“You know what that means.”
“They were already close behind me,” Kate said. “Somebody was feeding them the GPS from my phone.”
“That’s got to be Interpol,” Nick said. “Who else could even do that?”
“Meaning Interpol is compromised,” Kate said. “I need to make a phone call.”
She got up, padded across the room in her bare feet, went into the bathroom, and closed the door.
Jessup answered on the first ring. “Who is this?”
“It’s me,” Kate said. “I’m on a burner phone.”
“Where are you? No, let me guess, you’re in a little town in England called Swanage?”
“I’m not there anymore, but how did you know?”
“I saw the report,” Jessup said. “I’m still at Interpol. They say everyone on the pier was running around talking about men shooting at a boat.”
“Nobody was hurt?”
“Nobody was hurt, thank God. But you were supposed to be on your way home. What were you doing in Swanage?”
“Please listen to me,” Kate said. “This is very important. Interpol has a leak. We can’t trust them.”
There was a long silence. When Jessup’s voice came back, it had changed. He sounded more worried than perturbed now. “You know I can’t help you as long as you’re in another country.”
“I know that, sir. But these people have to be stopped.”
“Think about what you’re saying, Kate. If Nick and his father keep going down this road, it could turn into a suicide mission. I’m surprised they’ve lasted this long.”
“I hear you, boss. But I think I need to stay and help them.”
Another silence. “What can I do?” he asked. In one second, he had gone from the hard-ass boss to the boss who really did care about the safety of his agents, especially Kate.
“Try to track down the leak at Interpol. They’re compromised and it’s going to make this a lot harder for all of us.”
“I’ll do everything I can, Kate. But you have to promise me you’ll be careful.”
“I’ll do my best, sir.”
“You’ve got to promise me one more thing, too.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
“If you find the Raubgold, make sure none of it ends up in Nick’s pocket.”
She ended the call and went back out into the room, where Professor Lewis was done tapping on the laptop.
“Der verrückte König würdigt den Schwanenritter,” Lewis said. “The mad king pays tribute to the Swan Knight.” He turned the laptop around so that Quentin, Nick, and Kate could see the image. “The mad king was Leopold the Second of Bavaria, and he paid tribute to the Lohengrin by building the Schloss Neuschwanstein. It’s probably the most famous castle in all of Europe. Definitely the most photographed.”
Kate bent down to look. She’d seen pictures of this castle before. Its gleaming white sandstone walls rose from the forested hill on which it had been built, the Bavarian Alps rising in the background. The castle was Romanesque in design, incredibly ornate, with towers, turrets, gables, balconies, statues, and more windows than she could count. Almost too beautiful to be real. It had supposedly been the inspiration for Cinderella’s Castle in Disney World, but right now, no one in Kate’s group was appreciating the beauty.
“Look at those sheer walls,” Quentin said. “The road up the hill is the only way in, and it’s going to be heavily guarded after hours.”
“We’ll need climbing gear,” Nick said. “Communications. Maybe more weapons. I’m sure we’ll be running into the Brotherhood’s men again.”
Kate started hitting numbers on the burner phone again.
“Who are you calling?” Nick asked.
“Climbing gear, communications, weapons,” she said. “There’s only one man I know who can help us with that. My dad.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Nick, Kate, Quentin, and the professor were on the Euro Star train, speeding through France, destination Metz. From there they would catch another train into Germany, where they’d meet Kate’s father at the Munich airport.
“I have to admit,” Nick said, sitting next to Kate, “I wasn’t one hundred percent sure you’d come help us.”
“What else am I supposed to do?” she asked. “Go home and sit in my cubicle while you have all this fun?”
“Well, I think you deserve a little more thanks. Maybe I can make you breakfast in bed sometime?”
“Only if it’s waffles and real maple syrup,” she said. “Not the fake stuff.”
“It’s a deal.”
“Just promise me one thing,” she said.
“Anything.”
“You don’t go off the reservation again. That goes for your father, too. If I’m on the team, I’m on the team all the way.”
Nick put his head back against the seat, closed his eyes, and smiled.
“I’m going to need a verbal promise from you, Nick.”
“Yes. I promise.”
In the row ahead of them sat Quentin Fox and Professor Lewis. Lewis was practically vibrating with nervous energy. Instead of having tea at his little house on the channel, he was speeding into the heart of Europe, following a cryptic set of clues to an unimaginable treasure. This was slightly more exciting than grading papers.
“Nick always did love trains,” Nick overheard his father saying. “He used to play with them for hours when he was growing up.”
Nick leaned over the seat. “No, that was you, Dad. You were the train nerd.”
“I was the one buying them, sure. But that was all for you.”
Nick nodded and smiled, then closed his eyes again. Some things aren’t worth arguing.
* * *
When Jake O’Hare walked through the customs gate, Kate was waiting for him. She gave him a hug and then she stood waiting for more. Jake pulled out a big jar and gave it to her.
“Thank God,” Kate said. “Can you even imagine an entire continent of people who never eat peanut butter?”
Jake O’Hare was an ex-Marine, currently retired and living in a garage casita behind Kate’s sister Megan’s house in Calabasas, California. He was square-jawed, square-shouldered, barrel-chested, and big-boned. His gray hair was still buzzed to military specifications. He walked with a slight limp, the result of an injury he’d sustained on a mission that he still insisted was classified.
“Never thought we’d both get back to Germany at the same time,” Jake said. “How long has it been?”
“I was just a kid,” Kate said. When she was sixteen, she and her sister had lived on the USAG Stuttgart base with their father. It was there that Jake had taught her how to drive, but with his own unique twist. From the beginning, he had challenged her on the driving course with obstacles and oil slicks, and had even shot out her tires one time, just to make sure she’d be ready for anything.
“Nick Fox,” Jake said, shaking the younger man’s hand and nearly crushing most of Nick’s metacarpal bones. “What have you gotten my daughter into now?”