Into the Lion's Den (86 page)

“I'm going nowhere with a stranger!” Guntram shouted and took another pill swallowing it dry.

“He's no stranger to you. We are here. Follow me and don't make a sound or raise any suspicions. I have your new papers with me,” Nicholas said as Chano parked in the second level of the Central Train Station garage. The lawyer got out of the car and went around opening the door for the shocked boy, while Chano did the same and opened the trunk to get a paper bag from “La Martina-Buenos Aires”.

“Clara knitted it for you, Guntram. Be a good boy and don't get into troubles any more. I love you like a son,” the large man said and hugged the inert boy standing next to the grey car. “Bye, Nico, almost like in the old times.”

“Return the car in Linz and take the train from there,” Nicholas said in French and Guntram was tempted to tell him that Chano couldn't speak a word, but his lawyer answered in perfect French that he had much more experience than him in operations.

“Remember who taught you all the tricks.”

“Remember who saved your ass from that terrorism and kidnapping charges,” Nicholas smiled. “Thank you for your help.”

“Don't mention it, my pleasure. Give my regards to Jerôme,” Chano said hurriedly and went inside the car once more to drive it away.

Guntram was gaping at Nicholas, unable to process the last words or what had just perspired. “Come, little one, I'll take you to your father,” Nicholas said, gently pulling from the pale youth. “You two have a train to catch and I a plane back to Paris.”

Michel Lacroix had never been so nervous in his life. He didn't know what could be the outcome of the meeting or how Guntram could react. 'I can't leave him with Lintorff after he killed Roger and those two journalists.

He's too deranged to be left to his own devises. He could kill Guntram.'

He paced once more in the deserted third level of the parking lot and his nose wrinkled at the penetrating smell of the car fuel, oil and wet concrete, assaulting his senses in the cold noon. 'Please God, Nicholas and Luciano should have gotten him first.'

The elevator door opened and his heart almost stopped to see his child, almost dragged by Nicholas, only dressed with a jacket and tie despite the cold weather. He automatically removed his own coat to give it to him while he advanced toward the men.

Guntram looked at the medium size man walking toward them with a confident stride, exactly as he remembered him when he was a small child and his father would come to the school or the park to pick him up. The man was not as tall as he remembered and the face had aged and hair had turned grey when before was black as ebony, but the eyes were as green and piercing as before. He stopped in the middle of the parking lot, unable to believe his eyes.

“
Viens ici, ma gosse,
” Michel repeated the words he was always telling his son each time he visited him in Buenos Aires. “
Tu as bien grandi
!”

“
J'ai éte sage
,” Guntram let the words flow automatically before he realised that it was what he was always telling to get a present from his father. He raised his hands to touch the ghost in front of him and the man let him roam all over his face, checking the bones structure so similar to his.

“
Comme d'habitude, mon petit prince.
”

“You can't be him!” Guntram almost cried. “I saw your tombstone!”

“I received your letter my son. We must go before they come. If someone from the Order sees me, I'm as good as dead,” Michel said softly and embraced his frightened son for a brief moment. “We have to dodge the Russians too. They must be like crazy looking for you, too.”

“Papa?” Guntram asked once more very disoriented while Michel was almost forcing him inside his coat.

“We'll speak later. Get my coat; it's very cold for you,” He shushed his child. “We're going to Munich by train and from there to Frankfurt.

“You're dead!”

“Not yet, and I don't want to start now. I'll explain everything to you, but we must flee before they come.

I'm hoping they follow Chano if they took the license plate.”

“Or me to the airport, if they are clever enough, but those Siberian monkeys around the corner were very nervous. The fanatics were too busy checking on the Russians,” Lefèbre smirked. “We'll see each other in five days, Michel.”

“In Brussels, Nicholas.”

“Shout with the Russian. He's an idiot. Lost Guntram in less than thirty minutes,” Lefèbre snorted.

“Thank you, my friend,” Michel said.

“Take good care of him now. Good-bye, Guntram, be good to your father, he missed you horribly all these years,” Lefèbre removed his own coat and gave it to Michel. “I have the car and a flight later today. You have to cross half Germany and it's snowing.”

