Rise of the Order (24 page)

Now Jake crouched against the wall next to the corner drain. He made sure his gun was secure in its holster and started climbing the pipe. Just as he reached the corner balcony, his hands on the rails, an alarm sounded. The shock made him lose his grip with one hand, and he dangled for a moment by the other arm.

Through his mic he heard heavy breathing. “Jake, I must have tripped a motion sensor.” It was Kurt coming around the front.

Jake struggled and grasped the rail with his second hand. “Time to move in then,” Jake said a little too loud.

He swung his legs over rails and a shot rang out in the still night. Then the window next to him smashed.

Still somewhat in shock from seeing Jake break that man's neck, Anna had been focusing her attention on Jake hanging from the railing, when she caught movement in the snowy garden below. Then the alarm broke the silence.

Next came the shots, and she turned her gun toward the man on the snowy surface, his gun pointed toward Jake.

She didn't hesitate. The light crack of her rifle echoed about the air and the man below dropped to the snow holding his right leg. The important thing, though, was he had dropped the rifle.

Now she watched Jake slide into the French doors. “Nice job,” she whispered into the mic. She kept her eyes open for more problems.

●

Jake found himself in the dimly lit master suite, his gun following his eyes around the room. Laying close to the door was a man, hog-tied and blood seeping from the back of his head, a fireplace poker a few feet away. What the hell?

He spoke into the mic as he felt for a pulse. “Where are you?” The guy had a pulse.

No answer.

Suddenly, gunfire burst from the front of the castle. Then more from just down the hall from him.

“I'm inside,” Jake said. “Second floor.”

“A little busy here,” came Kurt's reply.

Moving to the door, Jake saw a salvo of flashes from a room a few doors down, aimed at the staircase. He ran the plans for the castle through his mind and realized the shooter in the room could hold off anyone trying to come upstairs from that position. But who was it? He had a shot and an angle.

Time to help out.

Just after the next volley from the room toward the stairs, Jake waited a second for return fire and then he leveled his gun around the doorframe and shot three times at the man on the stairs. The man dropped to the steps, the gun bouncing down the marble and firing a couple of times.

Silence.

Jake yelled, “Down here.” He waved for the shooter to come to him.

A set of eyes peered from the darkness of the room down the hall. Then the door swung open and a woman in a leather jacket ran toward him carrying an Uzi, followed by a man who looked very scared.

When they got into the master suite, Jake closed the door behind them and pointed his gun at the woman.

“Who the hell are you two?”

The woman was pissed. “Who the hell are you?”

“Jake Adams. I'm here to get Gustav Albrecht. Where is he?” He opened the door and shot a couple of times.

“You're Jake Adams,” she said with disbelief. “I thought you were taller.”

“I get that a lot. Now, who the hell are you?”

Before she could answer, the mic crackled. “Jake. I've got a shot on those two through the French windows.” It was Anna.

“No, Anna. Don't shoot.”

The woman and man looked around the room for someone else.

Jake explained. “You're being covered by a rifle from outside right now. Who the fuck are you?”

The woman let out a deep sigh. “Alexandra Schecht. BND.”

Somewhat confused, Jake said, “German Federal Intelligence Service. And I use that term lightly. I thought they gutted the Bundesnachrichtendienst.”

“Not completely.” She pulled her silenced gun from her jacket and threw the Uzi to the bed. “It's out of bullets.”

“Wait a minute,” Jake said. He opened the door a little, saw a man trying to walk down the hall, and Jake shot twice at him, making him go back down the stairs. “Any relation to Gunter Schecht? Former BND.”

Hesitantly, she said, “He was my uncle.”

Shit. Jake had killed the man years ago on a case.

“I know you killed him,” she said. “I know all about you.”

Jake considered raising his gun on her again. “And?”

“You had no choice,” she said. “My uncle Gunter had become a rogue, working for some bad people.”

He swung the door open and shot again.

“He was a good man at one time,” Jake said. “We had worked together in Munich. Something changed in him.”

