Kate’s eyes narrowed to slits and she jabbed her finger into Nick’s chest. “There are no shares. The gold goes back to its owners or to a righteous cause. I swear, if I find out you’ve taken so much as a speck of gold dust, I’ll drop-kick you from here to eternity.”
Nick nodded again. “Gotcha. No shares. What are you going to do with your finder’s fee? I have a number of ideas.”
If anyone else had said this, Kate would have smiled at the joke, but this was Nick. She knew he might not be joking. In the not-so-distant past, he had had a cavalier attitude about helping himself to other people’s fortunes. She looked to the heavens for help, and groaned.
Nick took a step closer and tucked a strand of stray hair behind Kate’s ear. “You’re sexy when you’re exasperated,” he said.
“I’m not exasperated,” Kate said. “I’m hungry.”
“Maybe this will help,” Nick said. He pulled out what looked like a candy bar wrapper and opened it.
“What is that?”
“It’s called a Horalky. They’ve been making them here in Slovakia for a hundred years.”
“It looks like one of those wafer cookies that taste like cardboard,” Kate said. “Don’t you have any of that good chocolate from Paris?”
“Try it,” he said, putting it to her mouth.
She took a small, skeptical bite. There was a delicate peanut butter cream sandwiched between the wafers, and the edges had been dipped in fine dark chocolate. “Oh my God,” she said. “I have a new favorite thing in the world.”
The Big Bad Wolf would have been envious of the smile Nick flashed Kate. “I might have some more,” he said. “Maybe you can help me remember.”
She locked eyes with him. “Like how?”
“Surprise me,” Nick said.
Kate grabbed Nick by his shirt and pulled him in for a kiss she was pretty sure he’d consider Horalky-worthy.
There was a knock on the door, and two seconds later Jake came into the room.
“Sorry,” Jake said, looking at both of them. “Did I interrupt something?”
“No,” Nick said, handing Kate two more packages of Horalky. “We were talking about tomorrow.”
“The professor has a few ideas for finding the tunnel,” Jake said. “In the meantime, we should all get some rest.”
“Good idea,” Nick said. “Because we always strike at dawn.”
* * *
The next morning, just before the sun came up, Nick, Kate, Quentin, and Jake rode the railway up to Štrbské Pleso. They didn’t try to jump off the train midway, because it was a small two-car train and getting noticed wasn’t worth the risk. Plus, by starting at the top, it would be an easy mile and a half coming downhill, instead of a harder mile and a half going up.
The professor was back in the inn, waiting by his phone in case they called. Assuming they could call. Once they were in the tunnels, God knew what would happen to their cell signal. Quentin had the map with him, but now there was one particular symbol on the first page that they were focused on, the Berkano rune. It was shaped like a rough B, but with two sharp points instead of rounded mounds. It generally meant birth, or new life. Or sometimes a starting point. That was what they would be looking for in the woods surrounding the railway.
They got off at the upper station and waited for the people going down to board the train. The station was empty. They slipped outside and scanned the surroundings. Looking down the tracks, they saw nothing but trees and the back of the train as it rounded a bend and disappeared from view.
“Everybody be careful,” Nick said. “Keep talking to each other.”
They were all wearing earpieces again. For as long as they were in relatively close proximity to each other, at least, they could stay in constant contact.
“Thank you for being here,” Quentin said. “No matter what happens, I’ll never forget it.”
“Veľa štastia,” Kate said. “It’s Slovak for good luck. I looked it up.”
“Veľa štastia,” everyone else said together. Then they were off to find the four hundred tons of gold that had been hidden for three-quarters of a century.
* * *
After a few minutes of walking, they came to a sign next to the track. It was modern, reading “1K” on one side, meaning one kilometer traveled in that direction. They knew they were looking for something a lot older. A few minutes later, they heard a rumbling noise and ducked off the tracks, into the dense forest. It was the same two-car train, which would keep going up and down all day.
When they reached the halfway point, they split up. Nick and Kate took one side of the tracks while Jake and Quentin took the other. Their earpieces kept them all connected. There was no sign of anyone else near the tracks. It was even a beautiful morning to wander around on the side of a Slovakian mountain, especially as the sun rose high enough above the trees. Unfortunately, there was no tunnel entrance to be found.
They went farther and farther away from the exact midpoint of the railway, wondering if the original line could have run on a slightly different course than the version modified in 1970.
“If you’re redoing this train line,” Kate said, “and you see the entrance to a tunnel, why wouldn’t you go in and check it out?”
“I think we would have heard about it if they found four hundred tons of Nazi gold in 1970,” Nick said.
Kate stopped, looked down at the foliage that was all around her legs. “Does poison ivy grow in this part of Europe?” she asked.
“No,” Nick said, startling her as he pushed through a heavy wall of vines. “But they do have something called aconite around here. Also known as wolfsbane, or the devil’s helmet, I think.”
“Yeah? What does it look like?”
“Couldn’t tell you,” Nick said. “You may be standing in it.”
He smiled, she glared at him, but then she stopped dead. She was staring at something directly behind him.
“What is it?” he asked, turning to see what she was looking at. About thirty yards away was one of the many fortified embankments that were dotted all up and down the mountain, whenever the ground needed to be stabilized to protect the tracks. This was one of the older embankments, not concrete like the newer ones, but made by setting a row of railroad ties directly into the slope.
“That’s it,” she said.
“Where? I don’t see it.”
“Right there.”
Nick zeroed in on how the railroad ties set into the slope started short, got longer and longer until they reached a peak, receded to short again, then back to longer, then back to short. It was the Berkano rune, the rough B with sharp points. It just happened to be set on its side with the points going up.
“Guys,” Nick said into his earpiece, “I think Kate found it.”
* * *
A few minutes later, Jake and Quentin were standing next to them, looking at the shape formed by the ties.
“Before we do anything else,” Jake said, “let’s decide how we want to play this. I’ve circled our perimeter. If someone else is here, they’re not close. But that doesn’t mean they’re not watching us.”