Beneath Still Waters

“Braden and I had a bit of a run-in at a press conference when I asked him some uncomfortable questions,” Paul replied.

“When was this?”

“A year, maybe eighteen months ago.” He shrugged, then waved it off. “I’m sure he’s forgotten about it by now.”

Annja wasn’t so sure of that—Garin tended to carry a grudge longer than anyone she knew—but she agreed and left it alone for the time being. If it was an issue, they’d deal with it later. “Might as well relax,” she told him. “We’ve got a few hours of flight time ahead of us, it seems.”

While Paul wandered around, checking out the cabin, Annja pulled her laptop out of her backpack and fired it up. She connected to the flight’s onboard Wi-Fi and began researching the Junkers aircraft and its capabilities. Getting a better sense of its strengths and weaknesses would allow her to better pinpoint how far it might have gone after being damaged in the dogfight with Captain Mitchell and his wingman, which in turn might allow them to narrow their search area.

Or, if we’re particularly unlucky, make it even bigger.

She was thankful that there was a fair bit of information available.

The Junkers Ju 88 was a twin-engine multirole combat aircraft built by the German firm Junkers Flugzeugund Motorenwerke for use by the Luftwaffe in World War II. It had been intended to be a fast bomber that could outrun any Allied fighters that tried to chase it. According to most of the sources Annja checked, it had been moderately successful.

Despite being plagued by several problems in the later part of its development, the aircraft and its many variants were in constant production from 1939 to the end of the war in 1945. More than 160,000 were built, more than any other German twin-engine aircraft of the time period. It served successfully as a bomber, dive bomber, night fighter, heavy fighter and reconnaissance aircraft. They had seen heavy action during the Battle of Norway, the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain, as well as in various campaigns on the Eastern Front.

The Junkers had a top speed of 292 miles per hour, a ceiling of 29,000 feet, and a maximum range of 1,700 miles. It had been built to be flown by a crew of either three or four, though one man could manage it on his own if the rear-facing cockpit guns and the weapons bay under the nose were left unmanned. Annja’s research told her that one of the key features of the Junkers aircraft was its ability to keep fighting even after taking heavy damage. That explained how the target aircraft had managed to stay aloft despite being savaged by the pair of P51s under Mitchell’s command. That concerned her somewhat, as the Junkers’s hardiness might mean it had managed to go even farther than they suspected after the destruction of the Mustangs.

All in all, it seemed like a pretty hardy aircraft. It made her wonder what the pilot’s destination had been. Where had he been trying to go with all that gold, if that, indeed, had been what he’d been carrying?

She called up a map of Europe and the Middle East on her screen. She looked at it for several minutes, trying to work out reasonable routes in her head. With a possible range of 1,700 miles, the pilot certainly had his choice of destinations available to him. If he’d flown due south, he could have reached the deep deserts beyond Tripoli in Libya. Flying due west would have taken him nearly to Atyrau, Kazakhstan. An agent of the Reich might have found assistance in either location and could have flown on from there after refueling. While dangerous, both would have been safer than the route he had chosen; southeast through Austria and into the teeth of the Allied army marching north toward Berlin. It didn’t make a lot of sense.

Nothing made a lot of sense in those days, she reminded herself. The war was all but lost and the Reich was falling apart. The guy probably loaded up what he could and made a run for it. Stop trying to read more into it or you’ll drive yourself nuts, Annja thought.

With that warning ringing in her ears, she put the laptop away and sat back to enjoy the rest of the flight. She knew all too well that there would far too little time for rest in the days ahead.

Chapter 8 (#ulink_3129b513-c038-5087-b4f1-bafe4e4224fc)

Griggs’s estimate had been right on the money; they landed at Miami International Airport just under three hours later. A black SUV with dark tinted windows was waiting for them next to the helipad. Griggs escorted them to the vehicle and then climbed in beside the driver. Annja assumed they would be taken to wherever Garin was staying, so she was surprised when the driver raced around several parked Airbuses and delivered them to a sleek business jet waiting for them on the other side of the terminal.

Annja was about to ask what was going on when she noticed the corporate logo of a gold dragon poised in midflight on the tail of the aircraft. It was the same one that had been on the tail rotor of the helicopter they’d just left behind.

DragonTech Security.

When the car stopped, Griggs escorted them up the steps and into the aircraft.

Garin Braden was waiting for them.

“Ah, Annja,” he said, as a broad smile swept across his face. “So good to see you.”

Garin was a big man, both physically and charismatically. He seemed to fill the room wherever he was. His dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail and his beard was immaculately groomed, as usual. This day he was dressed in a dark shirt and jeans, which was unusual for him. Annja was more used to seeing him in impeccably cut suits.

Everybody needs a dress down day, she thought with a smile.

Annja introduced Paul to him, noting that Garin held the other man’s hand just a moment longer than normal.

Had he recognized Paul? she wondered.

Garin didn’t say anything or acknowledge that the two had previously met, so Annja let it go. He ushered them into chairs opposite his own and got right down to business. “You said it was urgent. Tell me what is going on.”

Annja laid it all out for him: Doug’s kidnapping, the phone call, the package, the fact that the kidnapper knew she was in Jamaica, the demand that she find and recover the plane and its contents. The only thing she left out was the fact that she was romantically involved with Paul. She didn’t need Garin critiquing her choice of companions, but she knew he would do so anyway. No sense in giving him more ammunition for the task.