The disembodied part of me was trying to understand what was going on.
“You see, Marion?” Rothmann was saying. “Things have changed since your time. We are now able to master even the most difficult subjects without prolonged treatment. Sometimes it just takes several repetitions of the trigger to prompt a response.”
The doctor took another swipe at Gwen, but the younger woman easily avoided the weak blow.
“You…you don’t control him,” she gasped. “He got out of the camp, he’s been working with the police….”
Rothmann laughed hoarsely, his face white as he clutched his wounded thigh. “If I tell him to attack you, he will do so.”
Marion Gilbert looked at me and I saw that she was wavering.
I sensed that my eyes had gone as blank as Gwen’s.
“Wells!” the Führer yelled.
I watched as my body immediately tensed.
“Give him the knife!”
Gwen looked at the Führer dubiously.
“Go ahead!” he roared.
I took the blade from her and weighed it in my hand. It felt comfortable there.
“Stop it,” Marion Gilbert said, her voice faint. “I can’t…I can’t take anymore.”
Rothmann gave her a triumphant look. “Gut her, Wells,” he ordered.
Watching in horror, I saw my body take up a combat stance, knees bent and arms in front of the chest. I tried to take control, but I had no access to the part of my being that was wielding the knife. But my victim was too quick for me.
Marion Gilbert was against the bulkhead, holding the remaining skewer vertically. The steel shaft was closer to her body than it had been. “I hope all your plans come to nothing,” she said in a low voice. Then she took a deep breath and pressed the point against her throat. With a desperate wail, she shoved the skewer upward to its hilt. A few seconds later, she crashed lifeless to the floor.
I felt my separate self slip back into my body and the knife drop from my hand. “Did you…did you make her do that?” I stammered feeling more like myself again.
He grunted in pain. “No, I’m afraid I didn’t. Unlike you, she didn’t respond to the default trigger word. She was beyond direction… It would seem she may even have regained contact with her conscience.”
I felt a surge of anger. “Fuck you.”
Rothmann looked up at me, and then smiled. I turned and saw that Gwen had picked up the combat knife. “You know, Wells, I think your reliability is questionable. At the current advanced state of our operation, that is inappropriate.” He ran his tongue across his lips. “Kill him, my dear.”
I’d been waiting for that. “Gwen, do you know that your father is dead?” I looked over my shoulder and saw that the knife had stopped a few inches from my back.
“What?” Her voice was suddenly that of a child.
“I suppose Gordy Lister made sure you didn’t see the papers.”
“No newspapers or TV are allowed without authorization,” she said emptily.
“Don’t listen to him,” Rothmann said, his voice was wavering.
“It happened here, didn’t it?” I said. I was going out on a limb, but the fact that Richard Bonhoff’s body had been dumped in the river was suggestive. “On board the Isolde.”
“No,” Rothmann said, “of course it didn’t.” But the fear on his face gave him away as a liar.
Gwen stepped up to my side. “Why?” she asked, her eyes damp. “He loved us. You should have let us contact him. We could easily have reassured him.” She leaned forward. “Why?”
“Stop!” Rothmann ordered, edging along the sofa. “Put down the knife!”
“Why?” Gwen moaned again. “He loved us….” Then she pushed past me and grabbed her Führer’s collar. “If the river was good enough for Daddy, it’s good enough for you,” she said, then dragged him forward with surprising strength. When he was clear of the furniture, she put the knife to his throat and hauled him to the cabin door. “Don’t get in the way,” she said to me, over her shoulder.
I kept my distance, and then followed them out into the pale morning light.
Gwen forced Rothmann along the side of the boat till they were both standing at the bow.
“Barbarossa!” he screamed, then another word I struggled to make out—it sounded like “Gerty.” After that, he fell to his knees and screamed for help like any normal person.
