Unenthusiastic applause.
"Bravo," a voice shouted over the wind.
She recognized it instantly. She hadn't heard his approach over the fierce gusts of frigid air.
Heidi's shoulders sank in defeat. As she climbed to her feet, she began turning around, snaking a hand inside the unzipped front of her jacket.
"Uh-uh. Slowly," cautioned Adolf Kluge.
Heidi pulled her hand from her coat. Woodenly she did as she was told.
Kluge was there with a few of his skinhead henchmen. He had also brought with him a number of Federal Border Police. Out of respect for the service they had abandoned, the ex-police had taken the liberty of removing their official insignia. However, their guns were still plainly evident, and were aimed at Heidi.
One of the former police trotted over to her. He reached inside her coat, removing her handgun from her shoulder holster. He stuffed it into his belt.
"Did you intend to keep the treasure all to yourself?" Kluge asked with an evil smile.
"Didn't you?" she countered.
Kluge shrugged. "Of course," he said. "But at least I had sense enough to bring along a little help. I suppose you intended to dig it out all by yourself and then carry it away in your pockets?"
Heidi didn't respond.
Kluge appraised her for a long moment. Finally he pulled a shovel from the hands of one of his skinhead thugs. He threw it over to where Heidi stood. It fell near her feet, clanging on the stone lip that she had exposed.
"You have a few more hours to live," Kluge said magnanimously. "They may as well be productive. Dig."
Heidi considered refusing. However, that would surely encourage Adolf Kluge to shoot her that much sooner. She decided that if she stalled for time, she might yet be able to get out of this alive.
She picked up the shovel at her feet.
As a few skinheads came over to join her in the excavation, Heidi jammed the tip of the spade into the cold ground. She forced it in deep with the sole of her boot.
With no fanfare save the howling Danube wind, Heidi Stolpe turned over the first spadeful of earth that had entombed for centuries the fabled Nibelungen Hoard.
THE TALL PINES of the Black Forest roared past at breakneck speed. Though they were driving like a bat out of hell, Chiun recognized the blurry clutch of conifers that flew past the jeep for the third time.
They squealed around a corner on two wheels. Long black skid marks from their previous two journeys around the same corner marred the roadway.
"You are driving aimlessly," Chiun challenged Remo.
Remo was hunched behind the steering wheel. His hands gripped the pebbled surface of the wheel tightly.
"I can't pick up their damned trail. They could have gone anywhere," Remo said testily.
"They have not gone anywhere," Chiun snipped. "They have gone to steal my gold."
"I liked you a lot better when all you cared about was building statues of comedians."
"I am through with that," Chiun announced huffily. "Jesters come and go. Only gold lasts forever." The jeep radio suddenly squawked to life. The anxious, accented voice of Colonel Heine came on. He spoke in English.
"This is Colonel Heine of the German Federal Border Police to the driver of my jeep. Come in, please." He had never bothered to learn Remo's name. His voice was anxious.
"Answer it," Chiun demanded, pointing to the radio.
"Um..." Remo said.
"You do not know how," Chiun said accusingly.
"Do, too," Remo replied.
"Prove it."
Remo answered the radio. For some reason he couldn't fathom, the windshield wipers came on. "I told you," Chiun said.
"It is urgent," said Heine's voice. "Please respond."
"You do it." Remo aimed his chin defiantly at the radio.
"It is beneath me." Chiun crossed his arms.
"You don't know how, either," Remo challenged.
"Please respond," begged Heine.
"I'll admit I don't know how if you admit you don't know how," Remo offered cagily.
Chiun appraised the radio. "It is a model with which I am not entirely familiar," he admitted.
"Fine," said Remo. "Let's answer it together."
THEY DIDN'T HAVE to dig as long here.
The rim of stone Heidi had uncovered by hand turned out to be the topmost portion of four buried walls. The excavation went down only about six feet in this narrow enclosure before the first shovel clanked on solid rock.
As before, they used their hands to clear off a flat stone. It rested level in the buried square of rock. A horizontal door.
The edges of the stone were cleared away, revealing a stone casing. Again icy water was brought from the nearby river to wash off the ancient accumulation of dirt.
When they were finished, a narrow gap was visible between the large stone and the strips of interlocking rock that bordered it.
"We need to pry this up," Heidi called up to Kluge. She was squatting in the hole atop the stone. With her hand, she felt around the edge of the ancient slab of settled rock.
There were two skinheads still inside the pit. They were on their knees assisting Heidi.
"Get the crowbars," Kluge told a few of the border police who were standing with him at the edge of the hole. The men ran obediently off.