The Shadow Project

by Scott Mariani

  ‘What are you going to do to him?’

  ‘What he deserves.’

  As Ben was pulling the BMW up in front of the main entrance, the familiar shape of Heinrich Dorenkamp came scuttling down the steps to meet them. The man had obviously just got the call from the security gate and he looked rattled.

  Ben and Ruth climbed out of the car. Dorenkamp stopped in his tracks and stared at her. ‘So it was true what they told me,’ he said. ‘It is you.’

  ‘Long time no see, asshole.’ Ruth shouldered past him, following Ben up the steps towards the house.

  Dorenkamp ran after them. ‘What are you doing here?’ he asked nervously.

  ‘Making a social call,’ Ben said. ‘Where is he?’

  ‘You can’t see him.’

  ‘Don’t get in the way, Heinrich, or I’m going to walk right over you. Where is he?’

  ‘There is a meeting underway. He doesn’t know you’re here.’

  ‘Good,’ Ben said. ‘That’s the way I like it.’ They’d reached the top of the steps. He shoved through the door and into the reception lobby, shoulder to shoulder with Ruth as they marched across the shiny floor and past the glittering warhorse. Dorenkamp stood helplessly in their wake.

  ‘This place hasn’t changed one bit,’ Ruth said. ‘Then again, some things never do. Where are we going?’

  ‘Conference room. This way.’ Ben pointed towards the main stairs.

  A minute later they were on the second floor. Ben recognised the grand double doorway of the conference room. He went in without knocking.

  Steiner was sitting at the top of the long table. Seated down its length to his left and right were a dozen men in grey suits and at varying stages of middle age, obesity and baldness, hunched over open files and whirring laptops that showed colourful flow charts and graphs and columns of figures. The man at Steiner’s right elbow had been in the middle of saying something when Ben and Ruth walked into the room. He shut up. Thirteen pairs of eyes stared up in alarm. Steiner’s face turned chalk-white, and his jaw dropped open.

  ‘Meeting’s over,’ Ben said. He jerked his thumb back at the door. ‘Everybody out.’

  Silence up and down the table. Steiner’s associates all turned to him. His pallor had turned to beetroot-red. He swallowed, hesitated, then gave a stiff nod. The twelve men instantly got up from their seats, hurriedly gathering up their papers and closing down their laptops, stuffing them into briefcases. They filed out timidly past Ben and Ruth, looking down at their feet, none of them daring to say a word.

  As the last of Steiner’s colleagues shuffled out, Dorenkamp appeared in the doorway. ‘Sir, shall I call security?’ he asked his boss.

  ‘There’ll be no need to do that,’ Ben told him. ‘But you can get Frau Steiner and Otto up here right now. Double quick.’ He snapped his fingers.

  ‘W-why?’ Dorenkamp stammered.

  ‘Because we’re having a family reunion,’ Ben said. ‘And I want everyone to hear what the Great Man has to say for himself.’

  Dorenkamp left, and they heard his jittery steps echo away down the hall as he went to attend to his duty.

  Steiner was still staring wide-eyed at Ruth. The look of noble pride had completely melted away.

  ‘You have a lot of explaining to do, Steiner,’ Ben said.

  ‘I know,’ Steiner murmured with a weary nod.

  ‘And then you’re going to pay for what you’ve done.’

  Steiner said nothing. Ruth was looking at him like he was something she’d scraped off her shoe.

  After a few moments’ silence, there were footsteps outside the door, and then it swung open and Silvia Steiner walked into the room. She looked just as well-groomed and elegant as Ben remembered, in a grey linen trouser suit and a gold necklace. She was followed by Otto, dressed as though Dorenkamp had fetched him straight from the golf course. Ben wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d still been clutching his driver.

  The PA was about to creep away when Ben called him back inside. ‘I want you here too, Heinrich.’ Dorenkamp hesitated, then walked in and shut the door behind him.

  Otto slouched nervously to the back of the room and leaned against the wall next to the French windows. He smiled uncomfortably at Ruth and gave a little wave. ‘Hi there, cousin.’

  But Silvia was the one Ben was watching. She let out a gasp as she saw Ruth there. ‘Luna!’ They embraced tightly. Tears were in Ruth’s eyes as she hugged her mother, and Ben could see the love that was there.

