‘I’m serious, Jon.’
‘I’m serious, too. You’re a scary man!’
Dial couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Give me their names before I change my mind.’
‘You got it. The man you’re looking for is Hans Mueller. Have you heard of him?’
Dial nodded. ‘Of course, I’ve heard of him. He’s a major player in the world of smuggling. From what I’ve heard, he’s one sick bastard. If you cross him, you’re pretty much fucked.’
‘Which explains today’s ambush. Like I said, he considers my friend his number-one rival. Apparently, he’s been trying to take him out for a while.’
Dial gave it some thought. ‘Which means your friend is Kaiser.’
Payne grew silent. ‘Damn.’
‘What can I say? I’m good at my job.’
‘Honestly, I’m glad you guessed it. Now I can tell him I didn’t mention his name.’
‘Speaking of names, you promised me the names and addresses of Mueller’s men. Do you have those with you?’
Payne shook his head. ‘DJ has them. I’ll have him snap pictures of their IDs and send them to your office e-mail.’
‘That’s fine, but make it quick. The sooner I have them, the better.’
‘No problem.’
‘Is there anything else? Or can I get the ball rolling?’
‘Actually, there is one more thing. Probably the most important thing of all.’
‘Good Lord, what now?’
Payne laughed. ‘I wanted you to know we’re still planning to go to Oktoberfest. If you can sneak away for a day, we’d love to get together. Believe it or not, DJ said he’s buying.’
Dial smiled at the thought. ‘DJ‘s buying? In that case, I’ll see what I can do.’
50
Payne hung up as he strolled across the warehouse floor. Ulster and Heidi were nowhere to be seen, but Jones greeted him in the middle of the facility.
‘How’d the call go?’ Jones asked.
‘Not bad at all.’
‘Is it my imagination, or did I hear “Little Bunny Foo Foo”?’
Payne snapped at him. ‘Screw you.’
‘Screw me? What did I do?’
‘What do you think you did? Quit messing with my phone.’
Jones was surprised by the accusation. ‘Your phone? When could I have messed with your phone? Would that have been while I was driving the ATV from the ambush, or when I was hauling Kaiser down the mountain? Oh, I know! It was when I was flying the chopper here. Yeah, that’s when I had time to mess with your phone.’
Payne stared at him. It was obvious Jones was telling the truth. ‘Sorry, man, my bad. You’re always messing with my stuff. I just assumed it was you.’
‘Well, it wasn’t me.’
‘In that case, I feel bad about my revenge.’
‘Your revenge? What did you do?’
Payne smiled. ‘I invited Nick to Oktoberfest and told him you were buying.’
Jones shrugged. ‘As far as revenge goes, that was pretty weak – especially since Kaiser’s paying for our trip anyway.’
Payne glanced around the warehouse. ‘Speaking of Kaiser, I think we should clear out of this place as soon as possible. There’s no telling what he’s storing here.’
‘I couldn’t agree more. We’ve already loaded the crates into Petr’s chopper.’
‘All of them?’
Jones nodded. ‘Nothing against Richter and Huber, but I think the gold will be a lot safer at the Archives than it would be here. Besides, I think Petr wants to examine it more closely. He’s hoping it will provide some insight into Ludwig’s treasure.’
‘And Heidi?’
‘I don’t know about Petr, but I’d love to examine her closely.’
Payne rolled his eyes. ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. You think she’s attractive. How long are you going to keep this up?’
‘With her, I’ll keep it up all night!’
Payne started to walk away. ‘Let me know when you grow up.’
‘Says the man with “Little Bunny Foo Foo” as his ringtone.’
Payne flipped him off and kept walking towards a small office in the back of the facility. He heard voices coming from the room. He assumed they belonged to Heidi and Ulster. The door was partially closed, so Payne knocked on it before he entered.
‘Come in,’ Ulster said.
Heidi was sitting next to him on an upholstered couch that reeked of cigarettes. She had a bottle of water in one hand and a tissue in the other. From her bloodshot eyes and damp cheeks, it was obvious she had been crying, although she tried to cover it up. As soon as she saw Payne, she tucked the tissue into her pocket and wiped her cheeks with her sleeve.
‘Are you all right?’ Payne asked.
‘I will be once I get something off my chest.’