Assignment in Amsterdam

by Carrie Bedford

  “Like the one Max is wearing,” I said. “It must be some sort of membership symbol. I’ve seen it somewhere else too, but I can’t remember where. Anyway, Max insists there was something else in the box. I just don’t understand what it can be.”

  Alex had been walking back and forth from one side of our prison to the other. Now she sat on the ground facing us, her legs pulled up in front of her.

  “I have something to tell you,” she said.

  It must have been my imagination, but suddenly the cell felt colder. I huddled a little closer to Sam, feeling the warmth of his shoulder.

  “I’ve been working for Zeckendorf.” Alex lifted her eyes to meet mine. “I’m really sorry.”

  Beside me, Sam tensed but he didn’t speak.

  “Go on,” I prompted her.

  “They placed me on this project to keep an eye on things and report back. I was supposed to stop you and Sam from digging too deep, uncovering their secrets.”

  “But you didn’t.”

  “Actually, I did try for a while. But I hadn’t foreseen… liking you and Sam so much.” Her gaze lingered on Sam, but he was looking down at the floor. “It was hard…”

  “Have you always worked for them?”

  “God, no. I only heard about them a week ago. My grandfather on my mum’s side was part of the group back in the 1980s and 1990s. He tried to recruit my mum, but she was having none of it. That’s the main reason she moved to London. But for all these years, they kept an eye on her. They knew where she lived, they knew about me. They even knew I’d graduated in structural engineering, so they told Mum they needed me for this job. If I didn’t agree, they would… well, they would ruin our lives.”

  The oxygen seemed to leave the little room. Alex choked up and a tear slid down her cheek. I shifted on the thin mattress. Sam still didn’t move.

  “You knew Max before today?”

  She nodded. “He was the one who gave me my instructions, but I could tell he didn’t trust me. That’s why he’s been following us around, as a back-up.”

  “Did you meet him last night? Is that why you disappeared for a while?”

  “Yes.” Alex closed her eyes for a moment. “My aunt isn’t ill. I went to see Max to tell him I couldn’t do it anymore. I planned on quitting and going to London, providing I could persuade Sam and you to leave as well. But he told me I had to stay until he’d retrieved what he wanted from the safety deposit box.”

  “Which is what exactly?”

  Alex clambered to her feet and leaned against the wall. “I honestly don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me. It was only when you all headed to the bank that he knew the safety deposit box even existed and now he’s convinced that it, whatever it is, was in that box.”

  “And that’s what Pieter was looking for, too?”

  Sam finally lifted his head. “Pieter is part of Zeckendorf?”

  “Yes,” Alex said. “He may even be the Gezagvoerder, the commander, of it all. The name originated with the ships that the VOC sent to Indonesia. My mother told me that. Anyway, I think Max likes to think he runs the organization, but I suspect he’s a little lower on the totem pole.” She took a couple of steps towards Sam.

  Instinctively, I jumped up and moved in between them.

  “I would never hurt Sam,” she said. “Never, I swear. That’s why I’m in danger now, because I disobeyed Max’s instructions. He’ll kill me when he kills you. My mum…” She covered her face with her hands, her shoulders heaving as she sobbed loudly.

  Sam stood up and gently moved me aside so he could face Alex. The look of hurt on his face made the blood pound in my temples. He cared for Alex. He’d trusted her. I had too.

  “I’m sorry,” she said again, staring into Sam’s eyes. “Please believe me.”

  I wasn’t convinced. She could be lying.

  It seemed that Sam was feeling the same way. He went back to the cot and slumped down on it. I joined him, my mind in turmoil. I was still coming to terms with the fact that Pieter and Max were Zeckendorf. Tomas had been, too. In spite of my feelings about Alex, I agreed with her that Max was unlikely to be the leader. I doubted he had the skills needed to run the sophisticated operation that Zeckendorf appeared to be. He’d made clear his low opinion of computers as weapons; he was definitely a guns and knives kind of thug. Shuddering, I thought of the way he’d treated Henk in the outer chamber and wondered if the old man’s body was still out there.

