Order of the Black Sun Box Set 3

by Preston William Child

  “What? What do you see?” Sam pressed. Purdue smiled proudly and raised an eyebrow at the interested journalist.

  “She is looking through the wall, Sam. Nina, do you see anything peculiar there? Anything that looks like a book?” he asked her.

  “Not on the clapper, but I do see a rectangular object lodged right at the top, on the inside of the bell’s dome,” she described as she moved the device up and down the turret and the bell to make sure she did not miss anything. “Here.”

  She passed it to Sam, who was amazed.

  “Purdue, you think you can work this contraption into my camera? I could do with seeing through the surface of what I photograph,” Sam joked.

  Purdue laughed, “If you behave, I’ll design you one when I have time.”

  Nina shook her head at their bantering.

  Someone brushed past her, unintentionally whipping her hair. She turned to find a man standing too close to her, smiling. His teeth were stained and his expression creepy. She turned to clutch at Sam’s arm to let the man know she was being accompanied. When she turned again he had somehow vanished into thin air.

  “Agatha, I am marking the position of the item,” Purdue reported over his communication device. A moment later he aimed his spyglass in the direction of the Angelus Bell and a quick beep sounded as the laser marked the global position of the book on Agatha’s screen for recording.

  Nina had a rotten feeling about the repulsive man who stood against her a few moments ago. She could still smell his musty coat and the stench of chew tobacco on his breath. But when she looked around, in the small group of tourists around her he wasn’t there. Thinking it an unfortunate meeting and nothing more, Nina decided to chalk it up as nothing important.

  20

  By the late hours past midnight, Purdue and Agatha were dressed for the occasion. It was a miserable night of gales and moody skies, but fortunately for them there was no rain—yet. Rain would thoroughly disturb their scaling the massive structure, especially where the turret was situated, slapped neatly and perilously atop the summit of the four roofs that joined to form a cross. After careful planning and consideration for security risks they elected to scale the building from the outside, directly up to the turret. They would climb via the alcove where the southern and eastern walls met and use the flying buttresses and arches to aid their footwork in their ascent.

  Nina was a nervous wreck.

  “What if the wind picked up even more?” she asked Agatha, pacing around the blonde librarian while she fitted her harness under her overcoat.

  “Darling, we have carabiners and belaying ropes for that,” she muttered as she tied the seam of her overalls to her boots to keep it from getting caught on anything. Sam was on the other side of the room with Purdue, checking their communication devices.

  “Are you sure you know how to monitor the coms?” Agatha asked Nina, who was burdened with the task of base control while Sam would take the position of lookout from the street opposite the main façade of the cathedral.

  “Yes, Agatha. I’m not exactly inept with technology,” Nina sighed. She knew by now not to even try to defend against Agatha’s unintentional insults.

  “Right,” Agatha laughed.

  True, the Purdue twins were world-class hackers and developers who could manipulate electronics like other people tied their shoes, but Nina herself did not lack in intellect. For one thing, she had learned to curb that furious temper of hers slightly; just slightly to accommodate Agatha’s weirdness.

  At 2:30 a.m. the team hoped that security would either be idle or that they would not patrol altogether, it being a Tuesday night with horrid gusts.

  Just before 3 a.m. Sam, Purdue, and Agatha headed for the door, Nina in tail to lock up behind them.

  “Please be careful, guys,” Nina urged again.

  “Hey, not to worry,” Purdue winked, “we’re professional troublemakers. We’ll be fine.”

  “Sam,” she said softly and took his gloved hand in hers furtively, “come back soon.”

  “Keep your eye on us, eh?” he whispered, placing his forehead against hers and smiling.

  The streets surrounding the cathedral were dead quiet. Only the moan of the wind whistled around the corners of buildings and rattled the road signs. . Three figures in black approached from the cover of the buildings at the east end of the grand church. In silent synchronization they set their communication devices and trackers before the two climbers broke away and started ascending the southeastern side of the monument.

