by Bobby Akart
Gunner’s phone rang and he immediately established a Bluetooth connection to the van’s speaker system.
“How’s your progress?” asked Ghost. His voice reflected the tension that consumed all Americans since the attack.
Bear glanced at the GPS device mounted in the dash. “Just passed through Bad Hofgastein. I guess the next stop is Good Hofgastein.”
His attempt at humor had no effect on Ghost. There was a brief silence on the line, and then Jackal spoke up. “Sixty miles, roughly. Forty-five minutes to Hohenwerfen Castle, plus another half hour to the CIA safe house near the Knight Gruppe headquarters.”
The conversation between Ghost and Jackal continued. “Everything in place? IDs? Cover dossiers? Comms?”
“Yes, sir,” she replied. “If they arrive on schedule, they’ll have six hours to prepare, review the intelligence, and make their appearance at the conference.”
Gunner was riding shotgun, and Cam had stirred awake from the discussion taking place over the speakers. Sleepily, she sat on her knees between the bucket seats at the front of the van to listen in with the guys.
“Do you wanna fill us in now, or should we call back after we arrive at the hotel?” asked Gunner.
His phone indicated he’d received an encrypted text message from the Den. It was the hotel’s address and their contact information for the CIA liaison.
“I see you got our text,” said Jackal, who overheard his notification. “The details for how this will play out are in your hotel suite at the Hotel Sacher in Salzburg. Gunner, Cam, your covers were created via the U.S. Embassy and the agency. Gunner is part of the security team protecting the U.S. ambassador to Austria, John Belvedere. He is aware of your late addition to his staff and understands the need for discretion. Likewise, Cam, you are also designated as the assistant to his chief of staff. Both men are aware of the national security implications of your work although they have no idea who you’re investigating.”
“What about me?” asked Bear.
“You’re going to be very busy,” replied Ghost. “This operation is multipronged, involving a combination of surveillance, information extraction, and the final step of penetrating the secure headquarters of Knight Gruppe.”
“Despite my best efforts,” began Jackal, “I’ve been unable to gain access to the Knight Gruppe servers that contain the financial and personnel information we need. We’re taking some massive leaps forward in this investigation. At the FBI, we were methodical and thorough. Steps were rarely skipped as we built a criminal case. Today, we’re under tremendous pressure to not only find the terrorists but to also fend off another possible attack.”
Ghost added, “We’re the only ones working this angle, and we’re doing so purely on the investigation of von Zwick coupled with the extraordinary information you received from the Vatican. The pieces are falling in place, but it’s also possible we’re chasing the proverbial wild goose by sending you to Salzburg.”
“What’s the first step?” asked Cam. “The Bilderberg conference is being held at the Hohenwerfen Castle, which you’ll be approaching shortly. Knight Gruppe is this year’s host organization, and therefore they’ll have several of their principals in attendance.”
“What are we looking for?” asked Cam.
“In short, the known and the unknown,” replied Ghost. “Knight Gruppe AG is a privately held international conglomerate with a myriad of businesses under its umbrella. Many of their entities require public filings in the nations where they do business. Jackal and her team are compiling a corporate family tree, of sorts.
“That said, the people we need identified are those who are part of, or closely related to, Knight Gruppe who aren’t on public document filings. You’ll need to find a way to get close to them. Eavesdrop on their conversations. Make mental notes of whom they speak with.”
Jackal addressed the primary purpose for the operation. “During your surveillance, you’ll need to seek out Johan Kutcher, the chief financial officer of Knight Gruppe. He is one of eight top-level directors of the company we expect to be in attendance. He’s got the keys to the kingdom in the form of passcodes, identification badges and, depending on the outcome of our final research, the thumb or retina that will gain us access to Knight’s servers.”
Bear laughed. “You want them to pop out the man’s eyeball?”
“If necessary, yes,” replied Ghost dryly.
The three operatives in the van exchanged glances and shrugged. Whatever it takes.
“Roger that,” said Cam. “Do we have cover in place to get into Knight’s offices?”
“Manhole.” Jackal’s reply was simple but confusing.
“What? Manhole?” asked Cam.
“Manhole cover, that is,” Jackal said with a laugh. This time Ghost joined in. Although the trio approaching Hohenwerfen Castle sitting majestically on the side of the mountain were clueless as to what the inside joke was, they too laughed, as the entire team needed to release their stress.
Ghost explained, “Salzburg, like other cities in Europe, has an extensive underworld of tunnels and subterranean rivers built over many centuries. They were expanded during the 1830s to deal with a nationwide cholera outbreak and the disposal of diseased wastewater.
“One of these tunnels runs directly underneath the Knight Gruppe building. You won’t need a cover story to enter the building other than, as Jackal said, a manhole cover to enter the sewer system.”
“Wonderful,” groaned Cam. “Am I supposed to wear my evening dress from the conference?”
“Bear will have that taken care of. He’ll be on the outside to create a diversion in case you run into trouble.”
“Sounds straightforward,” said Gunner in all sincerity. He’d begun to embrace this whole James Bond approach as opposed to his usual bull-in-the-china shop, guns-blazin’ methods of getting the job done.