  Despondent and suddenly shaking with cold, I dragged the old blanket up around me. The damp air had permeated my jacket and jeans, chilling my skin. It reminded me of the fog on the Scottish moorland surrounding the castle where I’d stayed last year. Another aura, another death.

  Sam turned to me. “Are you all right?”

  “Just giving into my worst fears for a moment.” I took a breath. “What do we do now?”

  “Karen will send help,” Sam said with confidence.

  “We came through at least two, maybe three, steel doors with keypads,” I reminded him. “How do the police get through those? Even if they know to look down here. These cellars aren’t on the plans.”

  “We told Karen about the tunnel. She’ll make sure Nouwen knows.”

  I paused, not sure if I should share my reservations with him. “Do you trust Karen?” I asked, with a glance towards Alex.

  When Sam raised an eyebrow, I explained. “She doesn’t have an aura, so she’s not in the same danger that we are.”

  “That doesn’t mean she works for Zeckendorf,” Sam said. “She’ll be safe. Nouwen will look after her.”

  “You’re right.” I stared at Alex. “It’s not as though having an aura signifies innocence.”

  She winced, and I felt a tiny bit guilty, but not much. She’d led us on, made me think she was helping me to protect Sam, when she was working for the very people who threatened us.

  “Is there anything else you can tell us about Zeckendorf?” I asked her. “Not that it makes any difference, but I’m curious as to how exactly we all got here. And please sit down. You’re making me nervous, looming over us like that.”

  “Before I left London, I convinced my mother to tell me what she knew.” Alex sat on the floor again, her back against the wall. “Jacob Hals, who built this house, and a couple of his colleagues started the organization. Their first operations were fairly minor, siphoning off a percentage of goods imported by the Dutch East India Company and selling them privately. They moved on to insurance fraud, and then, basically, anything that made money. Over the centuries, they’ve been into diamond smuggling, gambling, drug dealing, insider trading. And worse. Collaboration with the Nazis and Mafia-style executions of their enemies. A lovely bunch of people. But Mum was scared to talk about them. When Max showed up, demanding my services, she was terrified.”

  “Aren’t you worried they’ll hurt your mother if you turn on them?” I asked.

  “Of course I am. But there are no guarantees. They could decide to kill us both anyway, just to make sure we don’t give them away.”

  From what I’d seen of Max, I thought that was possible, although the timing of Alex’s aura suggested otherwise. She hadn’t been in danger until she’d crossed them. Which almost made me believe she was telling us the truth. Almost.

  “Max told me some things about the house,” Alex continued. “He said I needed to know about the hidden places so I could try to keep you away from them.” Her voice was low and faltering.

  “When were the walled-off rooms created?” I asked.

  “Right at the beginning, in the original construction. They were always there, to be used for secret meetings, storing illegal goods— and sometimes people. This house was built to conceal secrets, Max said.”

  “So you already knew about the concrete pillar, and the vault and the tunnel?”

  She bowed her head. “Yeah.”

  “And what do they do up there in the office?”

  “You know Max. He wouldn’t give me straight answers,
but it was something to do with developing cyber weapons that they sell to the highest bidder.”

  “Cyber weapons?” Sam asked, seeming to wake from a deep reverie.

  “There have been some famous ones, like Stuxnet, that closed down the Iranian nuclear plants,” Alex said. “I did some research to find out more. There are many, many versions. Bad actors use them to disrupt money markets, wipe out corporate data, mess with election results, or shut off ATMs like they did once in South Korea. That’s what they were doing up on the top floor.”

  “This place is a nightmare,” I said, shifting to try get comfortable.

  Alex pointed to my knee, where the jeans had torn when I fell. “What happened?”

  “Max,” I shrugged. “Not that it matters now.” I paused. “He killed Henk.”

  Alex’s eyes widened. “What? Why?”

  “He thinks Henk told us about the vault, which isn’t true. But Henk did admit to staging those pranks, trying to warn us off.”

  “Poor Henk. I wish I’d liked him better.” Alex sighed. “He said his father had told him once that being given residence in the house was a privilege, reserved for the more senior members of the organization. They were called owners, but in reality they didn’t ever own the building. And, of course, working for them was considered a great privilege too.”