  All went as planned while Purdue and Agatha carefully made their way up toward the ridge turret. Sam watched them gradually move up through the pointed arches while the wind nipped at their ropes. He stood under the shade of buildings where the streetlight could not expose him. To his left he heard a commotion. A young girl of approximately twelve years old was running down the street toward the railway station, sobbing in terror. Closely following her were four underage thugs in neo-Nazi gear, shouting all kinds of profanities at her. Sam did not know much German, but he knew enough to realize they had no good intentions.

  “What the hell is such a young girl doing here at this time of night?” he said to himself.

  His curiosity got the better of him, but he had to stay put to make sure the others were safe.

  What is more important? The welfare of a child in real danger or your two colleagues who, so far, are doing swimmingly? He wrestled with his conscience. Fuck it, I’ll check it out and I’ll be back before Purdue even looks down.

  Sam stealthily tailed the hooligans, keeping himself obscured from the light. He could hardly hear them anymore above the din of the weather’s maddening hiss, but he could see their shadows entering the railway yard behind the cathedral. He moved eastward, thus losing sight of Purdue and Agatha’s shadow-like movements between the flying buttresses and Gothic stone spires.

  Sheltered by the station building it was dead silent, but Sam could neither hear the young girl nor the Nazis anymore. A sickening feeling settled in the pit of his stomach when he imagined that they had caught up to her and were keeping her quiet. Or perhaps they might have killed her already. Sam put the terrifying thought in the back of his mind and continued on along the tracks.

  Behind him scuffling footsteps came too fast for him to defend and he felt several hands pull him down to the floor, groping and searching for his wallet.

  Like skinhead demons they clawed at him with ghastly grins and more German shouts of violence. Among them stood the girl, against the white light of the station building that beamed from behind her. Sam frowned. She was not a little girl after all. The young woman was one of them, used to lure unsuspecting Samaritans to secluded areas for her pack to rob them. Now that he could see her face, Sam noticed that she was at least eighteen years old. Her small, juvenile body betrayed him. A few kicks to his ribs rendered him defenseless and Sam felt a familiar flashback of Baudaux pry its way back from his memory.

  “Sam! Sam? Are you all right? Talk to me!” Nina shouted in his earpiece, but he was spitting out a mouthful of blood.

  He felt them pulling at his watch.

  “No, no! That’s not a watch! You can’t have that!” he shouted, uncaring if his protests convinced them that his watch was worth much to him.

  “Shut up, Arschgesicht!” the girl smirked and landed a boot to Sam’s scrotum that ripped every bit of breath from him.

  He could hear the pack cursing as they took off, complaining about the tourist with no wallet. Sam was so furious that he just screamed in frustration. Not that anyone could hear above the wailing gale outside anyway.

  “Jesus! How stupid are you, Cleave?” he sneered though clenched jaws. With his fist he hammered the concrete beneath him, but he could not get up yet. The stinging spear of pain that lodged itself in his lower abdomen had immobilized him and he only hoped that the gang would not return before he could get to his feet. They would surely return once they found out that the watch they had stolen
could not tell the time.

  Meanwhile, Purdue and Agatha had made their way halfway up the structure. They could not communicate over the noise of the wind, , but Purdue could see his sister’s pants had gotten caught on a ledge. She could not continue, and she had no way of giving rope to correct her position and loosen her leg from the unassuming trap. She looked up at Purdue and gestured that he cut the cord while she held fast to the protrusions, standing on a small ledge. He shook his head fervently in disagreement and motioned for her to wait.

  Slowly, very wary of the whipping force of the wind that threatened to sweep them off the side of the stone walls, he set his feet carefully in the crevices of the building. Foot by foot, he rappelled down to her, navigating toward the larger ledge below so that his new location could afford Agatha the rope leeway she needed to undo her pants from the brick corner where it had hitched.

  As she pulled free, her weight overcompensated and she was flung from her spot. A yelp escaped her terrified body, but the gale ate it up quickly.

  “What’s going on?” Nina’s panic came over the earpieces. “Agatha?”

