“At this point I think it is more important to watch them. We’ll get to the research later,” Banyon replied after a minute.
“I’ll make the changes immediately.”
“What if I need more information? Are you sure you can’t free up any additional windows?”
“The only additional window I can free up is the Influence talisman’s window. Previne has that one in her possession.”
“Previne has activated that talisman. Can you tell me why?” Banyon quickly asked. “Can I still trust her?”
“Colt,” Wolf replied with a chuckle. “Previne would never do anything to jeopardize your relationship with her. She owes you her life and has long-term desires for you. No one in the Patel clan would ever work against you.” Banyon gave a quick glance to Loni. She was suddenly very interested when Banyon mentioned Previne’s name. She was well aware that Previne Patel coveted Banyon.
“So, why did she activate the talisman?” Banyon asked. Loni was now sitting on the edge of the couch. She knew what the weapon could do and hoped that Previne was not using it to get Colton Banyon away from her.
“You may not understand this, but Previne has tried out every artifact that you have left with her. She is an archeologist remember. She is always interested in how they work and what they do. The Influence talisman is no different.”
“What message did she try to send?” Banyon knew the talisman planted thoughts in people’s heads.
“I don’t know for sure, I can’t read minds, but I can tell you that she used it on a young man. He immediately told her that she was the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen.” Sounds like Previne, Banyon realized.
Banyon turned to Loni. “It’s okay,” he said with a smile. “Previne was just practicing on a young man.”
“As long as she doesn’t practice on you,” Loni replied as she pointed at him. “I’ll scratch her pretty eyes out,” she said with a laugh. She then sat back down on the couch in a yoga position.
“Wolf, don’t make the change to that one yet. I may need that window later, though. Do you understand?” Banyon ordered.
“Perfectly.”
***
Banyon glanced at his watch and discovered they only had a half-hour before Wilk and Professor Orlich were due in his suite. He needed to give Wilk something to do while Banyon put his entire plan into motion. He didn’t want the man to be part of everything that he was doing. He didn’t trust him.
“Wolf, are there any weapons which are nearby and won’t require much experience in artifact hunting to recover? I want Wilk out of my hair while we work on the more dangerous ones.”
“There are several which are here in Poland. The easiest one to recover is in the desert,” Wolf informed Banyon.
“Desert, what desert? Poland has a desert?” Banyon exclaimed in disbelief.
“Yes, Poland has a desert. It is called the Bledow Desert” Wolf said. “It was originally runoff from the great glacier; you know the terminal moraine, where the glacier ended. It is the largest body of sand in Central Europe.”
“No kidding! I didn’t know that. How big is it?” Banyon was surprised by the revelation. He thought he had heard of all the deserts in the world.
“It currently is only about twenty square miles, but was once many times that size. It has been shrinking for many centuries. It would be a good place to send Wilk. He would be gone until tomorrow morning.”
“Where is the desert?”
“It’s about two hundred miles from here between Krakow and Katowice. One of the weapons is there.”
“Which talisman is there?”
“The Reflection talisman is lost in the sand, but I can guide them right to it,” Wolf offered. “I can give you exact coordinates and landmarks as well.”
“What power does the Reflection talisman have? I don’t remember,” Banyon wondered out loud.
“I am unable to tell you that,” Wolf responded. “It hasn’t been activated in a very long time.”
“I can tell you,” Loni suddenly yelled out excitedly. “According to the chart, it can make someone invisible for a short period of time, like an hour.”
“How did it get there?” Banyon asked as he scratched his head.
“It was buried there by a Nazi officer, along with other plunder he had taken, in late nineteen thirty-nine. He expected to come back for it, but was killed in the fighting.”
“Why did he bury it there?”
“As soon as the Nazis invaded Poland they discovered the Bledow Desert. Hitler soon decided it would make a great place to practice desert warfare for his elite Afrika Korps. Since they had nowhere else to obtain experience in desert fighting it made sense to use it. He planned to invade Northern Africa soon. He set up a training facility there. They built many bunkers and trained there until Rommel became head of the North African Campaign in 1941. Then they all were sent to the real desert.”
“But can you pinpoint the exact location?”
“The box is buried three feet down in the sand. It is four steps west of the corner of the most southern bunker. Wilk should be able to find it, he can always call you. There is one problem though.”
“What?”
“Tell them to not enter the desert from the South. There are still unexploded bombs being found there.”
“After all these years?” Banyon gasped!
“Tell them to enter from the West,” Wolf said and gave him the exact location.
“Okay,” Banyon replied skeptically. “That sounds like a good plan. We are going to run with it.” Banyon committed.
He then called to his sidekick. “Loni put Wilks and Orlich down for the recovery of the Reflection talisman,” he said and gave her the directions.
“Oh, poop,” she replied as she wrote down the names.
Banyon looked at her with a questioning look. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I wanted to go after the plunder,” she whined like a little girl and threw down the pen. “You promised.”
Banyon didn’t remember promising her, but let it ride.
“We need to keep Wilk occupied and out of our hair. This is the only way,” Banyon argued.