“Thank you again, Come Guntram we must hurry.”

Goran ran the stairs down toward the lobby, almost knocking down a small table standing in the hall, but Guntram was nowhere to be seen, with the corner of his eye, he saw Repin and his men go to the exit and leave the hotel while a large Mercedes stopped and one of the goons opened the door for the gangster. The Serb took his phone out and ordered his men to follow the Russian.

'If he has Guntram, he's dead, we have to get him back. Shit! How could he do something so stupid!'

He went to the door and the doorman opened the door for him and the idea landed on his brain.

“Excuse me, did you see a young man, blond, blue eyes with a tweed brown jacket and light blue tie? He should have been here no more than fifteen minutes ago. Did you see with whom he walked away?”

With no one, sir. He was alone. He took a car; a grey Opel Corsa. He knew the driver,” the doorman answered.

'Grey Corsa? What the hell? Who drives such thing?' Goran looked at the man puzzled. “Are you sure about the car's model?”

“Certainly, sir. It parked in front of us. Rented. Had a tag from “Cheapo—Rent a Car”. We don't have many of those stopping here.”

'This would be the first time I hear the Russians drive such things. Opel Corsa?'

“Opel Corsa?” Milan asked astonished as all the men looked at Goran as if he were mad. “This will be impossible to track! There are hundred of these things!”

“He's not with the Russians,” Konrad let a sigh of infinite relief escape.

“But with whom? The doorman said Guntram knew the man. It was a rented car,” Goran retorted.

“Rented?” Konrad asked shocked. “Who runs away in a rented Opel Corsa?”

“Someone crazier than the Russians,” Heindrik muttered. “I'll check the hotel's security cameras, my Griffin.”

“Milan, go to the airport with two men. Check it thoroughly,” Goran ordered. “I'll check the train station and the bus station with your team Holgersen.”

Konrad needed to sit in the couch the minute the men dashed out of the room, without waiting for his permission. His gaze wandered across the partly trashed room and saw over the table his family's seal. Discarded. He rose and took it, briefly looking at it, before he slid it into his breast pocket. He took the papers and pictures scattered all over the floor. 'I have to see what this animal has told him. I have to recover my kitten before he reaches to him.'

Chapter 29

On the limit of his forces, Guntram collapsed in the train's small compartment and needed to rest his head against the window, looking at his father, still unable to believe that he was there and not in Père Lachaise along with his mother.

“Are you all right?” Michel asked for the second time and Guntram only nodded. “We will be in Munich in an hour and we will have to hurry to catch the train to Frankfurt. I have the tickets with me. Take yours in case we have to split at the station.

“Why?” Guntram spoke for the first time since they had left Vienna

“Just precaution. I'm not expecting them to have followed us. You only go to the train and travel to Frankfurt. If I don't join you in the train, I want you to go to this address. It's a small hotel. Spend the night there and in the morning go to this bank and get everything that it's inside of the safe box. It's money and several documents.

Give them to Nicholas Lefèbre in Brussels and leave Europe. Go to the United States. I have friends who can help you there. They're against the Order and will hide you from them or the Russian.”

“Why would you be away?”

“I'm not going away, I'm just being cautious. By now, Repin must be looking for you like crazy and Lintorff has realised you're not with him and doing the same. The Order has many resources to check official databases. I'm sure they're already checking all the records of airline companies or your bank account's movements.”

“Is my uncle really dead, father?” Guntram asked very weakly.

“Yes, car accident. I found it out when the journalists he was working with, told his wife. She told me two weeks ago and I knew that I had to remove from there.”

“Why did he do it?”

“I don't know. I guess your uncle tried to speak with you and Lintorff panicked and killed him. He was after Roger since 1989. He never respected the agreement of letting him and his family go in exchange of you. The car he was in had a flat tire and crashed against the tunnel walls at one hundred forty km per hour. There were no survivors. The journalist's family told her and she wrote me a letter to the PO Box you know. You sent me a letter this December.

“Are you Michel Lacroix?”

