SIXTY

Present Day

Dubnik Mine, Slovakia

    We spent a half hour climbing back over the ridge and to the bat entrance. We stopped for water and granola bars outside the entrance, and I explained the tunnel’s layout to the Nazis.

    The guard spoke a little English. “Why do you go back for your team?” he asked. “Isn’t it a sign of weakness to save the fallen?”

    “Not all of us come from your good, strong Aryan stock,” I said.

    The thought seemed to cheer him up, which was good, as he was about to see his four buddies, all prime examples of Aryan stock, lying dead in the Viliam gallery.

    Val led the way down the chute and into the bat room. The soldiers came next, and I pulled up the rear. We walked down the sloping tunnel, then we squeezed through the hole Val and I had smashed through the brick wall.

    The stairs were dark, and our flashlights didn’t carry far. I turned to the rifle guard. “Your men’s bodies lie in that corner,” I said.

    He nodded. “We were here when the bitch shot them.” He spoke in German to his companion. Neither of them even looked in that direction.

    Val and I hurried over to where we had left George and Sue. We shook them awake and helped them drink some water and eat some chocolate. I gave them each two hydrocodone tablets.

    “We traded away the gold to get the Nazis to help us carry you out,” I said.

    “Flora let you give away her gold?” George’s skin was gray again, and his voice was faint.

    “She was almost happy to do it,” Val said.

    He smiled. “You hear that, Sue? They think we’re worth at least twenty-five million bucks.”

    “Maybe you can ask for a pay raise,” Sue said, and they both chuckled.

    I motioned the two soldiers over. “We need your help carrying our teammates,” I said.

    The rifle guard nodded. “We make a sling with the diving suit, ja?”

    “Good idea,” I said. We tied each of my suit’s arms to its corresponding leg. This made two loops. Then we slid one loop over George’s shoulders and slipped his arms through it.

    We lifted George to a sitting position. The rifle guard squatted behind him, back to back, and positioned the other loop under his arms. He stood up with a grunt and lifted George onto his back. The other guard grabbed George’s legs and set them on his shoulders. Then they turned and carried George up the stairs.

    “Do you think you can ride piggy-back?” I asked Sue.

    She nodded.

    I handed the knapsack to Val, and I backed over to Val’s rebreather. Val helped Sue climb on top of it, and then Sue got onto my back. She gasped as I grabbed her legs and wrapped them around me.

    We stumbled our way out of the cave for the last time. Val lit the path and guided us when we couldn’t see, and we all helped pass George and Sue through the small hole in the brick wall. The final guano-filled chute was tough, but with one person pushing and another pulling, we got everybody out of the bat hole and onto the ridge in less than an hour.

    We took a break and ate the rest of the chocolate and granola bars. Then we carried George and Sue over the ridge and down into the clearing.

    Rose and Marie met us at the bottom of the hill, right next to the now-blocked mine entrance. “We called for an ambulance, but they said it would be two more hours,” Rose said.

    “The hospital suggested we drive ourselves-it’s only twenty minutes away.” Marie pointed to the green van. “We’ve already got the directions, so if you can help us load George and Sue into the back, we’ll take them down straightaway.”

    “Is everybody going?” Val asked.

    They shook their heads. “Grandma’s not leaving the gold,” Rose said, “and Mr. Morgan’s not leaving Grandma.”

    “Damn right I’m not leaving,” Madame Flora said. She and Archie had walked over to see George and Sue.

    “Then we’ll stay with you,” I said to her. I took the pistol back from the Untersturmführer and carried Sue over to the green van. I grabbed my mobile phone from the luggage, and I put the pistol in the glove compartment. Then we helped buckle in George and Sue. The twins sped out of the clearing, leaving Val and me with Archie, Madame Flora, and the three Nazis.

    I powered up my mobile phone and called Berry and Ann.

    “When your radio conked out, we thought the worst had happened,” Berry said. “But the twins called us an hour ago, and now we see the van is on the way to the hospital.”

    “You’re still watching us on satellite?” I asked, looking up.

    Ann laughed. “We had front row seats when you and Val climbed the ridge and surprised the men around the fire.”

    “Of course, we didn’t know it was you and Val,” Berry said. “Not until the girls called and we spoke to Mr. Morgan.”

    “How far away is the Budapest team?” I asked.

    “Another hour or so. They can help you liberate Flora’s gold.”

    “It’s not hers anymore,” I said. “I traded that gold for the Nazi’s help carrying George and Sue out of the mine.”

    Silence for a moment. Then Ann said, “Scott, it’s worth a lot of money. You traded all of it?”

    “All of it.” I said firmly. “George and Sue saved our lives, killed five of the bad guys, and helped us build a radio so we could contact you. We all would have died without their sacrifice.”

    Silence again. Then I heard Berry clearing his throat. “We weren’t arguing about George and Sue’s value, Scott. We’re just wondering if we could renegotiate once our Budapest team arrives.”

    “I gave them my word, dammit.”

    “Scott, they’re Nazis,” Ann said. “They’ll use that gold to promote hate, even kill people with it.”

    I thought about that. I sure didn’t want to help spread racism and hatred, but I had needed to save George and Sue, and giving up the gold for their lives made sense.

    In hindsight, my decision looked like yet another example of making the wrong decision for the right reasons. Was I entitled to trade the gold for others’ lives? And even if I was entitled, was I obligated to keep my word to a bunch of killers?

    It was my word I had given, and not anybody else’s. I had told the old Nazi officer that he could take the gold, and reneging on my word, no matter how rashly given, was not an option.

    I hung up the phone and stuck it in my pocket. Somebody-maybe even everybody-would be unhappy with this decision.