  “Henk knew you were working for Zeckendorf?” Another betrayal. It made me angry.

  Alex’s cheeks flushed pink. “Yes. We were supposed to cooperate, but I think he knew my heart wasn’t in it. He was a lifer, and I’d been coerced into helping. We didn’t get along.”

  Sam was quiet, staring at some fixed point on the stone floor.

  “So now what?” I asked finally. “Max could be back at any time. Can we take him down between us?”

  “Yes!” Alex scrambled to her feet. “There are three of us, only one of him. We can do it.”

  Sam looked up. “We don’t know the codes for the keypad-protected doors, so we’d still be stuck down here.”

  “Not necessarily,” I said. “There’s a staircase in the cabinet room that must lead to the top floor.”

  “And a steel door between us and that room,” Sam reminded me. “But I suppose we’d be safe until the police work out how to break through.”

  We were about to test our theory. Footsteps echoed through the outer chamber, thudding to the same rhythm as my heartbeat. The bolt on the outside of the door shrieked like a human in pain.

  24

  Max walked in. From behind the door as it creaked open, I jumped on his back while Alex and Sam charged straight at him. Max teetered under the onslaught. Alex grabbed his left arm as Sam raised a clenched fist, aiming at Max’s face.

  But then Alex suddenly stepped back, leaving Max’s left arm free to defend himself against Sam’s blow. For a sickening moment, I thought she’d betrayed us.

  And then I saw the gun in his right hand. He was pointing it at her. “Get back or I’ll shoot her.”

  Sam took two steps back, and I followed suit, my body shaking with pent-up adrenaline. For a few seconds, I’d really thought we would succeed in overcoming Max and escaping. But the small black gun changed everything.

  “Sit on the bed,” he ordered. We did, the three of us shoulder to shoulder, with Alex in the middle. She was trembling, her hands clasped tightly in her lap.

  “The interesting thing about this space is that it’s totally self-contained,” Max went on. “Whatever happens in here stays in here.” He chuckled and then pointed the gun at Sam. “You cooperate or you die, one by one. Where’s Karen?”

  “At the police station,” Sam answered. “Talking to the detectives and beyond your reach.”

  “No. If she cares what happens to you, she’s not. After I texted you from Kate’s phone to set up our meeting, I sent her a message, warning her that I’ll kill you all if she goes to the police. So, if she’s smart, I’d guess is that she’s hiding and that she still has everything you found in the safety deposit box. You just tell me where she is, and this can all be over.”

  “If we’re going to die, will you at least tell us what it is that’s worth killing us for?” Alex asked.

  “Shut up. I don’t talk to traitors.” Max spoke without looking at her. His eyes and the gun were trained on Sam. He gave an exaggerated sigh. I saw his finger tense on the trigger. All the blood drained from my upper body, replaced by ice water. I felt numb.

  “Wait!” Alex said. “I’m not a traitor. I know where Karen is. She’s on a houseboat. I’ll show you.”

  Max’s colorless eyes shifted from Alex to Sam and back to Alex. She stood up to face him and spoke to him in Dutch while Max smirked with self-satisfaction. It seemed that he’d got what he wanted. She had betrayed us after all.

  “You’re coming with me,” he said to her, in English for our benefit. “If you’re lying, I know a lonely stretch of canal with your name on it.”

  Sam slumped over, his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands.

  Without looking at us, Alex followed Max out. The bolt slammed into place, and silence fell on our little cell. I moved over to Sam and wrapped my arm around him. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

  Sam lifted his head. “I can’t believe she did that.”

  “Me neither. Do you think Karen’s still there at the houseboat?”

  He gave me a lopsided grin. “No. She has a friend, a big, strapping man friend, as she described him, who was on his way to meet her at the boat. They were going back to his place to lay low for a while.“ He took a deep breath. “But now Alex has put herself in real danger by lying to Max. I believed him when he said he’d dump her in a canal.”

  “Her odds are probably as good as ours, to be honest. At least she’s not locked in a dungeon. That was brave of her, though.”

