Pandora's Curse

GEO-RESEARCH NORTHERN CAMP, GREENLAND

“Say again?” Gunther Rath snarled into the static filled radio. “Your last transmission not understood.”

“We have located the cavern,” came the response from Dieter, the driver of one of the Sno-Cats. “Advance team has penetrated the access tunnel and verified contents.”

Rath looked up from the radio and caught a smile on Greta’s lips. Klaus Raeder stood behind her, but his expression did not change. He had just arrived at the base after a series of weather problems delayed his flights. “Excellent, Dieter. We have your location from the tracking device on the ’Cat. I will recall all vehicles and converge on your location.”

The solar max swallowed Dieter’s reply. The tenuous link was gone.

Rath got to his feet. “Klaus, I told you I could handle this.”

“I didn’t doubt it,” Raeder replied sarcastically. Face-to-face with Rath, his confidence and certainty had returned. “It’s your tactics I question, not your abilities. Greta, would you excuse us?”

The northern camp was composed of only one of the dormitory buildings flown up from the main base by the rotor-stat. By removing a few partitions, they had converted four of the bedrooms to an operations center and makeshift galley. Greta Schmidt didn’t like being ordered to leave but knew Gunther would tell her later what Raeder had to say. She went to her room without a word.

Raeder’s voice was tight. “You will now explain why you felt it necessary to murder a planeload of people.”

“Maybe I should start by explaining why I murdered a man named Otto Schroeder outside of Munich first. And why Greta had to kill the Russian scientist, Igor Bulgarin, here in Greenland.” Rath smirked at Raeder’s stunned expression. “You don’t know how close this expedition was to being compromised from the very beginning.”

“Obviously not,” Raeder said when he found his voice.

“In the Kohl archives we burned, do you remember transcripts of Leonid Kulik’s interrogation by the Gestapo where he said he belonged to a group called the Brotherhood of Satan’s Fist? Far from dying out during the war, the Brotherhood exists to this day. I learned through contacts I maintain in Russia that this group has been feeding information to a Nazi hunter in Austria in an attempt to stop us from securing the Pandora boxes. We weren’t able to stem the flow of documents, so I had a team eavesdrop on the Jew and learned that Otto Schroeder had been a mining engineer who worked on the cavern, apparently the only living person with firsthand knowledge of what happened here.

“During our” — Rath paused to find the right word — “discussion, not only did a group of snipers open fire on us, but Anika Klein, who I have since learned is the Austrian Jew’s granddaughter, showed up. Schroeder was silenced, but Klein escaped and frustrated our attempts to locate her before she arrived in Greenland. Somehow she discovered the connection between Geo-Research and us after she arrived here and obtained the support of Philip Mercer. I had no choice but to silence them all.”

“And what about the Russian you mentioned? The one Greta killed?”

“On your orders to check the body in Camp Decade, she discovered him already checking the corpse for clues about his true identity. Realizing that Igor Bulgarin could be a member of the Brotherhood, Greta beat him to death with a tire iron.

“Dr. Klein didn’t believe the false clues Greta left to make the murder look like an accident, and she tried to return to the scene of the crime with Mercer the day after she arrived here. Greta almost succeeded in stopping them by burning Camp Decade with them inside. However, luck was with Dr. Klein again and they survived.”

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” Raeder demanded.

“These were details you pay me to handle,” Rath said smoothly, knowing that his superior’s anger was evaporating. “The evacuation plan we’d put together earlier was no longer viable since at least two people knew the truth about Bulgarin. I had to kill them before they reached Iceland. The only way to do that without causing even more suspicion was destroying the transport plane en route.”

“There had to be another way,” Raeder said, though he had already seen that there wasn’t anything else Rath could have done.

Rath put as much sincerity in his voice as he could muster. “I thought long and hard about what I did, believe me. It wasn’t an easy decision. I admit I was a little rough with Otto Schroeder, but his death was the result of the sniper attack. Bulgarin died because Greta panicked. I’ve been reacting to a situation out of my control. We both know my past, so I won’t pretend that violence isn’t an option, but I drew the line at murder long ago. I took no pleasure from what I did.”

Raeder searched Rath’s eyes, hoping to see truth in them. He decided to believe Gunther. It was easier than the alternative. Since he was here, he could better control his special-projects director. While he would allow Rath to coordinate the destruction of the evidence in the cavern, Raeder was still wary about the fate of the Pandora boxes. When it came time to dispose of them, he would make sure Rath couldn’t implement any hijacking scheme he might have planned. “Okay. What happens now?” he said at last.

“My men will empty the cave of everything we can move and burn what we can’t. Explosive charges will seal the place forever, so even if there is another survivor like Otto Schroeder, there will be no way to find the base. Then we’ll haul the Pandora boxes out to sea with the rotor-stat and dump them in the deepest water we can find.”

“How long do you think it will take?”

“Just a few days. We’ll have this building and the Sno-Cats back to the main base near Camp Decade in plenty of time if the Danish government decides to revoke our permit. And if they don’t, we’ll turn everything over to the Japanese team as scheduled. Don’t worry, Klaus.” Rath smiled. “No one will ever know what we’ve done. Kohl can pay the Jews a pittance compared to what we really owe.”

When Raeder went to the bathroom, Greta Schmidt returned to the op-center. “Well?”

“He bought the whole thing.” Gunther struggled not to laugh.

“We knew he would,” she purred, massaging his shoulders. “I was thinking. Werner Koenig is the only person here not under our direct control. He knows that we aren’t in Greenland for any scientific research.”

“Dr. Koenig’s ‘accident’ is already planned.”

“I want to do it,” Greta said quickly, her face flushed.

Laughing, Rath pulled her down to his lap and bit her ear. “You liked killing Bulgarin, didn’t you?” There was no need for her to reply. “I bet you got off when he died.”

“Not then,” she said hoarsely. “But later, in the shower.”

“You are a sick bitch.”

“That’s why you love me.”

“I don’t love you.”

Her breath was coming faster now, her eyes glassy. She was near orgasm just thinking about murdering her former lover. “All right. That’s why you fuck me then.”