She had no idea how he really felt about her. She had no idea about anything involving this complex man who scared her and made her fulfilled all at the same time. Heroin had given her a thrill, a coursing wave of euphoria and a feeling of peace and self-worth. But Paul Silver was a million times more addictive than heroin. With him, she needed nothing else.
But she didn’t have him. There would be a time to talk about that, she hoped. There had to be. She was powerless to let him go unless he thrust her away.
On the other side, Paul was at a crossroads. He either had to trust her completely or not at all. Soon enough she was going to find out he knew more than he’d told her. He continued to keep secrets from her, but suddenly he was feeling remorseful about it.
Damn. Why am I doing this? I promised myself it wouldn’t happen again.
If he and the minister took a crew to Peles Castle tomorrow and began a full-scale search, it would ultimately end up on the news. When Carey saw it, she’d know he lied to her. He really didn’t owe her answers; she was simply helping him out by decoding the diary. But there was more to it than that. They’d had sex, sure. He’d had sex with a hundred others. He was certain she had too. Sex on its own meant nothing. But his time with her had been different.
What was it about her? As much as he pretended not to know what was happening, there was no mistaking the feelings. Deep in the Guatemalan jungle when Hailey Knox had left him, he shut a door in his heart and promised it would be closed forever. Never again would he deal with the baggage that came with love.
And yet here it was. This wasn’t something he wanted. It wasn’t something he thought was right for him. Quite the contrary. He wanted nothing to do with it. But he wanted Carey Apostol. He didn’t know anything about who she really was, her background or her life. But it didn’t matter.
That door inside his heart was open again. He couldn’t fight it.
He had to tell her everything. If that drove her away, then that was how it would be. He was going to trust someone for the first time since Philippe betrayed him.
She eagerly answered his call.
“I was about to give up! How did the day go?” she asked, trying to be nice by letting him go first when all she wanted was to tell him what she’d learned today.
“It was good. I’m working with my friend Hans Steffen, the director of the historical museum. He’ll be accompanying the minister and me tomorrow when we go look for the train.”
“Really? That is news! How do you know where to look?”
“There’s a little piece of the puzzle I haven’t been totally forthcoming about,” he confessed. “I know where the train is, Carey.”
He explained what the last numbers meant, the ones with periods and a slash. Nicu had encoded them as single characters, not words. When decrypted, the string of numerals became an anagram with only one possible meaning: Peles Castle.
“The castle’s only eighty-five miles from Bucharest. I’m certain that’s where the tunnel was built. We’re meeting a work crew there tomorrow.”
At first she was incensed that he deliberately kept this information from her. She was angry and wanted to lash back with a sharp rebuke. She stopped for a moment. Why do this? He doesn’t have to tell me anything. Don’t make a major issue out of it.
She’d been silent so long that he finally said, “Are you upset with me? I’m sorry…”
“Don’t be sorry. I understand completely and I’m not upset. I’m glad you’re telling me now. Peles Castle is in Sinaia. My parents took me there once when I was a child. It’s a beautiful place in the mountains. And very remote. I agree it’s a perfect hiding place. Tomorrow’s going to be an exciting day!”
He could sense there was a smile on her face as she continued. “I thought I had something important to tell you, but now I’d rather listen than talk. Tell me more; then I have news for you too!”
Paul told her everything about his research. He said he would be lost without the diary, and he told her how much he appreciated her help.
She was ecstatic at what secrets might still lie hidden in the old man’s diary, and she was committed to giving Paul the answers he needed. She made a promise.
“The last thing I decoded was from mid-July. There are only five weeks left in the diary and only a few pages with massive blocks of numerals. Starting now I’ll work straight through for as long as it takes to finish the whole thing. Who knows what else he encrypted? By tomorrow morning I’ll be finished.”
“Perfect,” he told her. “Now it’s your turn. You said you had something important you wanted to tell me. I’m hoping it’s about the decrypting you did today!
