10 Kingdom of Darkness by Andy McDermott

Author:Andy McDermott [McDermott, Andy]
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

21

“This is it,” said Zane as the Jeep crested a low hill.

Eddie surveyed the landscape. “Christ, looks like we’re driving into a Clint Eastwood film. I should’ve brought a poncho.” The scrubby plain rolled away to the distant Andean foothills. Winter had arrived, but for now the snowcapped peaks on the far horizon were keeping a jealous grip on their frozen moisture, everything a bleak, parched brown.

Zane checked a map. “The town’s on the west side of the lake.”

“What lake?” The Englishman searched for it. “That’s not a lake, it’s a puddle.”

“Huh. It’s much bigger on the map.”

Surrounding the thin patch of water was an expanse of pale, flat ground. It was swathed in what Eddie at first thought was fog before closer observation revealed it as windblown dust. The lake had largely dried up, leaving behind a barren wasteland of silt. He guessed that the settlement had originally been built on the shore, but it was now at least half a mile from the water’s edge. Village and lake shared the same name: Lago Amargo—Bitter Lake. “So Kroll and his arsewipes are hiding out here?”

“This is where the IP address originated, yes.”

“Assuming they didn’t route it through somewhere else first.”

“It’s possible,” Zane admitted, “but this part of the world was a popular hideout for Nazis after the war. We’re only about sixty kilometers from Bariloche, where there was a whole community of escapees—and there was a compound over the border in Chile, Villa Baviera, that was basically a cult founded by a Nazi. When the Chilean police raided it, they found huge caches of weapons, and even a tank.”

Eddie gave him a disbelieving look. “A tank? How the fuck did they get hold of a tank?”

“These people can get hold of anything. They have the money they stole from Jews and others in the war, and middlemen like Leitz to supply it to them.”

“Speaking of Leitz, he’s bound to have told that fat bastard about us by now.”

Zane nodded. “I spoke to the Mossad after we landed. He’s already left Italy and gone off the grid. We tried to access his computer remotely, but he’s stopped using it. He probably guessed it had been compromised.”

They drove on. Scrub gave way to fields, but from the derelict state of most of the farm buildings, it seemed that the former inhabitants had given up on their profession. “So what do we know about this place?” Eddie asked.

“Not much. It used to be a mining town, but the mines closed decades ago, so they turned to agriculture.” Zane looked out across the desolate farmland. “Without much success, I’d guess. The population’s more than halved over the past twenty years. Beyond that, though, we couldn’t find much more information.”

“How are we going to find these Nazis, then? I doubt we’ll get lucky and catch Kroll while he’s buying the morning groceries.”

“That would save us a lot of time,” Zane said. “But we should see if we can get access to the town records.” He glanced at a boxy equipment case on the rear seat.

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