  Purdue held tightly to the scallop where his fingers were about to fail his weight, but he mustered the strength to keep himself from falling into the safety rope. He looked down at her. Her complexion was ashen and her eyes wide as she stared back up and nodded in thanks. But Purdue looked past her. Frozen in his spot, his eyes moved cautiously along with something underneath her. Quizzical, her frown asked for information, but he shook his head slowly and mouthed for her to keep quiet. Over the communication device Nina could hear Purdue whispering, “Don’t move, Agatha. Don’t make a sound.”

  “Oh, my God!” Nina exclaimed from the home base. “What’s going on there?”

  “Nina, quiet. Please,” was all she heard Purdue say in the interference of the speaker.

  Agatha’s nerves were tormenting her, not for the distance at which she was dangling from the south face of the Cologne Cathedral, but for not knowing what her brother was gaping at behind her back.

  Where did Sam go? Did they get him too? Purdue wondered, scanning the area below for Sam’s shadow, but he found no trace of the journalist.

  Below Agatha, on the street, Purdue watched three police officers patrolling. In the strong wind he could not hear what they were saying. They might as well have discussed pizza toppings for all he knew, but he imagined that their presence was provoked by Sam, otherwise they would have looked up by now. He had to leave his sister swaying dangerously in the gust while he waited for them to turn the corner, but they remained in sight.

  Purdue observed their discussion keenly.

  Suddenly Sam came stumbling from the direction of the station, looking decidedly drunk. The officers went straight for him, but before they could seize him two black shadows moved rapidly from the dark shelter of the buildings. Purdue gasped as he watched two Rottweilers come at the police, scattering the men from their huddle.

  “What the ... ?” he whispered to himself. Both Nina and Agatha, one shouting and the other mouthing, responded, “WHAT?”

  Sam dove into the shadows of the street and waited there. He had been chased by dogs before and it was not one of his fondest memories at all. Both Purdue and Sam watched from their respective positions how the police pulled their firearms and shot up in the air to scare off the vicious black animals.

  Both Purdue and Agatha winced, pinching their eyes shut out of fear, of those stray bullets aimed right up toward them. Fortunately neither shot found the stone or their tender flesh. Both dogs barked, but did not advance. It was as if they were being controlled, thought Purdue. Slowly the police officers withdrew toward their vehicle to put the wire out to Animal Control.

  Quickly, Purdue pulled his sister toward the wall so that she could find a steady ledge and he motioned to her to maintain silence with his index finger on his lips. Once she had found her footing she dared to look down. Her heart raced at the height and the view of the cops walking across the street.

  “Let’s move!” Purdue whispered.

  Nina was frantic.

  “I heard gunshots! Can anyone just tell me what the fuck is happening over there?” she shrieked.

  “Nina, we’re okay. Just a small obstacle. Now please, let us do this,” Purdue explained.

  Sam realized at once that the animals had disappeared without a trace.

  He could not advise them not to communicate over the coms, should the gang of juvenile criminals hear them, neither could he converse with Nina. None of the three had their cell phones on them to prevent signal interference, so he could not notify Nina that he was all right.

  “Oh, now I’m in deep shit,” he sighed, and watched the two climbers reach the ridge of the adjoining roofs.

  21

  “Anything else before I leave, Dr. Gould?” the night hostess asked from the other side of the door after she had delivered another pot of coffee. Her calm tone was in stark contrast to the nail-biting radio drama Nina was listening to and it jerked Nina into another state of mind.

  “No, thank you, that’ll be all,” she called back, trying to sound as un-hysterical as she could.

  “When Mr. Purdue returns, please do let him know that Miss Maisy left a phone message. She said to relay to him that she had fed the dog.”.

  “Um ... aye, I’ll do that. Good night!” Nina feigned a cheery disposition and bit her nails.

  Like he’d give a shit about anyone feeding the dog after what just went down in the city. Idiot, Nina growled in her mind.