She related what Nicu had written on March 29th. “The uncoded part of that day’s entry introduces a Lieutenant Schlosser, who was a Nazi storm trooper like Nicu. Schlosser’s the man in charge of what Nicu calls an elite team who are guarding the huge storeroom at the station. Once the words stop and the code begins, this gets really interesting.”
Nicu didn’t reveal how the two came to partner up in a criminal enterprise, but she explained how things worked. Each day around five, he and Schlosser rewarded the team of soldiers with a trip to a beer garden around the corner and a couple of rounds of drinks paid for by the two generous officers. Nicu and the lieutenant would even stay on duty to guard the storeroom. It appeared to be a magnanimous gesture, but really it was a clever ploy to get the men away from their posts for an hour every afternoon.
There was so much stored in the massive room that an inventory would be impossible, the two must have realized as they hatched their plan. The Nazis shipped priceless objects and gold bullion so quickly and in such huge amounts that records were impossible. The shipments were simply categorized by type – gold, paintings and so forth. There was never a specific amount or a detailed description. Nicu and Lieutenant Schlosser began stealing gold bars. Each man took one or two every day. Some days, Nicu wrote, he took three. He also stole jewelry now and then, remarking on how there were buckets of it sitting everywhere in those days. She had found no clue as to where Nicu hid what he stole, she told Paul.
“You know that Nicu gave me twenty-three bars. Do you also recall what I told you he said? He said I could have them because there was much, much more for his greedy grandchildren. If he took a bar a day between March 29 and August 21, that’s maybe a hundred and fifty. And he admits they took more than one bar on some days. Just think, Paul! Somewhere there’s got to be a cache of gold still hidden, don’t you think? You not only have a train to look for, you have millions in gold bars that Nicu stole!”
“Amazing! Great detective work. This gets more unbelievable every time we talk!”
He said he’d call her at eight in the morning to get an update. She ate a light dinner and went straight back to work. Dawn was breaking as she finished. With only a couple of hours until he’d be calling, she set her alarm and crawled into bed.
Paul hadn’t told her about torturing Philippe and sending him out into the streets a ruined man with a broken body. She knew Paul had gotten Philippe’s diary from the train station locker, but that was all she knew. She had no idea there had been six million dollars in bearer bonds in that locker too. Paul had the bonds, but could there be more gold than what they’d already found?
As he packed for the trip tomorrow, his mind raced with calculations. Nicu stole gold every day. If “every day” meant weekdays, and he had done it every day for twenty weeks, then there had been around a hundred days of thefts. If weekends were included, or if he had taken two or three bars a day, there was more gold somewhere. Paul had accounted for 192 bars – 23 that Nicu gave Carey and 169 Philippe had taken from the Vienna safety deposit box. Carey thought there might be more, and Paul began to think so too. The two safety deposit box keys in Nicu’s personal effects had made recovery of those first 192 bars a simple task. But where would he have hidden more?
Nicu had spent a few years after the war as a free man, followed by two decades in p
rison. When he was released in 1971, he never held a job, but he had sufficient wealth to buy an apartment building and anything else he needed. He also had 192 gold bars stuck away in two banks. Where could more be?
Suddenly he knew! He knew where Nicu could have stashed his loot! Paul sat at his laptop, sent a couple of emails, and set a business transaction in motion. Although he was wealthy, he usually didn’t blow a million dollars on a hunch. It wasn’t money down the drain, he rationalized. Whether the gold was there or not, he’d own an asset.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
The minister’s call to Romania concluded on a positive note and he turned to Paul. “Hans Steffen has been waiting all this time outside my office,” he said. “I’m sure he’s about to explode wondering what we’re doing in here! Let’s bring him in.”
Steffen joined them, patting Paul on the back as he took a chair. The minister said, “Paul’s made a miraculous discovery, Hans. He thinks he knows the location of the Ghost Train. It’s in a tunnel, he believes. I’m sending a crew of workmen to the site, and the Romanian minister is doing the same. We’re going to see if the train really is there!”
