was, Jones took a step closer as he continued to point his gun at the sniper’s face. ‘You fight with us, or you jump from the cliff. Your choice.’
*
Instead of using the ladder, Payne leapt into the bunker and rushed to Kaiser’s side. Lying on the floor, he was unconscious and bleeding heavily from his mouth and face. His eye was dangling from its socket. His left knee was torn to shreds. But he was still breathing.
Experienced in basic field medicine, Payne knew his first order of business was getting his patient away from potential danger, so he carefully dragged Kaiser into the back passageway. From there, he turned on a flashlight and went through his mental checklist for trauma victims. Instructors at the Academy had taught him the ‘A, B, C, D, E’ approach to field medicine. Clear
Breathing was fine. Pulse was steady. The patient was unconscious, so Payne couldn’t check for movement in his limbs. But he could search Kaiser for bullet holes.
Using a pocket knife, he gently cut Kaiser’s shirt open and was relieved to find top-of-the-line, hard-plated body armour – the kind worn by presidents and mafia dons, not security guards. Of course, in Kaiser’s business, it made sense to have the best. And in this case, it probably saved his life because rifle blasts tend to cut through soft vests like rocks through a window.
Just then, Payne heard a muffled voice coming from the outer room near the bunker entrance. He instantly sprang to his feet and crept to the edge of the passageway where he listened patiently. No footsteps. No movement. No breathing of any kind. Only a muffled voice that sounded suspiciously familiar.
‘Come in. Over.’
Payne peeked around the corner and spotted Kaiser’s radio on the floor, close to where he had fallen. Although he doubted it was a trap, Payne grabbed the radio as fast as he could then dashed back to the passageway before he answered Jones’s call. ‘Where are you?’
Static filled the line.
Payne repeated his question. ‘Where are you? Over.’
Still nothing. Not even a squeak.
Suddenly, Kaiser’s condition made a lot more sense. His radio didn’t work in the bunker, so he had been forced to run things from outside. Which ultimately exposed him to gun fire.
Wasting no time, Payne moved forward until Jones heard his question.
‘I’m in the nest. Where are you?’
‘Tending to our friend,’ Payne said, not wanting to broadcast Kaiser’s name.
‘He’s alive?’
‘Unconscious, but stable.’
Jones breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Good to hear.’
‘What about you?’
‘Conscious and angry. I’m ready to fuck some boys up.’
Payne smiled. ‘What are you working with?’
‘A DSR-1. Standard optics. Plenty of ammo.’
‘How many team mates?’
‘One down, four in play.’
‘Who are we facing?’
‘Don’t know, don’t care.’
‘You say that
Jones nodded. ‘Good point.’
‘Out of curiosity, what’s the penalty for justifiable homicide in this country?’
‘For you, nothing. For me, they lynch me in Berlin.’
Payne laughed at the comment; Jones was joking. The two of them had spent a lot of time in Germany – mostly shuttling in and out of American military bases on their way to foreign missions – and had never experienced any racial problems. If anything, German people went out of their way to prove Nazism was a thing of the past. ‘Don’t take this the wrong way, but right now I’m more concerned about our friend than I am about you.’
‘First, you want to split up, and now
Payne ignored him. ‘Where’s the sniper you replaced? Is he nearby?’
‘Why? Do you want his phone number?’
‘Actually, I need his help.’
‘With what?’
‘Our escape.’
‘Yours and his, or yours and mine?’
‘All of the above.’
Jones smiled. ‘In that case, I’ll let you talk to him.’
Ulster’s confusion worked to his advantage for the first ten minutes or so. The truth was he honestly didn’t know why Payne and Jones had sprinted out of the King’s House on Schachen in such a hurry or why they thought his life was in danger. All they had told him was to lock the door and keep an eye on Heidi until they returned. Obviously, something big was going on, but he didn’t know what it was since he hadn’t heard the shots while he was inside the house.
Unfortunately for Ulster, Heidi was twice as confused and three times as feisty. Hoping to get as much information as possible, she peppered him with question after question – about Payne and Jones, the real reason they were in Bavaria, and everything else she could think of – which put a man like Ulster in an uncomfortable situation. He was an educator at heart, someone who enjoyed sharing his knowledge with the rest of the world, as could be seen from his life’s work. At first, he answered her questions openly and honestly because he really didn’t know where Payne and Jones had gone, but after that, she touched on some topics he knew he shouldn’t talk about. He tried to change the subject and tried to bite his tongue, especially when the spotlight focused on Ludwig, but she eventually wore him down.
After that, Ulster was putty in her hands.
33
The guy’s name was Collins. Until his arrival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, he had never been a sniper but had volunteered for the position because he thought it would be a lot easier than hiking in the woods all day. For the past two years, he had worked for Kaiser, mostly doing security but occasionally doing grunt work. Like most people in the criminal world, his loyalty only went so far. In their business, the main motivation was money.
Payne used that knowledge to his advantage. ‘Have you been paid yet?’
Collins answered over the radio. ‘No.’
‘Would you like a big raise?’
‘What do I have to do?’
‘Simple. Help me get your boss to safety.’
‘He’s still alive?’ Collins asked.
‘Alive but unconscious. I need help moving him.’
‘To where?’
‘His ATV.’
‘Then what?’
‘You tell us. Any contingency plans?’
Collins gave it some thought. If he risked his life and Kaiser survived, he would get a huge bonus and a possible bump up in the organization. Both sounded good to him. ‘If the cops showed up, we were supposed to-’
‘Shut up!’ Payne ordered. ‘Not on the radio!
Collins glanced at Jones, who was studying the surrounding tree line with the rifle’s scope. If anyone
