“Is your gut telling you to keep looking?”
“Yes,” she said, surprising even herself at how quickly the answer came to her.
“Then I know we’re going to find it. Because your gut is always right.”
She nodded. “Okay, so what now?”
“I say we go check out the zoo.”
* * *
As the taxi took Jake, Kate, Nick, and Quentin past the front gates of the palace, they all spotted the Bundespolizei cars parked conspicuously on both sides of the street, along with the uniformed officers watching all of the tourists as they entered the grounds. They had to wonder, once again, if every single major European cultural landmark was being provided a higher level of security now that three of them had been hit in succession. But then, this is the palace, Kate thought. Would they actually think it was necessary to guard a zoo?
There was a separate entrance to the Tiergarten Schönbrunn, a few blocks down the street from the palace’s front gates. When the taxi let them out, they didn’t see any extra Bundespolizei standing around to guard the peacocks and penguins. So the answer is no, Kate thought. We are officially crazier than even the most careful security analyst could ever account for.
They bought their tickets and made like any other tourists enjoying a nice trip to the zoo, strolling through the grounds, a true mixture of the new and the old. As Professor Lewis had told them, many of the original buildings had been built in the nineteenth century, and it was the oldest continuously run zoo in the world.
They made their way past the rhinoceroses, past the bison, past the insect house and the bat house and the snake house, finally arriving at the polar bear habitat, which took up an entire curve on the main path. It was an open-air complex terrain of jutting stone that had been built for the bears, with roughly half the surfaces covered in green moss. There was also a waterfall and a slide leading down into a deep pool of water, and a beach made from thousands of smooth stones.
It was a popular exhibit, with at least a hundred people standing in front of it. A huge adult female polar bear was calmly sitting on the rocks, seemingly watching the people who were watching her. At one point, she seemed to look directly at Kate, holding her gaze as if saying, Don’t even think about it.
The biggest attraction was the cub, whose birth had made news around the world earlier that year. Now he was a healthy six-month-old, splashing around at the edge of the water.
Jake and Kate stepped up to the rail together, while Nick and Quentin stood together on the far end. The rail formed a large arc, a hundred feet long, and the entire habitat must have covered well over fifteen hundred square feet. Kate noticed the fenced-off walkway along the upper rim, from which the handlers probably threw the bears their raw fish or whatever else they got to eat.
“It’s big,” Kate said.
Jake nodded. He was studying the terrain carefully, taking in every detail.
Kate felt a cold wave of air against her face. “Bet it’s a lot colder when you get in there, too.”
Jake nodded again.
Somewhere behind her, Kate overheard one of the zoo guides talking to a young couple. She was speaking English. Kate wandered over to pick up on what she was saying.
“An adult female will usually weigh about five hundred pounds,” the guide said. She was plucky and blond, with perfect English pronunciation, and she probably spoke at least four other languages. Austria at its finest. “They can eat twenty percent of their body weight in one sitting, so that’s one hundred pounds of meat!”
The young couple were appropriately impressed by this, thanked the guide, and moved on. Kate put on her best smile to draw the guide’s attention. “Is this still the original exhibit?” she asked.
“We’re going to be shutting down this exhibit for a major renovation,” the guide said. “The new ‘Franz Josef Land’ will have three times as much space, with a much more natural habitat for the bears. But yes, the habitat you see here now has been around for almost a century. It was one of the few that didn’t get damaged by the bombings in World War Two.”
“Isn’t that interesting,” Kate said. “And those doors I see in the rocks, does that mean the polar bears go inside to sleep at night?”
“Actually, fun fact! Most of the other animals in the zoo do go inside to sleep at night, but polar bears are one of the few animals that don’t ever do that. They can’t sleep in enclosed spaces, so they have the run of the place all night long!”
“That is a fun fact!” Kate said, suddenly feeling a little sick to her stomach.
“I’ll tell you something else,” the guide said, stepping closer like she was about to share a secret. “Did you know that polar bears are one of the only mammals in the world who don’t have a natural fear of humans?”
“You don’t say.”
“If you’re ever in the Arctic Circle and you see a polar bear,” the guide said, “you’d better start running. Because they will seriously hunt you down.”
“Another fun fact!” Kate said. “Thank you so much.”
The guide squeezed Kate’s arm and wished her a great day. As Kate went back to her father, her fake smile disappeared.
We are so screwed.
* * *
Back in Professor Lewis’s hotel room, Kate and Nick sat next to each other on the bed. Jake was leaning against the edge of the desk, watching the professor tap away on his laptop. Quentin was at the window, looking out at the city.
“This zoo has a tragic history,” Lewis said. “During the war, they had to choose which large animals to save, and then they killed all of the smaller animals and used them as food. Then, when the Russians were advancing through Austria, the two head zookeepers committed suicide.”
Nick and Kate looked at each other. “Does this have anything to do with where we’re looking?” Kate asked.
“In 2002, three jaguars attacked a handler,” Lewis said. “Killed her in front of everybody. A few years later, another handler got crushed to death by an elephant. Do you get the feeling this place is cursed?”
“Professor,” Kate said, “you’re not exactly helping the mood here.”
“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Lewis said. “I should focus on where this next clue is pointing.” He held out the map so that everybody could see it. “Look at the rune next to this next banner. This is Gebo. It means gift.”
“It just looks like an X,” Kate said.
“Correct. That’s Gebo.”
“So what’s the gift that’s inside the polar bear exhibit?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Lewis said. “It had to be before or during the war, but I can’t find anything in any of the records. Of course, they didn’t have Facebook or Instagram back then to show off a new toy for the polar bears. You may have to do a hard search when you’re inside the exhibit.”
“I’ll go,” Quentin said. “The one thing we know is that whatever I’m looking for, it’ll be marked with a small swastika, like the others.”
“We should start high,” Nick said. “Like at the Eiffel Tower and the castle.”