“It’s in a tunnel?” Hans was incredulous. “There’s a tunnel? Where’s the site, Minister? Apologies for my rudeness, but I can hardly wait to learn more! This is so exciting!”
The minister gestured for Paul to continue.
Without going into detail, Paul said he’d located the stationmaster’s diary, which was replete with coded entries. Once he broke the code, he learned Nicu had been selected by Reichsmarschall Göring to oversee construction of a secret tunnel at Peles Castle, a tunnel outfitted with a very long train track.
Hans interrupted enthusiastically. “Peles Castle, eh? Sounds fascinating! Where exactly is that?”
Paul laughed. The man was like an eager child bursting to know more. “It’s in Sinaia, a ski town not far from Bucharest. The castle’s remote and isolated, and the Nazis seized it in 1943 for an undisclosed purpose. The most fascinating part of this is how it all ties back to Nicu’s master log. Hans, you recall the stationmaster ledger from 1944 that we found hidden in the bunker. Do you know why Göring had it sent there?
Almost overcome by all this, Hans wiped his brow and answered, “I think I do! You found the Ghost Train in that book! Hitler hid the book to keep the train secret, to make sure no one found the riches he hid away for the future rebuilding of Germany!”
The minister smiled as he watched the animated conversation playing out across his desk. It was good to see his subordinate so fired up about the project, and in fact, he was excited too. If it were actually there, it would be one of the world’s major discoveries, a good thing both for his country and for himself.
Paul continued, “The entry for August 21 perfectly matched my findings from the diary. Massive quantities of artwork, statuary and gold had been accumulating at Bucharest station for several weeks. Now that the war was ending, it was time. On August 21, a thirteen-car train arrived in Bucharest empty and departed fully loaded, each car brimful of priceless objects and bullion. Within mere hours Romania would no longer be part of the Axis, and Reichsmarschall Göring snatched away the booty just in time.
“That train was destined for Sinaia, a little town known solely for its winter sports activities,” Paul concluded with a flourish. “It’s a strange place to take billions of dollars in treasure, don’t you think? And here’s the coup de grace, gentlemen. The train went to Sinaia that day, but it never returned! I think I know why. It’s still there!”
The minister toyed with Hans. “I’m thinking of going to the site. Do you know anyone else I should include on the trip?”
“Sir,” Hans stammered, his head bowed. “I’d be honored … and Paul! Paul, of course!”
“Have no fear, my good man! Both of you must come!” Deutsch exclaimed with a beaming smile. “I wouldn’t allow you to miss this opportunity. Without your efforts we wouldn’t be at this critical juncture. We’ll leave from the municipal airport sharply at ten tomorrow morning. Meet me at the government terminal and plan to stay a few days. I may need to fly back, but if we find something, you’ll remain as my on-site representatives.”
Paul got very little sleep that night. He kept waking up, anticipating tomorrow with an enthusiasm he hadn’t felt since that time in Guatemala, where he’d found a treasure but lost a woman he loved.
At eight the next morning, he called Carey to learn if she’d found any last secrets from Nicu’s diary.
“Good morning,” she murmured, glancing at the clock. She’d slept through her alarm, but it was okay. It was truly a good morning, she thought lazily as she held her cell phone in one hand and stretched her arms and legs as much as she could. He’s going to like this! she thought.
“I’m hoping you have more news for me. What time did you get to bed?”
“A couple of hours ago. But I finished, and now I have something exciting to tell you!” She yawned and sighed. “Hold on a sec while I grab an energy drink.”
In the entry for August 20, the day before the Ghost Train arrived, Nicu had written that the tunnel wasn’t entirely finished, but Göring ordered him to stop. He’d described massive doors into the main tunnel and three hundred meters of track. She reminded Paul of words he clearly remembered reading. He waited patiently for her to move the story along.
“You may not remember,” she continued, “but his last words for August 20 were his hope that his project, his secret place, would be the resting place for the future of Nazi Germany. After that were five pages of numbers.”
