space behind. ‘Under here.’
Nina entered first, the men following her. Eddie went last, pulling the wood back into position. He crouched beside it, gun at the ready. Before long, he heard voices outside. Pale torchlight flashed through the cracks in the wall. He tensed as someone came closer… and passed, calling out in German before moving away.
‘They did not see us,’ whispered Roland in relief. ‘I used to hide in here with Volker when we were children. No one ever found us.’
‘So now what?’ asked Nina. ‘They’ll still be looking for us, however long we wait.’
‘No — they are going to leave. Herr Kroll — Kroll,’ he corrected, pointedly removing the honorific, ‘told us at the rally that the Mossad has found the Enklave. Some wanted to stay to defend it, but he has ordered that we are to fly to the Middle East to find the Spring of Immortality. There will be aeroplanes at the dry lake in the morning.’
‘But the spring’s in Iran,’ Nina objected. ‘How are they going to get to it? The Iranians won’t exactly welcome a battalion of Nazis at Tehran airport with open arms.’
‘They won’t be going to Tehran,’ said Zane. ‘Leitz — Kroll’s broker — has the connections to get them into the country without anyone asking questions. He just has to pay off the right people — and with almost a hundred million dollars in the bank, Kroll can afford it.’
‘That’s if they actually get to the planes,’ said Eddie, as a truck engine started to turn over. Even in the darkness, Nina could tell that he was smiling.
‘What do you—’ the Israeli began, only to be cut off by the flat whump of a fire suddenly igniting. Someone yelled in fear — then the cry was drowned out by an explosion that shook the barn’s timbers. A moment later, the blast was followed by several more. Screams and cries echoed around the Enklave above the thunder of a fearsome blaze.