He was about to learn finesse wasn’t quite as easy as it might appear.
Chapter Eighteen
Hohenwerfen Castle
Salzburg, Austria
Salzburg, Austria, began as a settlement of the Roman empire and later became a city known for its churches and culture. The birthplace of Mozart had been fought over for centuries as religious and political conflict in the region played tug-of-war over the quaint city in the Alps. It was also the darling of a former Austrian soldier who rose to power following World War I—Adolph Hitler.
Salzburg was an unlikely choice for the headquarters of Knight Gruppe AG. The brainchild of Brit Jorgensen, it would’ve made logistical sense to incorporate in South America and in Buenos Aries, Argentina in particular. However, the long-term goal of Odessa was to retake what was theirs. The Third Reich and its formerly occupied territories in Europe. The center of Odessa’s universe would be Salzburg, and therefore locating Knight Gruppe on the German border made logistical sense.
Not to mention it could stay off the radar of anyone seeking to uncover Odessa’s true identity. The small city with a population of roughly one hundred fifty thousand was known for its tourist trade. The surrounding gold-mining operations had long been shut down, as were the salt mines. Instead, attractions featuring the region’s history, architecture, and culture took over.
Knight Gruppe invested heavily in, and therefore controlled, the universities located in Salzburg. They groomed their children for careers in medicine and applied sciences. Others with an aptitude for dramatic arts, music and dance were prepared to become vocal advocates of Odessa’s ideology in popular culture.
All of this was part of a decades-long plan to infiltrate every part of Western civilization. Using their vast financial resources and connections, Odessa would maneuver their human assets into positions of power and influence like a chess grandmaster pursuing an opponent’s king.
Henry Gruber was a grandmaster of geopolitical chess. The moves he made on the world stage were unknown to most. He had a remarkable ability to convince others to do what was in the best interest of Odessa.
His job was somewhat easier because nobody knew of Odessa’s existence or its agenda. Operating in darkness. Maneuvering within shadow governments. Mixing legitimate with illegitimate activities. All were tools used by Henry and others within Odessa’s ranks to advance their cause.
However, wars were started, and the toppling of nation-states required the cooperation of others with like-minded goals. Partners and allies of convenience, if you will.
For every apparently stable government, there was a counterbalance of actual power that resided not with publicly elected officials but with private individuals who wielded their ability to effectuate change to their liking. For decades, Odessa had built relationships with the world’s wealthiest and most influential powerbrokers who held their common interests.
Odessa had set the wheels in motion to change the geopolitical face of the West. America would come crumbling down, and shortly thereafter, Europe would rise under a new flag. One that was familiar to all but reviled as well.
He’d arrived early at Hohenwerfen Castle, the site Knight Gruppe had chosen for the annual Bilderberg conference. Henry, like most of die Zwölf, had an affinity for castles. It was a reflection of their German and Austrian roots. Hitler, Himmler, and most of the top echelon of the Third Reich had acquired these massive medieval structures as their homes. Over the decades since Odessa began to reconstitute the Reich, castles throughout Europe were purchased by entities and nonprofit organizations controlled by Knight Gruppe.
When the Reich was reborn, these castles would become symbols of power, culture, and stability. And, like Castle Bariloche, they would pay homage to the architect of Odessa—Heinrich Himmler.
Henry knew the history of Hohenwerfen intimately. His homeschooling as a child had included an extensive amount of course study in the history of Europe and the economic conditions that gave rise to the Third Reich.
Several periods of social unrest and economic strife from the years 1077 through the sixteenth century resulted in magnificent castles being built throughout Germany and Austria. By the fifteenth century, the castle had reached its current state of completion, and it played an important role in protecting Austria’s elite from the peasant revolts in later years.
During the German occupation, the castle was used as a military training center that included an unconventional means of strategy for the period—urban warfare. Nazi military commanders prepared for many different types of tactics to conquer the enemy besides tanks and airpower. They envisioned destabilizing their targets by sending soldiers into the city to attack under cover of darkness. The immense size of Hohenwerfen provided them an ideal place to train.
The weather at this time of year was ideal for outdoor gatherings, so many of the social aspects of this year’s conference took place on the exquisite grounds of the fortress. This was also ideally suited for Odessa’s sophisticated surveillance tools to home in on particular conversations amongst the attendees.
Perched atop the castle walls and the buildings were numerous devices that appeared to be lightning rods. The castle was perched atop a mountain and surrounded by steeply sloped terrain. It made for an excellent target during severe spring storms. However, the lightning rods served a dual purpose. They could be rotated ever so slightly to aim a highly effective shotgun microphone capable of capturing a conversation from more than a hundred feet away. The efficient devices were capable of rejecting peripheral sounds and eliminating even the slightest wind noise.
Henry wanted to gather the private conversations of the attendees so he could analyze their loyalties as well as anticipate their future political plans. Financial deals were often struck at the annual conference, and knowing these arrangements before they went public benefitted Odessa.
