The man in the corner looked sick but said nothing.
Conrad lowered his hands and the men sat down again. “Now,” Conrad said. “I have an update for Herr Altenstein and I hope Herr Albrecht will listen closely to this.” He paused and scanned the eyes in the room. There was great anticipation in them. “My researchers have taken Doctor Altenstein’s original theories and put them to work. We have a way now to…” He searched for the right words. “To move our Crusade to the next level. As you all know, having been Brothers in the Old Teutonic Order, that venerable organization has strayed from its original mandate. Whereas our Brothers in the past had done everything in their divine power to rid the world as they knew it at the time from heathen hordes and the non-believers, today’s Order is nothing more than a band aid for a gunshot wound. But now we have the power to bring back respect for the Teutonic Knights.”
Albrecht seemed to slump in his chair even more.
Conrad wet his lips with water. “The face of Europe has changed,” he said. “Turks and Arabs have taken over our cities. Sand niggers and kabob merchants. Bunch of fuckin’ smelly rag heads in their tea joints and hemp houses. Well, my friends, that will change now. We have the power to fight back. We fight back with Nanocide.”
The room burst with cheers, the men raising fists into the air and slapping hands.
Conrad settled them down and then said, “My scientists have developed a nanotech protocol that attacks the body at the cellular level, first attacking the autonomic nervous system, paralyzing the victim, and then moving on to the lungs, the heart and the brain. The victim can understand for a moment what is happening, but can’t do a damn thing about it.”
More whoops and hollering.
Altenstein’s eyes centered on the woman Conrad had called Alexandra. She looked shocked and as horrified as he felt. Then he looked across at Albrecht, the man at his own table. Tears streamed down the man’s face.
Conrad pounded on the table to get their attention again. “Now, with this new development by Herr Doctor Altenstein, we can take this nanotech protocol and specify who lives or who dies. More specifically, we can kill damn near every Arab and Turk in central Europe without collateral deaths.” He went on to describe how he would do it, targeting consumable products. If the nanoprobes were taken by anyone other than those targeted, they would simply come out in their waste without harming them. He had already purchased production facilities that would include his little nanos in key items purchased by these groups.
When Conrad had finished, Miko Krupjak stood up, raising his glass toward his boss. “We toast a man with vision. Our new Grand Master of our New Teutonic Order. Prosit!” They all drank and Conrad smiled at the gesture. Miko continued, his gaze now upon the man at his own table, “Herr Albrecht. As we speak, the warehouse in Vienna is being raided and stripped. The contents of the Old Order’s bank accounts have been transferred to our New accounts. And a message has been sent to all of your priests telling them they are no longer affiliated with the Teutonic Order. They will have to find a new order. Perhaps the Benedictines or Jesuits.” He laughed and the others at the table joined in.
Altenstein lowered his head. What had he done? He only wanted to bring this new technology to the world to cure diseases. Maybe win the Nobel Prize. And then, most probably, get rich on his discoveries — living a life much like his benefactor, Hermann Conrad, already enjoyed. But this. He was devastated.
“Did you hear that?” Toni Contardo said to Kurt. “Hope you got that recorded.”
“I did,” Kurt said.
They were currently in their room at the gasthaus, about to take off to the castle when Conrad and Miko gave their speeches. One of their bugs was working. Thank God for that, she thought.
“Let’s go,” Toni said, checking her 9mm automatic and then adjusting her Kevlar body armor. They were both wearing black from top to bottom.
They got out to Toni’s car and she started toward the castle. These bastards were sick. What if they decided to go after Italians next?
Kurt turned on his headset and switched to the pre-determined channel. “I’ll try to get Jake on this,” he said. “Tell him what’s up at the castle of doom.”
The two of them had been in place for hours, and now Jake and Anna huddled together, a down sleeping bag wrapped around them. She was shivering and Jake tried his best to get her warm by rubbing her down.
The half moon was up now to just above the castle, lighting up the grounds around the massive structure. That would help them in one way, but hurt Jake’s approach to the castle. He would have to move now along the trees to the south and climb to the second floor on a corner drain pipe. He checked out his target window with his NVGs.
On his headset Kurt was explaining to Jake and Anna what was going on inside the castle.
“Gotcha,” Jake whispered into his mic. “You hear all of that,” he spoke softly into Anna’s ear.
She nodded but it seemed more like a shiver.
“We’ll go in a little early,” Jake said. “These people are sick bastards.”
“Our job is to get Albrecht back,” she reminded him.
“That’s changed now. But I can do both. First I’ll get Albrecht, and then I’ll help Toni and Kurt bring in the lot of them.”
She smiled and Jake kissed her on the lips.
“I need to start moving into position,” he said softly. He got out from the sleeping bag and then set the spare rifle closer to her.
He hoped she would still be able to shoot while shivering. Then he remembered that she had been able to shoot with her heart racing during Olympic competition, and he was reassured. Slowly, he stepped through the deep snow down the side of the mountain.
Alexandra got to the master suite in the south of the castle and paced back and forth. She couldn’t believe her own ears downstairs. Sure she had guessed that Conrad was up to something nefarious, but not this. This was much more diabolical than any sane individual could comprehend.
As she had left them there in the great hall, having lost her appetite with a headache, she could hear the men all the way back to her room laughing and joking about their grand scheme. These people were crazy. Crazy but dangerous. Two men had taken Albrecht to his room and locked him in there. Altenstein had, like her, not wanted to eat after those revelations, and retired to his room. The man looked just as shocked as she had, so she would have to help him as well.
First she changed into clothes that she could move in — black slacks and a sweater. Leather boots zipped up to just below her knee. And her leather coat, the pocket specially made on the inside left.
She went to her suitcase and found her cell phone. Hiding among her socks, she retrieved her 9mm Heckler and Koch subcompact handgun, checked the 10-round clip, and set it aside. Then she found her sound suppressor tucked inside a shoe. She took a bottle of water and added some to the silencer to cut the sound even more. Then she screwed it to the end of her gun and slid it inside her jacket.
Now she was ready.
Moving to the door, she opened it a crack and looked down the hallway. Standing on the balcony overlooking the foyer, the man named Jiri took a drink from his bottle of beer and set it on the table next to him. Then he fiddled with his Uzi.
Damn it. She needed this one alive. Looking back in her room, she thought again about her suitcase. No help there. The fireplace poker. Perfect.
She stepped out into the hallway and Jiri immediately saw her. Then she waved for him to come to her. Reluctantly, his head swiveling about, Jiri did as she said. Moving back inside the room, she waited.
When Jiri entered the room, the metal bar struck him in the back of the head and the man collapsed to the floor. Alexandra felt for a pulse. Still alive. She tied him up with cords from the drapes, shoved a nylon in his mouth, and then wrapped a cord from his mouth to his hands and down to his tied feet. He wasn’t going anywhere.