The Black Sun Conspiracy

Chapter Thirty-Nine

“Please do not move,” the man behind the shotgun said calmly. “I shall permit you to raise your hands, but anything more than that and I shall shoot.”

Sam raised his hands, very slowly. He dared not turn his head, and he could not quite see the man clearly in his peripheral vision. All he could tell was that the gun was pointed low, towards his abdomen. ‘Not the stomach,’ he thought, ‘that’s a slow, miserable way to go.’ He wondered whether he would be able to reach his poison capsule if he needed it.

“I wouldn’t, if I were you.”

Sam’s blood froze at the sound of Nina’s voice. ‘What is she doing?’ He wondered. ‘We’re not exactly in a position to negotiate here!’

“If you fire that thing the recoil’s going to send you flying,” she continued. “Remember? It did last time, Professor.”

There was silence, and a moment of confusion. Then the man lowered the gun. “Nina?”

As the man came further into the room to get a closer look at Nina, Sam took the risk on looking round. He saw a frail, elderly man dressed in a smart suit, with neatly cropped white hair and an immaculately maintained beard. He pulled out a pair of glasses from his breast pocket, polished them on his handkerchief and put them on. Then his face split into a warm, delighted smile.

“Nina!” Professor Lehmann opened his arms and Nina stepped into them at once for a long, heartfelt hug. “What on earth are you doing here?”

“It’s a long story,” she said. “Do you remember Sam? I sent him down to see you once. Sam, do you remember Professor Lehmann?”

Sam did. When he had found himself in possession of a box of mementoes from a dead Nazi, Nina had referred him to Professor Lehmann to find out more about the collection of mysterious brass objects. He had liked the old man a great deal, even though he had been less enthused of his son. It was shortly before his first dangerous expedition with Purdue to Wolfenstein.

“Ah yes,” Professor Lehmann held out a hand for Sam to shake. His skin was cool and papery, and it felt as if it might break in Sam’s. “How do you do, Mr… Cleaver, was it?”

“Cleave,” said Sam. “Close enough.”

“Mr. Cleave, that’s right. Well, Mr. Cleave, why don’t you and Nina tell me what the devil is going on here, and how you come to be in my house? Come through to my study. I shall make some tea.”

By the time the kettle Professor Lehmann kept by the fire in his study had boiled, Sam and Nina had given him a précis of their situation. It had been Sam’s intention to keep things vague, letting him know that they were being forced to steal to order on pain of death. When Nina first made mention of the Order he had gasped involuntarily. He had not expected her to be so indiscreet. But she had noticed his consternation and explained why she believed that Professor Lehmann already knew about the Order.

“If Steven’s a part of it and he’s got any kind of authority at all, it’s because someone else has pulled the strings for him,” she said in a tone that brooked no argument. “Since Professor Lehmann has that painting, I’m prepared to bet that any influence Steven has actually comes from him. Am I right, Professor?”

“Sadly, my dear, you are,” said the Professor. With shaking hands he poured the hot water into a delicate china teapot and added four spoonfuls of tea leaves. “It was never in my son’s nature to look far beyond the things I could do for him. As for my association with the Black Sun… Yes, they recruited me during my time at Peenemunde in the Forties. I never progressed beyond the Fourth Level, which is the highest anyone can reach while remaining safely in a research facility and not in the field.”

“What were you researching?” Sam asked.

“Aeronautics. The development of new types of military aircraft. I worked for many years on designing planes that could evade radar detection. It was my expertise and my acceptance of a place within the Order that ensured my safety when Hitler fell. They take care of their own. They got me out as part of Operation Paperclip and allowed me to continue the work I had been doing. The only thing that changed was that I answered to a different paymaster — a far more generous one, if truth be told.”

“So how did you come to be here?” Nina accepted her cup and perched on the footstool. “I thought you lived out near Reading somewhere.”

“I do,” he said. “At Cold Ash, with Steven and my granddaughter, Lavinia.”