“I understand that, but I want to have some fun too, Colt.” Loni spoke as she stuck out her lower lip. Banyon knew Loni loved to hunt treasure. A plunder buried in sand in a desert was as good at it got for her.
“There are plenty more talismans and plenty more adventures, Loni. Please don’t make this any harder than it is already,” Banyon pleaded. “Just roll with me on this, okay? You’ll get your wish eventually.”
“But I want to go after treasure,” Loni demanded and stomped her small foot. Banyon knew he had to comfort her and went to the couch to give her a hug.
Neither of them realized she would get her wish a lot earlier than she thought.
***
After Banyon had settled down his little partner, he once again addressed Wolf. He wanted to construct a plan for the most dangerous talismans first.
“Can you tell me what is going on with The Magic Belt?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The email sent by Professor Crane performed flawlessly, but it did take time to gather a reaction. It bounced off the university computer in Poland. It was rerouted into the Hamburg Police Department. The clerk there opened it immediately. He flagged it then sent it upstairs to the Criminal Forensics lab to determine the place of origin. After all, the email appeared to have been sent from someplace in Poland. It could easily be a phony.
The lab technician went to work on the original location as soon as he returned from lunch, forty-five minutes later. He discovered that a castle in Hamburg was where the IP address of the computer was located. It was the same address that was in the body of the letter. He immediately sent it to Police Captain Bonn for action, but first the now growing folder made a stop at an administrator’s desk outside the captain’s office. She dutifully looked up the address on her computer and added files and re
cords to the folder. It took twenty minutes to complete the now large file.
Captain Bonn grabbed the jacket as soon as it was put into his urgent in basket. He read through it quickly, thought for a few seconds, and then placed a call to the desk of Detective Conrad Dobbler.
“Get in here,” he ordered gruffly.
The detective soon slid into the captain’s office. He sat across from his boss. “What’s up?” he asked as he relaxed in the chair.
“We’ve got a problem here,” Captain Bonn announced as he tossed the folder to the detective. “You’re familiar with the place,” the captain told him. “It’s the castle that belongs to that nut-job friend of yours Ludwig Goss.”
“Oh, crap,” Dobbler replied and waved his hands. “And I was having such a good day,” he said sarcastically.
“It can only get better,” his boss replied sagely as he shook his head.
“What is it this time?” The detective was very familiar with Ludwig Goss. They were not friends, though. He had been to the castle six times over the last ten years, but Goss’s record went back all the way to nineteen forty-six. Since that time, Goss had been accused and arrested for assault, assault with a deadly weapon, fraud, illegal rallies, failure to pay for services rendered, and even for displaying Nazi flags on the castle grounds. Most of the complaints came from employees, repairman, delivery men and townspeople. They all complained that he was impossible to deal with and often decided to not pay them for no reason at all. He was known to brandish an old Luger to scare people off.
Unfortunately, Goss never spent any time in jail mainly because the Luger couldn’t be fired. The firing pin had been removed. He was also very rich, and his lawyers always managed to sweep the complaints under the carpet, saying that he was just eccentric. This of course allowed Goss to become even more feisty and arrogant. He believed that no one should stand in his way. He was a superior being. Over the years he adopted the title of General Goss, even though there were no records of him serving in any military.
Without opening the folder, Dobbler wearily asked a question. “What has he done this time?”
“Read the email,” the captain ordered. Dobbler opened the jacket and began reading. He soon looked up with a stunned expression.
“Goss kidnapped somebody?” He exclaimed. “This doesn’t make sense; the man is over ninety years old for Christ sakes.”
“And he has used up the valuable resources of this department for the last time,” the captain roared. “There is nothing I hate more than an arrogant old Nazi who thinks that he is still in charge of Germany.”
“I agree with you there,” Dobbler uttered without looking up. Germany had more than their share of old Nazis and the new version known as neo-Nazis.
“I want you to get a warrant and go after this guy,” the captain ordered as he pointed a finger. “I suspect there are several illegal activities going on in the castle anyway. He has had lots of machines, tools and raw materials delivered to the castle over the years. He is up to something. I can feel it in my bones. And now he has detained an innocent civilian. You need to find out what is going on and why.”
“I’ll have to find a judge to issue a warrant. That’s going to take me a couple of hours,” Dobbler calculated. “We want the warrant to be air-tight so he can’t slip away this time. He’s got tons of shyster lawyers.”
“I’m taking no chances this time either,” Captain Bonn announced. “I’m sending a GSG 9 team with you.”
“Do you think that’s necessary? They are a counter terrorist team,” Dobbler said with surprise.
“I want this guy out of my hair,” the captain said with finality. “You have your orders detective.”
It took Detective Dobbler two hours to obtain a qualified warrant, another hour to meet with the GSG 9 team, and an hour to travel to the remote castle.
Chapter Twenty-Four
At about the same time, a man stood in the doorway of his expensive, well-furnished home. He had just signed for a large package. It sat in front of him on the porch. The delivery man delayed his departure as he waited for a tip, but the homeowner was not a tipper.
