Tyranny of Coins (The Judas Chronicles) (Volume 5) Paperback (16 page)

“It is best to please the host, indeed,” he said, smiling smugly as he announced his response to my thoughts before the group. Most were getting used to it by now, although Amy and Beatrice exchanged curious glances until they saw the acknowledgement on my face. “We should break for lunch and send the boys on their way. Shall we?”

He motioned politely for our ladies to go first and the rest to follow. As he shut the lights behind us, I took one last glance at the pair of sun circles glowing in the sudden darkness. From a distance, the glistening blue symbols of the Third Reich reminded me of my coins, still hidden somewhere in the castle. Could they somehow be responsible for the familiar light?

It became the only thing I could think about, until it was time to leave for Auschwitz.

Chapter Fifteen

I was reluctant to release Beatrice from the tight embrace we shared. Cultivating a mutual fear of what lay ahead, it felt wrong to leave her behind with Krontos. As the guys and I headed north, my mind was repeatedly drawn to her and the Nazi sun crosses we had seen upstairs in the castle. Had Krontos defiled my blood coins to where they now performed a diabolical function far beyond their original accursed status? After all, what else could cause their steel casings to glow with a cobalt sheen?

“A better question is why does Krontos wish to deal with a coin that has only brought blessings to the Jewish family carrying it for so many years?” said Roderick, picking up on my silent musings. For the trip north, Roderick usurped the driving privileges, and I joined him up front. Alistair and Cedric sat behind us. “With his obvious affections for Hitler and the Nazis’ agenda, you would think he would fear retribution from The Almighty.”

I had considered the same thing, and wondered if it would similarly curse the murdering thief who took it from
Franz Reifenstahl. But after Krontos provided us with no more details surrounding the murders than we already gathered on our own, finding out who killed the dealer and took the coin seemed virtually impossible. Without a miracle, we would be searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

“Are you pilfering Pops’ head again?” Alistair quipped, drawing a chuckle from Cedric. “Because if you are, it would be polite to let those of us in the backseat know what silent question prompted your response.”

Roderick and I exchanged amused glances and smirks.

“All right, Ali. I was thinking about something you guys probably missed detecting inside Krontos’ ‘tyrant relics’ room,” I said. “Something unusual.”

“What? That his Nazi crosses were glowing blue?”

Damn. Cedric saw that shit?

“Yeah, it’s one way to describe them,” I said, feeling sorry for my kid, who looked irritated being excluded again. “To be honest, I’m not sure what to think of the room’s contents.”

“Well, it seems fitting that a crazy old immortal would be the asshole to influence the worst genocidal campaign in history—even if it wasn’t his original intent to kill every Jew in Europe,” said Alistair, deflecting the conversation away from what his eyes couldn’t discern.

“The hell you say, son.” My inner temperature began to rise as my pity evaporated. “It was always Krontos’ intent to kill each and every Jew residing in Europe.
Always
. He could’ve stopped it, too, and did not. He hates—”

“Those of Hebrew descent?” interrupted Roderick. “Absolutely, which is why I’m reminding you to
never
trust him. Krontos is asking us to retrieve one of the few noble objects to emerge from the war, and you know his intent will never benefit the good of mankind. It’s obviously the centerpiece of his latest master plan. I’m surprised, though, that you didn’t hear the louder call of two coins this time. Maybe carrying the Dragon Coin on your person muted the others’ response, or hindered your ability to hear either one’s call.”

“I heard at least one of my other coins call to me this morning,” I confessed. “At least one is in the castle, and I believe they both are. Likely, they’re somewhere near the circle crosses. Otherwise, what else could cause these Nazi occult symbols to glow like that? Once Krontos entered the room, the sensation of ownership ceased, but those damned crosses continued to glow. Maybe Krontos has created something that mimics the glow of my blood coins.”

“Sounds like this old buddy of yours is having a ball messing with your head,” said Cedric. “Hell, man, it’s Halloween. Maybe none of the shit we saw in the castle is real. Of course, if that’s true, then we are four of the sorriest dumbasses to ever live, pursuing a wild goose chase while Beatrice and Amy are at this monster’s mercy.”

