Kaiser smiled. ‘Just grab some gold, and we’ll call it even.’
Jones considered the offer. ‘It’s a pleasure doing business with you.’
‘In all seriousness,’ Payne said to Kaiser, ‘we appreciated the heads up. Obviously things didn’t work out the way we had hoped – ‘
‘That’s an understatement,’ Jones mumbled.
‘ – but we managed to protect Petr’s reputation. And that’s good enough for us.’
Jones cleared his throat loudly, the sound echoing through the room.
Payne stared at him. ‘What?’
‘Aren’t you forgetting something?’
‘I don’t think so … Am I?’
Jones sighed in disappointment. He had always been better with details than Payne. ‘Please forgive my former captain. The mind starts to go at his age.’
‘What are you talking about? You’re older than I am!’ Payne grumbled.
Jones ignored the comment. ‘What Jon meant to say was this: although we were thrilled to protect the Ulster family name, we’ll still gladly accept the free trip to Oktoberfest.’
Payne paused in thought. ‘Actually, he’s right. That is what I meant to say.’
Kaiser laughed at their antics. ‘Don’t worry, fellas. I’ll keep my word. You’ll still get two days at Oktoberfest. If all goes well, you’ll be in the beer gardens before dinner.’
‘Unless …’ Ulster called from the far side of the room.
All three of them turned towards him. He was sitting on an empty crate with his back against the bunker wall. In his hands, he held his grandfather’s journal.
‘Unless what?’ Payne asked.
‘Unless you want to retrieve the treasure that was destined for these crates.’
Jones stepped forward. ‘What are you talking about?’
Ulster rocked back and forth a few times in order to generate enough momentum to stand up. ‘While you gentlemen have been searching through the crates, I’ve been conducting a search of my own – one that has been a tad more fruitful than yours. According to my grandfather’s notes, his biggest problem wasn’t finding Ludwig’s treasure, it was retrieving it.’
Silence filled the room as they considered Ulster’s words.
A few seconds passed before Kaiser spoke. ‘What do you mean?’
Ulster grinned. ‘I had a feeling that would get your attention.’
‘Well, you have it. Now explain.’
‘As I mentioned earlier, Bavaria was swarming with Nazis during the 1930s. This area in particular was under high alert because of the 1936 Winter Olympics, which were held in the valley below. As a matter of fact, this mountain was actually used for some of the skiing events. Because of all the extra security, my grandfather was forced to abandon his pursuit of Ludwig’s treasure shortly after finding this bunker. From the looks of things, he had a pretty good idea where the treasure was hidden, but he wasn’t able to retrieve it thanks to World War Two.’
‘Fucking Hitler! Always screwing things up,’ Jones joked.
‘What are you saying? You know where the treasure is?’ Kaiser demanded.
Ulster lowered his voice. ‘According to my grandfather, Ludwig hid a secret document in his gartenhaus that would reveal the location of the treasure.’
Jones winced. ‘One time, when Jon and I were crossing the Afghan border, I had to hide a document in my gartenhaus, and-’
Kaiser cut him off. ‘Gartenhaus means “garden house” in German, not what you were about to describe.’
‘Thank goodness,’ Jones cracked, ‘because I got a paper cut when I pulled it out.’
Payne rolled his eyes. Sometimes his best friend didn’t know when to stop joking around. ‘Petr, are you familiar with any place that would fit your grandfather’s description?’
Ulster replied. ‘Off the top of my head, I can think of three possible locations. One would be good news. One would be tolerable news. The third would be truly dreadful.’
‘Let’s start with the good,’ Kaiser suggested. ‘That is, if you guys are interested.’
Payne answered before Jones had a chance to make another joke. ‘We’ve come this far. What’s another few hours? Besides, Oktoberfest goes on for two more weeks.’
Ulster grinned. He loved working with Payne and Jones. ‘In my opinion, the King’s House on Schachen would be the best news for us. It’s a small castle on a peak about five miles from here. As I mentioned earlier, it’s where Ludwig went when he disappeared for thirty-six hours – the night after he sent the mysterious letters.’
‘The place where his advisors found him covered in dirt?’ Payne asked, trying to remember the details from Ulster’s long-winded story.
Ulster nodded. ‘Even though it looks more like a hunting lodge than an actual castle, it is adjacent to Alpengarten auf dem Schachen – a small botanical garden open to the public.’
‘A house by a garden. Makes sense to me,’ Payne said.
‘This would be the best news for a variety of reasons. First of all, it’s close by, meaning we could be there in less than an hour. Secondly, it’s on top of a desolate peak. Without a helicopter, the only way to get there is an arduous four-hour hike. Since most people don’t have a helicopter, I tend to think we’d have the run of the place.’
Kaiser nodded in agreement. It sounded ideal to him.
‘If it isn’t there, what’s the tolerable location you mentioned?’ Jones asked.
‘That would be Linderhof Palace, the only one of Ludwig’s castles he saw completed before his death. If you recall, his horsemen departed from there on their mysterious quest. In addition, it’s where he returned after spending time on Schachen.’
Kaiser gave it some thought. ‘What’s troubling about the Linderhof?’
‘The grounds alone are over a hundred and twenty-five acres. That’s a large area to search. In addition, the palace is filled with valuable artwork. Because of that, the crowds are big and security is high.’
‘Crowds can be good in certain scenarios,’ Payne suggested. ‘But you’re probably right. This doesn’t sound like the kind of place where we’ll have much freedom to move around.’
Ulster shook his head. ‘And yet the Linderhof would be much better than the final option, a place called the Winter Garden. Ludwig built it on top of the roof of the north wing of the Munich Residenz, which was the former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs. It is the largest palace in Germany and gets thousands of visitors every day. The complex contains ten courtyards and more than a hundred and thirty rooms, most of them massive in scale. One of the grandest is the treasury, which holds everything from the jewels of the Wittelsbach dynasty to a collection of royal crowns, including some from the first millennium.’
Kaiser pondered the security. ‘That doesn’t sound good.’
‘Actually,’ Payne said, ‘it doesn’t matter how many guards are in the treasury. This document isn’t in the treasury. If it’s already been discovered, Petr would have heard of it.’