Hunter's Hope

by M. J. O'Shea

  “This is so not safe.”

  Jack just looked at him. Kendra and Brad made their way up, filming equipment in tow. They both looked much more at home on the roof than Alo felt. Jack tied the rope to the ladder and started to pull it up. It banged on the side of the building once, and the noise echoed across the Platz. Alo cringed, but nothing appeared to have changed.

  “Okay, let’s keep moving.”

  It was windier on top of the gate. Alo shivered. He worked his way along the roof, trying to hold on with his feet and not look like a total moron in front of the others. Jack balanced the lowest rung of the ladder on the peak. The two feet barely held on to the sides of the roof.

  “Someone hold this for me. I’ll hold from the top as soon as I’m up there, and it’ll be braced on both sides.”

  “I’ve got it, boss,” Kendra said. She looked like she had a lot more muscle tone than Alo, so he didn’t protest. Jack made his way gingerly up the unstable ladder until he hooked a leg over the top of the gate and disappeared.

  “’Kay. Alo. You come next.”

  Alo’s hands had turned sweaty. Apparently he didn’t like ladders. Especially not ones perched precariously on the peak of a roof.

  You can do this. Just go.

  He started up the ladder, trying to keep from shaking. He made it most of the way when the ladder jolted.

  “Sorry,” Kendra called softly from the bottom. “We’ve got you.”

  Alo bit his lip and climbed the rest of the way as fast as he could. Jack helped him haul himself onto the top of the gate when he got there. From there, they pulled up Brad’s camera, and then Brad and Kendra followed. There was a narrow staircase that led the rest of the way up to the top of the gate where the bronze chariot perched, looking down over the city.

  “If I’m right, it should be somewhere near that chariot,” Alo said.

  The team started picking their way across the top of the gate. It was huge. Much bigger than it had looked from the ground. Much higher too. The gate was right where the wall between East and West Berlin used to be. The rooftops of the city stretched out on either side. He stared out at it until it made him a little dizzy and he faltered.

  “Be careful,” Jack warned.

  “Yeah. I will.”

  When they got to the place where the chariot leaned out over the square, Alo crouched down.

  “I need some light,” he said. Jack shone the light on the area that Alo was examining. At first he didn’t see anything but then... there. A stone shingle on the roof right underneath the chariot was scratched in the corner. And as Alo peered a bit closer, he thought he saw a faint set of initials, scraped into the stone. “I.G.” Ira Greenblatt. Alo wheezed out a breath.

  Holy hell... it’s real.

  “That has to be it. This has to be what he was talking about. Look at all the scrape marks on that stone right there. They look like letters. And it’s a little loose.”

  Jack and Alo leaned over the stone, with Brad and Kendra looming over them. Alo’s heart rate picked up—poundpoundpound. Was it actually happening? Was he honestly right? When they got close, Jack looked around and then pulled a metal file out of his pocket. “Let’s see what’s in here.”

  He jimmied the stone up until it lifted, and there was a shallow, scraped out, empty cavern underneath it. But nothing was there. It was... completely empty.

  “Fuck,” Jack muttered, and Brad lowered his camera.

  “D-do you think that’s where it was?” Alo asked. He knew the answer. It had to be.

  “I don’t know, kid. Nothing’s there now, that’s for fucking sure. Fuck!” Jack kicked at the stone. Which had to hurt.

  “We’ve gotta get out of here. Regroup in the van, okay?” “Yeah. Okay.”

  They were quiet on the way back to the hotel. Alo was more than disappointed. His chest actually hurt.

  “You think all the hiding places are going to be empty?” he asked. His voice sounded harsh in the silence of the van.

  Jack shrugged. “Don’t know, kid. It’s been a long time since he was here. A lot of things have changed.”

  “But the gate has undergone extensive renovations,” Kendra added. “Some of the other sites were never as derelict as that was at one point. There’s a good chance we’ll have better luck at the next one.”

  Alo nodded. “Yes. Better luck at the next one.”

