An idea popped into his head. What if Stuart’s s and w meant southern wall? According to the story, Stuart found a mound after coming ashore when his ship sank in the sound, just off the coast. The pieces to the puzzle began flying by Tommy’s eyes. He pulled out his phone and examined the screen shot Tara sent earlier. He zoomed in on a few areas outside the earthworks that surrounded the interior palace and walls. Most of the terrain appeared flat, with only a few undulations here and there; although with a direct overhead view, it was somewhat difficult to interpret rises and dips in the earth’s surface. Outcroppings of trees dotted random spots in fields of golden grass. A rock formation caught his attention for a moment, but he realized it was just some large boulders sitting out in the open, exposed to millennia of erosion.
Tommy made a note of two potential locations. One was near a stand of trees at a distance he believed would be fairly close to two thousand feet. The other was at a similar distance but off at another angle. It was a small hill that looked more like a hump from the aerial view. Its smooth slopes caused Tommy to think it to be nothing more than a natural occurrence, but he would need to check it out just to be sure.
He lifted his head and noticed some movement in the rear SUV, and a few seconds later the two vehicles rolled away, driving toward the castle. When Tommy felt they’d cleared enough distance, he stepped out of the station and pulled up the hoodie on his coat to provide a small amount of anonymity. He slid his sunglasses onto his nose and began walking at a brisk pace, heading toward the castle. As soon as the two SUVs were at what Tommy considered to be a safe distance, he broke into a moderate jog. He was glad he’d kept in shape through the years, forcing himself to run three to six miles, three times a week. Even though running never seemed to get easier, it sure could have been a lot harder if he hadn’t kept up with his training.
As he started breathing harder, the frigid air burned in his throat and lungs. His legs stiffened, something that normally would have been prevented with a good warm-up and stretch. At least the half mile or so between the station and the castle was flat.
Tommy kept his eyes on the two SUVs until they disappeared through a stone gate built into the earthworks. He quickened his pace a little, forcing his legs to pump harder. His mind ran even faster, trying to devise a plan to free his friends and take out the men who had them. He was armed, though he only had twenty shots with him for the 9 mm Glock on his ankle. A spare magazine was packed tightly in his jacket pocket.
He reached the bridge that provided the only means of entry to the castle grounds and hurried across it, carefully spying the opening the SUVs had just gone through. His eyes watered from the icy air, and despite wearing sunglasses that provided a little wind protection, he had to rub his face several times to wipe the tears away.
Tommy slowed his pace once he’d crossed the bridge. He panted for breath as he cautiously scurried the forty feet to the gatehouse, which thankfully wasn’t manned at the moment. He tucked up against a stone column and peeked around the edge. The occupants of the SUVs were getting out and being ushered into the palace grounds.
Tommy wondered what Sean was up to. Tara had said she’d been unable to reach him by phone, meaning Tommy was the only one with the additional clue about the two strange letters in Stuart’s book. If Dufort’s men were going into the palace that could mean only one thing: Sean had told them what they were looking for was somewhere in there, which meant he was trying to buy some time.
How much time he could purchase, Tommy didn’t know. Either way, he needed to hurry. The plan formulated itself in a matter of seconds. He would find the next clue and use it to bargain for Sean and Adriana. It was the only way. Tommy could handle himself in a fight, but being badly outnumbered and outgunned would only mean he and his friends would be at high risk.
He turned around and looked out across the landscape as the heavy, black clouds continued to pour into the sky above. At an angle off to his right, he could see the hill he’d noticed in the aerial photo. Farther left, more toward the coast, was the stand of trees surrounding another small rise.
He would have to cross the bridge again and go around the outer defenses of the fortress to reach both locations.
Tommy hoped Sean could buy enough time.
Chapter 36
“You know we could have just walked over here,” Sean said in a dry tone, exiting the SUV and stepping down onto a cobblestone pavement.
Dufort got out of the front and closed his door. He walked around the hood and smiled cynically, framed perfectly by his thick down coat and fur-lined hood. “I’m sure you’d have loved that, Sean. A wide-open area, no people around, plenty of room for you to escape and run.”
“I’m just saying it was, like, a ten-minute walk, at most.”
Thunder boomed in the distance as the sky continued to boil over with pillowy black clouds.
“Of course,” he went on, “we probably would have got wet. So good call on the driving.”
Dufort motioned sideways with his head, and Caron jabbed Sean in the kidneys with a gun barrel.
“Time is running out, Sean,” Dufort said. “I’d hate to have to cut off those pretty fingers.”
Sean hesitated for a moment. He wasn’t sure where to begin. The bigger problem was he had no idea where to end. They could spend the better part of the day walking the grounds of the palace and still never find what they were looking for.
“I guess I’ll lead the way?” he asked and walked along the cobblestones and through the stone archway of the entrance leading into the palace interior. A placard indicated that the Kronborg Slot had been the setting for Shakespeare’s famous work Hamlet and briefly described a few interesting factoids about the fortress that Shakespeare called Elsinore.
Once on the other side of the entryway, they were surrounded by high stone walls that enclosed the courtyard on all four sides. The area was impressive, reaching hundreds of feet in each direction. In the center of the square courtyard was a round fountain with a square top. Small streams of water spewed through an iron grate and back down into the center. The cold weather must have been keeping out most of the tourists, as only a few milled about, strolling leisurely around the courtyard’s perimeter.
Sean had a rough idea of the castle’s layout, mostly from reading about it. He’d learned that the basement and lower floors still featured some of the original fortifications and foundations from the original construction in the 1420s when Erik of Pomerania built it. Later, in 1574, Frederick II began building the incredible Renaissance version that Sean was seeing now. The interior was badly damaged during a fire in 1629, but was restored to near its full glory by later Danish kings.
Kronborg Castle was a seat of power for the sound between Sweden and Denmark, acting as the gateway to the Baltic Sea. In the almost three hundred years of its operation, nearly two million ships had passed through, most of which were charged a toll. Danish kings would also allow some ships to pass by at no charge, if the countries they represented were willing to make an alliance.