  Silvia turned to her husband with a look of complete confusion. Steiner said nothing, just hung his head. Then Silvia turned to Ben with a frown of recognition. ‘What is going on here?’ she breathed.

  ‘Let me introduce someone to you,’ Ruth said to her. ‘This is my brother Benedict. The one he—’ she pointed at Steiner ‘—told me died in a plane crash. Does he look dead to you?’

  Silvia gaped at Ben a moment longer, then turned aghast to her husband. ‘Is this right?’ she said softly. ‘Max, is this true? This man is her brother?’

  ‘Yes, it’s true,’ Ruth said hotly. ‘He lied to you, to me, to everyone.’

  ‘Max, please say something,’ Silvia muttered. She seemed unsteady on her feet for an instant, and had to lean against the table for support.

  Maximilian Steiner said nothing for a long while. Then he heaved a sigh and pressed his hands flat on the table. ‘What she says is true. I lied. I knew there was a brother still living. I paid to have the story of the plane crash fabricated.’ He looked at Ruth. ‘And years later, when you hired your own investigator, I protected my lie by buying him off too. I’m sure you have already worked that out for yourself.’

  ‘But why, Max? Why?’ Silvia burst out. ‘Good God, does this mean her real parents are still alive too? That we took their child—’

  ‘They’re dead,’ Ben said. ‘You didn’t take anyone’s child.’

  ‘But they didn’t die the way I was brought up to believe,’ Ruth said. ‘All my life. Just lie after lie.’

  Steiner held up his hands. ‘Can I speak? Can I explain?’ He paused, searching for the right words. ‘Very well. I admit that I have been untruthful. But I did it only to protect you, Luna.’

  ‘Forget Luna,’ she said. ‘My name’s Ruth. Protect me? From what?’

  ‘To protect you from the terrible knowledge that your real mother took her own life over the shock of your loss. And that your father’s death was a direct result of it also. How could I burden a child with such guilt?’

  Silvia was staring at him in utter horror, her fingertips white on the backrest of the conference chair she was leaning on.

  ‘I lied to you too,’ Steiner told his wife gravely. ‘I thought I was doing it for the best. Perhaps I was wrong. I can see that now.’

  ‘You deprived our child of her own brother,’ Silvia said slowly. ‘You say you wanted to spare her pain. But you brought her up believing this person she loved was dead. How could you have done such a terrible thing?’

  ‘I knew who he was,’ Steiner said, motioning at Ben. ‘My sources told me that he had gone wild. Joined the army. A reckless and wayward young man, not yet twenty. I thought for a very long time about contacting him. But how could someone like that have taken on the responsibility of a child? He could have been killed in action, and then she would have suffered the pain of his dying anyway, but worse.’

  ‘How very fucking noble of you,’ Ruth said.

  Tears had formed in Steiner’s eyes. ‘And we loved her,’ he said to Silvia. ‘I saw how happy you were, from the moment we found this beautiful little girl living in the desert and brought her into our lives. After what we had gone through, I couldn’t bear that my dear wife could lose another child.’

  Silvia Steiner slumped against the table with her head in her hands, weeping openly. Ruth ran over to her and held her. ‘What’s he talking about?’ she asked. ‘What child?’

  Dorenkamp spoke for the first time. ‘He is referring to little Gudrun,’
he said solemnly. ‘You never met her. She died, aged seven.’

  ‘She fell off the pony I had bought her for her seventh birthday.’ Steiner was staring down at the tabletop as he spoke, talking barely above a whisper and fighting to keep his voice steady. ‘Her neck was broken. She was paralysed. The doctors believed they could save her. But shortly afterwards she slipped into a coma. Nine days later, she was dead.’

  Ruth looked as though she’d been slapped. ‘You knew about this all along?’ she asked Dorenkamp. Dorenkamp nodded.

  ‘And you, Otto?’

  Otto was still standing by the window, looking down at his feet. ‘I’m sorry,’ he mumbled. ‘They told me never to tell you about it.’

  Steiner looked at Ruth with red-rimmed eyes. ‘Why do you suppose we never allowed you to have a pony, no matter how bitterly you wanted one? I was only trying to protect you. That is all I have ever done.’

