poisoning. But the long ride in the RIB and the fresh sea air had helped to blow the worst of the toxins away.
Jaeger found Narov in her hospital room, propped against a pile of spotless pillows. Sunlight streamed in through the partially open window.
All things considered, she was looking remarkably well. A little pinched and pale, perhaps. Heavy rings around the eyes. She still sported the odd bandage where the shrapnel had hit her. But just three weeks after the attack, she was well on the road to recovery.
Jaeger took the seat beside her bed. Narov didn’t say anything.
‘How are you feeling?’ he prompted.
She didn’t so much as glance at him. ‘Alive.’
‘Gives a lot away,’ Jaeger grumbled.
‘Okay, how is this? My head hurts, I’m bored shitless, and I’m desperate to get out of here.’
In spite of himself, Jaeger had to smile. It never ceased to amaze him how exasperating this woman could be. Her flat, expressionless, overly formal tones lent her words just a hint of menace, yet there was no doubting her self-sacrifice or her bravery. By diving on that body and smothering the grenade, she had saved the lot of them. They owed Narov their lives,
And Jaeger didn’t like being so in debt to someone who was such an enigma.
11
‘The doctors say you’re not going anywhere fast,’ Jaeger volunteered., ‘Not until they’ve run some more tests.’
‘The doctors can go screw themselves. No one is keeping me here against my will.’
While Jaeger felt a driving sense of urgency to get on the case again, he needed Narov fit and capable.
‘Softly softly catchee monkey,’ he told her. She looked at him quizzically. More haste, less speed was his basic meaning. ‘Take the time to get well.’ He paused. ‘And then we get busy.’
Narov snorted. ‘But we do not have time. After our Amazon mission, those who came after us vowed to hunt us down. And now they will be triply determined. Yet still there is all the time in the world for me to lie here and get pampered?’
‘You’re no use to anyone half-dead.’
She glared. ‘I am very much alive. And time is running out, or have you forgotten? Those papers we discovered. In that warplane. Aktion Werewolf . Blueprint for the Fourth Reich.’
Jaeger hadn’t forgotten.
At the end of their epic Amazon expedition, they’d stumbled across a giant Second World War-era warplane secreted in the jungle, on an airstrip hewn out of the bush. It turned out that it had carried Hitler’s foremost scientists, plus the Reich’s Wunderwaffe – its top-secret, cutting-edge weaponry – to a place where such fearsome weapons could be developed long after the war was over.
Finding the aircraft had been a mind-blowing discovery. But for Jaeger and his team, the real shocker had been the revelation that it was the Allied powers – chiefly America and Britain – that had sponsored those ultra-secret Nazi relocation flights.
In the closing stages of the war, the Allies had cut deals with a raft of top Nazis to ensure they would escape justice. By that point, Germany was no longer the real enemy: Stalin’s Russia was. The West faced a new threat: the rise of communism, and the Cold War. Working to the old rule that my enemy’s enemy is my friend, the Allied powers had bent over backwards to safeguard the foremost architects of Hitler’s Reich.
In short, key Nazis and their technologies had been flown halfway around the world to secrecy and safety. The British and Americans had referred to this deep-black programme by various codenames: it was Operation Darwin to the British, and Project Safe Haven to the Americans. But the Nazis had had their own operational codename, and it beat all the others by a country mile: Aktion Werewolf – Operation Werewolf.
Aktion Werewolf had a seventy-year timescale, and was designed to deliver the ultimate revenge against the Allies. Itwas a blueprint to bring about the rise of a Fourth Reich by working top Nazis into
Jaeger found Narov in her hospital room, propped against a pile of spotless pillows. Sunlight streamed in through the partially open window.
All things considered, she was looking remarkably well. A little pinched and pale, perhaps. Heavy rings around the eyes. She still sported the odd bandage where the shrapnel had hit her. But just three weeks after the attack, she was well on the road to recovery.
Jaeger took the seat beside her bed. Narov didn’t say anything.
‘How are you feeling?’ he prompted.
She didn’t so much as glance at him. ‘Alive.’
‘Gives a lot away,’ Jaeger grumbled.
‘Okay, how is this? My head hurts, I’m bored shitless, and I’m desperate to get out of here.’
In spite of himself, Jaeger had to smile. It never ceased to amaze him how exasperating this woman could be. Her flat, expressionless, overly formal tones lent her words just a hint of menace, yet there was no doubting her self-sacrifice or her bravery. By diving on that body and smothering the grenade, she had saved the lot of them. They owed Narov their lives,
And Jaeger didn’t like being so in debt to someone who was such an enigma.
11
‘The doctors say you’re not going anywhere fast,’ Jaeger volunteered., ‘Not until they’ve run some more tests.’
‘The doctors can go screw themselves. No one is keeping me here against my will.’
While Jaeger felt a driving sense of urgency to get on the case again, he needed Narov fit and capable.
‘Softly softly catchee monkey,’ he told her. She looked at him quizzically. More haste, less speed was his basic meaning. ‘Take the time to get well.’ He paused. ‘And then we get busy.’
Narov snorted. ‘But we do not have time. After our Amazon mission, those who came after us vowed to hunt us down. And now they will be triply determined. Yet still there is all the time in the world for me to lie here and get pampered?’
‘You’re no use to anyone half-dead.’
She glared. ‘I am very much alive. And time is running out, or have you forgotten? Those papers we discovered. In that warplane. Aktion Werewolf . Blueprint for the Fourth Reich.’
Jaeger hadn’t forgotten.
At the end of their epic Amazon expedition, they’d stumbled across a giant Second World War-era warplane secreted in the jungle, on an airstrip hewn out of the bush. It turned out that it had carried Hitler’s foremost scientists, plus the Reich’s Wunderwaffe – its top-secret, cutting-edge weaponry – to a place where such fearsome weapons could be developed long after the war was over.
Finding the aircraft had been a mind-blowing discovery. But for Jaeger and his team, the real shocker had been the revelation that it was the Allied powers – chiefly America and Britain – that had sponsored those ultra-secret Nazi relocation flights.
In the closing stages of the war, the Allies had cut deals with a raft of top Nazis to ensure they would escape justice. By that point, Germany was no longer the real enemy: Stalin’s Russia was. The West faced a new threat: the rise of communism, and the Cold War. Working to the old rule that my enemy’s enemy is my friend, the Allied powers had bent over backwards to safeguard the foremost architects of Hitler’s Reich.
In short, key Nazis and their technologies had been flown halfway around the world to secrecy and safety. The British and Americans had referred to this deep-black programme by various codenames: it was Operation Darwin to the British, and Project Safe Haven to the Americans. But the Nazis had had their own operational codename, and it beat all the others by a country mile: Aktion Werewolf – Operation Werewolf.
Aktion Werewolf had a seventy-year timescale, and was designed to deliver the ultimate revenge against the Allies. Itwas a blueprint to bring about the rise of a Fourth Reich by working top Nazis into
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