Paul smiled. “And so it appears at last we get to the point!”
She laughed too. “I’m half asleep. You have to give me a break!”
“I have two hours until I meet the minister. You have my undivided attention and all the breaks you need!”
“How about this for some news. Those five pages describe how the workers hid the huge doors to the tunnel.”
She consulted her notes and explained exactly what to look for at the castle. She had so much detailed information he asked for a copy of the notes, and soon he had an email. He studied them closely in his taxi to the airport. He was wildly enthused about the trip.
Let the adventure begin!
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
The three men flew to Bucharest in a comfortable Lear jet, the thousand-mile trip taking a little over two hours. As a driver took them to Sinaia, the Romanian minister explained the interesting legal situation involving Peles Castle, which he explained was now a popular tourist attraction. Each year thousands visited the beautiful grounds and toured the nineteenth-century buildings.
“The government controls the site under a lease from the family of King Michael I, the same monarch who rescued Romania from the Axis in the 1944 coup. Since the war, the castle has belonged to the state, so one might ask why the government needs to lease something it already owns. It’s a complex situation. In 2006 the government announced plans to return ownership of the castle to the royal family, but up until now there have only been extended negotiations. Today, a formal lease is the means by which the government of Romania has the right of entry onto the property, even though the government owns it!”
Paul considered how complex the situation would become if they found treasure there. Would the royal family own it? Was Peles Castle their property, since ownership hadn’t yet been formally transferred? That would be interesting. He said nothing; it wasn’t his place to bring up a sensitive issue with a man he’d just met. Nevertheless, he knew if the train really was hidden below the castle, the ownership issue would escalate into a big deal very quickly.
Forty soldiers, twenty from each country, sat in the shade of tall pine trees at picnic tables intended for tourists. Two transport trucks and a small backhoe on a trailer were parked nearby. The men stubbed out cigarettes and stood at attention as the limousine pulled up. A pair of lieutenants saluted their respective ministers and were told to wait for orders.
/> Since the grounds were so extensive, the minister had arranged for a six-passenger golf cart and he was handed a walkie-talkie. Paul knew where to look, so he was designated the driver. They piled in and headed west through acres of beautifully manicured lawn, turning northward as they circled a steep hill atop which the massive castle stood. Its spires rose as if to touch the gray clouds above. Paul was looking for a landmark. He drove past an outcropping of rocks that jutted from the earth at the base of the hill, turned around and came back to them. From this place the castle was far, far above them, at least two hundred feet up a very steep incline, one that would have been a strenuous climb even for a seasoned hiker.
“Please call the soldiers,” he asked Herr Deutsch as everyone got out. They chatted as they waited for the men to arrive. There was adventure in the air, and each of them caught the excitement in his own way. Soon the trucks and backhoe showed up.
“From Nicu’s coded directions, I believe we should search here,” he said. “We’re looking for what he describes as ‘massive doors into the main tunnel under Peles Castle.’ They were covered by tons of dirt and marked by an outcropping of rocks designed to appear natural but, in fact, placed here deliberately.” He pointed to the rocks projecting from the hillside. “I’m hoping that place is the one he described; it’s the only one I’ve seen.”
For nearly two hours the forty soldiers supplemented the efforts of the backhoe operator, digging with shovels as he removed massive quantities of dirt. Now there was a deep cut nearly fifteen feet high and extending ten feet into the hillside. The dirt removed by the machine was piled nearby, and more was being added every few minutes. So far they’d found nothing but rich soil.
The driver moved the machine back into the cut, lowered its bucket and sliced neatly into the wall of dirt before him. There was a noisy clang as the backhoe struck something solid. Paul, Hans and the ministers were sitting in the golf cart nearby and jumped as they heard the sound. They ran to the narrow cut but couldn’t see anything in front of the backhoe because it filled the space completely.
The Crypt Trilogy Bundle Page 65