“Krontos has never been a friend,” I said. Sourness seized my stomach. “This feels more and more like a mistake. Rod, what if Cedric’s right?”

Roderick hesitated before responding, perhaps still sorting through Cedric’s observation.

“Anything is possible,” he said, for the moment maintaining our present course. It would be roughly an hour’s journey to the castle, should we abort our trip to Poland and immediately return. “But before we throw caution to the wind and head back to face an angry and potentially violent menace, we need to consider everything very seriously. We can’t afford to take Krontos’ latest threats lightly. I doubt we’d get the same mercy we received last night for disobeying his edict to stay put in America. He seemed almost hostile this afternoon in his directive to not return to Hungary without a winning lead to tracking down the coin’s location.

“Yeah, he was a complete asshole,” Cedric agreed.

“Who cares if Krontos was a jerk? Pops, maybe you should’ve said something about your misgivings to him before we left,” said Alistair, accusingly. His ruddy complexion was turning ashen. “Better yet, you could’ve listened to Mom and headed back to Berlin yesterday from Auschwitz, instead of pressing forward into Hungary. I think we made a big mistake in coming.”

His handsome brown eyes that had always encouraged comparisons to Sean Connery, and made me think of my older brother Joseph, misted without their usual gleam. His shoulders heaved, but then he caught himself. An admirable effort to keep the churning emotional deluge at bay.

“I know you’re worried about Amy and your mom,” I told him, mindful to sound compassionate, and holding back my indignation at being chastised like a damned fool. “I’m worried too, Ali. But Krontos doesn’t make idle threats. We had no choice other than to cooperate with his whims.”

“Krontos strikes me as a solution kind of guy,” Cedric interjected. “As in
Final Solution
. Since we won’t reach Auschwitz until after the place closes, maybe we’ve been set up for failure. And, that’s taking in consideration what I heard him mention about easier detection of residual energy at night. Just sayin’.”

Admittedly, things looked increasingly grim. Not to mention, Krontos didn’t give us much to go on from the outset, despite earlier assurances to the contrary. In addition to the bullshit about detecting extinct energy trails at night, only our accommodations in Berlin were discussed. Along with a promise for more information to be delivered when we arrived at the hotel picked out by Krontos. The Rocco Forte Hotel.

As for our upcoming Auschwitz visit, Roderick and I were instructed to seek specific ‘psychic’ connections from the barracks to the Nazis who took possession of the Stutthof-Auschwitz coin. From there, the idea was to somehow track the faint essence of the coin using the same kind of images. Once in Berlin, our instructions were to focus on the final moments of Franz Riefenstahl’s earthly existence. Hopefully, we’d catch a glimpse of the murdering thief who lifted the coin from Riefenstahl’s corpse.

“I agree this all seems like a slipshod assignment,” I said. “Tell you what, guys… let me call Beatrice. If the conversation feels out of sorts—regardless of what she says to assure me otherwise—we’ll turn around and head back to the castle.”

Roderick hesitated at first, but everyone soon supported the idea. Fortunately, the cell reception was good enough to make the connection, though I could tell from the static between rings that a clear conversation would be difficult.

“Hey, hon’.” Beatrice answered, her tone worried. “Are you all right?” I pictured Krontos standing nearby, listening while watching her reaction.

“Yes, we’re fine. Just wanted to hear your voice, and let you know the weather is holding up. We should reach Auschwitz by eight o’clock, as planned,” I said, cheerfully.

“I miss you, too, William. It seems nuts to be visiting Auschwitz at that late hour. I hope Krontos knows what he’s talking about. Try not to get arrested for trespassing.” She laughed weakly.

I laughed with her, feeling better about her and Amy’s immediate welfare. It seemed Krontos wasn’t around after all. Still, it wasn’t wise to linger, in case he watched her remotely.

“Darling, keep your phone handy,” I advised, signaling to my comrades I was about to hang up. “I’ll call you as soon as we have some good news.”

