Into the Lion's Den (36 page)

“No!” I blurted in disbelief. NO ONE can be so stupid!

“He even lectured Repin on the sainthood of marriage.”

“No doubt he's suicidal,” I laughed.

“He's one of us, Ferdinand. He respects our Church and God has placed him in our way so we would
take him back to where he belongs.”

“Indeed, my Duke. This place is not safe for him. His line's crimes against the Order were cleaned with
his father's blood,” Goran joined the party. Fuck! Those two in tandem considering themselves doing the Lord's
work? If they get Michael's support, I can eat my own vote. Shit! “Repin cannot guarantee his safety.”

“Goran. It's an internal affair. Not our business.”

“He's a Guttenberg Sachsen. Should I remind you that your bloodline saved your family from certain
misery? What would happen to us if we start to forget our own wows?” Goran said. “I agree with the Griffin and
Dähler does it too. The boy comes with us.”

“Do you plan to kidnap him in front of Repin, Goran?” I asked him sweetly. Does he plan to play big
brother with a total stranger as it seems? The nerve of him!

“No Ferdinand. Repin will give him to us,” Konrad intoned. “Follow my lead, please,” he ordered me
when he saw Malchenko, Repin's man in Smolensk and a member too, approaching us, very agitated.

“My Griffin, I'm terribly sorry you were kept waiting here. Guntram told me of your coming just a
minute ago!”

“Is it customary to keep your Hochmeister standing like a servant?”

“My Duke, I offer you my greatest apologies. It was a misunderstanding. Mr. Repin had to leave due to
an emergency, but please, do come in.”

“Repin is not here? I came to speak with him about the terms and he's not here?”

“He will be back in a few hours and I can speak on his behalf.”

“Do I have to negotiate with a third grade member? Incredible. This is an insult to all of us, Malkovich.

We leave, now,” Konrad said, turning around to my horror. “Tell Repin I will not support his cause.”

Konrad wants to send me to an early grave. Without a doubt.

I shouted with him in the car. I shouted. He remained impassable and Goran did the same.

“I'm only improving the terms of our arrangement,” was his pathetic justification.

At noon I was furious with him. He had the nerve to send Oblomov home after speaking with him in
Russian! All for a boy!

At eight he jovially announced to me that he was hungry and going to have dinner in a restaurant.

Goran was coming too. I should have known. He goes nowhere but the Königshalle! He hates local food and here we
were standing in front of a sushi place. Last time we were in Japan, he took Jean Jacques along. He eats nothing that
he has not tried during his childhood. I was surprised, but said nothing as I do like to try new things. I'm not such a
conservative prick!

Inside Repin was sitting in a corner with many of his goons around… and the boy, Guntram, sitting next
to him. He looked perplexed at Konrad but quickly returned his attention to his untouched dish. Konrad instead of
doing the only reasonable thing, went in a straight line to Repin's table. Oblomov was there and he didn't look
surprised upon our arrival.

“Sit down, Konrad. I'm afraid I wasn't able to see you this morning,” Repin said in English.

“I felt most disappointed, Constantin. I was looking forward to our meeting.”

“Perhaps we could have it now.”

“Perhaps”. Konrad sat in front of Repin and I next to him. I noticed Goran going to a nearby table.

“I still don't understand this change of heart from you, Konrad. Normally, your word has some value.”

“My word stands as long as you don't try to deceive me or the Order.”

“How so?”

“You have something that belongs to me, Constantin. Give it back and we will continue where we were. I
don't like to be toyed.”

“I have nothing that belongs to you. We had agreed onto the territories. This is my land.”

“Please Constantin, don't insult my intelligence. You have asked me my support to save your neck from
the authorities and I have given it to you. Two billion dollars, untraceable by the authorities. We had to break the
money box, at good rate, I might add, and do you repay me like this?

“Twelve percent interest, Konrad. Almost usury. I'm no fortune teller. Tell me what you want now.”

“I resent that you associate with a member of the Order.”

“Clean your own backyard. I have enough with mine.”

“Don't play the lamb with me. He,” Konrad said pointing the boy. “He is a de Lisle. He belongs to me.”

“I don't belong to you!” The boy said in shock, but one sharp look from Constantin made him silent
again. Good training.

“His father gave him to me in 1989 to atone for his sins against us. Return him to me.”

“No! You have no claims over him!”

“Then, I will ask for an extra guarantee for the loan you need so desperately. One of your children will
be fine. Give me the smallest one. Shouldn't matter to you.”

“Lintorff leave this place before I shoot you dead.”

“My men will kill all your family if you try it. Won't they, Goran?”

“We want revenge for what happened in Georgia. Morozov's death wasn't enough, Sire. The house and
this place are surrounded.”

“So Constantin, the boy for a small reduction in your rates. How about a seven percent? It's a very
generous offer. Give me the boy or one of your children as a guarantee for the loan's year. After lying to me so
blatantly, I can't be sure you're going to pay me back. I'll send the child to the best school and get a Russian nanny if
you prefer it.”

“No, don't touch the children,” the boy spoke softly.

“Guntram, be quiet!”

“The girl could go to a boarding school. If her mother has taken a leave of absence, then it's a good time
to teach her manners,” Konrad continued as nothing would have happened. He had found the breach in the dam and
was going to flood the place.

“Why do you want Guntram? He has nothing. Whatever his family did in the past, it's over since ten
years! Killing them all wasn't enough for you?”

“What?” shouted the boy.

“His father placed him under my protection in order to save his life. I took his offer.”

“My father committed suicide! He was never part of your Order!”

