William Dietrich - Blood of the Reich

“So the Wright brothers had a garage sale.”

She glanced up, squinting across a dust of freckles. Her eyes were sky blue. “Afraid of flying, Mr…?”

“Hood.” He strummed a strut. “Afraid of falling. Dr. Hood, actually. Ph. D.”

She straightened. “You must be the egghead the Chinese warned was coming.”

“Museum curator.”

“And expert on aviation.” Calloway let her arm fall with the heavy wrench and Hood stood for inspection. He was taut and tanned in that country club way, with the confidence that comes of breeding, money, and schools with crests on their jackets. He carried a duffel bag on a sling that was nearly as long as he was, and had taken care to be washed, combed, and cocky.

Beth’s knuckles were scraped, her nails short, and her lips bare and pursed with skepticism. Pretty enough in a wary way, but not as impressed with him as he was used to. In fact, she looked as if she were surprised he’d made it this far.

“I’m just cautious of machines with holes in them,” he said.

“This Vought Corsair is only ten years old. Easy to fly and it can be fixed with chewing gum, if you have to. ”

“Perhaps I should buy stock in Wrigley.” He rapped on the plane and, when she didn’t respond to his wit, decided to be less sarcastic. “Beats walking.”

“So charmed to meet you.” Her tone made it clear she wasn’t.

“And you, Beth Calloway. So Madame Chiang did send orders to introduce us? You’ll take me to Tibet?”

“Dear me. In this? With a woman? Are you sure you want to?”

“Unfortunately Madame Chiang says this crate, and you, are all that can be spared. Expendable is the word they all keep using.” He looked in one of the cockpits. “Is it any bigger than it looks?”

“Much smaller, after the first ten hours. Don’t like to fly, Dr. Hood?”

“Call me Ben. I flew to Hong Kong on the Clipper. We dined with silver cutlery and had a choice of wines.”

“I dine with a tip cup and boil water before I drink it.” She put down the wrench and ran a wrist on her forehead. Even a grease smudge looked good on her, he decided, but she didn’t flirt. Maybe she didn’t like boys.

“I guess this will have to do.” He gave her his best smile.

“Christ. You look like you were sent by Pepsodent.”

He reddened. “I do brush my teeth.”

“Iron the ascot, wax the limousine, starch the collar. Yes, I’ll take you to Tibet, Great White Hunter.”

“You flatter me. I only collect scientific specimens.”

“Madame Chiang is the one who flatters you, Professor.” She finally held out a greasy hand, palm up. He wasn’t sure if it was a greeting, demand for payment, or a gesture of warning. “She reports you’re a fine shot of rare and defenseless animals, which you stuff and cart back to the States.”

“And you have a reputation as the best American woman pilot in China. Also, the only American woman pilot in China.” He took her hand and squeezed it. Their fingers slid, not unpleasantly, from the oil. He thought she hesitated just a moment before pulling away, but it was one of those signals best to receive two or three times to confirm. “A pleasure to meet you, Miss Calloway. It’s not lucky for a passenger to disparage his aircraft, is it?”

“Not lucky to do what?”

“Dis… to criticize.”

“My, my. They did send our best, didn’t they? A real college boy.”

“I’m a zoologist with the American Museum of Natural History in New York. And I’ve walked to Tibet before. I’m simply in more of a hurry this time.”

“I wouldn’t care, except that Madame Chiang does.”

“I need to confer with authorities in Lhasa.”

“No one gets to confer with the authorities in Lhasa. It’s forbidden.”

“I have to un-forbid it.”

“For your museum?”

“My present employers require discretion.”

“Your what requires what?”

“My new bosses told me to keep my mouth shut.”

“Well.” She regarded him a long minute, gazing up and down. “How much do you weigh, zoo-owl-o-gist?”

Without meaning to, he drew himself up. “About one eighty-five.” Maybe one ninety, after those Clipper meals. “Why?”

“Big words, vague mission, fussy flier. I got a feeling that whatever extra fuel I can squeeze aboard is going to be a lot more useful than you.”

This one was going to require some charm, he thought.

Or taming.

Cascade River Road, United States

September 4, Present Day

T he mountains rose higher and drew tighter as Rominy and Jake drove up the Skagit, the twists in the highway giving an occasional glimpse of ramparts of snow. At Marblemount the valley broadened briefly into pasture, modest homes perched above the steep riverbank, the Skagit muscular as a snake. Then they turned to cross the river on a steel two-lane bridge and headed up the side valley of the Cascade River. This tributary poured from a forested canyon onto a pan of gravel bars. Ahead were hills steep as sugarloaves, rocky crags somewhere above. The new river was translucent as a jewel, the rocks of its bed bright coins.

Their banker had found an old Christmas cookie tin in the branch lunchroom, tapped out dry crumbs, and put Hood’s safety deposit box curiosities in it for Rominy to take with her. There was an old Army Colt. 45 that Barrow suggested she take for “home protection.” The fact that the journalist was willing to arm her, even with a presumably unloaded pistol, reassured her. The weapon was as heavy as a brick, however, and she’d never fired a gun in her life. More intriguingly, there were three gold coins with some kind of curious Asian design embossed in the metal. A white silk scarf. A dented compass, black with a silver arrow. A brass key, apparently to a padlock left by authorities to secure Hood’s cabin, Dunnigan had told her. And, dramatically, the mummified finger of her great-grandfather, shrunken and slightly bent. Was it a last defiant digit upraised against the unfairness of the world?

“We don’t know if any of these has meaning,” Dunnigan had said as Rominy laid the articles out on the counter in the safety deposit room, the bank of stainless steel drawers glowing green in the weird light. “Beyond meaning to your great-grandfather. The gold could fetch a couple of thousand dollars at today’s prices, and the gun may have antique value, I don’t know. The real money is the interest from the old savings account. Mr. Hood left a hefty deposit to rent the safety deposit box before he died.”

The cash they’d requested was hypnotizing. Rominy settled for $28,500, since Dunnigan said the bank couldn’t come up with more on such short notice. It was in twenties, fifties, and hundreds, the thousand-dollar packets wrapped with white paper bands. She’d never seen so much cash in her life. Jake fetched a daypack from his pickup, stuffed the money inside, and handed it to her. “Yours.”

“How did he die?” Rominy asked the banker of her great-grandfather. Given the suspicious demise of her other relatives, at least according to Jake Barrow, she half expected something truly exotic, like snakebite or Ninja throwing star.

“Natural causes, the papers said. A coroner’s guess. Someone found the body up at his cabin in the spring, and he’d passed some months before. Wouldn’t have liked to have walked in on that. There wasn’t much left, I suppose. Anyway, most important was his will in the box here, leaving any possessions to unspecified heirs. Which apparently means you, since you’re the last one.”

“So I get this key to his cabin?”

“You get his cabin. Don’t expect much. Taxes have been minimal due to the low assessment, and there’s been little maintenance.”