Alpha Threat (27 page)

“They killed Dad in cold blood, Wayne.
 
It was cold-blooded murder.”

Wayne didn’t know how to respond.
  

Nathan looked up into the palm trees lining the street and then down at the ground.
 
“Wayne, I got more info from the Feds.
 
Dad was deeper into this than I first thought.”

“Your dad?” Wayne responded, genuinely surprised.
 
“I can’t believe it.
 
He was such a nice guy.
 
I can’t believe it, no way.”

“It’s all true.
 
You would not believe what I learned from the FBI and Homeland Security.
 
They have been watching Dad for months.
 
The Feds say Dad worked with some group moving a lot of gold from South America to the United States.
 
Dad told me about it two days before he was killed.”
 

“Damn, did you tell the police?” asked Wayne.
 

“I told them part of it but not everything.
 
Frankly, I’m scared for Mom and myself.
 
We could be next.”

“We have to go to the police and get some protection,” said Wayne with a sense of urgency.
 

“Yeah, but I think we are already being watched.”
 

“Whoa, wait a minute, Nathan.
 
Let me get this straight.
 
You believe that whoever killed your father is watching you and your mom right now?” asked Wayne.
 

“Yes.
 
Last night and the night before, I saw a black car riding up and down the street past my parents’ house.
 
I’ve been at home with my mother since Dad was killed.
 
Sometimes during the day I have seen the same car parked down the street.”

“Why haven’t you gone to the police?” asked Wayne, suddenly looking all around for any suspicious cars parked down the street.
 

“I told the Miami police I knew Dad was involved in some kind of group transferring large amounts of gold in and out of the country.
 
The police called in the FBI and Homeland Security, who have been over to my parents’ house to talk with Mom.
 
I’ve been down at FBI headquarters twice already since talking with you yesterday.”

“And that’s when the FBI questioned you and filled you in?”

“Yeah, but you know how they can be.
 
They work like they do on TV.
 
They listen and then make it sound like you are the cause of all of the crime and evil in the world,” explained Nathan with a sigh.
 
“They also say they are working on Dad’s murder with Miami Police but they haven’t told us much at all yet.”

“So this was definitely not drug related; right?” asked Wayne, stopping at the corner.
 
“With the way… well, you know, the type of death, it certainly sounded like a drug cartel or something.”

“No, Wayne; these guys are worse, much worse.
 
I think they would kill their own mother to protect themselves,” Nathan said, clearly still hiding something.
 
They continued walking.
 

“You know who did this, don’t you?” Wayne asked quietly.
 

“Let’s say that from what Dad told me, I have a pretty good hunch,” Nathan said, looking up at the sun.
 
“It is a beautiful day, though, isn’t it?” he said, trying to change the subject.
 

The two turned around and started back toward the house when Wayne saw the car.
  
It was a black, non-descript Ford sedan parked at the curb two blocks up the street from the house.
 
Wayne was not sure the car was there before he and Nathan left the house.
 
He didn’t look up the street in that direction.
 
But it was there now.
 
Nathan saw it and froze.
 
As the two men stood there, the car pulled away from the curb, made a U-turn and slowly drove off.
 
Wayne and Nathan could not read the license tag but Wayne saw it was an out-of-state tag.
 
Before they could snap a finger the car turned down a side street and vanished.
 

A chill ran down Wayne’s back.
 
“Damn, you are right,” he murmured.
 
“Someone is watching you.
 
You sure it’s not the police?”

“Nope; the police say they are not watching us.
 
Neither are the Feds.
 
I think it’s them,” said Nathan as he picked up his stride back to the house.
 
“I need to check on Mom.”

When they returned to the house, all was fine.
 
At least as fine as it could be under the circumstances.
 
However, both Nathan and Wayne were worried.
  
Wayne called work and told them that he would not be in at all today.
 
He wanted to stick around and help Nathan.
 

Later in the evening after more family had arrived, Nathan wanted to go out to eat.
 
Actually, he really wanted to get out of the house.
 
Dozens of family members had arrived, bringing in all types of food.
 
But all they wanted was to pull Nathan to the side and ask about the grisly details of Klaus’ death.
 
Aunt Ester was planning the funeral and basically running the household while Nathan’s mother tried to get some rest.
 
Overall the house was a zoo.
 

About 9:15 p.m., Wayne was talking with one of Nathan’s cousins when Nathan walked by and whispered to Wayne.

“Hey, I gotta go.
 
Come with me.”
 

Wayne excused himself and followed Nathan out of the door.
 

“What’s up?” he asked.
 
“Are they back?” said Wayne as he looked up and down the street in the failing light of the evening.
 

“No.
 
I had to get out of there for a bit,” answered Nathan.
 
“There’s just too much family going on in there.
 
Let’s go get something to eat.”

“Eat?” exclaimed Wayne. “With all of that food in there?”
 
He looked at Nathan.
 
His eyes were tearing up.
 
Wayne got the message.
 
“Yeah, sure, let’s go get a burger.”
 
They hopped in Wayne’s car and drove off, all the time watching for the car.
 

It was about 9:30 p.m. when they pulled into the Five Guys on North Miami Avenue.
  
