“He didn’t have much of a choice, I’d guess.”
She set her head against his shoulder. “Not really. My grandmother came here with my father, who was sixteen at the time, to…hide. They would have taken him too. I think my grandfather made a deal. Take me, but leave my son alone.”
“Did he…”
“He was killed in Russia.”
Jake put his left arm around her.
“We should have enough wood for a couple of days,” she said. “But then we should be leaving tomorrow anyway.” Her disposition had changed to near dispassion.
“What’s the matter?”
Raising her eyes to his, she said, “I don’t know. Is it always like this?”
“You mean knowing you’ll be in danger the next day?”
Her head nodded slightly.
“It’s okay to be afraid,” he said. “I’d be really worried if you weren’t apprehensive. That leads to recklessness.”
“What about you,” she whispered.
He let out a deep breath. “I’ve been in the game a long time. But I’m not afraid to die. I’m afraid I might do something stupid and get someone else hurt, though.”
She smiled. “I can handle myself.”
“I know. But when the bullets start flying, shit happens. It’s almost easier if you don’t know it’s coming and you just react.”
“Like in Budapest?”
“Right.”
Suddenly, the door burst open with a gust of wind and snow. Jake had his CZ-75 out and pointed at the entrance in a second. Standing there, his eyes wide and his mouth open, was a man of perhaps twenty-five. Jake’s height and size. He looked like he was going to piss his pants.
“Holgar,” Anna said, grabbing Jake’s arm. “It’s my brother.”
Jake slowly returned his gun to its holster under his left arm. “Sorry,” Jake said to no one in particular.
Anna rushed to her brother and embraced him. “How are you?”
“What’s with the gun?” The brother asked Anna in German. “And who is this guy? One of your Interpol friends?”
She introduced Jake to her brother, they shook hands, and then they took seats at the table.
Holgar was unsure of Jake, that was obvious. “Anna didn’t mention a brother,” Jake said.
“She didn’t mention you either,” he said.
Anna got up and said, “I sure hope dad left some schnapps up here.” She found a bottle in a kitchen cabinet, half full, and three shot glasses, which she wiped out. Sitting back down, she poured the three glasses.
“How’d you know we were here?” Anna asked him and then picked up her glass and sipped the schnapps.
Holgar sucked down his glass of schnapps. When he recovered, he said, “Saw the lights.”
“He lives out by the road,” Anna said to Jake.
Jake nodded and then downed his schnapps. She followed him and then coughed once.
“I didn’t know you were coming home,” Holgar said.
“I’m just here for the night. Would it be all right if Jake borrowed a pair of your cross country skis?”
“No problem.”
“Good.” Her eyes shot toward Jake as she refilled the glasses, and then settled on her brother. “We’re tracking a low-level drug smuggler. Heard he was going to be skiing in Kitzbuhel tomorrow. Also heard he can barely stand up on skis. We’ll use that to our advantage.”
Holgar nodded and then finished his second glass of schnapps.
“How are the parents?” she asked her brother.
“In Innsbruck for a few days.”
“Jake’s from Innsbruck.”
The brother looked skeptically at Jake. “I thought he was American?”
“He is, but he runs a security consulting firm there.” She hesitated. “Interpol has asked for his help on this case.”
Jake jumped in. “It’s an honor to work for them.”
Looking deep into his empty glass, Holgar said, “I better get back. Julia might be worried.” He got up and extended his hand to Jake. They shook and he left without further acknowledgment of Anna, the brother sliding out with a gust of wind.
“Tell me what just happened,” Jake said. “You two don’t get along?”
Anna wiped a tear from her eye. “It’s a long story.”
He waited for her, placing his hand on hers across the table.
She finally said, “Holgar was on the Austrian national hockey team before he was injured.”
“The limp?”
“Yeah. He crashed into the boards during a game leading up to the Olympics. Paralyzed him for a while. He eventually recovered, but he was left with the limp and shattered dreams. Even the army wouldn’t take him.”
“He resents you for going to two Olympics?”
“Something like that.”
“What’s he do now?”
“Teaches cross country skiing in the winter and mountain biking in the summer. Also works as a waiter in Kaprun. His wife is a school teacher. Can we change the subject?” Anna got up and added another log to the fire.
“We should check out our gear,” Jake said. “On the drive you mentioned you kept your competition rifles here.”
She nodded her head to follow, and the two of them went up into the loft. There was a feather bed there, a dresser with a mirror, and a door leading out to a deck. The bathroom was in one corner. Anna went to one wall, moved a small table to the side and hit her hand against the wooden boards. A hidden door opened part way and she pulled it the rest of the way.
“Still have that little flashlight?” she asked him.
He handed her his mini-mag light and she turned it on. She pulled out three padded gun cases and then a plastic box with a front clasp. Moments later she had the first gun out, her hands moving along the stock, and then she put it into shooting position. She was a natural, Jake could tell.
They sat on a wool rug in the center of the loft.
“Anshutz eighteen-twenty-seven Fortner Biathlon,” Jake said. “Twenty-two caliber.”
She looked surprised. “You know your weapons.”
“I’m a fan of the shooting sports. What kind of rounds you use?”
Handing Jake the rifle, she opened the box, revealing containers of .22 caliber bullets. “Standard long rifle, but with a thirty grain poly-coated tip, and hot loaded by a local man. More than two thousand feet per second.”
Jake picked up one of the little bullets. “I’ve heard of these. The coating improves velocity and accuracy?”
She smiled. “Yes. They’re super. The coating also has an added benefit — deeper penetration.”
“Everyone likes deeper penetration.”
She hit him in the arm. “Very funny.”
“Hey, with all this weaponry, I’m getting a little turned on.” He handed her the rifle and she set it on the open gun case.
She crawled over to him and kissed him on the lips, lingering for a long time. He fell back, bringing her with him onto his chest, his arms wrapped around her.
Kurt and Toni had found a gasthaus on the edge of St. Johann, a short distance from Conrad’s expansive compound. It was a small room on the top floor of a three-story place, a restaurant and bar taking up the entire first floor. They had grabbed a quick bite to eat and a couple of beers before retreating to their room.
Toni had called in their situation to the regional Agency honcho in Berlin and asked for support from that office. But they could not afford to send anyone, they had said, because of an operation in the Netherlands. Most of their personnel were on temporary duty there.
On his computer again at a small desk, Kurt pulled up the most recent information on Conrad’s castle. “Conrad had the place renovated two years ago,” Kurt said. “Put it back to its original monastery configuration, with a few modifications.”
Laying on her back and looking up at the ceiling, Toni shifted to her side and said, “Like what?”