Chapter Nineteen

They make their way through evening traffic across the Danube Canal and into the second district, the Leopoldstadt, following the route to the blinking red dot, which leads them to the second of two immense concrete structures in the Augarten. Part of the World War II Nazi defense system for occupied Vienna. A total of six of these giant flack towers remain throughout the city, almost fifty meters high with walls ten meters wide and three-meters thick, so immense that they cannot be razed without damaging surrounding buildings. Reminders of a world gone mad.

They are nearing the tower closest to the pulsing red dot.

“But maybe Huber was just taking a walkabout,” Jake says. “Another one of his little games. Lets us spot him and be led far away from wherever he really is.”

Lechner parks not far from the second, G Tower, shuts off the engine, and turns slowly to face him. “Could be. One way to find out.”

He picks up his phone, goes into his contact list and picks a number. Jake hears a faint chirrup of ringing. Listens to a one-sided conversation in German. His ear for the language is coming back, but he catches only about half of it.

“Friends in high places?” Jake asks when Lechner ends the call.

“Kollegen. A group of us worked together in the service. We stay in touch with one another. Help each other out. One of our group is on the monuments commission and I had my friend give him a call. Let him know it is urgent. We might have a line on the renegade soldier and need to know how to get into Tower G. He’s got my number. He’ll get back to me. Okay?”

“Very okay. Thanks.”

Jake is beginning to better understand the anguish Lechner must have felt at the death of his son. Not just the tragic loss, but that, with all his training, all his connections, he was unable to protect Andreas.

Lechner leans back in his seat. “This could take a while,” he says.

She begins squirming and shaking back in forth in her chair, as if having a fit. He goes to her and takes the gag off.

“I don’t feel my fingers,” Tania tells him. “Can’t you loosen this a bit? Were all alone in this giant sarcophagus. What threat am I? Use my nonexistent black belt skills on you?”

He eyes her warily. He’s been busy rigging a series of small explosive devices along the underground passage to the interior of the Flakturm. He let the last phone conversation go on just that much too long, long enough for them to get a location. And believe it was unintentional on his part. They’ll be planning a stealth raid, Huber thinks. But by the time Jacobs can reach his beloved, his team is going to be seriously depleted. If Jacobs even reaches her.

“For your mother’s sake,” Tania says, bringing him out of his reverie.

He sighs. “If you try anything…”

“I’m beyond trying. I just want to get the blood going by wiggling my fingers. If I don’t, they’re going to fall off before this is over.”

She tries to look helpless, but helpless is the last thing she feels. There is a well of anger in her that she will unleash. She has to, or she will explode. The miserable little coward with his gadgets and homemade bombs. She would love to place one up his Tal der Winde. Her anger frightens her. She’s never felt like this. Anger at Daniel for making a captive of her, but worse, that all his plotting is in an effort to kill the man she loves.

And that, she will not allow.

She lets her shoulders relax as he loosens her bonds, able now to flex her fingers, though still with hands tied, albeit loosely, in back of her. Small victories. But there will be larger ones, she tells herself. He will regret loosening these bonds.

It takes a half hour, but Lechner finally gets a response. A PDF is attached. He opens it, shows it to Jake. A schematic of the tower and of a long underground point of entry coming from the north. Which explains to Jake now how the hell Huber gets in and out of the place. The concrete walls are solid. Huge metal doors on the side facing them have been soldered and bolted shut to keep the public out. Huber was in the army, Jake reminds himself. Probably heard about this secret passage then, the kind of shit that grunts love to share, to impress one another.

This flack tower was, for a time, used as a warehouse for a construction company, Jake knows. But that was before his time in Vienna. A mausoleum now. A monument to the insanity of war.

“The entrance is outside the park,” Lechner announces. “Down a manhole that leads to the sewers.” He traces a route at the northernmost end of the passageway. “There’s a branching passage right here.” He points at the spot on the schematic. “Leaves the sewers and heads toward the tower. An escape hatch for the German soldiers back then in a worst case scenario.”