I looked to my right. The guards at the gate had heard. Their boots thundered across the deck as they approached. I leaned over the side, reached for the package I’d taped under the pier and ripped it away. I tugged the mooring rope at the stern free.
“Cast off,” I yelled to Gwen. “Now!”
“Shoot the bitch!” Rothmann roared, before she clubbed him to the deck with the haft of the knife.
Shots rang out from the pier. I had the Glock unwrapped by the time the men were ten yards away. I fired at their legs and they crashed down. I leaped off the boat and ran toward them, kicking their weapons into the water and then covering them with my weapon.
“Gwen!” I shouted. “Can you start the engine?” I turned and saw that the Isolde had already drifted several yards away from the pier. I heard a movement and smashed my boot into the face of the gorilla who had fancied his chances. “Start the engine, Gwen!”
But she stayed at the bow, the combat knife at Rothmann’s throat. Looking closer, I saw blood on her chest—a lot of blood. At least one of the rounds fired by the guards had hit her.
I thought about trying to jump on board, but the boat was already too far away.
All I could do was cover Gwen’s escape. After all that had been done to her and her twin brother, and their father, it was the least I could do.
There was a curtain of mist on the reach that led toward the Potomac, so the Isolde was soon hard to make out. I wasn’t sure if I imagined it, or if one of the figures at the bow had gone overboard.
Forty-Four
I let the guys I’d shot look after each other’s leg wounds—they seemed to have had the relevant training—and used one of their cell phones to call the cops. Telling the dispatcher who I was got me put me straight through to Chief of Detectives Rodney Owen. He came down to the marina quickly, several cars in his wake.
“Any news about the boat?” I asked, after the gorillas had been removed.
“We’ve got her. She was drifting in the Potomac, but there was no one alive on board.”
“So they both went over the side. I wonder if either of them is still breathing. The girl looked like she’d been badly hit.”
“Our people are all over the river,” Owen said. “They’ll find them soon enough.” He shook his head. “Marion Gilbert’s body was on the boat, as you said. Who’d have thought our medical examiner was a secret Nazi?”
“Not to mention serial killer. She fought against what had been done to her, but it really screwed her up.”
Chief Owen looked at me. “You realize I’m going to have to take you in for questioning.”
I shrugged. “Fair enough. How are Simmons and Pinker?”
“Versace’s still in a coma. It looks like Clem’s going to make it, though. They had a scare a few hours back, but he’s stable now. I spoke to him. Looks like you’re in the clear, but there are a lot of details we have to go through. The FBI’s on your case, as well. You’ll have to talk to them about the occult killings.”
I wasn’t surprised, but I had another priority. “Karen Oaten. Can I see her?”
“I’m sure you can, Mr. Wells, but I don’t know when.” He gave me an encouraging smile. “Why don’t we just take one thing at a time?”
“Okay,” I said. I was too tired to argue.
I followed him onto dry land. I was thinking of Gwen Bonhoff. If she hadn’t turned on Rothmann, I would be the one floating in the Potomac right now. I wondered if she had survived to make it ashore, or if the currents were carrying her body toward the sea.
Later it came to me that one of the reason
s I hadn’t written novels featuring cops was the job’s never-ending bureaucracy. The questioning seemed to go on forever, though Chief Owen’s team had finished with me by midday. Then I was taken to the FBI building and grilled by Peter Sebastian and his people. Though Clem and Versace hadn’t exactly talked him up, I thought he was competent enough—thorough rather than nitpicking, but seriously lacking in a sense of humor. At least he wasn’t set against me any longer. Randy Bonhoff had been operated on and was expected to make a full recovery in time—whether he would come round from the coffining would be another story. He was still woozy from the anesthetic and hadn’t been told about his sister’s wounding or her disappearance from the boat. He didn’t know about his father’s death, either. I wouldn’t be volunteering to be the one who passed all that information on.
“All right,” Sebastian said at last, gathering up his notes. “We’ll get back to this tomorrow, but right now there’s somewhere we’ve got to be.”
