my team in the past.”

Now it was Harper’s turn to consider his statement. She’d been a leading epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when a mysterious novel virus caused the deaths of several visitors from Mainland China while they were in Las Vegas.

While with the CDC, Harper had tried not to ask Joe to use his influence on Capitol Hill or within the U.S. government when she needed an assist. However, he was always willing to help when she needed it. He had a favorite response to her requests—I’ve got a guy. Her husband always had a guy, although said guy could’ve been a woman, an agency, or a group of covert operators.

In the case of the novel virus outbreak in Las Vegas, the guy he’d called upon was Kwon. Later, despite their successful investigation of the disease, Joe had admitted that Kwon was not his first choice. She remembered his words.

He is one of two people on this Earth with whom I’d trust your life, and the other gentleman doesn’t have the medical background Kwon has.

She turned to Gunner. “Do you have a medical background, by chance?”

“You mean, other than carving a bullet out of my thigh in the jungle one time? No.”

“What have you done for Joe?” she asked.

Gunner dodged her question. “That’s not for me to answer. You guys need to know something.”

“What’s that?”

“There may be a lot of this nerve agent out there somewhere. I don’t know if its sarin or one of the other letter-names you just mentioned. I do know this. Supposedly, only one canister made it from the bottom of the ocean onto the deck of that ship over there. Within half an hour, everyone was dead.”

“Wait, did you say one? I understood there is another canister intact, recovered by your team.”

“That’s right, we got one,” replied Gunner. “Inside the hull of the sub, there were enough racks to hold several hundred.”

“They’re all gone?” she asked. “Did they fall out of the wreckage?”

“Maybe, but we weren’t alone. We have to work under the assumption they were salvaged by someone else.”

Harper shook her head and rolled her eyes. “God help us.”

Chapter Three

Castle Bariloche

Bariloche, Argentina

The first day of Brit Jorgensen’s arrival in Argentina had been filled with uncertainty but excitement. She had been tasked with making a home for her young children and her beloved Heinrich Himmler when he was able to escape Germany to join her. Her financial resources were nearly limitless for the era. Her choice of location was dictated by many factors, including pleasing her lover. However, she also had to plan for the future.

In this regard, Brit was a visionary. Unlike her sister, Inge, who had a knack for numbers and all things financial, Brit had a penchant for logistics, tactics, and security. She was more soldier than accountant, a trait that served her well throughout her century on Earth.

She recalled Himmler’s words when he’d introduced her to Wewelsburg for the one and only weekend visit before he sent her back to Norway.

“This will be the center of the world,” he’d proudly announced when he welcomed her into the massive castle.

As he led her by the arm, his hypnotic voice had echoed eerily around the walls. Inside, innumerous candles provided both light and warmth to the predominantly concrete and stone structure. The windows were small and set high up on the walls. Himmler, who had an affinity for the occult, preferred the darkness.

She recalled how proud he was of Wewelsburg, and during those seventy hours together, alone, except for SS activity of course, he showed a different side of himself. A human side. That of a family man who longed for a normal life. She wanted Himmler to join her in Argentina, so she set out to build a home to recreate the Camelot he’d envisioned at Wewelsburg.

Castle Bariloche was built high upon a ridge overlooking Lago Nahuel Huapi, the sprawling deep-water lake cut into the mountains surrounding Bariloche. The fingerlike ridge extended into the westernmost part of the water, barely seven miles from the Chilean border with Argentina. Just on the other side of the border at the base of the mountain was Peulla, Chile, a small port town that was connected to the South Pacific Ocean through a series of deep-water rivers, canals, and lakes. The area immediately reminded her of Norway and the northern coast of Germany where Wewelsburg was located.

The strategic positioning of this two-thousand-acre tract on the eastern side of the Andes Mountains fit her requirements perfectly. Himmler had taught her the strategic advantage of location in establishing security and how water played a role in history as a buffer between advancing armies and a castle.

Brit also understood the logistical advantage of having access to the world’s great oceans, especially deep-water options for using submarines as a means of transportation. The location she chose on the lake, overlooking the tiny village of Bariloche, fit these needs.

She immediately sent for the most accomplished Italian and German architects, who were smuggled into Argentina through a number of means of transportation. They assembled a team of European craftsmen and coupled them with local laborers. She wanted to create a testament to Himmler and his vision of the greatness of the Reich. She called it Castle Bariloche, resisting the urge to name it Wewelsburg for obvious reasons.

It was bad enough she built the structure to closely resemble Wewelsburg. Calling it by the same name would clearly garner the attention of Allied intelligence at some point. Brit spent hours with the architects in an attempt to recall each detail of Himmler’s castle. Whenever possible, the architects would incorporate these details into the design in addition to many special features Brit insisted upon for her family’s privacy and safety. Thus far, she didn’t have to employ any of those measures, but they would be available to them when necessary.

Inside this forbidding fortress, Brit raised her two sons, and after they were married, their children lived in Castle

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