‘Take him away.’ Saumerre waved his hand dismissively. The Russian shoved the pistol into his jacket and the other two came up to help him. They lifted the chair and carried it with the body out of the door. Raitz leaned one hand against the wall, feeling faint. It had all happened so quickly. He had never seen anyone killed before. He was sweating, shaking. He turned to Saumerre. ‘He had more to tell us. More gold to find. He could have led us on a treasure trail. Isn’t that what you want? You and your people? What is it with this single lead, this code?’
Saumerre looked at him pityingly. ‘What, you don’t have the stomach for this? For killing? You disappoint me, Raitz. Remember what your revered Fuhrer said. This man was subhuman. He was a Jew. Now, to business. The Howard girl.’
Raitz had a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. If they could do this, what was in store for her? He grasped Saumerre by the shoulder. ‘She will not be harmed, right? Nothing like this. That was not part of the deal. This was not what I wanted.’
Saumerre pushed the hand away, and looked at him with contempt. ‘What on earth are you thinking? You naive academic. A kidnapping works this way: you threaten to kill your victim, right? You make them feel pain. You make their loved ones know they feel pain. And hey presto, you have a result.’
‘And then what?’
‘Then? Then? What then?’ Saumerre spat the word out with scorn. ‘You are a sentimentalist, Professor. Not a good Nazi.’
Raitz straightened up, wiping his sweaty palms on his trousers. ‘You are wrong. I serve the memory of the Fuhrer. The thousand-year Reich.’
Saumerre looked at him appraisingly. ‘And everything else is dispensable?’
‘Nothing is more important than the cause.’
‘That is exactly how we think too. Maybe we can still do business, Professor. Maybe we can.’ He flipped open his phone. ‘You know this girl, correct? She will recognize you?’
‘As I told you. She came to see me at the institute to talk about the return of that Durer to Germany. We had lunch. A good Aryan girl, on her father’s side.’
‘Forget that Aryan nonsense. Just remember this. A date, a time, a place. Tomorrow evening, seven p.m., the County Hall Marriott. Her school group is assembling there. You will greet her like an old friend. Pure coincidence that you are there, some academic meeting in the hotel just finished. It concerns Nazi art, your speciality. And you happen to have something extraordinary, something you think her father would be fascinated to know about. She’ll always want to please him. Use that. Tell her you have pictures of a Nazi bunker, full of ancient antiquities.’
‘She’ll have security. That was an issue when she came to see me before. She should have involved IMU security, but she didn’t.’
‘She has no reason to be suspicious of you. And you just said it. She doesn’t like security. There are two entrances to the hotel. One is from Westminster Bridge Road, the main entrance. The other is Belvedere Road. You’ll tell her your car is there. The pictures are locked inside. She only needs to step out on to the pavement. My men will take it from there.’
‘Where will you take her?’
‘Where will you take her. You wish to keep my Russian friends from doing her harm? It will be your part of the bargain. I remain anonymous. You will take her out of the country. I will give you instructions. Somewhere close to Dr Howard’s heart. Meanwhile, he and his Greek friend will do a little job for us. A job from which they will not return. And I need to be ready to take what they find.’
‘And we will both have what we want.’
‘If it leads us to where I think it will lead us, then you will have your art, for your secret Fuhrermuseum. And I will have my treasure.’
‘And if not?’
‘You doubt me?’
‘I didn’t trust Brandeis. I was trying to tell you. That story from the old Jew. Brandeis wasn’t telling us everything. When you asked whether the German officer had taken anything else with him from Poland. I could see it in his eyes.’
‘Are you weak, Raitz? Was the girl right? You’ve let Brandeis get to you. This is what he wanted you to think. Sow the seeds of doubt. Take your eyes off the prize. Divert you from the cause.’
‘Saumerre.’ Raitz eyed him. ‘You may think me naive, but I have a first-class mind. I insist that you tell me the full story. You told me enough to convince me to join you. But now we’re playing a different game. There’s been a murder, and I’m involved in it. I insist you tell me. If you want me to remain on course.’
Saumerre stood for a moment, then went over and peered through the door. He shut and locked it, then came back to Raitz and spoke quietly. ‘When we met in the British Museum, I mentioned the story my grandfather told me. The reason I believe Brandeis’ story is that the account he had from the old Jew chimed so closely with my grandfather’s account. The Dutchman just couldn’t have made it up. The camp is one and the same, the labour camp where my grandfather survived by working as a cook. That document I gave you with the swastika, with the Agamemnon Code stamp, came from the same Luftwaffe officer. My grandfather must have stumbled across his body just before the other man. He remembered other documents in the man’s pockets, but this one looked important and he just took it and ran. He was a profiteer, and desperate, grabbing anything he might sell, or use as a bargaining chip. But this is what I haven’t told you yet. Do you swear
…’
‘Of course,’ Raitz whispered. ‘ Of course. I swear on the soul of the Fuhrer. I will tell nobody.’
‘My grandfather went into the forest. He hid there. He said it was a fearful place, with SS guards and former inmates trying to kill each other. He was desperate for food. He found a bunker. He saw a man go in and out, not someone he recognized. He followed him once into the bunker, hoping to find food. What he saw there was beyond your wildest dreams. All of the great lost works of art are there. A veritable shrine to your Fuhrer. But there was another room. That room contains what I want. In the door he saw an impressed swastika shape in a roundel. A reverse swastika. It was a keyhole. Some kind of magnetic key.’
‘And you think the key is what’s hidden in the mine,’ Raitz whispered.
‘My grandfather had only a few moments inside the bunker before he crept out. The next day he saw two Allied officers go in with the man. The door shut itself and they never came out. He thought he might have heard a gunshot inside. Then the weather got worse and he had a bad feeling. He had just reached the edge of the forest that evening when it began to rain bombs.’
‘My God. The bunker is still there?’
‘Buried under a NATO airbase.’
‘Have you tried to see how we might get there?’
‘That’s the next stage.’
‘This is wonderful,’ Raitz said, his concerns about the Dutchman forgotten. ‘This serves your cause. And my cause.’
‘And what is that?’
‘The thousand-year Reich,’ Raitz said reverently, clumsily clicking his heels.
‘ Jazaka Allahu Khairan,’ Saumerre replied, closing his eyes.
Raitz stared at him. ‘What does that mean?’
Saumerre opened his eyes. They were burning with fervour. He stared at Raitz, then seemed to remember where he was, and relaxed. ‘I was forgetting myself. I am a Muslim, you remember, on my father’s side, Algerian. It means good luck. May Allah reward us with good. It’s just an expression. Now, I can still smell that Jew. We have arrangements to make. Let’s get out of here.’
16
T he Turkish navy crewman opened the throttle on the outboard and the Zodiac boat roared away, digging a
