And...without my knickers.
“The man I made contact with is a...client,” Herr Wagner explained. “He has many diverse business dealings.”
“Including transactions with Szábo from time to time,” Brodie concluded.
“Where there is money to be made, Herr Brodie. You are a man of experience in these things as I understand, from your time with the London Police, and perhaps with your private inquiries on behalf of certain clients.”
“Go on,” Brodie replied.
“There are rumors among certain people about a valuable item that has recently become available.”
Certain people? I wondered if he was perhaps protecting that client. Szábo perhaps? It was possible, though he had never mentioned the name of his client. And now? What could we believe?”
“The documents we spoke of,” Brodie clarified.
“You must understand, this is a very dangerous situation, the information that was shared with me,” he continued. “There are three interested parties so far, with more anticipated by tomorrow night for the ‘auction’ that is to be held.”
“What of Bruhl?” Brodie asked. “Is he part of this?”
“He will never participate directly. He will always have someone who will participate on his behalf.”
“What is the floor for the auction for this ‘valuable item?’” I had some knowledge of how they usually worked from attending auctions with my great-aunt, when a certain item that had found its way from the family into other hands. A sword of Sir William came to mind—her ancestor, William the Conqueror.
The sword had been authenticated by an expert in such weapons, and there was a detailed description in family archives. In the end, after some very fierce bidding my great-aunt had the winning bid. The sword now hung in the weapons gallery at Sussex Square.
“By all accounts, Sir William was quite ruthless. My grandfather had a journal supposedly kept by the monk who traveled with him. The London Museum has been trying to get their hands on it for years.
“The Normans put such importance in the number of bodies in a campaign. As I said, quite ruthless.And in the end William conquered Britain,”my great-aunt added.“I thought it important to restore the sword to the family. You or Linnie will inherit all of these things one day.”
My sister wanted nothing to do with ancestral weapons. We did have quite a bloody history. However, Lily was now party of the family.
“It’s a grand sword,”she had declared when she first saw it.“How many people do ye think he might have killed?”
Yes, well, I had emphasized that we lived in a far more civilized world now. She had looked at me with an expression I had come to know quite well.
And now? I thought. Certain parties in this civilized world were apparently gathering like vultures eager to obtain the spoils of someone’s vision for the future.
From where I was, it was not encouraging for man’s future.
Power and greed, my great-aunt once commented.“You will come to understand it better with your travels.”
I had. And that was part of the reason I was here now with Brodie. I had no idea what Sir Collingwood’s motive was in giving the plans to Angeline. Perhaps we never would. And I suspected that it wasn’t as if we could stop progress, other countries developing the same sort of things.
However, we were here, and we hoped to stop this. At the moment that prospect wasn’t encouraging.
I did wonder what we might hope to do at this point. Steal back the documents, if, in fact, someone hadn’t already copied them with the hope of profit for themselves?
That would require finding out who presently had them and where they were. Problem number one.
Most certainly Angeline or Szábo, or whoever was acting on their behalf, was experienced in these things and would take all necessary precautions to protect their investment.
Problem Number Two—If we were able to get past Problem Number One, it would be getting out of Frankfurt. The only assurance when it came to this was that the people involved would not be contacting the police—ifwe were able to retrieve the documents, which brought us back to Problem Number One.
It was really quite obvious. In a way, Brodie had struck upon a possible solution perhaps without realizing it.
In spite of everything, or perhaps because of it, there was no time to discuss what I was about to propose if theauction between different factions was to take place. And those documents would disappear with the buyer.
“You will need to let those organizing the auction know that there will be another party participating, Herr Wagner,” I announced at the same time I ignored the questioning look from Brodie.
