by AD Starrling
They followed him as he strolled along one of the production chains. The operations manager pointed out more complex instruments and systems. Conrad shifted restlessly as he listened to the man.
‘In what forms is OG1140 available as a pure product?’ the immortal said finally, trying not to show his growing impatience.
‘The polymer comes as a pellet and a pure melt solution,’ Voigt replied. ‘We also do direct extrusion into plates, films, rolls, or tubes.’
He stopped next to one of the machines and smiled distractedly at the woman supervising the packing of boxfuls of pea-sized, round balls of clear plastic.
‘This is OG1140 in its pellet structure,’ said the operations manager.
Conrad picked up one of the transparent globules and raised it to eye level. He examined the material for a moment, his mind racing.
‘If you wanted to combine high-strength carbon fibers to this and mold it into a specific design, what form would you choose?’ he said.
The operations manager glanced at Obenhaus, unease dawning in his eyes.
‘The liquid solution would be easiest to work with,’ Voigt admitted reluctantly. ‘You wouldn’t need to remelt OG1140 and reprocess the copolymer.’
‘We’ve been informed that the Obenhaus Group has never suffered any security breaches or thefts at its production plants,’ said Laura matter-of-factly. ‘Does that hold true for this facility as well?’
Voigt opened his mouth to reply, hesitated, and looked at Obenhaus again.
The company president observed Laura shrewdly. ‘You did your research,’ he commented in an even tone.
She shrugged. ‘It’s part of the job description, I’m afraid.’
Obenhaus nodded and turned to the operations manager. ‘You can tell them, Ulrich.’
‘Eighteen months ago, the auditor discovered that a batch of OG1140 had gone missing from this plant,’ said Voigt. A guilty expression flashed across his face, as if he somehow blamed himself for the incident. ‘The polymer was just out of its experimental phase at the time.’
Alarms bells rang in Conrad’s head. He exchanged troubled glances with Anatole and the two Secret Service agents.
Schulze frowned at their expressions. ‘What is it?’
Conrad turned to Obenhaus. ‘Is he talking about the incident involving Luther Obenhaus?’
The company president went still. ‘You know about that?’
‘We also checked the Obenhaus Group finances and audit trails,’ Conrad stated grimly. ‘That was the only red flag your company has received since its inception.’
‘We assumed the infraction was a misappropriation of shares or embezzlement,’ said Laura as Obenhaus paled. ‘Obviously, we were wrong.’ An undercurrent of frustration tempered her voice.
Bauer’s face had gone red. He exhaled explosively and threw his arms in the air. ‘What the hell are you people talking about?’
Laura regarded the irate policeman coolly. She summarized their findings on the Obenhaus Group.
Understanding dawned on Schulze’s face. ‘That incident also came up during our intelligence gathering.’ His eyebrows rose as he indicated the box at the end of the production line. ‘Still, that auditor must have had hawk eyes to have picked up on a missing consignment this size.’
Voigt startled. He gaped at them for a moment, too shocked to speak. ‘I don’t think you understand,’ he said finally. ‘The batch I’m referring to was 150 gallons of liquid OG1140.’
‘What?’ Laura exclaimed.
Conrad turned to Obenhaus. ‘What did your brother need that much polymer for?’ he asked accusingly. ‘And how did you manage to settle this with the auditor?’
A flush of embarrassment darkened Obenhaus’s cheeks. ‘Luther took the material to experiment with a new laser cutting and welding technology he had devised,’ he said, a defensive note creeping into his voice as he met Conrad’s gaze. ‘He returned the product and was suspended as a director, with his shares and company assets frozen. Those were the conditions the board demanded. They satisfied the external auditor enough to close the case.’
A stilted silence fell on the group.
Anatole cocked an eyebrow. ‘Christ, he got expelled from the family business just for that?’
Obenhaus hesitated. ‘No, there was more to the decision. Luther had been a disruptive figure in the company for well over a decade. There have been prior incidents when he behaved in ways and engaged in activities that threatened the Obenhaus dynasty’s reputation, his ongoing gambling addiction being one example.’ The company president’s shoulders suddenly drooped. A sigh left his lips. ‘The theft was the last straw as far as the board was concerned.’