Jake nods. Let’s make it our best-case scenario, he thinks. We’ll take the bastard.

“My friends say they would like to help,” Lechner adds.

“We get an army of folks trying to get in there, Huber’s going to hear. Going to sense it. Tell them to keep watch at the entrance. If he comes out alone, they know what to do with him. They’ll know what became of us.”

Lechner does not react to this grim possibility, says simply, “Good thought. I’ll let them know.”

Jake checks the time on his phone “Tell them we’re going in at 7:30. Give them a chance to gather at the entrance. Come armed. Huber’s got lots of toys.”

She watches him as he attaches the last wire to an explosive device. So meticulous, so intent. She can almost see the little Daniel in his fixed attention, how he loved playing with a stamp collection she gave him. Taking great care to mount the stamps perfectly in the allotted space. Lips pressed tightly together as he did so.

“Your mother really would not want this,” she says.

“Shut up.” He says it without looking up.

A tickle of memory suddenly breaks through. She is stunned to remember it now. Now, when she desperately needs something to stop Daniel’s insane mission.

She takes a deep breath, calming herself. “It’s possible your mother was the victim of a set up, punishment, even. She may have been spying for both the Amis and the Sovs.”

He ignores this.

“Someone wanted her dead. Not just a stupid accident. Wanted her dead as a cover up. Did you ever wonder if whoever is behind the Reckoning site might be playing you?”

He suddenly stands, his face red in anger. “Of course someone wanted her dead. She was shot. Killed. And I am her avenger. Now shut your stupid mouth or you get the gag.”

Angered, he approaches and tightens her bonds once more, but this time she knows what to do. Feigns inability to bring her hands tightly behind her, still lacking blood flow. And he ties her anyway, puts the gag back on her.

She waits for him to return to his bombs, then brings her hands tightly together. A small triumph, but she does not show it on her face. The bonds are now slack, she can wiggle out of them when needed. Got you.

They don’t wait for Lechner’s crew to arrive, but use the combination numbers on the PDF to open the metal doors to the sewers and descend. Careful to let the doors down again silently. No telling how far sounds carry here. Then down the long length of metal stairs into darkness.

They reach the bottom of the steps into a corbelled underground vault. Lechner has a flashlight and they are able to make their way following the narrow beam of light along a trench of the open sewers now, arms crossed over their noses and mouths. Cold down here and they move along rapidly. A rat scurries over Jake’s foot and if not for the arm covering his mouth, he would’ve let out a screech. Gets it together, keeps moving forward.

Lechner consults the PDF on his phone. They come to a branching route and he points in that direction, away now from the sewers, and after twenty meters or so they are able to take their arms down from their faces. No deep breaths, even though the foul air is mainly behind them. Soon this branching route narrows into a one-man path, Lechner still in the lead, his light illuminating ahead of him. He suddenly stops and plays the flashlight up and down the path ahead, throwing light on a trip wire a few meters away. No words, but they understand. Huber’s got the place booby-trapped. And this won’t be the only one, Jake figures.

But this gives him an idea. A gamble. They’re hoping to catch Huber unprepared, not expecting them. But what if he stayed on the line just long enough for them to track him, and now he’s laid a series of booby traps. In fact, they may not have the element of surprise on their side whatever they do. He’s waiting for them. Expecting them.

So, why disappoint him? Jake thinks. Set off one of what he figures will be a series of trip wires. Let Huber assume the worst. And then they would have the element of surprise on their side. Let him come to them, expecting to find body parts. And keep Tania out of the way of flying bullets.

Jake motions Lechner back from the trip wire, toward the sewer channel where they can talk about this.

Near the opening of the branch, they huddle up. Jake is about to speak when Lechner whispers, “There’s going to be more of those. I think we should set off one, see if we get a chain reaction.”

Jake nods vigorously. “Exactly what I was thinking. Draw him out, let him think he’s got us.”