I thought he meant the canteen, so I didn’t show much enthusiasm.
“Come on, Matt,” he said, giving a rare smile. “The Bureau’s putting on a party for your Karen.”
That was more like it. I’d have preferred to meet her in private, but apparently there were some important people who took priority. I borrowed a clean shirt from one of Sebastian’s team and then followed the FBI man to the elevator. When we got out on the top floor, we had to go through another X-ray machine. It seemed the bosses got a higher level of security, as well as a better view.
The party was already under way when we got there. The room was crowded by men in suits and the occasional woman in the female equivalent. I didn’t see Karen immediately. She was surrounded by people who were shaking her hand and patting her on the back. She looked calm and collected, as if she’d been at a health retreat rather than in captivity. I wondered if she’d been through what I had and how she’d got out. Then she caught sight of me and smiled, which made me feel better. I started to push my way through the mass of bodies toward her, but a blast of feedback from a microphone signaled the beginning of the formal proceedings. I kept on sliding past bodies toward the front as the FBI director started to talk from a podium.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said with the smile of a man who finally had some good news to report, “I won’t keep you long. I’m delighted to welcome Detective Chief Superintendent Karen Oaten back from her ordeal. I’m also delighted to report that, in accordance with official policy, no ransom changed hands.”
There was polite laughter.
“Ms. Oaten is one of the London Metropolitan Police’s most talented officers and we look forward to her completing her work with us.”
This time, there was polite applause. Presumably Gavin Burdett’s death hadn’t come to light yet—Karen wouldn’t have much to do in Washington without him as her target. Then again, maybe Rothmann had been lying. I didn’t think that was too likely. He was the kind of arrogant smart-ass who didn’t bother with blatant untruths.
“Before Ms. Oaten says a few words, I’d like to invite the justice secretary to the microphone.”
I craned forward and made out the short figure of the woman who was in charge of all American law enforcement. As she passed Karen, she took her hands and kissed her on both cheeks. She seemed to be genuinely moved to see Karen. As the politician began to speak, I watched my beautiful girl. She was standing next to the podium, her head at the same level as the justice secretary’s because of her greater height. She had a cardboard file under her arms and she was fiddling with a pen.
I wanted to be in the front row when Karen made her speech, so I nudged past a couple more bodies. Now I could see her clearly. Karen was looking intently at the politician beside her, but she was still playing with the pen. I didn’t recognize it, which struck me as odd because I’d given her an expensive pen for her birthday earlier in the year. I knew for a fact she hadn’t had it with her when she disappeared because I saw it in her belongings afterward. Those must have been returned to her by now. Where did she get this one? It looked unusual and was only the length of a finger. It looked like she was trying to make it longer.
Then everything came together. Whatever Karen had said when she reappeared, I knew from Irma Rothmann that she’d been at the camp in Maine. She was in no condition to scale the wire and she would only have been allowed to leave if the Rothmanns thought her ready…for some kind of action. That meant she had been coffined and was under mind control, and she was about to do something disastrous.
I shouted her name and ran forward, colliding with a Secret Service man with very wide shoulders. I could still see Karen as he grabbed at me, then she disappeared from my view as I hit the floor. When I looked up, the pen had disappeared. The justice secretary was peering down at me curiously.
Peter Sebastian came up. “What’s going on, Matt?” he demanded. “Couldn’t you wait a little longer to see Karen?”
“I thought…I…” I let myself be led away to the side of the room. I was vaguely aware of the speeches being concluded and the noise of conversation increasing. The man who had grabbed me was still holding my arm.
“What did you think?” Chief Owen said, appearing between Sebastian and the big man.
“I thought…” My mind was like mush. I must have been imagining things. Karen was perfectly normal. I looked around, trying to catch sight of her, but I couldn’t see her anywhere.
“You need rest,” Peter Sebastian said. He turned to Chief Owen. “Can I leave him in your charge?”
