And then she floors it, weaving around the cars ahead and speeding towards the center of Berlin.
Erich lets out a cheer.
Maria has just become the coolest mother ever.
The Fabergй Egg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (and because it's compiled, fact-checked, and updated strictly by anybody with an Internet connection, it is the most detailed and reliable source of all human knowledge)
A Fabergй egg is any one of the thousands of jeweled eggs made by the House of Fabergй from 1885 to 1917. The most famous eggs were the larger ones made for Alexander III and Nicholas II of Russia; these are often referred to as the "Imperial" Fabergй eggs. Of the fifty made, forty-two have survived. All of the eggs are made of precious metals or hard stones decorated with enamel and gems. The Fabergй eggs have become the ultimate symbol of luxury and are considered masterpieces.
Stefan leads the elite assault team that is standing around in an empty storefront in their heavy assault gear with their assault weapons, all anxiously waiting for the go-ahead to assault.
Torsten's voice suddenly crackles in Stefan's earpiece.
"The robbers are leaving the auction house. Take position around the construction site and be ready to apprehend them as they emerge from the pit."
Stefan takes out his badge and drapes it on a chain around his neck, McGrave-style, so it hangs over his Kevlar vest.
He looks cool and he knows it. If only there was someone around to take a picture.
Stefan alerts his team with a few tactical hand signals, which he's been practicing with his girlfriend for months while shopping at the enormous and crowded KaDeWe, and they move out the door with professional resolve and military precision.
####
The five-story air-raid bunker that houses the Balz Collection is a monstrous symmetrical block of exposed reinforced concrete, its six-foot-thick walls and narrow window slits still showing the pockmarks and chips left by bullets and artillery fire during World War II.
It was later used by the GDR as a massive storage bin for imported Cuban fruits and vegetables set aside for the consumption of the government elite. After the Berlin Wall fell, the fortress-like bunker became an enormous, and extremely hard-core, techno-fetish club, which is how Matthias Balz discovered it (and a lasting appreciation for the erotic possibilities of neoprene).
It wasn't until the early 2000s, after the club had died, that Balz bought the empty bunker and renovated it at a cost of millions to expose his fabulous art collection, by appointment only, to select members of the public.
But he isn't the only one who has bought up neglected architectural relics of the Third Reich and dumped enormous amounts of money into them for renovation. The entire city block is under construction. Huge cranes loom all around the bunker and the neighboring buildings. Those elevated blue water pipes are everywhere.
Maria drives up and easily finds a parking spot behind a tiny yellow Smart Fortwo, which looks like a car made for Smurfs.
She turns to Erich in the backseat. "Stay in the car with the doors locked, no matter what happens. If there's trouble, call the police on your cell phone."
Erich nods, a big grin on his face. Life has become a lot more exciting since McGrave showed up.
Maria and McGrave get out of the car and cross the empty street towards the bunker. It's a stark, cold, imposing structure, designed to convey the invincibility of the Third Reich.
The street is empty.
No traffic.
No people.
No sound.
It's about as lifeless as a movie studio back lot.
"Face it, McGrave," Maria says. "You're wrong."
Stefan and his team are in position at the construction site around the edge of the pit, their weapons aimed into it, waiting for the robbers to emerge from the tunnels below.
There's no way Richter and the robbers can escape. They are surrounded from above and there's another assault team coming up behind them in the tunnel from the auction house.
It's basically over. The robbers just don't know it yet.
So for Torsten, Heinrich, Stefan, and all the other cops involved, it's anticlimactic.
Everyone's attention is on the pit. No one is paying any attention to the van that the robbers arrived in.
And why should they?
Nobody is inside it.
They looked.
But they didn't look underneath it.
If they did, they would have seen the bomb.
####
The van explodes, obliterating the water pipe above it.
####
From where Maria and McGrave are standing, they can feel the rumble from the blast and see the flash in the night sky several blocks away.
"It's showtime," McGrave says.
####
The force of the explosion and the blast of water from the severed pipe sweep the assault team off their feet, hurling several of them into the pit.
####
Bombs explode under key portions of the elevated water pipes throughout Mitte, one after the other, releasing torrents of water onto the streets, mowing over people, and snarling traffic.
####
Maria and McGrave can hear the pandemonium: the honking horns, the sirens, and the countless alarms set off by the percussion of the blast. Water rolls down the street towards them. They look at each other, then at the bunker, just as its alarm goes off.
"Okay, you were right, I was wrong." She takes out her cell phone.