  At least he knew one thing. He’d been right about his great- grandfather’s letters.

  And they were just starting.

  Jack was worried the next morning when he got up. He’d spent the night on the Internet looking up the next building where Alo was sure at least something had been hidden by Ira.

  Alo had been right about the first one—even if it was long gone, whatever had been hidden there was once very real. So he trusted Alo’s interpretation of the letters. Thing was, he really hoped Alo was wrong about this one. Like, a lot. Jack wanted nothing to do with trying to get in there.

  The Detlev-Rohwedder Haus.

  Otherwise known as an enormous government building that once belonged to the Reich. It had been the Air Ministry building during the war, the headquarters of Goering himself and his Luftwaffe. Ira had to have spent a lot of time there working for the man. Of course he’d hidden something there. The question was, where? According to the Internet, the building had nearly three thousand rooms, seven stories, and something like four miles of corridors. It was a monster. And whatever Ira had hidden was lost in there somewhere. Hopefully. So it was going to be a long shot, and that was putting it optimistically.

  Plus, there was one more rather large problem. The building was still government owned, and usually not open to the public. How the hell were they going to get in?

  Probably not legally.

  Jack sighed and hoped like hell Alo had more than just an address to help them look. Chances were, they wouldn’t have a whole lot of time for a tour of the grounds.

  Just like with the Brandenburg Gate, they decided their best chance was to go in at night. The building was guarded on most sides and annoyingly well lit, at least in the front. Seemed to be their luck. Jack figured if they all made it out of the night without getting arrested, it would be a miracle. They’d already tested their luck once.

  “You sure we want to go in this way?” he asked Alo, who was busy studying a set of building blueprints that he must’ve printed when he disappeared for a few hours earlier that day.

  “Yes. Remember when I told you that Ira kept stressing how much time he spent sitting in the same area waiting for Goering to finish his meetings?” Jack nodded. “I figured that was the same thing as his necklace clues—like a reminder to himself. He knew to look where he waited for Goering.”

  “And you think that’s on this side of the building? The Leipziger Strasse entrance?” Jack asked. He glanced down at Alo’s printout and up at the building. It didn’t become noticeably clear to him. Maybe he was missing something. Jack felt Kendra at his back, leaning over to look curiously. He assumed Brad was behind them filming. Jack knew he should be more focused on getting good footage, but he was more worried about not landing in a German jail at the moment.

  “Yeah, I’m nearly certain. I did some digging at the library today.”

  “Is that where you were? The library?” Jack snorted. “Figures.”

  Alo elbowed him and smiled. If Jack wasn’t mistaken, it was almost playful. Maybe even a bit flirtatious. He pushed that thought aside.

  “Yes. The library. I got these blueprints from the stacks. They haven’t made very many changes to the building. Refreshing really. Then I looked into Goering—where he usually took meetings. Where his employees were stationed. I narrowed it down to two likely locations for Ira to have been waiting. They’re both accessed from Leipziger Strasse.”

  “They had all of that at a library?”

  Alo made a face. “You can find nearly anything at a library. If you know where to go and who to ask—and how to read documents the
right way.”

  That streak of snotty academic flashed, and Jack nearly laughed out loud.

  “Maybe I should start calling you Brainy Spice.”

  “There was no Brainy Spice.”

  Jack grinned. “All the better. Brad, Kendra, are you ready?”

  “You sure this is a good idea?” Brad asked.

  “Most assuredly not a good idea. You want to sit this one out?” Jack countered.

  “Hell no,” Brad said. “I’m in.”

  “Me too,” Kendra said. “Let’s do this.”

  They had to break a side window to get in. Which, seriously. Jack was actually committing a crime to try and save his career. He reminded himself to make sure Brad didn’t film that part. Probably better to not actually show them breaking the law. They slithered into the building and dropped to the floor. It was fairly lucky that the windows were evenly spaced and not far off the ground. Even more lucky that they hadn’t set off some loud government building alarm.

  Alo looked at his magic map with the light of his phone and then gestured for them to follow him. “This way,” he said. In his normal speaking voice.