She nodded her head. “Let's find our way out of here. How many do you have with you?”

“Two out front and one covering us from the back.” Jake went onto his mic and described the man and woman with him, so they wouldn't shoot them. Then he said to Alexandra, “Who's this guy?”

Altenstein started telling Jake his life story and Jake stopped him. “All right. You're the nano scientist. I get it.” He turned to Alexandra. “Do you know where they're keeping Albrecht?”

“He's two doors down on the left,” she said. “But they've got him locked in there.”

“I'll take care of that while you keep them busy.”

She nodded and took Jake's place at the door.

Jake slid a new clip into his gun and then ran out into the hallway firing at the stairs. The men there scooted back. With one fluid motion, Jake ran and smashed his shoulder into the door. The lock gave at the frame and crashed inward, taking Jake with it. He landed on the floor and dropped his gun for a moment, the gun a few feet from his hand.

Looking up, Jake saw Albrecht in the middle of the room. Standing behind him was Viktor Kopari, the concierge from Budapest, a gun pointing at Albrecht's head.

“I thought that might be you,” Kopari said. His left pinky was wrapped in a small cast.

“How's your finger and nipple,” Jake asked, his own fingers digging into a Persian rug and wanting to go for the gun.

Gunfire sounded out in the hallway. First a few loud shots and then the coughs from Alexandra's silenced HK.

Kopari wagged his little finger. “Made it quite hard to play hockey earlier today. Didn't want to fit in my glove. But I shoot with my right hand.”

Jake wasn't sure if he meant in hockey or with the gun. “So now what?”

“Now we wait,” Kopari said. “We wait until our men kill anyone who came here with you.”

“I'm sure Hermann Conrad would like to talk with me,” Jake said, buying time. He noticed the room was lit better than the master suite. “Okay. Looks like Herr Albrecht might be sick. He needs to put his head between his legs.”

Albrecht seemed to understand, and he slipped with all his weight to the floor.

The bullet plinked through the window and entered Kopari at the base of the neck. Kopari dropped down onto Albrecht, his hands and body like a bag of dead fish, the man's gun bouncing on the rug.

Jake picked up his pistol, and then rushed and kicked Kopari's gun to the side.

More shooting in the hallway and out front.

“I aimed for the center of his back,” Anna said in the headset. “But he slumped down. Where did I hit?”

Checking the man's pulse, Jake lied, “I think he'll live. Not likely to play hockey again, though. We're going back to the master suite. I'll hold out there for a while.” He opened the door a crack and glanced down toward the master suite, seeing Alexandra there at the door.

Jake shoved Albrecht out the door and he ran as Jake and Alexandra fired down the hall from both locations. Then Jake backed down the hall shooting until he got into the master suite, slamming the door behind him. He changed out a fresh magazine.

Bullets pelted the thick door.

“Now what?” Alexandra asked Jake.

“Now we wait for a moment.”

They both heard the helicopter at the same time.

●

Toni was behind a low brick wall below a light that she had shot out. Kurt was across the main walk from her, also behind an identical brick section.

She looked up and saw the helicopter, a spotlight scanning the yard and settling on her for a second before doing the same to Kurt.

“Turn off that damn light,” Toni yelled.

“Who is that?” Kurt said and then took a couple shots at the front door.

The light went out and Toni saw the Austrian Army symbol on the side of the helicopter.

Over a loud speaker a man's voice said, “Put down your weapons. Austrian State Police.”

Great. Just fucking great.

Hermann Conrad had just opened up a closet on the first floor, lined with Steyr assault rifles and compact HK MP5 fully-automatic military carbines. He had just passed them out to the faithful and put them in position when he heard the helicopter above.

“Now what?” he said to Miko.

Miko shrugged. “My guess would be Staatpolizei.”

That made no sense to Conrad. “They have no cause.”

“They're pissed off about losing at hockey today.”

Conrad ignored him. “What's going on upstairs?”

“One man. I'm guessing Jake Adams. But there's another shooter.”

“Who?”

“I don't know. Jiri's missing. So is Kopari. I'm guessing both are dead.”

