Kopari wagged his little finger. “Made it quite hard to play hockey earlier today. Didn’t want to fit in my glove. But I shoot with my right hand.”
Jake wasn’t sure if he meant in hockey or with the gun. “So now what?”
“Now we wait,” Kopari said. “We wait until our men kill anyone who came here with you.”
“I’m sure Hermann Conrad would like to talk with me,” Jake said, buying time. He noticed the room was lit better than the master suite. “Okay. Looks like Herr Albrecht might be sick. He needs to put his head between his legs.”
Albrecht seemed to understand, and he slipped with all his weight to the floor.
The bullet plinked through the window and entered Kopari at the base of the neck. Kopari dropped down onto Albrecht, his hands and body like a bag of dead fish, the man’s gun bouncing on the rug.
Jake picked up his pistol, and then rushed and kicked Kopari’s gun to the side.
More shooting in the hallway and out front.
“I aimed for the center of his back,” Anna said in the headset. “But he slumped down. Where did I hit?”
Checking the man’s pulse, Jake lied, “I think he’ll live. Not likely to play hockey again, though. We’re going back to the master suite. I’ll hold out there for a while.” He opened the door a crack and glanced down toward the master suite, seeing Alexandra there at the door.
Jake shoved Albrecht out the door and he ran as Jake and Alexandra fired down the hall from both locations. Then Jake backed down the hall shooting until he got into the master suite, slamming the door behind him. He changed out a fresh magazine.
Bullets pelted the thick door.
“Now what?” Alexandra asked Jake.
“Now we wait for a moment.”
They both heard the helicopter at the same time.
Toni was behind a low brick wall below a light that she had shot out. Kurt was across the main walk from her, also behind an identical brick section.
She looked up and saw the helicopter, a spotlight scanning the yard and settling on her for a second before doing the same to Kurt.
“Turn off that damn light,” Toni yelled.
“Who is that?” Kurt said and then took a couple shots at the front door.
The light went out and Toni saw the Austrian Army symbol on the side of the helicopter.
Over a loud speaker a man’s voice said, “Put down your weapons. Austrian State Police.”
Great. Just fucking great.
26
Hermann Conrad had just opened up a closet on the first floor, lined with Steyr assault rifles and compact HK MP5 fully-automatic military carbines. He had just passed them out to the faithful and put them in position when he heard the helicopter above.
“Now what?” he said to Miko.
Miko shrugged. “My guess would be Staatpolizei.”
That made no sense to Conrad. “They have no cause.”
“They’re pissed off about losing at hockey today.”
Conrad ignored him. “What’s going on upstairs?”
“One man. I’m guessing Jake Adams. But there’s another shooter.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. Jiri’s missing. So is Kopari. I’m guessing both are dead.”
“Anyone else?”
“One of our local security men was shot in the back garden. He had been shooting at Adams.” He hesitated for a second. “And Grago is missing. I think Adams took him out.”
“Damn it. What about Alexandra?” Conrad was in deep thought waiting for an answer.
“Sir, we think she’s the second shooter upstairs.”
Could this be true? The woman who he brought out of poverty? How could she betray him? His mind shifted gears, thinking now only about his survival and the security of his plan. There had to be a way out of this. “Grab a rifle and come with me,” Conrad finally said.
Someone cut the power.
“Cover us coming down the drain,” Jake said to Anna on the headset.
“Gotcha.”
From the master suite a few moments ago, Jake had seen the helicopter out front — a Staatpolizei chopper — and then a line of cars hurrying up the only road to the castle. He knew the place would become even more of a shooting gallery soon. He had to get these three outside.
On the balcony, Jake first helped Albrecht grasp onto the drain pipe and slide down. Then Altenstein followed him to the snowy surface below. He had informed them to wait for Alexandra and they waited down there now for her.
“They can make it out themselves,” Alexandra said. “I should go with you.”
“No. Please go with them.”
“What about you?”
Jake looked back to the master suite. He was stuck there unless he could come up with a plan. Then it came to him. He sent Alexandra down the pipe and he followed right after her.
When they got to the ground, Jake sent them around to the hill where Anna sat. They could wait there with her on the high ground. Once they were gone, Jake moved along the edge of the castle and smashed in a window. He crawled into the darkness and waited a moment, putting on his NVGs. He was in a library, the walls lined with old leather-bound books from floor to ceiling. Think, Jake. Remember the floor plans from the computer. Where would he go if he wanted to get away? Shit. Of course.
He flipped his NVGs away from his eyes and made sure his gun was loaded with a full 15-round clip. Then he looked out the door to the first-floor hallway.
Nobody there.
Stepping out lightly, he slid along one wall. The power out, only a few candles lit his way. As he reached the foyer, the staircase ahead to his right, he stopped when he saw two dark figures sweep along through the darkness, rifles in their hands.
The intensity of rounds firing from the front of the building was far greater now. Automatic salvos. They had upgraded from handguns, Jake thought. Great.
Looking around a corner, Jake went after the two men who had passed toward the kitchen.
“Jake. You there?” Anna’s words through his headset. He stopped dead in his tracks and then keyed his mic twice, meaning he couldn’t talk. “I have Albrecht, Altenstein, and Alexandra with me. We’ll hold our position.”
Outstanding, he thought. Hopefully Anna would also keep her gun ready.
It was darker now toward the kitchen, so Jake pulled down the NVGs again. The kitchen was empty. Feeling safe to whisper, Jake said into his mic, “In the kitchen. Going under.”
He thought about the door leading to the back garden, but didn’t think Conrad would take that one, not knowing who would be there waiting for him. Instead, Jake went to the door on the other side of the kitchen. The one that lead to the wine cellar. It had been that during the monastery days, as a ski hotel, and Jake imagined it still held wine.
The stone stairs leading down were slick from the cool dampness. Maybe too cold and wet for wine, he thought. At the bottom of the stairs he suddenly felt a flush of air across his face. He had to move now. They were already outside.
NVGs on his head, he ran through the wine racks to a back corner, through an open thick wood door and then down a couple more steps and through a low tunnel.
The tunnel had been built during the Second World War, when the place had been occupied first by the Nazis and then by a group of resistance fighters. Both had thought it necessary to have an escape plan. And now Conrad had done the same.
There was a dim light ahead. Moonlight on snow, Jake thought. If his guess was right, he would end up some one hundred meters to the north of the castle in a group of pines grown to hide the entrance.
Cautiously, his gun in front, he moved through the metal door. Bullets immediately plinked off the door to his left.