  “Jesus, Alo. Why don’t you shout?” Kendra whispered. “In case you forgot, we’re not supposed to be here.”

  Brad still held his camera down by his side. Jack’s heart raced, and he had to wipe his palms on his thighs. “Lead on, kid. We’re following you,” he said.

  Alo turned his phone light off and led them to the left, down the hallway they were in. “We’re going to need to go one floor up and then double back,” he said quietly.

  “We are so going to get arrested,” Jack said under his breath. The irony was, he hadn’t had such a good time in years. Maybe ever.

  “Follow me.” Alo flashed Jack a quick smile. “Hopefully we’ll find whatever Ira hid here, and be out before the polizei are alerted.”

  Alo crept along the hallway, remarkably quietly, seeing as how gangly and awkward he usually was. Jack followed him, with Kendra close behind and Brad bringing up the rear. It was silent in the building, dark, with ominous, ghostly panels of pale light splashed onto the floor from the streetlights outside. Alo gestured with his hand when they got to the main staircase, and all four of them crept up the stairs.

  “Do you have something against using the elevator?” Brad huffed halfway up. Jack didn’t blame him. He was the one with the huge camera.

  “Do you want the guards to notice that one of the elevators is moving?” Alo countered.

  “Can they do that?” Brad asked.

  “I don’t know. And neither do you. We’re almost there,” Alo

  whispered.

  Jack couldn’t help but be impressed by the way Alo, aloof but sheltered Alo, had taken control of the situation. He’d already changed from the boy that Jack met in the café only a couple of days before.

  Alo gestured for them to follow him to the right, one floor up from the hallway they came in on.

  “Goering’s favorite meeting room is at the end of this hallway. Ira would’ve waited... here. In Goering’s office. The room used to be guarded, but lightly. Ira would’ve had the time and very often the cover to hide something here.” Alo stopped.

  The room was locked. Of course. But Jack had a few tricks up his sleeve from a childhood on the wrong side of the tracks in St. Louis. He also had purchased a lock-picking kit earlier when Alo was at the library.

  “What the hell’s that?” Kendra said when he pulled it out of his pack.

  “This is our key into the room.”

  “You know how to pick locks?” She looked stunned.

  “There are a lot of things you don’t know about me. Let me do this. We can talk about my years of juvenile delinquency back at the hotel.”

  They filed into the chamber one at a time. Alo cupped his hand around his phone and shone the flashlight.

  “Hey, keep your back to the window. Don’t want any direct beams of light to shine out.”

  Alo nodded. “I am. Wasn’t planning on broadcasting our existence to the people on the street.”

  “Good to know.”

  Jack glanced around the room. It didn’t look like it had been touched too much since the ’40s. It was utilitarian and fairly empty. Huge, like he would’ve expected for someone like Goering, but with the exception of a few chairs and one desk bigger than any car Jack had ever owned, there wasn’t very much in the line of furniture.

  “What are we looking for?” Jack asked.

  “I’m not sure. Anything that looks like it’s been moved. Maybe his initials. Remember he scratched them into the stone on the roof of the gate.”

  “What about this heating duct?” Kendra asked. “I don’t know how often these things are serviced, but he could’ve hidden something in here.”

  Good a place to start as any. Jack followed Kendra to the corner of the room. They scanned the walls with Alo’s flashlight, but didn’t see any signs of initials scratched into the surfaces. Still. Renovations happen. So Jack took a small flathead from his pack and pried the front off the heating duct. He reached his arm inside and felt around for anything, a box, an envelope, something attached to the top of the duct. There was nothing.

  “I don’t think the duct was the right way to go. Good idea, though, Kendra.”

  She nodded.

  Jack searched the room again. The two plush chairs in the corner looked like 1980s additions, but the desk—it had World War II era all over it. The thing was huge, took up three quarters of one of the walls, and looked like it had been there since the building grew up around it.

  “What if it’s hidden in the desk somewhere?” Jack asked.

