The Hunters

29

On the outside, the train cars looked plain, even a little drab.

Inside, however, was a different matter.

They entered the first car, which had been cannibalized from an old Grand Express train. The eleven square windows on each side were individually curtained in red and gold. Two lighting fixtures ran parallel to each other across the length of the ceiling, divided by a burnished wood panel that was dotted with TV screens that could swing down.

The seats had been gutted, and an elaborate, L-shaped desk and workstation had been installed on the deep red, wall-to-wall carpet. The farthest section of the carriage had tables and couches for anything the team might require.

Papineau was at the desk, staring at a computer screen while a sleek earpiece glowed in his ear. The telltale blue light let everyone know that he was on the phone, performing his latest miracle in foreign bureaucracy. Meanwhile, Garcia sat at the workstation, with McNutt leaning over his shoulder. They were staring at what appeared to be a videogame cutscene — a computer animation that bridges two game segments with backstory. But once Cobb approached, he saw that it was an eye-tearing series of fast-action chases along hyper-realistic railroad tracks.

‘What’s that?’ Cobb asked.

Without turning his face from the screen, Garcia explained. ‘It’s a program I just finished. It tracks every possible route a gold train could take from Moscow in 1917. I interfaced maps of that period with satellite images from today. My program converts that information to point-of-view graphics. If all goes well, we will figure out the treasure train’s original route and, topographically speaking, know exactly what is ahead of us at all times.’

‘Very impressive,’ Cobb said.

‘I call it… Goldfinder.’ Garcia laughed at the name. He was the only one who did. ‘You know, like the James Bond movie. Except it’s finder, not finger.’

‘Gotcha,’ Cobb said.

‘I’ve been working on a theme song, too. Want to hear it?’

‘Not really.’

‘Goldfinder!’ Garcia crooned. ‘I’m the man, the man with the—’

‘Missing teeth,’ Sarah shouted from across the car. Cobb turned to see her studying a map on one of the sofas. ‘He’s been trying out verses for the past thirty minutes. He’s driving me crazy.’

McNutt laughed off her threat, anxious to rile her up. He patted Garcia on the shoulder and said, ‘Sing all you want, Jose. I’ve got your back.’

Garcia glanced up at him. ‘Thanks. But my name’s Hector, not Jose.’

McNutt growled playfully. ‘Don’t correct me again. And never look me in the eyes.’

Cobb shook his head and walked toward Sarah. He could sense something was wrong. ‘What’s bothering you?’

She sighed. ‘I’m trying to figure out every possible way someone could move that much treasure out of the country. The possibilities are endless.’

Cobb smiled. ‘You’re thinking like a thief, not a royal strategist.’ He pointed toward the screen where Goldfinder was calculating the best route for an engine of that era while factoring in weather conditions and the topography of the region. ‘Consider any person who wanted to steal the bulk of the treasure. He would take a very different approach from anyone who just wanted to lighten the load by a gold coin or two.’

‘Like what?’ she asked.

‘Disinformation,’ Cobb said. ‘About the train, the treasure, and several other things. Whoever stole it would have taken the easiest, fastest route, the one ensuring the most success. Then they would have started rumors about how or why the treasure never made it. Avalanche, Bolsheviks, Romanian loyalists — there are any number of reasons. That being said, I tend to accept the simplest theory about the missing treasure: that the people transporting the gold were the same ones who took it. What do you think, Jasmine?’

Standing off to the side, Jasmine was lost in thought while staring out one of the windows. She flinched at the mention of her name. ‘What’s that?’

Cobb smiled. ‘What do you think about my theory?’

‘I agree,’ she said, recovering quickly. ‘Near the end of the war, the Germans were getting perilously close to Moscow. There were many rumors that the Bolsheviks and the tsarists dispersed several treasures to the provinces, where they may have been lost or already stolen.’

Even Papineau looked up at that. ‘And if those rumors are true?’

Sarah threw up her hands. ‘Then we’ll never find it! It’s almost certain that those treasures have already been lost or stolen. What are we going to do, a house-to-house search in every village along every route, looking for clues as to where the gold went from there?’

Cobb sighed. ‘Come on, Sarah. You’re still thinking like a thief. Sure, maybe like a thief from a century ago, but still a thief. You should be reverse-engineering this: thinking like someone who wants to protect it from thieves.’ He pointed at Jasmine. ‘She might be able to figure this out, because she’s the only one of you that doesn’t want the treasure for personal gain.’

Sarah exploded. ‘Cut the mind games, Jack! Just tell us!’

Cobb suddenly became serious — dead serious. ‘Is that what you think these are? Mind games?’

‘Yeah,’ she said, challenging his methods. ‘If one of us had information, you’d want it immediately, not dangled like catnip.’

‘The lesson in tactics and logistics is the information!’ he snarled back. ‘I don’t know where the damn treasure is. And I won’t know unless I get some good minds thinking along the same track. That’s the only way this is going to work!’

‘The same track,’ McNutt laughed. ‘That’s funny.’

Cobb glared at McNutt, then he glanced around at the team, ending on Sarah. ‘Stop thinking about how to steal the gold and start thinking about how you’d protect it if you already had it.’

There was a thick, unhappy silence for several seconds.

Eventually, McNutt broke the tension with a laugh. ‘Are you kidding, Jack? I wouldn’t protect that treasure for more than a minute. That gold would be like honey to a bear. Only in this case, the bears it attracted would be heavily armed and ready to attack. In all seriousness, I’d take what I could grab and leave the rest. I’d grab some gold and roll.’

‘Shit,’ Jasmine said. ‘We got it all wrong.’

‘We got what wrong?’ McNutt demanded. ‘You mean the thing about the bears? Trust me, I know that bears can’t shoot a gun. I’m not an idiot. Their paws are way too big to pull a trigger.’ Sadly, he didn’t stop there. ‘Then again, under the right circumstances, I bet they could train a circus bear to fire a cannon. Believe it or not, I’ve seen one ride a bike, so I don’t see why they couldn’t teach one to light a fuse.’ He laughed at the picture in his head. It looked like a cartoon. ‘Imagine that: a bear firing a cannon. That’s priceless.’

At that point, the whole group tuned him out.

Cobb looked to Jasmine for clarification. ‘What were you saying?’

She looked at Cobb. ‘You were right: we got it all wrong!’

Before she could explain, the entire train compartment lurched when the diesel engine coupled with the other cars. Jasmine nearly fell to the floor, but she hardly noticed.

She was too overjoyed by her insight.