One peculiarity he noticed was the seeming nonexistence of an item commonly found in a family home—throughout the entire house, save for a decades’ old oil painting of who Gage assumed was Herr Karl Vogel—there was not a single family photo to be found. Or, maybe Gage hadn’t noticed any yet. Did Claudia’s room have photos? He couldn’t recall.
Once he’d wandered around for a half hour, estimating the manor’s three aboveground floors to be at least 30,000 total square feet, he found the gun safe in the basement. The safe was massive and quite unnecessarily bolted into the concrete floor. It probably weighed three tons. After successfully inputting the combination, he opened the door and let out a low whistle. Gage didn’t even have to lift the shotguns to know that they were valuable. The first one he picked up, a Beretta Imperiale Montecarlo, was a side-by-side shotgun Gage had only seen in magazines. He was almost certain this particular shotgun was handmade for Beretta clientele and worth more than a hundred grand. He carefully replaced the shotgun, his eyes roaming to the top shelf.
Ahh, that’s better...
Resting on a foam pad was a pistol that made Gage feel like he was seeing an old friend for the first time in years—a Heckler & Koch P9. Sitting beside it was a box of Federal Hi-Shok .45 ACP hollow points—pricey ammunition. Gage remembered when hollow points had been illegal in Germany, but that had changed a number of years back. He lifted the charming black pistol, confirming that it was indeed chambered for .45 ACP. It was actually locked and loaded, and surprisingly dirty. Gage cleared the pistol and found a workbench in the basement, giving the pistol a quick cleaning with the numerous tools available.
Midway through, as he worked on the barrel, Gage turned. He could have sworn he heard someone. The basement was massive and unfinished. Gage stood under a harsh triangle of light at the workbench, blinding him to the rest of the space. He moved from under the light and looked all around the cavernous space.
Nobody.
Forcing himself to relax, Gage went back to work on the pistol. If there was a threat against Claudia—and Gage had only her suspicions to make him believe there was—then living in such a large house would only complicate matters. He’d just have to deal with it as the days wore on.
He went back to the safe, eyeing the two-dozen weapons. On the top shelf was a stun gun. Gage eyed it, along with its accessories. It was law enforcement grade, manufactured in Israel.
There were several assault rifles beside the shotguns. He cracked one open—a Heckler & Koch G36—finding its mechanism to be capable of fully automatic fire. In the States, being caught with a rifle such as this without the proper certification from the ATF would net a person 10 years in jail. Gage would bet the laws in Germany were even stricter. Perhaps Herr Vogel had possessed the proper licenses.
Gage spun the weapon around, viewing it under the light. Behind the proof marks, stamped into the barrel, was the word “KURDISTAN.”
He frowned. Why on earth would Vogel have had a German-manufactured Kurdish assault rifle? Resigning himself that such questions would probably never be answered, Gage replaced the weapon in the safe.
On the workbench, he zipped open the innocuous-looking gray bag he’d purchased from Mike Pastore. Normally, the guys at Delta would have given Gage the items, but the identity inside came with two credit cards, each prepaid with $1,000. Also with the credit cards was a Canadian passport in the name of John White. Although the credit cards were prepaid, they appeared genuine, both carrying the name of a Toronto bank. There was also a stack of ten business cards. The cards were modern and thick, the type carried by someone with an important executive position. Making them unique however was the nanotechnology imbedded in the paper. Beneath the raised ink was a tiny transmitter and flat battery. The metallic ink actually acted as an antenna, boosting the signal of each tracker. With the business cards was a printed sheet of paper: instructions on where to download the Google Maps-based tracking app, along with how to initialize each card. Once initialized, the cards were good for approximately 48 hours and needed to be used within 90 days from their date of manufacture—which was less than a week ago. After 90 days, the battery life would be shortened. Gage zipped up the package, placed it inside and locked the safe.
With the clean pistol tucked into his waistband, and with a box of high-priced ammunition, he made his way back upstairs. He’d made a mental note to order at least three more magazines for the Heckler.
He ascended to the first floor bedroom where Karl Vogel had died—or was murdered—and this time took a much closer look. The hospital bed was gone, replaced by a masculine king size bed with an impressive duvet and at least a dozen gilded pillows. There was a small sitting area by the window, and several dressers, trunks and a tall chest of drawers. The room had a massive closet that was empty, save for spare pillows and blankets. Two oil paintings adorned the walls: hunting scenes. Gage found nothing else of interest in the room that had obviously been scrubbed clean since the patriarch’s passing.
Now Gage was sure of it: there had been no family photos anywhere in the estate manor. More
