They knew Hermann Conrad owned the castle where they had followed the men in the Skoda — the men who had inexplicably kidnapped Herr Albrecht and hauled him down here. But Toni still wasn’t sure why they had done so.
“What do you think?” Kurt asked her.
“I don’t know,” she said. “The new man they just picked up at the airport doesn’t look anything like Miko, Jiri or that Grago guy.”
“I accessed the flight records,” Kurt said. “The guy’s name is Wilhelm Altenstein from Magdeburg, Germany. Turns out he’s a professor of nanotechnology at the university there. Conrad’s company has a huge contract with the university. According to both websites, they’re trying to find nanotech cures for various diseases. Pretty vague, though.”
“Don’t want to give that away to the competition,” Toni said. She looked through a pair of binoculars at the parking lot, where six cars currently sat. “So it makes sense the lead researcher would come and hang out with Conrad at his mansion in Austria. Did you check out the licenses of those cars?”
“Hey…been a little busy here.” Kurt switched to the European auto database and started running numbers he had written down.
She wondered what Jake was doing right now, wishing deep within that she had not pushed him away. He had a way of turning situations like this around, coming up with intuitive reasoning that logically put all pieces of a puzzle together. She, on the other hand, saw a problem and fixed the problem. Which didn’t mean that Jake didn’t make things happen. He just seemed to understand a plot much sooner than her. Maybe she was too trusting. Maybe it wasn’t that at all. Perhaps her radar for nefarious crap didn’t go off until the shit really hit the fan.
“Miko Krupjak we know,” Kurt said. “The Hungarian car is licensed to a guy named Viktor Kopari.” He went on naming folks from Poland, Slovenia, Austria and Germany.
“That covers most of Eastern Europe,” Toni said. “When you consider that Miko and Grago are Czech, and Jiri is Slovak.”
“Right. And who knows where the passengers in the cars are from.”
Toni thought about all of these players coming together here. Why? “Something’s going down here that’s bigger than we thought, Kurt.”
“I have the same idea. And I know what you’re thinking?”
“What’s that?”
“We could sure as hell use Jake right now.”
Her thought entirely. Jake needed to know what was going on here.
When the cell phone rang, Jake was adjusting the defrost controls on Anna’s Audi, trying like hell to keep the ice from building up on the wiper blades. Anna had enough trouble keeping the car on the road and seeing their lane. They were now only about 10 kilometers away from Zell am See, Anna’s home town. They had decided to go there first to pick up some more equipment, stay the night, and then head northwest to St. Johann in Tirol early the next morning.
“Yeah,” Jake said into the cell.
“It’s Toni.”
Jake said nothing. He expected Kurt to keep on calling with updates — him relegated to messenger boy for Toni.
“What?” Jake said.
“Some weird shit’s going down here in St. Johann,” she said, her voice quiet, serene.
“We’re not even close to you. We’re closer to St. Johann im Pongau.” In fact, they had passed through that mountain town twenty minutes ago.
“Can we get over what happened the other day in Vienna,” Toni said, her tone hopeful. “Kurt and I could really use you here. They brought Albrecht to Conrad’s castle west of town. The place is a damn fortress, and so far six cars of people have shown up. With this weather, more could be on the way. And Conrad hasn’t even shown up yet. Who knows if he’ll have more folks with him.”
Jake thought it over, glancing at Anna to his left. Toni knew he was working with her, but he had not said why — nor did he need to explain it to her — especially the sexual nature of their relationship. Finally, Jake said, “That’s why we’re coming. I trust Anna with my life.” He added that last part for Anna to hear, and perhaps to give Toni some idea that there was more to the relationship than simply professional courtesy.
Anna smiled and said, “We turn right toward Zell am See just ahead.”
“How can you tell?” The damn snow was so thick and mesmerizing falling down, he couldn’t see more than twenty meters in front of the car.
“I grew up here, remember?”
On the phone, Toni said, “Did she say Zell am See?”
“Yeah, why?”
“No reason. It’s just a pretty place.”
“Not today. Can’t even see the damn road.” Where in the hell was Toni going with this?
The car turned right onto a northbound road, and Jake finally saw a sign that said the town was a few kilometers ahead.
“Jake, there’s something you need to know,” Toni said, and then her phone crackled.
“Yeah? You still there?”
Nothing.
“Damn it.” Jake slapped his phone shut and said to Anna, “Weather must be messing with the signal.”
“Could be,” Anna said. “Cell service is tough in Zell am See anyway. It’s quite the bowl.”
What was Toni trying to tell Jake? He’d only be able to wonder now…at least until he could get cell service again or find her at a hard line.
Moments later they got to town and Anna parked in front of a restaurant.
“I could use a beer after that drive,” she said.
Jake ran his hand along her face. “Your eyes are red. Too much stimulation.”
She leaned her face to his hand. “We can use our mountain chalet tonight. We’ll have to start a fire, though. But first a beer.”
“Sounds good to me.”
They got out and went into the restaurant.
21
Later that night, Jake and Anna arrived at her family chalet a few kilometers out of Zell am See. The snow had not let up, so Jake’s bearings were way off. He had no idea how Anna even knew where she was going, and wondered if the Audi’s Quattro traction would plow through that much accumulation.
Anna had told him that the chalet was a small wooden structure with a loft and a balcony off of that. It was dark now, but as they drove up to the house the headlights allowed Jake to see more than a foot of fresh snow on the roof, the porch and the deck.
Now Jake held a flashlight for Anna as she opened the thick wooden door.
She flicked on a light and glanced about the place. There was one main room, a kitchen at the back wall, a fireplace to the right, and a wooden staircase that led to the loft. The floors were wood, the walls wood with a few stag antlers, and the place was sparsely decorated. A sofa covered with a wool army blanket sat in front of the fireplace, and a table with four chairs divided the kitchen from the living room area. Three sets of cross country skis sat prominently on a rack on the wall across from the fireplace, boots lined up at attention on the floor below them.
“How about I start a fire and you get the gear from the car.” She handed him a shovel. “Might want to make a path.” Then she turned on a porch light that would make that much easier for him.
It took Jake a half hour to shovel off the deck, the steps, and then haul in their bags. When he came through the door with the last load, the room was already getting warm. Anna’s fire in the stone fireplace was roaring, and she was standing in front of it, her hands extended out to the warmth.
“So this place was your grandfather’s?” Jake asked her, taking a place to her right.
“Yeah. He built it before the Second World War. He was called to service in the German Army. He had served as an officer in the Austrian Army.”