‘And he just gave you back the stuff he took?’ said Laura skeptically.
‘Yes,’ said Obenhaus. ‘He made a sculpture out of the polymer to demonstrate the practical application of the laser system he had been working on. It was his...“parting gift” to the company.’ His voice turned bitter with his last words.
Conrad’s pulse jumped. ‘What do you mean, he made a sculpture?’ he said uneasily.
‘You saw it when you came into the Obenhaus Group headquarters,’ the company president explained. ‘It’s the one in the atrium.’
Five minutes later, they were standing inside the lobby of the first building. The sculpture was eight feet tall and balanced on a steel base inset in the middle of the floor. Shaped like a teardrop, it had been dyed a brilliant white, the geometric twists and curves along its contours creating an eye-catching pattern of light and shadow. A sliver of a hunch blossomed at the back of Conrad’s mind as he studied the structure.
‘I’m kinda curious about something,’ said Anatole. ‘How come your brother can create this stuff?’
A blank expression washed across Obenhaus’s face. ‘Oh. Of course,’ he muttered. ‘Your investigation may not have revealed this.’ He ran his fingers through his hair. ‘Luther is a developmental engineer with PhDs in polymer processing and applied chemistry. He didn’t want the Obenhaus name to create any negative preconceptions when he attended university, so he graduated with our mother’s maiden name, Brandt.’
Conrad’s mouth went dry at the company president’s words. He stared at the teardrop-shaped sculpture. ‘Are you sure this is made from OG1140?’
Obenhaus frowned. ‘Yes, of course.’
‘How can you be certain?’ Conrad challenged.
Obenhaus’s gaze shifted to the sculpture. ‘I—I didn’t have any reason to believe Luther would lie to me,’ he stammered.
Conrad bit back a curse. ‘How fast can you get this thing analyzed?’ he demanded.
Obenhaus had gone pale once more. ‘It shouldn’t take long once we obtain a sample. I’ll get one of the technicians to come down and take a specimen.’ He turned and started hurriedly across the lobby.
‘You know, there’s a faster way to do this,’ said Anatole.
Obenhaus stopped and turned. ‘What do you mean?’
Conrad saw motion out of the corner of his eye. He opened his mouth to shout out a warning.
Anatole raised the gun and fired. The bullet chipped the sculpture and struck the marble floor with a soft ping. He retrieved the small, white fragment and handed it to the shocked Obenhaus Group president.
‘Will this do?’ he asked brightly.
‘And here I thought you’d mellowed,’ Conrad grumbled under his breath.
Stevens, Schulze, and Bauer stood paralyzed around him, their hands halfway to their guns. Laura was not as indecisive. She strode up to Anatole and smacked him on the side of the head.
‘You ass! How could you be so reckless?’ she hissed.
‘But I used the suppressor,’ the immortal protested. He indicated the barrel of his gun. ‘Besides, this wi
ll speed this up, won’t it, Pres?’
Maximilian Obenhaus observed the damage to the sculpture and his expensive marble floor. His staff went about their business some twenty feet away, oblivious to the muffled gunshot. ‘Let’s get this over with,’ he managed stoically.
They followed him back to the R&D building and up some stairs to a lab on the top floor. Half an hour later, the polymer chemist Obenhaus had tasked to analyze the chip from the sculpture looked up from her workstation and shook her head.
‘This is not OG1140,’ the woman said, chagrined.
Conrad’s stomach sank. His suspicions had been confirmed once more.
‘What?’ Obenhaus’s shocked gaze shifted from the sample on the counter to the scientist. ‘Are you certain?’
‘Yes, sir,’ the woman replied. ‘This is a plastic polymer that’s widely available on the market. It’s not even one of ours.’
‘Luther, what have you done?’ Obenhaus mumbled to himself after a stunned silence. The company president stared blindly at the floor.
