‘As I mentioned earlier, Bavaria was swarming with Nazis during the 1930s. This area in particular was under high alert because of the 1936 Winter Olympics, which were held in the valley below. As a matter of fact, this mountain was actually used for some of the skiing events. Because of all the extra security, my grandfather was forced to abandon his pursuit of Ludwig’s treasure shortly after finding this bunker. From the looks of things, he had a pretty good idea where the treasure was hidden, but he wasn’t able to retrieve it thanks to World War Two.’
‘Fucking Hitler! Always screwing things up,’ Jones joked.
‘What are you saying? You know where the treasure is?’ Kaiser demanded.
Ulster lowered his voice. ‘According to my grandfather, Ludwig hid a secret document in his
Jones winced. ‘One time, when Jon and I were crossing the Afghan border, I had to hide a document in
Kaiser cut him off. ‘
‘Thank goodness,’ Jones cracked, ‘because I got a paper cut when I pulled it out.’
Payne rolled his eyes. Sometimes his best friend didn’t know when to stop joking around. ‘Petr, are you familiar with any place that would fit your grandfather’s description?’
Ulster replied. ‘Off the top of my head, I can think of three possible locations. One would be good news. One would be tolerable news. The third would be truly dreadful.’
‘Let’s start with the good,’ Kaiser suggested. ‘That is, if you guys are interested.’
Payne answered before Jones had a chance to make another joke. ‘We’ve come this far. What’s another few hours? Besides, Oktoberfest goes on for two more weeks.’
Ulster grinned. He loved working with Payne and Jones. ‘In my opinion, the King’s House on Schachen would be the best news for us. It’s a small castle on a peak about five miles from here. As I mentioned earlier, it’s where Ludwig went when he disappeared for thirty-six hours – the night after he sent the mysterious letters.’
‘The place where his advisors found him covered in dirt?’ Payne asked, trying to remember the details from Ulster’s long-winded story.
Ulster nodded. ‘Even though it looks more like a hunting lodge than an actual castle, it is adjacent to Alpengarten auf dem Schachen – a small botanical garden open to the public.’
‘A house by a garden. Makes sense to me,’ Payne said.
‘This would be the best news for a variety of reasons. First of all, it’s close by, meaning we could be there in less than an hour. Secondly, it’s on top of a desolate peak. Without a helicopter, the only way to get there is an arduous four-hour hike. Since most people don’t have a helicopter, I tend to think we’d have the run of the place.’
Kaiser nodded in agreement. It sounded ideal to him.
‘If it isn’t there, what’s the tolerable location you mentioned?’ Jones asked.
‘That would be Linderhof Palace, the only one of Ludwig’s castles he saw completed before his death. If you recall, his horsemen departed from there on their mysterious quest. In addition, it’s where he returned after spending time on Schachen.’
Kaiser gave it some thought. ‘What’s troubling about the Linderhof?’
‘The grounds alone are over a hundred and twenty-five acres. That’s a large area to search. In addition, the palace is filled with valuable artwork. Because of that, the crowds are big and security is high.’
‘Crowds can be good in certain scenarios,’ Payne suggested. ‘But you’re probably right. This doesn’t sound like the kind of place where we’ll have much freedom to move around.’
Ulster shook his head. ‘And yet the Linderhof would be
Kaiser pondered the security. ‘That doesn’t sound good.’
‘Actually,’ Payne said, ‘it doesn’t matter how many guards are in the treasury. This document
‘That is true,’ Ulster claimed. ‘Unfortunately, the treasury would be a lot easier to explore than the garden itself. Like everything Ludwig built, the Winter Garden was stunning. Inside a massive greenhouse was a man-made lake, a Himalayan mountain scene, Indian huts, a rainbow machine and tropical plants from around the world. The servants who lived in the rooms underneath the lake had to sleep under umbrellas because of all the dripping water. I’ve seen pictures of the garden, and I’m telling you, it was remarkable. Like an indoor jungle.’
Payne focused on one word in particular. ‘
Ulster nodded. ‘The Winter Garden was demolished right after the king’s death. Its weight was so great it actually bent the beams in the palace walls.’
Jones sighed at the news. He had been hoping to see the place. ‘You’re right: option three sucks. It’s tough to explore something that’s no longer there.’
‘Let’s be honest,’ Payne said. ‘None of these options are great. I mean, we’re talking about three castles that have been toured by millions of people. Do you really think we’re going to stroll in and spot something that everyone else has missed in the last a hundred and twenty years?’
‘Of course not,’ Ulster said as he held up his grandfather’s journal. ‘Thankfully, we have a lot more to go on than good old-fashioned luck. We actually have a detailed set of instructions. All we have to do is find the starting line, and this journal will do the rest.’
It took a few seconds for the comment to sink in. Once it did, Payne shook his head in disbelief. Leave it to Ulster to wait so long before he revealed something so vital to the group. One of these days, Payne was going to have to teach Ulster how to start off with the most important news before he went off on his tangents – just in case Ulster died of old age before he finished his background information.
Payne laughed to himself. ‘In that case, what are we waiting for? Let’s go and find Ludwig’s treasure.’
22
In Kaiser’s world, there were very few guarantees when it came to money: deals frequently collapsed at the last minute; long-time associates often tried to screw him for table scraps; and rivals always looked for opportunities to steal his clients or get him in trouble with the police. Being in the business for as long as he had, Kaiser had learned many lessons along the way. One of the most important was the danger of greed. Early in his career, he had lost plenty of money because of his recklessness. Like a gambler who refused to pocket his winnings, Kaiser used to take too many risks when the smart play was to walk away. But all that changed a few years ago when he lost millions of dollars worth of merchandise in a warehouse fire. Instead of selling the goods to a trusted customer who had offered a fair price, Kaiser had tried to leverage a better deal for himself by negotiating with an unsavoury character from the Russian mafia. The whole thing fell apart when the two clients found out about each other. To this day, Kaiser still didn’t know which of them had torched his warehouse – although he assumed it was the Russian – but from that point on, he decided to minimize his risks whenever he could.
With that in mind, Kaiser skipped the next leg of the journey to protect his discovery. While Payne, Jones and Ulster flew to the top of Mount Schachen to search for the location of Ludwig’s treasure, Kaiser made travel arrangements for the gold they had already found.
Known as the Konigshaus am Schachen in German, the King’s House on Schachen took three years to build (1869-1872) because all the supplies had to be carted up the mountain. A lover of the outdoors, Ludwig chose this site for the spectacular views of the surrounding peaks and for its isolation. Thousands of feet above civilization, the two-storey alpine cottage was Ludwig’s sanctuary anytime he wanted to escape the politics and prying eyes of Munich. Up here among the clouds, he used to fantasize about starting his own kingdom across the sea, a modern- day Camelot where he would build the most spectacular castle the world had ever seen.
As the pilot circled the ridge line looking for a place to land, Payne and Jones, staring out of the chopper’s windows, were filled with disappointment. After hearing so many stories about Ludwig’s opulence, they had been expecting the cottage to rival the Taj Mahal. Instead, they saw a plain, wooden structure that looked like a hunting