  ‘It’s why you insisted on the Flash-Ball weapons,’ Ben said. ‘You knew that one of the gang trying to kidnap you was your adopted daughter.’

  Steiner nodded sadly. ‘I was terrified that she would be harmed if I sanctioned the use of lethal firearms. It’s also why I tried my best to keep the police out of it. I hoped we could resolve the situation and come back together again as a family.’

  Silvia looked up, wiping her tears away. She pointed at Ben. ‘Max, when you hired this young man. You knew who he was?’

  Steiner shook his head vehemently. ‘I promise you, I was completely unaware of it. When the team leader, Captain Shannon, was injured, the name he gave me for his replacement was Benjamin Hope. I noticed the similarity with the name Benedict, but I put this down to mere coincidence. It was not such an uncommon name, after all. But then, one night after I had sacked the team, you, Silvia, made a remark to me that made me think again.’

  ‘I remember,’ Silvia sniffed. ‘I had been trying to place his face. He looked so strangely familiar to me. We were getting ready for bed, when it suddenly occurred to me that the person he reminded me of was our own Luna.’

  ‘So you did more poking around,’ Ben said to Steiner. ‘All you had to do was check out my website.’

  ‘That is what I did, and I soon realised that Captain Shannon had misinformed me about your name. I thought back to what I had seen that day in the woods – the way you let the kidnapper escape so easily, as though you had suddenly been stunned by something you had seen. It seemed strange to me, and stranger still that this could have been the result of mere incompetence as I had initially assumed. Why would a man of such skill and training have done such a thing? Only when I discovered your real name did I realise the truth.’

  ‘And you never thought to share this with me?’ Silvia asked him.

  ‘He wanted to tell you,’ Dorenkamp replied. ‘It was me who warned him against it.’

  ‘We decided to wait and see what happened,’ Steiner explained. ‘I had a feeling that Luna’s brother would go searching for her. That is his expertise. If anyone could find her, it would be him. I thought it would help to bring our family back together.’

  Ruth’s eyes were narrowed with fury. ‘Don’t listen to his bullshit, Mother. He wanted Ben to find me so that he could have us both killed. The easiest way to cover up all his lies and take me out of the picture at the same time. Nice and neat.’

  Steiner’s eyes opened wide as he listened to her words, and the colour drained from his face. ‘No,’ he quavered. ‘You don’t understand. I love you. I wanted you back. I … I swear I would never harm you. On my mother’s grave …’

  Silvia slapped him across the face. ‘What did you do, Max?’

  ‘Nothing!’ Steiner protested. ‘I don’t know what she’s talking about. I never—’

  ‘Six professional assassins were sent to my home in France,’ Ben said, looking hard at him. ‘Their mission was to kill the two of us. They’re not coming back. Before the last one died, he told me Steiner had sent him. And I know he was telling the truth. Men tend to do that, when they’re about to have their legs chewed off.’

  Steiner said nothing.

  ‘Lie your way out of that one, Maximilian,’ Ruth spat at him. ‘You fucker.’

  ‘It’s the truth,’ said a voice behind them. They all turned.

  Otto had stepped away from the window. ‘It’s true,’ he repeated. ‘Steiner did send them.’ He pointed down the length of the conference table at his uncle. ‘But I’m not talking about that sack of shit over there. It wasn’t that Steiner. It was the Steiner that everyone forgets about. This one right here. Me.’

  Then Otto dipped his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out a .380 Beretta. Pointed it right at them and the strange little smile on his face spread out into a grin.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  ‘Have you gone totally insane?’ Ruth yelled.

  Otto’s grin broadened even more. ‘Actually, I’ve got you to thank for this, cousin. Remember that time you came to me, wanting me to help you steal the old man’s papers out of his safe? Well, that got me thinking. What was there about a bunch of antique documents that could be so valuable? Why was the old fucker keeping them a secret? So I had a little sneak peek and made a few photocopies. Very interesting. And I wasn’t the only one who thought so, either.’

  ‘You stupid bastard, Otto,’ Ruth shouted. ‘You have no idea what you’re messing with.’

  Otto’s eyes bulged in sudden anger, the grin evaporating. ‘Don’t call me stupid,’ he screamed. ‘Everyone thinks I’m stupid. Otto the loser. Poor Otto, have to humour him.’ He jabbed his chest with his left thumb, still holding the pistol steady in his right fist. ‘But I’m the fucking smart one here. I know important people. People who respect me for just how fucking smart I am. So you call me stupid one more time and I’ll kill you all right now.’