Despite the sense of urgency flowing through him, Conrad felt a stab of sympathy for the man. ‘We need to talk to your brother.’
Obenhaus looked up and nodded slowly, a haunted expression in his eyes. ‘Let’s go to my office.’
They returned to his room and retrieved their phones from his safe. Obenhaus sat at his desk and called his brother on the office line. A frown puckered his brow after a couple of minutes. He pressed the hook switch and dialed another number.
‘He’s not answering his home phone or his mobile,’ Obenhaus murmured. A trace of anxiety laced his voice. ‘I’ll call his building.’ He disconnected again and punched in a third number. ‘Jürgen? This is Maximilian Obenhaus,’ he said after a few seconds. ‘Have you seen my brother today?’ His lips compressed in a thin line as he listened.
Conrad tensed.
Obenhaus studied the immortal with a perturbed expression. ‘Did he mention if he was going anywhere?’ he said into the phone. ‘No? Okay. Thank you, Jürgen.’
Conrad watched the company president place the phone carefully down in its cradle.
‘The concierge of Luther’s apartment building in Leipzig hasn’t seen my brother since Sunday morning,’ Maximilian Obenhaus announced.
Conrad shared anxious glances with the immortals and the assembled agents. This was not good news. ‘Can you think of anywhere he could have gone?’ he asked.
Obenhaus hesitated for a beat. ‘He has a cabin in the Thüringer Forest, about twenty-five miles from here. It’s...his sanctuary.’ He frowned. ‘But he usually lets the concierge know he’s going there.’
‘Can you give us directions?’ said Conrad.
‘Yes,’ Obenhaus said reluctantly.
They left the company headquarters minutes later with instructions on how to get to the lodge.
‘Mr. Greene?’ Maximilian Obenhaus called out from the steps of the building.
Conrad stopped and turned.
‘Though it appears Luther may be involved in something criminal, he’s still my brother,’ said the company president, his shoulders drooping.
Conrad considered the forlorn man for several seconds. ‘As long as he cooperates, I’ll see that no harm comes to him.’
Chapter Sixteen
They left Arnstadt and headed south toward the hazy, snow-capped Thüringer mountain range. The road soon climbed through the foothills of the peaks, taking them past narrow river valleys and undulating plateaus dotted with villages. Rocky outcrops and bluffs topped with ancient stone castles broke the vista of dense spruce and pine forests covering the slopes and vales.
One mile after passing a sleepy hamlet of slate-tiled dwellings, they turned onto a private track between the trees. Sunlight broke through the soaring canopy and painted the forest in strips of light and shade.
A rusted metal gate appeared in their path after a thousand feet. Schulze got out of the vehicle and opened it. They drove through the opening and soon reached a snow-dusted field of heather and wood sorrel. Shadowy woodland appeared on the other side. The track meandered between the trees and tapered to a rutted, overgrown trail. Conrad braced himself against the dashboard and the roof as the four-by-four bumped along the uneven ground.
A mile later, the land dipped into a large bowl ringed by towering conifers. A meadow stood at the bottom of the shallow depression. Sunlight danced on the stream running along its western boundary, where a wooden barn, bleached a pale gray by the weather, stood some hundred feet from a shallow creek. Ice patches gleamed on the surface of the water.
Squatting in the middle of the clearing was a chalet-style cabin. Smoke curled from one of its chimneys. A black Freelander stood parked on the graveled area at the side of the building.
‘Looks like we found Obenhaus,’ murmured Schulze.
The German agent guided the four-by-four down the path leading to the meadow and parked next to the Freelander. They had just stepped out of the vehicle when shouts suddenly erupted from inside the building.
Conrad stiffened as he registered the panic in the male voice. His stomach lurched when the sharp reports of three gunshots issued from the interior of the lodge in rapid succession.
He yanked his gun out and leapt up the steps to the porch, his heart hammering against his ribs. His fingers had just closed on the handle of the screen covering the front door when a high-pitched rumble rose from his left.
