need them?”
Claudia focused on the road in front of her while she toyed with Scot’s question in her mind.
“Do you suppose,” Scot continued, “that they were going to kill us and then go off for a nice little hike?”
“Don’t be stupid.”
“Then why have the tickets?”
“To get up to the top of Pilatus.”
“Right. And if they were carrying the tickets with them when they attacked us, that probably means they were going to be using them afterward, right?”
“I guess you could be right.”
“How many ways are there to get up Pilatus?”
“Well, you can hike it. That takes about five hours. Then there is a series of two gondolas and a cable car from the town of Kriens, or you can take the cogwheel railway from the town of Alpnachstad.”
Scot opened Claudia’s glove compartment and started rummaging around.
“What are you looking for?” she asked.
“Do you have a map of the area around Lucerne?”
“Yes, it’s in my Swiss atlas, underneath your seat.”
Scot fished out the atlas and found the pages he was looking for.
“Okay, I’ve got the towns,” said Scot. “So the cogwheel train is direct, no transfers?”
“Right. Why? What are you thinking?”
“Would it be possible to hide someone in one of the hotels up at the top of Pilatus? Let’s say maybe Miner knows the owner or is blackmailing him? Could he do it?”
“I suppose he could, but it’s not very likely.”
“Why not?”
“The staff of those hotels are much like others all over the country. They’re very chummy and they talk. They all know each other’s business and everything that goes on in the hotels. It is hardly likely Miner could hide your president there.”
“Good point. What about someplace else, maybe only halfway up the mountain?”
“From what I could see on the tickets, they are good for travel all the way to the top. Why would they pay for full trips and not use them?”
“To throw anybody off if they ever came across the tickets?” Scot speculated.
“If they ever thought anyone would find the tickets, why not leave them at home in their wallets? Or better yet in their car?”
“I was thinking about that. If for some reason the two men got separated or couldn’t get back to their car, they would need to know they could still get up the mountain, so they would have to keep their passes on them at all times.”
“Why not just carry enough cash to be able to buy a new ticket?”
“That means dealing with a cashier…maybe standing in a line. There’s too much chance of being remembered or seen on a security camera. If Pilatus is where they’re staying, they’d need to get up and down as easily as possible. Hence the need for keeping the passes on them at all times. Now, if they aren’t using the hotel, where else might they be?”
Claudia twisted her lip and frowned. “Aside from the gondola and cable car stations, the mountain only has scattered cowsheds and yurts that are used for hikers… What are you thinking?”
“There is a small airfield on the map here at Alpnachstad. It would be a piece of cake for Miner to get in and out from here with relatively little interference. Do you know if it’s a private airfield?”
“From what I remember, it’s mainly for civilian aircraft, but there are one or two military hangars… That’s it!” cried Claudia, thumping her palms against the VW’s steering wheel.
“What?” said Scot. “What’s it?”
“I was wrong,” said Claudia.
“About what?”
“About Pilatus.”
“How so?”
“I was wrong when I said the attraction, the tourism infrastructure such as the hotels, was built on top of the mountain, unlike the Jungfraujoch.”
“So, either it is or it isn’t.”
“Actually, it is and it isn’t. All of the things the tourists see are pretty much sitting on top of Pilatus. The final cable car ride up and the cogwheel railway each approach the summit from different sides of the mountain. Normally the tourists go up one side and come down the other. The marketing people at Pilatus call it the Golden Round Trip. The cable car and the cogwheel railway arrive and depart beneath the Hotel Bellevue, which is partly recessed within the mountain.”
“So?”
“So, when I first started climbing in competitions, I did some around Pilatus. My grandfather was a climber and he was my coach. He had done a lot of climbing on Pilatus itself. Do you know what my grandfather did for a living before he retired?”
“No, but I hope it has something to do with what we’re talking about.”
Claudia ignored Scot’s crack. “He was an engineer with the army.” She looked at Scot as if where this was leading should be obvious. Scot looked right back at her with a blank stare.
“Scot, have you ever seen a Swiss military base in all your visits to Switzerland? Ever seen any piece of military hardware except for a jet that might have flown overhead?”
“No, I never have. I always heard that despite their continuing stance of neutrality, the Swiss had a pretty good army. Nobody ever saw it, though, because…” His voice trailed off.
Claudia finished the sentence for him. “Because everything is hidden away in the mountains. When I was accepted into the Federal Attorney’s Office, my grandfather was very proud of me. I was his only grandchild. With my security clearance and role with the Bundespolizei, he began opening up to me more, telling me about what he did with the army. Do you know now what he did?”
“He was involved with the construction of the military mountain fortresses.”
“Very good, Agent Harvath. Yes, he was one of the engineers on the primary design team. From what he told me, they were involved with constructing these incredible fortresses throughout Switzerland. Oftentimes they used the development of ski resorts or other tourist attractions as a cover for all of the military activity. If you were building some sort of resort or something to boost tourism, who would suspect the real reason for gondolas, cable cars, or-”
“Cogwheel railways!” Scot broke in.
“Yes, again,” replied Claudia. “How can someone so smart not have the good sense to stay out of the water until spring?”
“A good swim relaxes me and helps me to think. Much like a well-placed gun in the back. So Pilatus is one of these Swiss military fortresses?”
“No.”
Scot’s heart sank. The pieces had all seemed to finally be coming together.
Then Claudia spoke again. “It isn’t one now. It used to be, but my grandfather said it had been decommissioned.”
Scot’s hopes began to rise. “Decommissioned, meaning it was abandoned?”
“Sort of. It was sealed off and put on the inactive list.”
“But it wasn’t destroyed?”
“No, nothing like that. The Swiss are pragmatists. You never know when we might need something like that again. It was just sealed off and left alone.”
“So theoretically, if Miner knew about this place, which in his position with the military there is a good chance he did, all he would have to do is figure out a way to unseal it?”
“It might not even be that difficult. According to my grandfather, there were several ways to access these fortresses. They needed to circulate air, so there were ventilation shafts. There were also escape passages. Cargo bays for delivering materials and supplies…”