“You must carry a golden cross with your name and a date that's not your birthday. It's the day you were
accepted into the Order and baptised. The cross is very special, not the usual type. It's a Crenel Cross and has small
lines that make it look like the turrets from a castle. The order adopted it in the XVII century and it means “militant
from the Church” because it represents a fortress. We are warriors for the Church and only a few of our members still
have the right to carry it. Only the founding families. Should I tell the date? It was in your third month of life.”

“December 8th,” Guntram whispered, looking very sick.

“Our Lady's festivity. You're one of us, Guntram and under my protection. We never knew where you
were all these years. I had the utmost respect for Jerôme. It's a pity he took that decision. I never blamed him for what
his brothers and father did.”

Did I hear well? Jerôme despised Konrad, disapproved of his relationship with Roger like the good
prude he was, always resembling to a big vulture perched on his corner, brooding. True, he was nothing like Roger or
Pascal. Konrad, you gave the man a month to put his affairs in order and kill himself!

“Your understanding of the word “mercy” is very peculiar, Lintorff. You destroyed their bank, set the
house on fire, killed the old Vicomte and his eldest, along with all his family and you're still trying to get rid of the
other brother. Something else Lintorff?”

“Did you know about my family, Constantin? Who they were? Why did you never tell me a thing?” The
boy looked at him truly hurt. Oops, someone has a skeleton in the closet.

“It was all history. Back in 1989, some members decided to replace their Hochmeister and revolted.

Somehow they were betrayed and Lintorff found out everything, killing most of them and now he wants to finish the
job with you.”

“No, Constantin. I plan to honour my oath to his father. I will not touch a single hair from his head. Why
would I do it? His father was the one who put Ferdinand on the right track of the traitors. We found it out several
months later when his papers were discovered in a safety box in a Geneva bank. There's a letter for you even,
Guntram. Right, Ferdinand?”

“Yes.” Fuck you Konrad. The letter you have it from before (Shit! He didn't destroy it as he promised me
he would. The obsessive motherfucker was thinking all the time to check on the boy!) and the papers were found after
putting all the parquetry out of his flat, searching for his account numbers, would have sent you for twenty to thirty
years in jail… if there would be a judge in this Earth willing to read them.

“I was only defending myself Guntram. I didn't give the order as I was in the hospital as the only
survivor of a shooting.” Konrad explained. (Sissy, it was only a scratch in the shoulder what you got) ”Your
grandfather ordered it. Now, will you come with us quietly or should I ask my people to proceed?”

“No! Don't touch the children!”

“Guntram, be quiet! Keep your money Lintorff and leave my country.”

“All right, as you want Constantin. Don't complain when the Russian Authorities arrest you on tax
evasion charges. They're very crossed for your dealings with the Chechen. Very bad boy. Olga will be very happy to
get a fast divorce from you.”

“Constantin, you can't go to prison,” Oblomov interfered. “You're dead if so.”

“I'll go,” the boy offered and I admired his guts. Well, he tried suicide two and a half months ago. He
can't be too sane. Lives with Repin.

“Guntram, he's bluffing. He has not a single evidence to back his words.”

“I don't have them. Your wife has them. I provided them for her. Your whole structure goes down with
you. She wants to make an arrangement with the Russian Authorities. I could stop that too.”

“Olga Fedorovna would do anything to ruin you Constantin,” the boy said sounding truly sad for the
slug.

“It's only a year Constantin, till you pay me back. I will return him in one piece, solve your marital
problems and reduce your rates. What more can you ask from me?”

“I swear I'll destroy your life Lintorff.”

“You already tried and failed. Next time, I will not go for a settlement. Move boy, my plane awaits.”

“It's for the best boss. Our position is very frail at the moment.” Oblomov said.

“Guntram can't do it. He's very sick!”

“I will be fine, my friend. I survived it once,” the boy whispered clutching Repin's hand. “Think on you
and your children. If you go to jail, who's going to look after them? It's only a year.”

“I will let you write to him or with the children. I'm not such a heartless man,” Konrad said. Pardon
me?

“I don't believe for a minute you have anything against me, Lintorff.”

“5897354-CLX Does it remind you of something?” Konrad just said. That looks like an account in
Luxembourg. Repin paled. “So boy, say good-bye to your benefactor and meet me in the car,” Konrad finished.

I don't know what those two said to each other, but Goran came to the car firmly holding the boy by the
elbow. The poor thing looked really sick and on the brink of a collapse or a heart attack. He entered the limo and sat
in front of Konrad and I, with Goran next to him. He breathed raggedly and I saw him taking a small box out of his
jacket pocket and putting a small pill inside his mouth.

“What's that?” Konrad asked.

“It's against high blood pressure. I have a chronic heart condition, sir. I need to get my medications,
please.”

“A doctor will asses your condition in the morning in Zürich. Give your pills to Pavicevic. I will not
have you taking anything we have not controlled first.”

“Sir, it's only nifedipine and a calcium antagonist. I suffer from MCH and already had one heart attack.

Nothing to get me high.”

“I'm not concerned about drugs abuse in your case, but you have a history of suicide attempts. I prefer
to be on the safe side. You are my collateral for a year at least.”

“At least?”

“If Repin pays me back, you return. If not, you stay. Will be interesting to see what he loves more: you or
two billion. I would be surprised if he has some money left to pay for the interest in a year.”

This is how we “acquired” Guntram Philippe Alphonse de Lisle Guttenberg Sachsen. I had no idea
Repin's wife had such material, but she has it, and according to Konrad, Goran should take care of the matter. After
all, you never know with such things. Traitors and snitches are bad for business. The Serb is more than happy with the
commission. I hope he's not transferring his feelings for his dead brother, Pavel, into this boy. The circumstances are
pretty similar.