Chapter Five
Only an hour had passed before Shay returned to Warehouse Two, pulling her car inside as the roll top door came back down. She hopped out of the Spider and popped the trunk, her high heels clicking along the pavement.
“Help me with this, Peyton,” she said, grabbing one of two small boxes filled with electronics. “They aren’t heavy. I just don’t have enough hands.”
Peyton moved behind the car to pick up the other box. He narrowed his eyes. “This is a quantum decrypter, isn’t it?”
“Give the boy a gold star. Yeah, it’s a quantum decrypter.”
“That means you’re trying to break through some pretty high-grade encryption.”
“Well, I didn’t bring it here to microwave my burritos, that’s for sure.” Shay moved over to the bench and set her box down. “And I have a router here that’ll let me interface with the signal receiving drone I’ve got outside.”
Despite the fancy name, the quantum decrypter in the end just looked like a small black box with a few ports. Something about that irritated Shay. She wanted her gadgets to look complicated. Hell, they cost enough.
She connected the decrypter to the small five-antenna gray router and pulled out her phone and started tapping away.
“What’s the point of the quantum decrypter?” Peyton said. “What is it that you’re trying to get access to? Something in town? A satellite?”
“Aww. You’re not just a pretty face.” Shay grinned. “Someone almost as clever as you’re supposed to be helped me with this equipment. We’re going to borrow a little microwave remote-sensing data from a satellite that happens to be going over an area I’m very interested in.”
Peyton nodded. “Okay. That makes sense. The quantum decrypter means heavier security. Military? CIA? NSA? GRU? MSS?”
Shay snorted. “Fuck no. Part of keeping a low-profile includes trying not to encourage the government to come after me. It’s just some private satellite owned by some rich douchebags who own a shipping company. Almost the same quality without risking a bunch of FBI or military kicking down my doors, let alone Russian or Chinese spy assholes.”
“Okay, so now I get what you’re doing, but what specifically are you looking for with this satellite?”
“Ever hear of Lake Toplitz?”
“That was the lake mentioned in your alert earlier. At least it was when I checked the computer. Something about an earthquake in the area?”
“The Nazis used it as a naval testing facility. Lot of people believe there’s hidden gold there, too. The assholes dumped a lot of shit into the lake toward the end of the war.”
Peyton crossed his arms and nodded. “That’s what you’re looking for… gold?”
“Nope. When I do these jobs, I need to get in and out. It’s not exactly like a single woman working by herself is going to be able to easily transport a lot of gold. That shit is heavy, and there’s only so much equipment I can get to the lake quickly by myself.”
“Okay. No gold, then.”
“No gold. Most of the jobs I’m looking into involve things that are a little more portable. No one’s even sure there is gold there. The only thing we know for sure is that the Nazis sank lockboxes into the lake for a few different reasons.” Shay brushed a strand of blonde hair out of her eyes. “Besides, if I’m gonna build a solid rep, I need to find the kind of treasures that not just any random tomb raider can find, and that means magic. Not that I’d pass up a nice jewel or something, but my business model is centered around finding magical items.” She grinned. “Though I’ve heard there might be more than a few jewels at the bottom of the lake, too.”
“What are you looking for, if it’s not gold and not jewels, at least not as the main target?”
Shay smiled down at her phone.
LINK DECRYPTION 45% COMPLETE.
“The Nazis were really into the occult,” she said. “Some people believe they had the Spear of Longinus at the beginning of the war, and that’s why they were so successful at first.”
“As in the spear a Roman stabbed Jesus with while he was on the cross?”
Shay nodded. “The very same. The higher-ups in the Nazi regime, especially Hitler, were really into occult and dark magic shit. They collected a lot of artifacts with alleged powers.”
“Like they knew about Oriceran.” Peyton’s eyes widened.
“At least heard the stories. Too bad it was a crowd of sociopaths. Before the truth about Oriceran came out, everyone smart assumed the stories about the Nazis and dark magic were all crap, but now it’s hard to act like those assholes didn’t have access to some magic.”
“Like the Ark?”
“That was just an old movie. And the Ark melted the Nazis at the end.” Shay furrowed her brow. “Well, I think it was just a movie. Who the hell knows anymore? Maybe Spielberg was telling people the truth the entire time.”
“Maybe Spielberg is an Elf or a Gnome.”
She shrugged, crossing her arms, cradling the phone in the crook of her elbow. “Stay on point, Peyton. Focus. I’ve found some information to suggest that there could be a magical artifact, an enchanted golden eagle pin that when activated with the right kind of magic can make a person super-persuasive.”
Peyton winced. “Yeah, I could see how a Nazi leader might find that useful.”
Shay walked over to the large tables that served as a desk and were quickly becoming covered with Peyton’s computer equipment. “I’ve found more than a few pictures in historical archives that show Hitler wearing something like that.”
“It could be bullshit. Nazis used a lot of eagle symbolism. He’s probably just wearing a pin.”
Shay glanced down at her phone again.
DECRYPTION 90% COMPLETE.
“Yeah, it could be, but my gut is telling me there is a