  “We have to use the time to find a way out of here.” Sam unfolded himself from the cot and stood up.

  “I checked every square inch of this place,” I said. “Every rock and stone. It’s impenetrable.”

  He went to the door and pulled on the handle. “It’s bolted,” I reminded him.

  “Yes, but that bolt is ancient and rusty and the wood on the door is rotting. I had a chance to look at it when Max was bringing us in here. If we put enough pressure on it, it might give.”

  “Let’s give it a try.” I gathered the blanket from the cot and rolled it lengthwise to form a rudimentary rope. We wrapped it around the old door handle and pulled. Nothing happened. Sam pushed up his shirtsleeves while I grabbed the rope halfway along its length and we tugged in unison. On the fourth hard tug, the door shifted a tiny bit. On the fifth, the wood gave a loud crack, and I heard the old bolt hitting the stone floor outside.

  We dashed out of the cell into the huge, badly-lit chamber beyond. My burst of euphoria faded. Just ahead, Henk’s body lay, sprawled and abandoned on the cold stone. Sam and I stopped for a second, but we couldn’t do anything for the old man right now. There was a password-protected steel door to get through, and no amount of brute force would get that open.

  We moved towards the door anyway, lured to the idea of freedom like moths to a light. When we got closer, I heard a faint tapping sound— someone punching the keypad— and grabbed hold of Sam’s arm. The tapping stopped, followed by a loud click.

  “We can rush him,” Sam whispered. “He won’t be expecting us out here.”

  Light flooded the opening as the door swung towards us. My leg muscles twitched, ready to run, but it wasn’t Max standing there. It was Pieter. He didn’t look like the well-dressed businessman who’d come to the house two days ago. The tie was gone, his shirt and trousers wrinkled. He had more than a day’s worth of stubble on his chin.

  “How did you get out? Never mind, tell me later,” he said. "We need to move before Max gets back.” He beckoned us to follow him.

  Not needing any more urging, Sam and I hurried out through the door. Pieter pulled it closed and checked it was secure before joining us for a das
h across the room with the filing cabinets. Under the bright lights, a platinum ring gleamed on his finger. That’s where I had seen it before, of course. My footsteps slowed. Pieter was part of Zeckendorf, perhaps even the leader of the organization. So why was he rescuing us from Max? Were we heading into something worse?

  Sam grabbed my arm. “Keep moving,” he said.

  “Why is he helping us?” I whispered.

  Pieter stopped and turned to talk to me. “It was never meant to be like this. You were supposed to be scared into abandoning the project, not kidnapped and threatened.”

  “What about Eline?” I demanded. “Was she supposed to die? What kind of monsters are you?”

  “Let’s talk about that later. We need to get out of here before Max comes back.”

  “Why don’t you just tell him to stop, to back off? Doesn’t he have to obey you?”

  Pieter’s head jerked back in surprise. “No. Max only answers to the Gezagvoerder. We all do. Now please, hurry. Max has a gun.”

  We knew that already, and I really didn’t want another encounter with it. Pieter ran ahead and punched numbers into the keypad. The heavy steel door opened. Beyond was the tunnel, blazing with lights. He set off at a jog in the direction of the graphics design building.

  “Where are we going?” Sam asked after a few steps. “We have to help Alex and Karen.”

  “Exactly,” Pieter answered. “We’re going to find Karen first and then we’ll look for Alex.”

  His skin was pale, even under the ruby glow of the red-brick walls.

  “Wait,” I said, coming to a halt. Max or no Max, rushing off with Pieter seemed ill-advised at best. “You have to tell us what’s going on.”

  He turned and raised his arms in a gesture of frustration. “I’m rescuing you.”

  “But why?”

  His hands dropped to his sides. “I need your help.”

  “Help with what?” Sam asked.

  Pieter glanced nervously up the tunnel. “They’re going to frame me for Eline’s murder. Tessa’s too. I didn’t kill them, I swear, but I won’t stand a chance against Zeckendorf. They’re too powerful. My only hope is to find the list first. If I give them that, I can prove I’m still loyal. So, you have to help me find it. Before Max gets his hands on it.”