“Since 1989. The other name does not exist any longer. You will have to call me like this because this is how most people know me nowadays. Only Nicholas and Luciano know Jerôme de Lisle.

“Did you send Jacques to me?”

“Yes, Repin suspects it. My law firm takes care of many of his companies taxes.”

“Do you have a law firm?”

“Yes, along with Nicholas. We know each other since a long time. We even take care of some of the members' tax declarations and three of Lintorff's companies. Nicholas takes care of the public relations.”

“Do you work for Konrad too?” Guntram asked horrified.

“You would be surprised how many things a corporate lawyer knows. More than a wife, a confessor or a mistress. People don't care who you are as long as you save them money on their taxes and fix what they screw up in their greed. No one, but Lintorff remembers Jerôme de Lisle.”

“I understand, father,” Guntram whispered and dedicated all his attention to the passing landscape.

In the afternoon the train arrived to Munich and Michel asked his son to follow him from a distance.

Guntram did exactly as his father had told and was surprised that he was buying a set of tickets in the machine and paying for them with cash.

“The train leaves in forty-five minutes. We can eat something, if you want. You don't look very well, my son.”

“I feel very tired,” Guntram confessed.

“Once we are in the train, you can sleep till we get to Frankfurt. Let's have a coffee and we go.”

They sat at a small café, full with people rushing to finish their coffees or just killing time and Guntram still felt as if he were walking on clouds. He was oscillating from a sense of déjà vu to unreality. Without asking, Michael ordered very fast in German some apple cake and hot chocolate for his son.

“Do you speak German?” Guntram asked puzzled.

“Your grandmother was German. I spoke German before French. With your uncle Roger I was still speaking German, but Pascal always preferred French. I was never too close to him although the age difference was smaller. I liked more Roger,” Michel told softly and stopped the minute the waiter returned with the order.

Guntram just looked at the steaming cup and the sense of déjà vu assaulted him once more. The scene was exactly as when he was a child and his father was taking him to a café near their flat to have a chocolate and a piece of cake. As a child he had loved it because it was one of the rare occasions he was leaving the large flat for something else than going to the large square, passing the French Embassy and overlooked the Decorative Arts Museum, or school. The memories were so strong that he had to close the eyes for a second. “You remembered,” he whispered.

“I'm not going to buy you a strawberry ice cream, Guntram,” Michel said seriously and smiled because Guntram was always willing to get one, even in the middle of the winter or if he had a strong cough. “I never forgot you and I missed you each day of my life. I only wanted the best for you and to have the opportunity to recover you one day. I wanted you away from this world and I wanted that you would be an ordinary man, working and getting a normal life, something I never had.”

Guntram started to eat the cake and remained silent once more. “Your grandfather, the Vicomte, had a large fortune. Imagine, I never was in a bus or in a train till I turned eighteen and went to the University! I needed a dictionary to understand my friends at the Sorbonne. “
Vous parlez comme Molière
,” told me one of the girls. I had no idea what was “
un mec
or
“le flic
” I was a complete outsider. I didn't want you to suffer this too. I had to learn everything from zero. I lived all my childhood and adolescence among velvets and silks.”

“Why did you leave me? I only wanted to be with you!”

“I also, but I was forced to do it to save our lives. I will tell all what you want to know when we're at home, not here.”

“Where's home?”

“Aschaffenburg. My mother was born there. I bought a property several years ago and refurnished anew.”

“Can you do it?”

“Our firm has top customers. We make good money. Over the years I have rebuilt part of what Lintorff destroyed in 1989 and I always kept all what I inherited from my mother away from the Order. Hurry up Guntram or we might miss the train.”

Obedient as always, as his years in school, with Constantin and later with Konrad had taught him that it was the wisest thing to do, the youth finished his cup of hot chocolate and the cake while his father left a €20 note over the table. “Are you not cold, father? I think I can wear the jersey and return your coat.”

“No, it's all right. Let's go.”

The walked at a fast pace and had to run the last fifty metres to catch the train just before the engines started. They sat on the comfortable first class and Guntram almost fell immediately asleep on his father's shoulder for the whole trip, concerning Michel because his boy was almost drained from the day.