And then he remembers seeing something back where the rat ran over his feet. “Hold on,” he tells Lechner, takes the flashlight and retraces his steps out along the sewage canal. Sees the glint of metal reflecting from his flashlight beam. A metal pipe about five feet long. He picks it up. It’s got heft to it. And he is taken back to his high school years in Idaho, throwing the javelin.

“I got this,” he says, returning to Lechner, who nods, understanding.

They move quietly into the mouth of the branch again, and Lechner is careful to keep the flashlight playing in front so they’ll detect the trip wires. Lechner stops now, moving the light up and down on the wires about forty feet ahead. Jake hefts the pipe in his right hand, feeling for balance. Pulls it back in hurling position a couple of times, up and over his shoulder.

One chance, make it good, he tells himself. The mantra he used when throwing the javelin in high school. But this time it’s a matter not of medals but of life and death. Miss, and Huber is warned that they are coming. Miss, and Tania’s life may be forfeit.

He takes a deep breath, lets it out slowly, spreads his legs, breathes again, brings the pipe back over his right shoulder, looks upward to get some arc on the throw, and then thrusts his arm forward, letting the pipe fly at the top of the arc.

Tania tenses as Huber stands, putting down the wires. He leans toward the underground entrance to the tower, and she hears it now, too. Faint whisper of voices. An echo chamber underground. He’s got an armory here, picks a snub-nosed rifle loaded with what she figures is a large magazine. Not sure, but it looks lethal. Edges toward the opening to the underground passage. She hears the whispers again, knows it is now or never. Before they walk into his maze of booby traps. Brings her wrists tightly together, struggles with the cord binding her and feels it edging over the wrist on her right hand. Struggles silently and, she hopes, without physical clues and now feels the cord slipping off the outside edge of her hand. Free, but she keeps her hands behind her as Huber now picks his way into the passageway.

She quickly frees her hands completely now, tears off the gag and shouts as loud as she can, “He’s coming! Jake, watch out. There are booby traps.”

Huber rushes back into the main hall of the tower, lashes out at her with the butt of his M4 and sends her sprawling out of the chair and onto the ground.

And then he hears it. The satisfying clap and blast of the first trip wire. He bares his teeth, his entire body shaking. Finally over. He dashes into the passageway.

Jake and Lechner recoil as the pipe hits the first of the trip wires, sending a piercing shock wave back at them. “Yes,” Jake mutters, fists clenched, and they move deeper into the passageway, taking up positions on either side, smoke still billowing from the site of the explosion.

Quiet now, waiting. Listening. Soon they can hear footsteps, moving slowly, cautiously. Have to take Huber before he sees there are no body parts. Lechner across the narrow passageway from him. Jake points his Glock, moving it up and down as if firing. A nod from Lechner. Understood. Take him out on first sight. No waiting.

“Jacobs, you there?”

The voice surprises him; comes close to answering it. Is that what it was meant to do, or is it just a taunt. Come closer, you piece of shit. Let me put an end to this. The cry of Tania’s warning still echoing in his head. Did he hurt her? Just one clean shot, please. All I need.

Footsteps getting closer now and then the unexpected. A grenade lobbed their direction lands just a few meters away. Lechner’s eyes wide and white in the gloom. Jake instinctively leaps forward, picks it up and hurls it back toward Huber, as the grenade explodes mid-air. Feels a sharp pain in his left side. Puts his hand to it, wet. Mind surprisingly clear as realizes he’s been hit by shrapnel. Then he sees Huber appearing through the smoke, rifle against his shoulder and taking aim. Jake’s frozen in place, mind clear but body unable to move.

A moment’s hesitation from Huber, as if enjoying the moment too much to end it. And then the sharp crack of gunfire from Lechner, bullets tearing into Huber, slamming him backwards and down.

The last sight for Jake, as he crumples to the ground himself now, into his own tunnel of darkness.