thought of it. More lies.’ She shook her head.
‘The question is why,’ Ben said. ‘Why has Steiner pretended all these years?’
‘Are our parents still alive, Ben?’ she asked suddenly, excitement flaring for a brief moment.
He sighed. ‘No. He wasn’t lying about that. They’re dead. But it wasn’t a plane crash.’
‘What happened to them?’
It was hard to say it, but he told her the truth about their mother’s suicide and their father’s subsequent pining away. She paled as she listened, and buried her face in her hands.
‘I hate him,’ she said. ‘I hate that evil bastard. I’ll get him for what he’s done to us all.’
‘What about Silvia?’ he asked. ‘You think she was in on it too?’
Ruth shook her head vigorously. ‘He lies to her about everything. Even after all these years, he’s got her believing the sun shines out of his ass. She gave up everything for him, to live in that mausoleum. So, no, I don’t think she’s in on it. She’s a good person, not like him. I was close to her once. I wish I still could be. My cousin Otto, too. I miss them.’
‘What happened between you and Steiner?’
She shrugged. ‘I grew up, and he couldn’t deal with it. There was endless fighting. He wouldn’t let me breathe. I couldn’t do anything, couldn’t have a horse, couldn’t do this, couldn’t do that. The more he tried to control me, the more I rebelled against him. Hanging out with people he disapproved of, smoking dope, getting involved in environmental causes, going on marches. He was probably afraid I’d cause a family scandal. In the end he gave me an ultimatum. Either toe the line or get out. I got out.’
‘From teen rebellion to kidnapping,’ Ben said. ‘That was a big step up.’
‘Yeah, well, you know why I took it. Because of the Kammler papers.’
‘You’re going to have to explain all this to me.’
Her lips curled into a dark, grim smile. ‘OK, but I can do better than just explain. I can show you. Have you got a computer?’
‘In the office.’
‘Let’s go. There are things you need to see. Then you’ll understand.’
They left the ruined church and started making their way back along the leafy path through the woods. There was a closeness between them now that hadn’t been there before, and it warmed him more than the June sun streaming through the trees.
‘How much do you know about science?’ she asked him as they walked slowly side by side.
‘Just what I’ve picked up here and there,’ he answered.
‘You never studied it, then?’
‘I studied theology, then war. Why?’
‘I studied science,’ she told him. ‘Physics. University of Geneva was where I took my first degree. When I graduated I went to Bonn for my PhD.’
He stared at her in surprise. ‘How does someone with a science doctorate end up selling pottery?’
‘Because I happen to give a shit about scientific integrity. Science is meant to be the pure pursuit of knowledge for the good of the planet and its occupants, you know? But of course that’s not the way it works. Like when a big telecommunications corporation uses bribes and threats to suppress studies that prove carcinogenic effects from mobile phone radiation. Or when astrophysics research projects get mysteriously shut down because someone inconveniently showed up major flaws in the Big Bang Theory. Little things like corruption and hypocrisy, I kind of have a problem with. I’d rather be helping Franz to sell his art than be part of that fucking machine. All it does is serve the establishment.’
‘You’re an idealist,’ he said.
‘Something wrong with that?’
‘Not at all. I’ve had the same problem all my life.’
‘Then you understand why I quit my career. But before that, it was my whole life. I was eighteen when I went away to Geneva. Maximilian hated me being away from home, but he was pleased I was following in his footsteps.’
‘How so?’
‘You didn’t know? Before he made all his money, way back, he trained in chemistry and physics. Was pretty talented at it, too. That’s what got him started in business – when he was a student he patented a heart drug that got taken up by a big pharmaceutical company and made him rich. Anyway,’ she went on, ‘off I went. I had everything money could buy. Maximilian bought me a luxury apartment in Geneva. I had a sports car, a fat allowance. Everything except freedom. He wouldn’t let me have friends or go to parties with the other students. He always seemed to know what I was doing, like he was having me followed. Insisted I always came straight home for vacations and couldn’t leave until term began again. That’s why I was there, the summer after the end of my first year, when I overheard the phone call.’
‘What phone call?’
‘Between him and his brother Karl. Not long before poor old Karl died. Shame, I liked him. Maximilian had been collecting antiquities for years by then, and he was telling his brother about these documents he’d found by chance at some auction.’
‘You mean the Kammler papers?’
She nodded. ‘Of course, back then I’d never heard of Kammler. But he was telling Karl what an amazing discovery it was. Amazing and worrying, and how he’d been sitting up nights reading the stuff, becoming obsessed with it. I could hear Karl’s voice on the speakerphone. He told Maximilian that if this stuff was even half true, he’d be out of business and that it was best to lock it away and not let anyone else see it. He was kind of joking, but I could tell that Maximilian was taking it really seriously. He was scared.’
‘I don’t understand. What was it about the Kammler documents that was spooking him so badly?’
They’d reached the office. Storm left them to go sniffing round the buildings, and Ben led Ruth inside.
‘That’s what I’m going to show you,’ she replied. ‘And it’s going to blow your mind.’
‘I’ve heard that before,’ he said, thinking of Lenny Salt.
‘Just wait and see.’
Ben fired up the laptop on his desk. As it whirred into action, he ran his eye over the pile of mail that was stacked up beside it. He was about to sweep the whole lot aside when he noticed the official Steiner logo on the envelope.
‘That looks familiar,’ Ruth said.
Ben tore it open, remembering the letter that Dorenkamp had mentioned. It was from Steiner’s lawyer. An invoice for forty thousand euros in respect of damages incurred to property during Ben’s brief period of employment. The letter finished tartly by warning that ‘If the outstanding sum is not paid promptly within fourteen days, there will be further legal action and possible criminal charges.’
He tossed it down on the desk. Ruth read it and whistled. ‘Even at my worst, I only managed to smash a few of his windows. What the hell did you do?’
‘I had an argument with a smoke alarm. Now let’s see what you have to show me.’
‘Get ready,’ she said. ‘When you see this, everything you thought you knew about the modern world is going to change.’ She sat in the swivel chair and he watched over her shoulder as her fingers rattled over the keys. She quickly entered a website URL and a box flashed up on the screen asking for a password. She rattled the keys again and hit ENTER, and the site opened up. Its design was basic, homemade, and Ben realised right away that its only function was as a repository for data files, secure storage for large amounts of information that could be accessed only by a chosen few.
‘This is access only,’ she said. ‘Not open to the public. Rudi created it, and we uploaded all our research stuff onto it. I’ve never shown it to anyone on the outside.’ She scrolled down an index of files, all with coded names that made no sense to Ben. ‘You’re a big boy,’ she said, selecting one and clicking on it. ‘I think you can handle it if I throw you right in at the deep end.’