Keeping my voice cheerful, I moved to close the call. Beatrice sounded more assured… it worked.

“You look pleased,” noted Roderick. “Anything we should be concerned about?”

“No. Beatrice sounded upbeat. So did Amy in the background,” I said. “They’re fine for now.”

“I heard you tell Mom that you’ll check in with her later tonight. When you do, I’d like to visit with Amy for just a moment,” said Alistair. Krontos had confiscated Amy’s phone at lunch, when we agreed to limit the conversations between Beatrice and myself. Two phone calls per day, until we returned to the castle.

“We’ll see, son. If Krontos isn’t hovering like a hawk, maybe you and Amy can visit for a minute.” Pained by the longing in his face, it was the same for me in regard to Beatrice. I loathed the hypocrisy I felt for my privilege to speak with my wife. “But, the sooner we complete our task, the sooner we can get back to them.”

For the next several hours we continued our trek, stopping for supper in Nowy Sacz, roughly two hours from Auschwitz. By the time we finished our meal, a heavy snowstorm that started in the afternoon made the going slow and arduous. It became
apparent we wouldn’t fulfill our assignment from Krontos that night.

“Looks like we will need to stop somewhere, and pick this up again in the morning,” I said, after Roderick translated a local radio weather report. The snow was supposed to cease around midnight, but the treacherous driving conditions wouldn’t improve until mid-morning the next day. “Either that, or find a local peasant pulling a sled.”

“We should try to reach Krakow,” Roderick suggested, ignoring my joke. “One of us will have the unenviable task of contacting Krontos with the news our arrival at Auschwitz and Berlin will be delayed. Hopefully, we can visit the camp in the morning when it opens, and be on our way to Germany by tomorrow afternoon.”

“I bet that’ll be fun,” jested Cedric, while he watched the snow mercilessly pelt the Mercedes as Roderick fought to keep it on the road. “Didn’t you say the other night that Krontos’ temper was like a scorpion backed into a corner? Right? I know one of y’all said it.”

“Pops did.” Alistair seemed subdued, as if the snow had derailed much more than our Auschwitz assignment.

“I should be the one to call him, Rod,” I said, offering a hopeful smile to my kid, who waved me off. “I doubt he’ll be happy about it, but he needs to frigging remember two of us are immortal, and two are not. If the youngsters catch their death of cold, all of us will be up shit’s creek trying to make this crazy assignment work.”

Roderick agreed.

“He shouldn’t get too upset,” added Cedric, snickering. “If he does, I’d ask him how he expects us to find anything in this weather. In fact, I’d bet he never expected us to find anything out here anyway. With all the agency tricks I’ve taught you, Willie Boy, you should see right through his shit screen.”

“What the hell do you mean?” I asked, warily. My former CIA field supervisor wasn’t always the epitome of nobility during my days working for him. However, more often than not his instincts and observations were spot on. “What shit screen?”

“The one that says he never expects us to find jack at Auschwitz,” said Cedric. “I can’t see what you and Roderick see or sense. But I felt something at Auschwitz. A second visit ain’t gonna help anything. Nothing will be any clearer, man. My gut tells me Krontos knows it, too.”

“Then, why did he send us out here?” asked Alistair, worriedly.

Great. This was all we needed. More frigging drama… I began to envision strangling Cedric if he didn’t shut the hell up.

“Well, even though your dad is super pissed at me for sharing my honest thoughts, and Roderick might be, too, I bet Krontos is laughing at us. This asshole—and he’s probably listening in right now—doesn’t expect us to find anything. So, why did he send us back to Auschwitz? That answer I don’t know for sure yet. But do y’all recall what he taunted us with this morning? He said whoever took the coin in Berlin had a superior understanding of dimensions and how to move through them—much better than all of us combined. If that’s the case, what idiot worth any salt would assign a group of ‘dimensional amateurs’, like us, to do a job only a pro could handle?”

I wanted to hit him. Really I did. But, I also felt like a bigger asshole than the one he taunted. Cedric was right, and the answer about why this aura-following adventure had felt doomed from the beginning was staring us straight in the face.