He made no mention of Frida, Steven’s equally insidiously inclined wife, but neither Sam nor Nina bothered to ask. “But thanks to the ample remuneration offered by the Black Sun, I was able to buy this house shortly after the war, at a time when properties like this could still be come by cheaply. I use it to store a few of my favorite things, and I stay here when I come up to town to see my doctor. It is one of my pleasures to escape to this place every so often.”

Sam listened, fascinated. It was not just the details that Professor Lehmann disclosed about his life that he found intriguing, it was everything that was unstated, everything implied. The man had clearly had a fascinating life, and yet Sam detected some reticence, some distaste for the Order in his manner. ‘Is it possible, then?’ Sam wondered. ‘Can you take advantage of these people’s protection, get what you can out of them, but not lose your integrity to them? Or at least hang on to enough of yourself that you can reject their ideas even as you take their money? Plenty of people work for companies whose ethics they don’t believe in. Is this really any different? But even if they’re as bad as they seem, shouldn’t we stay alive and fight them? Is that what Lehmann did?’

“Now tell me more about this mission of yours,” Lehmann insisted, sipping his tea. “You say you have been sent to obtain one of my paintings? Presumably the van Eyck?”

“That’s right,” said Nina. “At least, we think it is. I would assume that it’s some kind of test of worthiness. It’s frustrating, because there’s such a lot we don’t know and we haven’t been able to research anything properly because of being on the run… but as far as we can tell, the Black Sun harbors a number of… I don’t know how to put it. Occult beliefs? Esoteric beliefs?” Nina once again played dumb, concealing what she and Sam had learned of the Black Sun’s origins and beliefs. She did not pass a glance to Sam, but he could read by her tone that she was acting far more uninformed than she was and it would be best if he followed suit in non-disclosure. “Either way, a lot of it seems to be based in Norse mythology, and the Norse gods were keen on earning wisdom and knowledge the hard way. Odin swapped an eye for a drink from the Mirmir’s well in order to gain the Wisdom of Ages, and he hung from a tree — okay, it wasn’t just a tree, it was Yggdrasil but anyway — for something like nine days and even pierced himself with his spear in order to learn the mysteries of the runes!”

Lehmann nodded. “Games like these are not uncommon, but as you have seen, they are played in deadly earnest. My own task was to deliver an item I would never see to a location I was lucky to get in and out of alive. Now…” He rose and began to pace the room. “You will be killed if you return without the painting. You cannot outrun the Order. Therefore you must return with the painting.”

“But it’s yours,” said Sam. “I know it doesn’t make sense to have scruples about stealing from someone we know when we were ready to nick it from a stranger, but…” He trailed off. He might not have known Professor Lehmann well, but Nina clearly did and it seemed absolutely wrong to take advantage of his frailty.

“Fortunately that can be managed,” the Professor smiled. “More tea, Mr. Cleave? I shall give the painting to you — on loan, at least. As much as it would pain me to lose it, I would be willing to allow you to make temporary use of it. Take it back to Belgium with you, and we shall reclaim it at some later date when the two of you are in less danger.”

Nina gave a cynical chuckle. “I notice you don’t say when we’re out of danger.”

“Indeed I do not.” Settling himself back into the armchair, he reached over and patted Nina’s hand. “I think you already know that you’re in this for the long haul. At least…” He shook his head. “No. There is nothing to be said on that matter. It is better to accept that this is your fate. Take the painting, and we shall work out how to retrieve it later.”

“Thank you,” Nina said, taking his hand and squeezing it tightly. Tears of relief pricked the backs of her eyes.

Professor Lehmann returned the grip on her hand and smiled as broadly and as bravely as he could. “I wish you could have been my daughter-in-law, Nina… except that would have meant your being married to my son. Accept the loan of the painting a token of affection and an apology for Steven.” He sighed and emptied his cup. “It is, I think, the least I can do.”