He often laughed at the characterization of the Bilderberg conference as the elites gathered together to exchange ideas in private and outside the media spotlight. The meeting attracted huge amounts of suspicion and paranoia, but in reality, as he’d often said, it was nothing more than an oversized dinner party of elitists.
In recent years, broad issues like macroeconomics, terrorism, and cybersecurity were popular topics. No minutes were taken of the various workshops and discussions that took place, hence the assumption that the attendees were part of a sinister cabal with something to hide. Some pundits believed the goal of the Bilderberg Group was to impose pan-global fascism or even totalitarian Marxism throughout the West.
To put it more mildly, most attendees were presumed to push a one-world government agenda. Many believed a single community throughout the world would result in less bloodshed and economic strain because wars would no longer be necessary.
For Odessa, the concept of a one-world government and a new world order ran contrary to their goals of reconstituting the Reich.
That was why Henry Gruber and others in Odessa were active at these conferences. Not because they could rub elbows with the rich and powerful or to pontificate over political ideologies. But rather, so they could manipulate the Bilderbergers into abandoning their grandiose plans of one world, one nation without borders.
There would be no room in the new Germany for outsiders. Only the pure would be welcome.
Chapter Nineteen
Hohenwerfen Castle
Salzburg, Austria
Gunner and Cam entered the castle separately. He arrived early as part of Ambassador Belvedere’s advance security team, which was also provided for other American citizens in attendance. He’d studied the floor plan and map of the grounds for nearly an hour after their arrival at the hotel. Gunner liked to plan for all contingencies. He didn’t like being without a weapon. Only the security staff employed by Knight was armed.
Bear was added to the catering company’s employee list as a driver. He would stay with his vehicle inside the castle’s exterior walls as part of the catering crew. Assuming everything went as planned, the trio would leave the castle in the van and immediately head to the insertion point near Knight’s offices. It would be a manhole cover, just as Jackal had said on the earlier phone call.
Finally, Cam arrived as part of the ambassador’s entourage of six, which included his wife, his chief of staff, and three aides. Attendees were allowed to bring a minimal amount of staff and guests, all of whom were expected to stand clear during social functions unless summoned. They were expressly prohibited from entering any of the private workshops or presentations.
Cam’s job was the most difficult. She had to locate and then isolate Johan Kutcher, the CFO of Knight Gruppe. Once she did, she had to find a means to extract the passwords, codes, and access information for the company’s servers.
Like her night at the opera, Cam was stunning in her evening wear. The ambassador’s chief of staff, a single man nearly twenty years older than Cam, was immediately smitten. She used this to her advantage as soon as the ambassador led his group into the courtyard for the reception greeting the attendees.
One of the ambassador’s aides, who’d attended two Bilderberg conferences in the past, instructed Cam to join her and the male staffer on the outside perimeter of the large botanical-filled courtyard. The ambassador’s chief of staff stopped her.
He leaned in to whisper. “These soirees are dreadfully boring,” he said in a New England, Brahminesque accent. “Why don’t you accompany me as my date? We won’t be able to attend the private discussions, but we’ll have full access to the free booze.”
Cam gave him a sultry smile. She tilted her head and whispered her response. “I’d love to.”
He offered her his arm and she took it. The two of them casually strolled toward the bar. “This is a really big deal for some,” he said as they walked past a group that included a former U.S. president and his brother, a former governor. “On the surface, it appears to be a country-club setting. Behind the scenes, the future of nations is determined.”
“Does the ambassador share what he learns?”
“No, not really. Well, need to know, I suppose. Frankly, I don’t real
ly care. I’ve been with him for many years. He’s remained at his post in Vienna through three administrations. He knows how to play the game. For me, I enjoy the culture and history of Vienna. If Ambassador Belvedere were to leave, I’d probably resign and stay there.”
Cam’s eyes darted around the courtyard in search of Kutcher. At one point, she made eye contact with Gunner, who was subtly panning the crowd with his arm held casually in front of him. The cameras in both of his cufflinks were sending video to the Den for analysis.
She made an observation. “I recognize most of the people here. American politicians from both sides of the aisle are well represented. I see high tech is treated like rock stars.”
The chief of staff chuckled, his soft, protruding belly shaking against Cam’s arm as he did. “Oh, yes. It’s been that way for years, I’m told. The ambassador refers to them as the masters of the universe. Google. Facebook. Twitter. Amazon. Microsoft. Everyone wants to bend their ear and be in the know about future trends on the internet.”
“Glenlivet. Rocks,” the chief of staff ordered. He turned to Cam and undressed her with his eyes. “And for the lady?”
“White wine, please.” Then she whispered a question. “How about our hosts, Knight Gruppe? I don’t know much about them.”
“Nor does anyone else,” he replied. “Their presence in Austria doesn’t impact the economy like a manufacturer or major service provider might. They’re involved in many endeavors worldwide, and they’re simply headquartered here. Because the leadership team is primarily of German and Austrian descent, Ambassador Belvedere hasn’t shown an interest in their activities.”
“Are you able to point out any of their representatives?” asked Cam as she nodded her thanks to the female bartender. She took a sip of wine, peering over the glass the entire time. Cam wondered to herself if she’d blinked since her arrival in the courtyard.