The two sat over in a corner and talked while eating their burgers.
 
There were only four other people eating.
 
Like Nathan said, he needed to get away from all of the stuff going on at the house.
 

“Man, my relatives are driving me crazy.
 
If it is not the family, it’s the police.
 
I didn’t tell you but before we left I got another call from the FBI.
 
I need to be down there at nine tomorrow morning.”

Wayne reached into the brown bag still full of fries and popped one in his mouth.
 
“They say what they wanted to talk to you about? I mean, specifically?” asked Wayne.
 

“Not really.
 
They said they wanted to follow up on some of what I told them earlier,” answered Nathan.
 
“It didn’t sound like they had found out anything else or they would have said something; don’t you think?”

Wayne shrugged his shoulders and reached for more fries.
 
“Maybe.
 
You can never tell with those guys.”

“Are you going to tell them everything?” asked Wayne bluntly.
 

Nathan looked Wayne in the eye.
 
Wayne could see that Nathan was scared to death.
 

“Dude, talk to me,” pleaded Wayne, putting his burger down.
 
He could see Nathan wanted to tell someone what was going on but was so scared he couldn’t.
 
Nathan took a long drink of his Coke and another bite of his burger.
 
He stared out the window and slowly finished his meal, trying to think through what he was going to do next.
 
Wayne ate his meal quietly.
 
When they both finished their food, they got up and returned to the car.
 

“Okay.
 
Let’s drive around for a few minutes.
 
I guess I gotta tell somebody about this.
 
It might as well be you.”
 

Wayne started the car and pulled onto North Miami Avenue.
 

“You know Dad was a gold trader…” started Nathan.
 

“Yeah, that much I do know.”

“Well, I’m afraid there is much more to the story.
 
My grandparents came to the United States back in 1932 when Hitler was beginning his rise in Germany.
 
Dad told me they fled their native land because my grandfather saw the war coming.
 
He wanted to spare my grandmother having to live through that over in Europe.
 
My grandfather worked very closely with the new German regime led by Adolph Hitler.
 
He persuaded the regime to send him and his family to the United States to coordinate support in the States for a new Germany.”

“Okay, anyone in their right mind would have left Germany back then.
 
That was a very nasty situation with the Nazis and all,” said Wayne, trying to support Nathan, thinking he knew where he was going with all of this.

“Yeah, but that’s not the whole truth.”

“What do you mean? I don’t understand,” said Wayne, puzzled.
 

“Damn…” Nathan said.
 
“Damn, damn, damn.
 
Man, when I tell you this you gotta believe that I didn’t know.”

“Know what?”

“Wayne, my father was a Nazi,” Nathan said, looking off out the window.

There was one of those unpleasant pauses in a conversation.
 
Wayne drove on.
 
He turned to look at Nathan.
 
Nathan would not look at him.
 

“Hey, you can’t be sure about that.
 
Just because your grandfather came from Germany does not mean he or your father were Nazis.
 
I don’t believe that.”

“Wayne, he told me so a few days before he died.
 
He wanted to, as he said, clear his soul.
 
I’m almost certain he knew he was going to die,” explained Nathan.

 
Wayne was stunned.
 
How could Nathan’s father have anything to do with the Nazis responsible for killing millions of people during the war?
 
All this didn’t make sense.
 

“Wait, wait.
 
This does not make sense.
 
So who killed him?” asked Wayne.
 

“They did,” said Nathan with a hint of hatred in his eyes.
 
 
“The Nazis killed him because he told me what was going on.
 
His talking to me got him killed.
 
First to get him out of the way; second, it was a warning to me and anyone else in the scheme.
 
Basically, you talk, you die.”

“Oh, my God, you think that is who is watching you?” asked Wayne.
 

“Wayne, I’m damned certain of it,” said Nathan.
 

“Holy crap, man, I had no idea.
 
So what was this scheme that he was involved in?”

“If I tell you, you can’t tell a soul.
 
Just by hearing this, your life may also be in danger.”

“You let me worry about that,” said Wayne.
 

“Since World War II several groups of Nazis have worked to bring Germany back to power.
 
Not through a war or anything like that but through a plan to destroy the financial markets of the world.
 
They are based in South America, somewhere deep in the Amazon jungle.
 
Remember in school they taught us about how many people thought some of Hitler’s inner circle was able to flee to Brazil?
 
Well, it seems that my grandfather was one of the Germans planted in the United States who helped funnel money and support to the Brazilian Germans.
 
That is the real reason he left Germany.
 
He was sent to the United States under the pretext of fleeing Hitler when it was actually the complete opposite.
 

“Toward the end of the war, my grandfather was one of Hitler’s confidants paving the way for Hitler’s escape from Berlin.
 
Evidently the Americans and Soviets flooded into Berlin and cut off Hitler’s escape route.
 
But hundreds of loyal Nazis did get out before Germany fell and set up some kind of complex in Brazil.
 
After the war my father was born and he was raised with the notion of the rise of the Fourth Reich.
 
So when he became of age, he was brought into the plan.
 
He spent his whole career buying and selling gold.
 
He made a ton of money for the Nazis.
 
Dad told me that this world-wide group ran everything from their headquarters in South America.”