  His rant had left him breathless. He wiped the spittle from his mouth with the back of his free hand, then went on.

  ‘Yeah, that’s right. I talked to people. Put the word out. And it wasn’t long before I got a call. See, golf isn’t just about hitting balls. It’s about networking. Getting shit done. When you lot think “Oh, there’s Otto out there playing his silly little game again,” guess what? I’m organising. Planning.’

  ‘Planning kidnap and murder,’ Ben said quietly. The connections were flying together in his mind now. ‘Using the Steiner resources and transport links to move people around the world.’

  ‘I’m a businessman,’ Otto smirked. ‘So we did business. They wanted the documents, they got them faxed through pronto. They paid me a lot of money. Trusted me to run the show. So that’s what I’ve been doing. Snatch a few fucking science geeks. So what? Who’s going to miss them anyway?’

  Ruth groaned. ‘Jesus, Otto. Who are these people?’

  ‘I don’t think he even knows the answer to that,’ Ben said. ‘You think they’d trust him with that knowledge? They’re just using him, setting him up to take the rap if anything goes wrong. As soon as they’re done with him, they’ll swat him like a bluebottle. But he can’t see that. Can you, Otto?’

  Otto shrugged. ‘There you go again. Underestimating me. But that’s OK, because you’ll all be dead pretty soon anyway.’

  ‘So where does a guy like you hire a mercenary team? What did you do, reply to an ad in the back of Soldier of Fortune magazine? Some rag-tag crew floating about Eastern Europe looking for easy work? You should have picked better.’

  ‘Oh, you really think you know it all, don’t you?’

  ‘I know a lot,’ Ben said. ‘I know that these associates of yours are holding a young boy hostage to coerce his father into working for them. I know that whoever is payrolling this is after the weapons technology in those Kammler documents. I’m pretty sure you found the location of the Bell. And I also know that you can still make this all OK. Just put the gun down and tell me where your people are keeping Adam and Rory O’Connor.’

  Otto sneered at him. ‘Somewhere you’ll never find them.’
r />   ‘Do what he says, Otto,’ Dorenkamp implored. ‘It’s the only way.’

  ‘Yes, Otto,’ Silvia said. ‘Put the gun down.’ She moved towards him tentatively.

  Otto swung the pistol in her direction. His fingers were twitchy on its hard black rubber grip. ‘Back, bitch.’

  She stared at him, and at the weapon he was pointing at her. ‘Am I dreaming this? You would pay to have your own cousin murdered?’

  ‘Luna’s not the only one in this family who listens in to other people’s conversations,’ Otto said. He wagged a finger at Dorenkamp, then at Steiner. ‘I know you’ve been plotting to cut me out so I don’t take over the business when you retire.’ The finger pointed across at Ruth. ‘And that you wanted to reconcile your differences with this little twit here, and make her your heir over me. Me! She’s not even your flesh and blood. What, am I the one who fucking ran off, spat in your face, tried to kidnap you for Christ’s sake? No. I was loyal to you. All these years, I’ve been taking your shit. Then what do I hear? I could hardly believe my fucking ears. That the long lost brother is back and he’s going looking for his little sister. How sweet.’ He grinned. ‘And how convenient for me. All I had to do was wait and watch, and send in the Ninjas at the right moment. Problem solved.’

  Ben took a step closer to him. Watching the muzzle of the .380. Assessing the distance and Otto’s reaction time. If he could get a few steps closer, he might be able to get the pistol off him. ‘Didn’t quite work out that way, did it?’ he said. ‘Not for you, and not for your Ninjas either.’ Another step.

  But Otto wasn’t that stupid. ‘Back off, Major Hope.’ Ben stopped.

  Otto looked pleased. ‘Not so dangerous now, are you? Fine, so you managed to get out of it first time round. But a smart guy like me always has a Plan B. Why do you think I agreed to come up here today? Because I’m some little heel-hound at your beck and call that you can just order about? Think again. I came here to kill you all. And then I’m going to shoot myself.’

  ‘Otto!’ Silvia screamed.