Ratlines by Stuart Neville

Author:Stuart Neville
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: General, Fiction
ISBN: 9781616952044
Publisher: Soho Crime
Published: 2013-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

O t t o Sk o r z e n Y h a d never submitted to fear or threat. Not as a boy, and certainly not as a man. Even as a student, duelling with sabres at the University of Vienna, his padded tunic stained deep red, he had fought on long after others had conceded. He recalled a photograph, his smile broad and bloodied alongside those of his brethren, a tankard of beer in his hand, all of them toasting yet another brutal tournament.

So when Luca Impelliteri made his threat, Skorzeny did not retreat.

Standing over the table outside a Tarragona cafe, he had held his ground, listened, his face expressionless.

“I will tell the Generalissimo everything,” Impelliteri had said, smiling up at him. “I will tell him you are a liar and a fraud, that your fearsome reputation is built on a propagandist’s story, and that he should not court your company.”

“And why should he believe you?”

“Francisco Franco is a careful man. He is always suspicious. He has not held his position for decades by being reckless. If there is doubt, he will remove you from his circle of friends rather than risk being made to appear foolish. Don’t you agree?”

“I do not,” Skorzeny said.

Impelliteri shrugged. “Even so, that’s how I see things. Of course, the Generalissimo need never know any of this. I am open to persuasion.”

Skorzeny waited for a moment, then said, “How much?”

“Fifty thousand American dollars to start with. After that, well, we’ll see.”

Skorzeny did not reply. He turned his back on the Italian and walked to the hotel. Once inside his room, he lifted the telephone receiver and asked for an international line. Within thirty minutes, he had made all the necessary arrangements.

Now this new threat, these murderous barbarians seeking to frighten him with the corpses of men he barely considered acquaintances. Whatever they sought, they would not take it from him by fear.

The absence of his guardsmen on this dark night did, however, cause him a moment of concern.

Skorzeny turned in a circle, scanning the tree line. His kept his expression calm, his voice flat. He said, “They’re patrolling the grounds, probably. Come.”

He set off towards the outbuildings again, unease slithering around his stomach with the pheasant and the Rote Grütze. The others followed.

He had seen the look Lainé and Ryan had exchanged. The G2 officer had been gone for some time. Had he and Lainé spoken while he was upstairs? Lainé had made his dislike of Ryan clear to Skorzeny. Had they had some sort of confrontation?

No matter, there were more immediate concerns.

Such as why no one guarded the building that held Hakon Foss.

As he drew closer, Skorzeny saw the door stood ajar, a slash of light from within. And the toe of a boot lying inside the gap. He quickened his step.

“What’s that?” Ryan asked.

Skorzeny reached the door, pushed, found it blocked. He pushed harder, and again, forcing the dead man’s legs away from the opening.

“Merde,” Lainé said.

One of the guards, a neat hole at the centre of his forehead,

r a t l i n e S 179

two more in his chest.

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