Page 107 of The Last Kingdom

He thought about earlier in Munich.

And Rife’s attack.

Were any of those vehicles bringing trouble?

Chapter 60

RIFE SHIFTED THE CAR INTO FOURTH GEAR AND SPED DOWN THEhighway. Apparently Koger and Malone had figured out they were tracking them through their phones, as both units had gone dark. But Marc Fenn’s remained active. The listening devices within Fenn’s castle had revealed that Koger and Malone had appeared, learned a lot of information, then they and Fenn had left, headed south, apparently to Neuschwanstein. The latest ping showed that Fenn’s phone was right on top of the castle’s location.

Terry Knight sat beside him.

He’d also placed, then received, a call from Prince Stefan, who’d stated that he would be heading south, too, along with his brother, Albert, who had now joined forces with him.

Good.

Things were progressing.

The unexpected alliance between Koger and Malone had presented a threat. Not to mention the two spies in Prince Stefan’s midst. Then there were the four men who’d been killed last night. Two were hired help. Two were Scythe. The hired help had been run over by a car. His men died from bullets to the head. They’d been sent to deal with Luke Daniels, but apparently Daniels had dealt with them. Which served as a warning.

Enemies abounded everywhere.

Nothing new, though. He was accustomed to a rough playing field. The good thing here was that he was unrestrained by any rules or lines of authority. No one was looking over his shoulder or telling him how to handle things. He could literally do whatever was necessary, and he planned on doing just that. All of the clues that had been unearthed so far apparently pointed the way to the fairy-tale castle that now came into view through the windshield. Seemed a bit ironic, considering the carnage he was about to unleash.

A familiar feeling surged through him.

One that said things were about to come to a head.

* * *

STEFAN WAS STILL ASTONISHED BY WHAT HE’D READ IN HIS GREAT-grandfather’s journal, welcome insight from a bitter seventy-four-year-old man. Clearly, Ludwig III had tried to preserve what he could of the Wittelsbach legacy. The horrors of World War I, then the German Revolution, and finally his loss of throne and kingdom had exacted a heavy toll. It made sense that he would take affirmative steps to protect his family’s heritage.

Rätselspiel.

Mystery game.

Indeed.

He was sitting in the passenger compartment of a Eurocopter EC135, the sleek aircraft’s cabin adorned with Hermès signature fabrics and butter-soft leather. A glass partition separated the cockpit from the cabin, providing a high degree of privacy. When he’d asked Albert what needed to be done, his brother had told him they must head south. Now. Albert had been equally cryptic when questioned about the helicopter’s owner, merely saying that the aircraft was at their disposal.

His brother looked tired.

All this exertion had to be hard on him.

“You should have allowed me to handle this,” he said to Albert. “You are not well.”

“I appreciate your concern. But I would like to be a part of this, however small that might be. I have long thought that Neuschwanstein would be key to the quest. Though only partially completed when he died, it remains the most enigmatic of Ludwig II’s three castles.”

They were speeding fast through the cold air. Daylight was nearly gone, the low ceiling of cloud shedding a steady fall of light snow. A row of fierce peaks ripped the southern horizon into jagged strips. Below stretched a sea of snow broken only by dense patches of forest, the occasional house or farm, and the open expanse of frozen lakes.

Neuschwanstein sat near the ancient town of Füssen, only a kilometer from the Austrian border. The town’s claim to fame had long been violin making, but Ludwig II made the location famous. The future king had been raised at Hohenschwangau, another castle just outside of town, where he and his brother, Otto, spent their childhood. Later, after his father died, and Ludwig became king, he bought a nearby summit with an ancient ruin, which was leveled and Neuschwanstein constructed, all within sight of his childhood home. The two castles still remained. One finished,the other never to be completed. One known throughout the world,the other basking in its shadow.

Like he and Albert.

In so many ways.

Strange, this new alliance. He and Albert’s past conversations had usually been friendly, but never familiar. Always before they’d represented conflicting factions, the ideological chasm between them never closing. Two worlds, two eras, locked in confrontation. His represented reform and progression, Albert’s more traditional in patience and satisfaction with the status quo, their priorities irreconcilable.

But not anymore.

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