  “That’s impossible. He would’ve never done that. Furniture is too easy to move.”

  “That desk has to weigh a couple hundred pounds. I doubt it was moved very often. It’s worth a try.”

  Jack didn’t see anywhere else in the austere room that would double as a hiding place. Alo rolled his eyes, but he still flipped his phone toward the desk. “Fine. Let’s look.”

  Jack figured Alo wasn’t going to jump at the chance to prove himself wrong, just a hunch of course, so he dropped his pack onto the ground. He checked the sides of the desk, looked for hidden push compartments. Nothing there. He went around to the part of the desk where a chair would be if it was in use. There were a few drawers on the sides and one large, shallow drawer in the middle. Jack wondered if it was originally some sort of drafting table.

  The drawer pulled out fairly easily. Jack was surprised it wasn’t locked. Of course, the office didn’t appear to be occupied, so maybe the drawer was empty—and it was. His stomach dropped. He didn’t think there was any other place in the desk that something could be hidden. It wasn’t until he was pushing the drawer back in that he heard it. The very faint rasp of paper sliding along the interior of the desk. Jack pulled the drawer out and heard it again. He leaned over and felt the bottom. It wasn’t wood on the bottom of the desk but rather what felt like an envelope. A rather large envelope. Jack dropped to the floor again and pulled the drawer out all the way.

  “Guys. Hold on. There is something here. It’s flat up against the bottom of the drawer.”

  It wasn’t an envelope, but rather a large sheet of paper, and it looked to be taped to the desk with aging yellowed tape. And right in the corner of the paper were the initials. I.G. They’d found something.

  “Alo get down here. Brad, turn on the camera. This is for real.”

  Jack motioned for Alo to slide under the desk next to him and grabbed the light so Alo could do the honors.

  Alo reached up and gently started peeling away the tape. Jack’s hands got sweaty watching him. He didn’t want Alo to ruin the desk or whatever was underneath that paper. Documents? Old money—Oh.

  The first thing they saw was a splatter of color, shiny. Paint. “Oh my God,” Kendra breathed. “Keep going.”

  They had a painting. A fucking painting that could be worth who even knew how much.
>
  Alo let out a nervous little laugh and pulled a bit more to reveal a corner of the painting. Jack didn’t know much about art, but he did know from research that Goering liked his masters and that his hunting cabin had supposedly been plastered with incredible art. He bit his lip while Alo pulled the painting and the backing paper the rest of the way off of the desk.

  “Holy shit,” Kendra breathed when the painting was revealed. It was hard to see, with only the light from Alo’s phone. Kendra obviously knew what she was looking at.

  “What is it? Have you seen it before?”

  “No, but I know the painting style.”

  “Me too,” Alo murmured. “This... this is incredible.”

  “We’ve gotta get out of here,” Jack said. “Can you roll that up

  somehow? Make it smaller?” The painting wasn’t tiny. It had covered the entirety of the huge drawer. Alo cringed and started rolling gingerly. He looked like he was trying to barely touch it.

  “I’m going to hell for this somehow.”

  “It’ll be fine. Just... let’s go. I don’t want to push our luck.”

  They slid out from under the huge old desk, out of the room, and back into the main hallway. Jack gestured for everyone to be silent, and he took the lead back to the stairwell.

  He didn’t breathe until they’d crawled out the window and were back on the main street. Safe.

  Jack lay in bed that night, adrenaline still pumping through his body. He didn’t know if the others were asleep, but if so, he had no idea why. How could they be? It had worked. They really found a painting, a painting that from Alo’s face was significant. They’d gotten out of there, and they hadn’t gotten caught. Or arrested. It was a goddamn miracle.

  He decided he couldn’t stay still anymore. Jack got up and started pacing around the room. He needed a drink. He wanted a drink. Maybe some of the whiskey from the minibar out in the lounge would calm him down a little so he could pass out. He pulled on a pair of sweats and went in search of some alcohol. He didn’t expect to see Alo out there, staring out at the city.

  “What are you doing up, kid?” he asked.