by Roger Weston
He was dizzy, and it had nothing to do with blood loss. He was a historian, not a banker. He had no idea what the value of all this was, but it was in the millions. He was having a hard time breathing and wasn’t sure if there was any more oxygen in the old mine. Jake had been in a few mines in his life, but this was the first one where the treasure had been brought in rather than mined and taken out. Köhler had brought in rooms full of booty spirited away from the chaos of Europe after the Fall of the Third Reich.
By the elevator, Jake saw something that really got his attention. It was a ship’s log sitting on a three-legged antique table. He picked up the book and found that it didn’t crumble in his hand. He opened it and turned the pages. As he did so, pages broke off, but didn’t crumble, so he kept them in the book and in order. It was the last log book of the Greifswalder. Jake paged through the priceless book until he found something that chilled him. It was something he had wondered about. How could a fortune in treasure be kept secret? It would have been easy if the ship’s crew didn’t know, but what happened to the crew? How come none ever turned up again?
Now Jake knew. On Hitler’s orders, an SS death team traveling on the ship had exterminated the crew to erase any knowledge of either the shipment or the ship. The death team had taken over the Greifswalder, and under their control, the ship sailed to a predetermined position to rendezvous with another boat. It was a submarine that had shown up, however, and their greeting came in the form of three torpedoes.
The mission had been sanitized. Nobody but Köhler lived to know of either the last voyage of the Greifswalder or the final destination of the plunder. Even Hitler didn’t know because Köhler’s orders had been to hide the treasure on Hoste Island in Tierra del Fuego, Chile. The boat was en route to Cape Horn when Köhler gave the captain new orders. He was to take his passenger and crew to South Georgia Island. Naturally, the captain had been suspicious because South Georgia was an English Island. Reservations or not, he had no choice but to follow orders. He did his duty, and the next orders he followed regarding the rendezvous turned out to be the last orders he ever received.
Köhler feared that the captain had been suspicious of the truth. The man suspected that the last minute decision to deliver Köhler to South Georgia did not come from Hitler. Rather it came from Köhler himself. If he had suspected this, then he was right. The change was a defection. Köhler had a secret deal with English intelligence because he was a traitor against Germany, a double agent. He was allowed to disappear because he provided a wealth of intelligence to the Brits that played a decisive role in the outcome of World War Two.
Jake finally knew the truth. Hitler had sent his cousin away as steward of a huge catch of gold and other treasure, but the cousin had betrayed the Führer, betrayed the Nazi party, and escaped into hiding with fortune.
As staggering as this was to learn, what Jake found on the other pages left him almost breathless. He put the log down carefully with reverence. It was the last log of the Greifswalder, but Köhler had used it for another purpose. He had used it as a record of his charitable giving. Over seven decades, he had given out over a million dollars a year to charities—from Jewish charities to homes for orphans to veteran’s foundations to anonymous modest cash gifts to people who had lost loved ones during a handful of wars.
Köhler had spent a year during the 1940s establishing his stellar credentials as one of the most disgraceful and evil men in history. He’d then spent the next seventy years trying to redeem himself—and it was all done anonymously.
Months later, Jake Sands established a foundation with a part-time employee who continued giving away Köhler’s gold. Each year a hundred thousand dollars was given away. It was given to Jewish charities, to homes for orphans, to veteran’s foundations, to small anonymous cash gifts to people who had lost loved ones during a handful of wars, to young fathers and mothers who needed scholarships to get educated and better their lives.
Other than his loyal assistant, Jake never told another soul about the treasure.
Oh, and about the Greifswalder, it was right in front of Jake’s nose the whole time. It was the shipwreck on the reef in front of Köhler’s house. It’s just that the name had been changed. The old German raiders often changed names, flags, and colors.
Hardly a day passed when Jake didn’t think about Köhler and his lovely bride. He thought of Köhler as the hermit who lived alone where the storms lived and the albatross sailed on the wind over lonely waters.
THE END
Thank you for reading THE TARGET! While you’re waiting for the next book in the series, check out the ten-book Chuck Brandt series by Roger Weston. The first episode is VENGEANCE, now available on Amazon. Grab a copy today.
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Books by Roger Weston
The Sands Series
GHOST SHIP: A Jake Sands Thriller (Book 1)
RELIC: A Jake Sands Thriller (Book 2)
THE TARGET: A Jake Sands Thriller (Book 3)
The Brandt Series
VENGEANCE: A Chuck Brandt Thriller (The Brandt Series Book 0)
The Recruiter: A Chuck Brandt Thriller (The Brandt Series Book 1)
The Handler: A Chuck Brandt Thriller (The Brandt Series Book 2)
Rogue Op: A Chuck Brandt Thriller (The Brandt Series Book 3)
Rogue Op II: A Chuck Brandt Thriller (The Brandt Series Book 4)
American Op: A Chuck Brandt Thriller (The Brandt Series Book 5)
Global Tilt: A Chuck Brandt Thriller (The Brandt Series Book 6)
Vulcan Eye: A Chuck Brandt Thriller (The Brandt Series Book 7)
Shadow Lawyer: A Chuck Brandt Thriller (The Brandt Series Book 8)
Shadow Court: A Chuck Brandt Thriller (The Brandt Series Book 9)
NonFiction by Roger Weston
SHIPWRECK: True Stories of Disaster at Sea
More Action-Filled Adventures by Roger Weston:
The Golden Catch: A Frank Murdock Action-Adventure
The Assassin's Wife: A Meg Coles Thriller