She looked down at Payne. ‘Jon?’
‘Hey, don’t look at me. I’m just a tamed hippo. You tell me where to go, and I take you there. Other than that, I’m staying out of this.’
Heidi fumed, but there was nothing she could do. Jones was already in the boat, and he wasn’t going to leave until he wanted to. ‘Fine! But be careful. This boat is an antique.’
Jones flashed an evil grin. ‘Don’t worry! I’m not going to break anything – unless I feel it’s absolutely necessary.’
She started to complain, but Payne assured her that he was kidding.
Meanwhile, Jones went to work on the statue. Not willing to trust Heidi’s opinion, he put his ear against the cupid and knocked on it a few times. To him, it sounded hollow. Next, he took a minute to examine the cupid for a hidden seam which was how he had found the secret entrance outside. He had spotted a crack next to the boulder and followed it to the latch. He figured the same method might work here. Using his flashlight for extra light, he studied the statue until he noticed a suspicious ridge just below the back of cupid’s head.
Heidi saw his expression change. ‘Did you find something?’
‘Maybe. There’s a seam back here.’
She leaned forward on Payne’s shoulders. ‘I noticed that, too. I tried twisting his head and moving his quiver of arrows, but nothing happened.’
Jones stared at the figure, trying to view it from Ludwig’s perspective. Where would the infamous Swan King put a secret lever on a statue of cupid? A few seconds later, Jones was beaming like a lottery winner. ‘I think I got it.’
‘Got what?’ Heidi demanded.
‘The guy had a hard-on for swans.’
‘So?’
Jones studied the back of the statue. ‘What do swans and cupids have in common?’
Pushing gently, Jones applied downward pressure on the cupid’s wings. Much to Heidi’s surprise, they slid a few inches down its back. Inside the statue, a latch clicked into place, which opened a secret compartment between the cupid’s head and his quiver of arrows.
She gasped with surprise.
Wasting no time, Jones lifted his flashlight and stared into the hollow centre. He spotted a sealed envelope that had been folded into thirds. Much to his chagrin, his hand was too large to reach inside and grab it. ‘Son of a bitch!’
‘What’s wrong?’ Ulster called from shore.
‘There’s something inside, but my hand is too big,’ Jones replied.
Payne made a suggestion. ‘Let Heidi try.’
To prove her worth, she showed her hands to Jones. Her fingers were long and slender. Without tweezers or tongs, she was the group’s best hope. ‘I promise I won’t take all the credit.’
Jones smiled. ‘Fine! But be careful. This boat’s an antique.’
She giggled at his comment, appreciating how he used the very words she had spoken against her. ‘Okay, hippo, I need you to get me closer.’
‘Not a problem.’ Payne slid his hands down her calves and put them under her feet. From that position, he was able to boost her completely off his shoulders, much like a cheerleader being lifted in the air. ‘Is that better?’
‘That’s perfect! Now hold me steady.’ She reached inside the tiny compartment and clasped the envelope between two fingers. ‘Got it!’
Ulster shouted a warning. ‘Careful, my dear, it’s liable to be brittle! There’s no telling what a hundred years of moisture might have done to the parchment!’
She smiled at Jones. ‘Don’t worry. I’m more gentle than DJ.’
A few minutes later, all of them were huddling on shore, wondering what they had discovered. The envelope was made of good-quality paper. It had been sealed with black wax, then stamped with an elaborate swan. The emblem was identical to the black swan symbol that was on the crate of gold they had found in the bunker.
In Ulster’s opinion, it was a very good sign.
As a historian, he was put in charge of the document. Initially, he had expressed an interest in taking it back to Kusendorf where he could examine it in the climate-controlled environment of the Archives, but Payne and Jones laughed at him. There was no way in hell they were going to fly back to Switzerland to open the envelope. Even Heidi, who was a protector of all things Ludwig, agreed with them. She was far too excited to wait that long.
Despite his protests, Ulster was thrilled with their decision. Decades had passed since his grandfather had uncovered the path to Ludwig’s treasure, a trail he had been unable to pursue because of World War Two. In his mind, his family had waited long enough.
‘Does anyone have a knife?’ he asked.
Jones nodded and flicked open a switchblade. ‘Here you go.’
Ulster grabbed the knife and prepared for surgery. Hoping to preserve the historic wax seal, he carefully slid the tip of the blade under the envelope’s flap and sliced it open with a steady hand. When he was done, he studied the elaborate black swan with his flashlight. As far as he could tell, it appeared to be undamaged.
Ulster breathed a sigh of relief. ‘I think it survived.’
Jones stared at him. ‘We’re happy for the bird. Now get to the good stuff.’
He nodded and gently pulled the lips of the envelope apart. Inside, there was a handwritten document. It was folded in half and yellowed with age. Not wanting to touch the paper with his bare hands, he turned the envelope upside-down and tapped on it gently. The document fluttered out, landing on the fake boulder that served as his workstation.
A moment later, a second object emerged.
It landed with a soft clank.
59
In the dim light of the grotto, four sets of eyes focused on the object that had fallen from the envelope. Made of gold and carved by a craftsman, it was an ornamental key whose bow (or head) was in the shape of the black swan emblem. Surprised by their discovery, no one spoke for several seconds. They just stared at it, imagining the treasures it might unlock.
Jones was the first to snap out of his daze. He snatched the key off the fake boulder and studied it with the beam of his flashlight. Starting near the tip, there was a message engraved on the side of the key. ‘I’ll be damned. There’s an inscription.’
Heidi gasped. ‘Really? What does it say?’
Jones struggled to read it. ‘I’m not sure, but I think it says … Made in China.’
‘Are you serious?’ she demanded.
Jones laughed at her. ‘No, I’m not serious! The damn thing’s written in German, so it could say anything. But you should have seen your faces. Priceless!’
Payne cracked a smile. He had fallen for it, too. ‘I admit it, you had us going. But if you don’t mind, can you give the key to Petr so he can examine it? The clock is ticking.’
Jones kept laughing. ‘Sure, no problem.’
Ulster took the key and translated the inscription in his head. When he was done, he explained it to the group. ‘Thankfully, David was incorrect on two major points. First of all, the message was written in Bavarian, not German. This is good news since Bavarian was the language of Ludwig. Secondly, there was no mention of China in the key’s inscription.’