Owen shrugged. “Okay. I was heading over to the hospital to check on Simmons and Pinker.”
Sebastian nodded. “Why don’t you get him checked out, too?”
By the time Owen and I made it to the door, there was no sign of Karen. I asked a woman with a clipboard where she’d gone.
“Ms. Oaten went with the justice secretary and her people, sir.” She eyed the temporary pass Sebastian had given me on the way in. “Can I help?”
“That’s all right,” Chief Owen said. “I’ll handle this.” He led me toward the elevators.
“But I want to see Karen,” I said feebly, tugging against his grip.
“Let it go, buddy. You can’t mess with the Justice Department.” Owen smiled at me. “Besides, your girl’s a London cop. How’s she going to feel if you screw up a meet with the justice secretary of the United States of America?”
He had a point there. Karen would not be impressed if I messed with her career. So I let him take me down to his car and drive me to the hospital in the northern suburbs. Just before we got there, he got a call. He listened, then cut the connection and glanced at me.
“They found Gwen Bonhoff’s body in the Potomac,” he said. “We’ll have to wait for the postmortem for the cause of death—and we’re a medical examiner short right now—but there’s a potentially fatal chest wound, like you described.”
“What about Rothmann?”
Chief Owen shook his head. “No sign. Let’s just hope the currents sucked him to the bottom. We don’t need motherfuckers like him around.”
He was right there. But as far as I was concerned, no body meant that the Auschwitz doctor’s son was alive and well.
There was good news at the hospital—Gerard Pinker had just come out of his coma. He was still groggy and visitors weren’t allowed, but his prospects had suddenly got a whole lot better. We went to see Clem. He looked tired, but he was in good spirits because of his partner’s first move toward recovery. They took a dive when he heard about Gwen and Rothmann.
“Shit. That girl deserved better.”
“She and her brother stuck a knife in Versace and beat the hell out of you, Clem,” I reminded him.
He shrugged. “Those Nazi scumbags screwed with their brains.” He glanced at me. “What was that word the queen bitch was screaming? Barba-something?”
My head was suddenly filled with the roar of crowds and the thunder of marching men.
“Hey, Matt?” I heard
Clem say. “You okay?”
I managed to push aside the confusion. “Yeah,” I muttered.
“Everything you’ve been through is catching up on you, man,” Clem said. “You need to get some rest.”
I sat back in my chair. There was a TV on the wall, images flashing but no sound coming. I made out a large silvery-gray building with three imposing towers. Then the camera moved down to the crowd gathered outside an entrance with a Gothic arch. When the camera zoomed in, I saw that many of the people were elderly and in uniform.
“What’s that?” I asked. I was aware of a quickening throughout my body and a faint, high-pitched sound like a whistle that would normally only be audible to dogs. “What is that place?”
Chief Owen looked up at the screen. “Washington National Cathedral.”
“What about the people?” I said, my eyes locked on the pictures. “Who are they?”
Clem grunted. “They’re our heroes, man.”
I took in shrunken men in wheelchairs, with military caps on their heads and medals on the chests. They were surrounded by proud families in their finest clothes, and most of them were black.
“World War II veterans from the minorities,” Owen said. “The president’s taken a special interest in them.”
“About time somebody did,” Clem said. “They’ll all be dead soon.”
Chief Owen nodded. “That’s why they’re having the memorial service—to acknowledge the men before it’s too late.”
Those last words echoed in my mind—before it was too late. Too late for what? Then I found myself thinking of other things: the gargoyle’s head, the Antichurch of Lucifer Triumphant, Rothmann’s hatred of what he called subhumans, the Nazis and their war on civilization, Karen…
I stood up. “Did someone mention the president?”
“Yes,” Owen said. “The president and first lady are attending the service.”
“How about the justice secretary?” I asked, my lungs suddenly tight.
Maps of Hell Page 34