A dark-clad figure on a green dirt bike shot out from around the corner of the building. The man looked over his shoulder at the sound of Bauer’s vehicle slowing on the gravel. His eyes shrunk through the open visor of his helmet. He gunned the bike’s engine.
‘Stop him!’ Conrad shouted to the others as he sprinted along the porch.
He vaulted over the railing at the end, landed hard on the ground, and raced after the fleeing biker. Schulze and Anatole gave chase behind him. Bauer accelerated and followed in the four-by-four.
The man rose on the foot pegs of the dirt bike seconds before he hit the slope of the bowl. Soil and grass spun up behind the tires as he ascended toward the trees.
Conrad raised his gun and fired. The first two bullets went wild and struck the ground. The third pinged off the bike’s tail panel. The immortal cursed and jammed the gun in his waistband as he neared the incline. He started to scale the embankment, his breaths coming in hard, fast pants. Anatole and Schulze followed in his steps.
An engine roared to their left. Bauer’s four-by-four overtook them a second later. The two immortals and the German agent reached the summit of the rise just as further gunfire echoed to the skies.
The four-by-four had slewed to a stop in front of a wall of dense undergrowth. Three of the vehicle’s doors were open. Fifteen feet in front of the bumper, Bauer, Laura, and Stevens slowly lowered their weapons as they watched the dirt bike disappear in the gloom of the crowded forest.
‘Goddammit!’ Conrad gasped as he reached their side. His hands dropped to his knees as he caught his breath. Frustration gnawed at his insides. The enemy had bested them once more.
A flush of anger darkened Laura’s cheeks. ‘Let’s go back!’ she ordered. ‘Obenhaus is probably still in the chalet.’ She turned on her heels.
Bauer took the vehicle while the rest of them headed swiftly toward the meadow on foot.
‘Looks like the bastards were one step ahead of us again,’ Anatole said darkly as they scrambled down the incline.
Conrad scowled. ‘Ye—’
Incandescent light bloomed up ahead. The thumps of two powerful explosions ripped through the clearing and drowned out his voice. The force of the blasts washed over the slope and lifted them off their feet.
As he soared helplessly through the air, heat scorching his skin and throat, Conrad saw Bauer’s four-by-four judder
backward on its suspension. The vehicle skidded and started to flip.
The immortal slammed into the ground a heartbeat later. His head struck something hard. Stars exploded in front of his eyes. The impact knocked the breath out of his lungs. A dull buzz filled his ears, dampening all sound. Clouds of black smoke billowed past his vision. Ash and debris started to rain down around him.
Conrad gritted his teeth and turned on his side. Fear lanced through his heart at the sight that met his eyes.
‘Laura!’ he cried out, his voice a muffled echo inside his skull.
She lay on her back some twenty feet away. Her eyes were closed and blood stained her skin from a gash on her temple.
Conrad crawled to his knees and shook his head dazedly. His ears popped as he staggered to his feet. Sound returned in a painful clamor. The crackle and roar of raging flames finally registered. He looked over his shoulder.
The lodge and barn were engulfed in fierce blazes, as were the wrecks of the Freelander and Schulze’s vehicle.
His eyes shifted to the unconscious woman a short distance from where he stood. He stumbled across the ground and sank to his knees by her side just as she blinked and opened her eyes.
‘Are you okay?’ Conrad asked shakily. He ran his hands lightly over her body.
Laura groaned and nodded slowly. She pushed herself up on her elbows.
Relief flooded Conrad. He took her arm and helped her gently into a sitting position.
She looked up, the hazel gaze sweeping over him. ‘And you?’
‘I’m fine,’ Conrad murmured.
Anatole, Schulze, and Stevens were slowly rising to their feet. Except for some cuts and grazes, they seemed unharmed.
Schulze suddenly froze. ‘Bauer!’ he shouted weakly.
Conrad followed the German agent’s horrified gaze to the four-by-four lying on its roof at the bottom of the incline. He pulled Laura up and they joined the men stumbling down the slope. Tempered glass from the vehicle’s smashed windows crunched under their feet as they reached it. They found Bauer unconscious inside.