  She had not heard from Sam since he shouted about the watch, but she dared not interrupt the other two while they were already using every sense to keep from falling. Nina was livid that she could not warn them about the police, but she was not to blame. There were no radio reports sending them to the church and their random appearance there was not her error. But surely Agatha was going to give her the sermon of a lifetime about it.

  “Fuck this,” Nina decided, going to the chair to get her windbreaker. From the cookie jar in the lobby she delved in to retrieve the keys to the E-type Jaguar in the garage that belonged to Peter, the homeowner who accommodated the Purdue party. Abandoning her post, she locked the house and drove out to the cathedral to be of more help.

  Atop the ridge, Agatha held on to the slanting sides of the roof that she crossed on all fours. Purdue was slightly ahead of her, moving toward the turret where the Angelus Bell and its friends hung in silence. Weighing almost a ton, the bell was unlikely to be moved by the tempestuous winds, which changed direction rapidly, erratically, corralled by the complex architecture of the monumental church. Both of them were utterly exhausted, as fit as they were, from the climbing glitch and the adrenaline of nearly being discovered ... or shot.

  Like sliding shadows they both slipped into the turret, grateful for the steady floor beneath and the momentary safety of the little tower’s dome and pillars.

  Purdue undid the zipper on his trouser leg and pulled out his spyglass. On it was a button that would link up the coordinates he had recorded previously with the GPS on Nina’s screen. But she had to activate the GPS from her side to make sure that the exact point on the bell was marked, where the book was hidden.

  “Nina, I’m sending the GPS coordinates to link with yours,” Purdue reported on his com device. No answer. Again, he tried to make contact with Nina, but there was no answer.

  “Now what? I told you she lacked the mind for this type of mission, David,” Agatha bitched under her breath as she waited.

  “She does not. She is not an idiot, Agatha. Something is amiss, or she would have answered and you know it,” Purdue insisted, while inside he feared that something had befallen his beautiful Nina. He tried the penetrative view on the spyglass to see where the object was, manually.

  “We don’t have the time to yammer, so let’s just get on with it, shall we?” he told Agatha.

  “Old school?” Agatha asked.

  “Old school,” he sm
iled, and switched on his laser for cutting around where the texture differentiation anomaly displayed in his scope. “Let’s deliver this baby and get the hell out of here.”

  No sooner had Purdue and his sister started, before Animal Control showed up below to assist the police officers with the search for the rogue dogs. Unaware of this new development, Purdue had successfully removed the rectangular iron strongbox from the side of the clapper where it was placed before casting the metal.

  “Quite ingenious, eh?” Agatha remarked with a lolling head that processed the engineering that must have gone into the initial casting. “Whoever presided over the making of this clapper was involved with Klaus Werner.”

  “Or it was Klaus Werner,” Purdue added, as he slipped the welded box into his backpack.

  “The bell is centuries old, but the clapper was replaced a few times over the centuries,” he said, running his hand over the newer casting. “This could very well have been done just after the First World War while Adenauer was mayor.”

  “David, when you are done cooing over the bell ...” his sister said casually and pointed down toward the street. Below several officials were milling in the vicinity, looking for the dogs.

  “Oh, no,” Purdue sighed. “I’ve lost Nina’s com and Sam’s device shut off shortly after we started climbing. I hope he doesn’t have anything to do with that business down there.”

  Purdue and Agatha had to sit it out until the circus down in the street had subsided. They hoped it would happen before daybreak, but for now they sat down to wait and see.

  Nina was heading for the cathedral. She drove as fast as she could without drawing attention to herself, but she was steadily losing her composure from sheer worry for the others. When she turned left out of Tunisstrasse she kept her eyes on the towering spires that marked the location of the Gothic church and hoped that she would still find Sam, Purdue, and Agatha there. On Trankgasse, the street where the cathedral was situated, she drove much slower to bring the engine to a mere hum. Movement at the base of the cathedral startled her and she quickly applied the brakes and switched off the headlights. Agatha’s rental car was nowhere to be seen.. The librarian had parked the vehicle a few blocks away, from where they had moved to the cathedral on foot.