“You look like you’re going on a big game hunt,” the delivery man said to appear sociable.
“Actually, I’m going treasure hunting,” the man replied snobbishly. He was dressed in a complete Safari outfit. He wore tan shorts with many pockets, long white socks that reached his knees, a tan bush shirt made of poplin cotton, and dark brown walking shoes. Perched on his head was a large straw hat with a red ribbon.
“Good luck with that,” the delivery man replied as he realized the man was not going to reward him for delivering the package. He bowed and retreated back to his truck wondering why the rich were always the stingiest.
As soon as he was gone, the man called to his assistant. They wrestled the big box into the vault in the basement. They hid it behind a metal cabinet in the corner.
“Do you think these trinkets will fool him?” the bearded helper asked.
“Yes, we’ll make the switch as each item is recovered. We’ll be long gone by the time that he discovers our deception.”
“And after we sell the talismans to the highest bidders, we’ll be rich.”
“You know, this guy is pretty smart,” the Safari man warned. “We may have to cut and run early. I think that he already suspects me.”
“Then, why are you wearing that ridiculous outfit?” the helper asked.
“When he sees this get up, he may decide to not send us anywhere.”
“Clever.”
“We need to hurry. We are supposed to be at the hotel in a few minutes.”
Part Four
The Hunt Begins
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Do not worry about The Magic Belt,” Wolf said dismissively. “It is safe and will be safe until you go and retrieve it.”
“How can you say that?” Banyon exploded. “It’s in the hands of Dr. Barbara Behl. She tried to kill Loni and me several times. Don’t you remember?”
Loni was suddenly on her feet in a defensive pose as soon as she heard the name. “Is she here?”
“Barbara has changed her ways. You and Loni gave her a second chance at life. She has embraced it and wants to help you,” The spirit advised him.
“I’ll never trust her, she is too deceitful,” Loni spat out before Banyon could ask another question.
“What makes you say that? Are you watching her too?” Banyon asked as he wondered what else Wolf had not told them.
“No, I don’t have enough windows to watch her at this time. Take my word for it,” Wolf replied sadly knowing that this only made Banyon more suspicious.
“Then how do you know she has changed?” Banyon was beside himself with concern. Dr. Behl had been one of his most difficult, and successful adversaries, and now Wolf wanted him to trust her.
“She inherited her grandfather’s huge estate, has a new husband, has done a complete makeover of her body, and lives on a farm. What more proof do you want?” The spirit said as evidence.
“Let’s start with the fact that she has The Magic Belt. I’ve seen her wearing it in a hologram picture. We know it is a powerful weapon. She has been corrupted by power in the past. How did she get the belt anyway?”
“I led her to it, Colt,” Wolf confessed openly. Banyon was shocked with the reply for two reasons. How could he talk to her? Banyon wondered, and why did Wolf tell her about the talisman?
Why?” It was his next question.
“When I learned that Jakub Banyon’s journal was exposed, I had to do something. There are many people after all the talismans. Check the social media sites on the internet if you don’t believe me.”
Banyon quickly turned to Loni. “Can you check on the internet to see if there are people offering to buy any of the talismans?” She immediately dropped back onto the couch and began typing.
“But if you can’t watch her, how do you know that she is holding The Magic Belt for us?
”
“I didn’t say that I couldn’t keep track of her,” the spirit answered in his usual vague way.
“But you said you can’t speak to anyone else besides me. So how did you tell her about the belt?” Banyon asked as he attempted to zero in on the situation.
“There were a few steps involved. Someone else talked to her father-in-law who told her what to do,” Wolf replied.
“Explain that?” A confused Banyon asked.
“If you recall,” the spirit started. “Barbara moved into the Paul Reynolds household and married Carl Reynolds, Paul’s son.”
“I remember, so what?”
“Marcy Reynolds, Paul’s wife is one of my friends up here. I explained the situation to her. She talked to Paul, who talked to Barbara.” Banyon suddenly remembered that Marcy was a Chippewa medicine woman when she was alive. She had placed a curse on herself when she was dying. It was done so she could sometimes talk to the aging Paul, her husband. Her curse was to work on returning Indian lands in the Mid-West to the rightful owners.
“But why did you tell her about the talisman?”
“I have to use every resource available to me to protect the talismans. She was the only option available for this one. Remember, she lives in Wisconsin, you are in Poland, and the Patel clan is currently in India.”
“I guess I understand your logic,” Banyon admitted. “Where did she obtain the talisman?”
Wolf recapped the history. “The talisman was in a trunk in an attic in Milwaukee. The man who held it was a former German infantryman. His platoon looted the Warsaw museum in 1945. He took it then. He immigrated to the United States after the war. The talisman had been hidden in his attic ever since,”
“Why haven’t we gone after him?” Banyon asked.
“He was never a Nazi,” Wolf answered. “There are still enough of them around to go after.”
“So, Dr. Behl just called him up and asked for it?” Banyon needed more information and needed to ask the right questions.
The Polish Discovery: The Society of Orion 1-3 (Colton Banyon Mystery Book 17) Page 10