“Anyone else?”

“One of our local security men was shot in the back garden. He had been shooting at Adams.” He hesitated for a second. “And Grago is missing. I think Adams took him out.”

“Damn it. What about Alexandra?” Conrad was in deep thought waiting for an answer.

“Sir, we think she's the second shooter upstairs.”

Could this be true? The woman who he brought out of poverty? How could she betray him? His mind shifted gears, thinking now only about his survival and the security of his plan. There had to be a way out of this. “Grab a rifle and come with me,” Conrad finally said.

●

Someone cut the power.

“Cover us coming down the drain,” Jake said to Anna on the headset.

“Gotcha.”

From the master suite a few moments ago, Jake had seen the helicopter out front—a Staatpolizei chopper—and then a line of cars hurrying up the only road to the castle. He knew the place would become even more of a shooting gallery soon. He had to get these three outside.

On the balcony, Jake first helped Albrecht grasp onto the drain pipe and slide down. Then Altenstein followed him to the snowy surface below. He had informed them to wait for Alexandra and they waited down there now for her.

“They can make it out themselves,” Alexandra said. “I should go with you.”

“No. Please go with them.”

“What about you?”

Jake looked back to the master suite. He was stuck there unless he could come up with a plan. Then it came to him. He sent Alexandra down the pipe and he followed right after her.

When they got to the ground, Jake sent them around to the hill where Anna sat. They could wait there with her on the high ground. Once they were gone, Jake moved along the edge of the castle and smashed in a window. He crawled into the darkness and waited a moment, putting on his NVGs. He was in a library, the walls lined with old leather-bound books from floor to ceiling. Think, Jake. Remember the floor plans from the computer. Where would he go if he wanted to get away? Shit. Of course.

He flipped his NVGs away from his eyes and made sure his gun was loaded with a full 15-round clip. Then he looked out the door to the first-floor hallway.

Nobody there.

Stepping out lightly, he slid along one wall. The power out, only a few candles lit his way. As he reached the foyer, the staircase ahead to his right, he stopped when he saw two dark figures sweep along through the darkness, rifles in their hands.

The intensity of rounds firing from the front of the building was far greater now. Automatic salvos. They had upgraded from handguns, Jake thought. Great.

Looking around a corner, Jake went after the two men who had passed toward the kitchen.

“Jake. You there?” Anna's words through his headset. He stopped dead in his tracks and then keyed his mic twice, meaning he couldn't talk. “I have Albrecht, Altenstein, and Alexandra with me. We'll hold our position.”

Outstanding, he thought. Hopefully Anna would also keep her gun ready.

It was darker now toward the kitchen, so Jake pulled down the NVGs again. The kitchen was empty. Feeling safe to whisper, Jake said into his mic, “In the kitchen. Going under.”

He thought about the door leading to the back garden, but didn't think Conrad would take that one, not knowing who would be there waiting for him. Instead, Jake went to the door on the other side of the kitchen. The one that lead to the wine cellar. It had been that during the monastery days, as a ski hotel, and Jake imagined it still held wine.

The stone stairs leading down were slick from the cool dampness. Maybe too cold and wet for wine, he thought. At the bottom of the stairs he suddenly felt a flush of air across his face. He had to move now. They were already outside.

NVGs on his head, he ran through the wine racks to a back corner, through an open thick wood door and then down a couple more steps and through a low tunnel.

The tunnel had been built during the Second World War, when the place had been occupied first by the Nazis and then by a group of resistance fighters. Both had thought it necessary to have an escape plan. And now Conrad had done the same.

There was a dim light ahead. Moonlight on snow, Jake thought. If his guess was right, he would end up some one hundred meters to the north of the castle in a group of pines grown to hide the entrance.

Cautiously, his gun in front, he moved through the metal door. Bullets immediately plinked off the door to his left.

Jake dove to the snow and fired twice at nothing. Just the sound. He waited, his gun and part of his head the only thing above the snow. The scene was an eerie green from the NVGs.