Brad Thor - The Athena Project

Megan’s eyes widened. He had her nailed. “Totally.”

Vlcek smiled. “Driving is often one of the team’s most important jobs. She never screws it up and she’s always where she’s supposed to be when she’s supposed to be there. Am I right?”

Ericsson tried to interrupt, “John-”

Vlcek kept going. “She may pretend not to like some of the work, but if you’re smart, you’ve made her the rock of your team. She’s someone you’ll always be able to count on. It came through on her pysch profile and I saw it for myself firsthand. Julie was consistently the most dependable person I ever trained-male or female.

“The shrinks said it had to do with being the oldest and helping her mother raise four brothers and sisters. That’s BS. Julie is a thinker; a detail person. She sweats the small stuff, but it doesn’t paralyze her. She may go out drinking with you all and get crazy, but don’t let that fool you. She’s going to know how many drinks you’ve had, who owes what, and who’s walked in and sat where since you’ve been there. She’s also going to make sure all of you get out of there and get home safely. That goes double when you’re under fire. I would have put her on one of my teams in a heartbeat.”

Rhodes was stunned. Finally, she said, “Wow. That’s one hell of an endorsement. If I wasn’t so good at reading people, I’d say you were just desperate to get her into the sack.”

“Megan!” chastised Ericsson, her cheeks flushing. “John was my instructor. Our relationship has always been 100 percent professional.”

Vlcek looked at Rhodes and it turned into a leer. “You, on the other hand, I didn’t train, so anything that happens between us I’m happy to make one hundred percent personal.”

Megan, the consummate tease, leered right back at him. “You promise?”

“You’ve got big stones, don’t you?” he asked. “Not afraid of anything or anyone. No problem pulling the trigger and always the first one through the door. Am I right?”

Megan shrugged. “I’m really the shy, retiring type.”

“I am right. Stone cold killer, it’s written all over you. I’ll bet your dad was an accountant, or a lawyer, or something like that.”

“Nope.”

“He wasn’t a priest, was he?”

Rhodes laughed. “He was a cop.”

Vlcek hadn’t been ready for that response. “Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“Did you have any brothers?”

“Only child. And he raised me by himself.”

Vlcek raised his hand like an imaginary pistol and pulled the trigger. “That explains everything.” Leaning forward, he added, “I’ll also bet you’ve got a thing for older male authority figures.”

Megan winked at him again. “A girl’s gotta have some secrets.”

Ericsson rolled her eyes. “Can we get back to the list, please?” she interjected.

Vlcek, whose eyes were still locked on Megan, said, “Sure.”

Julie waved a hand in front of his face to break his stare and get his full attention. When he finally broke off looking at Rhodes and turned to face her, Ericsson repeated her question. “Were you able to get everything on the list?”

Vlcek nodded. “Yup. No problem.”

“Good. What can you tell us about Zbiroh? We’ve been given very little background.”

“The man who owns the castle is supposedly a Czech organized crime figure.”

“Supposedly?”

“I don’t know the guy. All I know is that in the Czech Republic, if you’re successful, everybody thinks you must be corrupt. It’s a mind-set held over from the communist days. The only thing people seem to be able to agree on is that he’s a pretty unsavory character. His name is Radek Heger,” said Vlcek as he punched up a picture on his phone and showed it to them.

Rhodes recognized him right away. “We saw him when we were pulling up to the hotel,” she said. “He got into a black Range Rover with his security detail.”

“All ex-Czech Special Forces,” stated Vlcek. “They not only do his security work, they also are in charge of excavations at the castle.”

“What kind of excavations?” asked Ericsson.

“The whisper is that Heger didn’t buy that dilapidated castle to turn it into a hotel or to help preserve a piece of Czech history. He bought it so that he could exploit any of the treasure the Nazis might have left behind.”

Rhodes took a sip of her coffee and said, “Why hire ex-SF personnel for that?”

“Because the crazy Nazis boobytrapped everything. The men Heger hired have EOD experience. They know how to dispose of all the hand grenades and other explosive devices the Germans rigged their tunnels and vaults with.”

“If there’s anything of value at the castle, why didn’t the Czech government go after it themselves?” asked Ericsson.

“Easy. They didn’t have the money or desire. Nobody knows if there’s anything there at all. The place was crumbling, and when Heger offered to buy it, the government said yes, provided Heger completely restored it and opened at least part of it to the public. They also strong-armed him into the hotel that now takes up the south wing.”

“But obviously he believes there’s something there, or he wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble and expense.”

Vlcek nodded. “There’s lots of stories about gold and priceless pieces of art being hidden there. In the waning days of the war, villagers saw tons of things being transported up to the castle, but when the Nazis fled, they did so empty-handed. So whatever was up there must still be up there.”

“Anything else you can tell us?”

“Besides the fact that the castle survived a couple of near misses from bombing runs at the end of the war, that’s about it.”

They drifted back into small talk as they finished their coffees. By the time they walked outside, they didn’t know much more about what they were looking for, or what had gone on at Zbiroh Castle, than when they had arrived.

In a secluded area ten minutes outside of town, they transferred the gear Vlcek had procured for them into the trunk of their car.

Giving him one last hug, Julie Ericsson said, “It was good seeing you again, John. Thanks for your help.”

“It was good seeing you, too,” he said. “Be careful. And tell the rest of your team to be careful, too. If even half of what they say about Heger is true, you’re better off staying as far away from him as possible.”

Vlcek then gave Rhodes one last, long look from head to toe and said, “See ya, Stretch,” before getting into his beat-up car and pulling back out onto the road.

Megan pretended to hold a phone to her ear and teasingly whispered, “Call me.”

As Vlcek disappeared from sight, Rhodes looked at her teammate. “God, that guy has you pegged.”

Ericsson didn’t respond.

Megan was about to say something else until she caught the look on Julie’s face. Reality was already settling back in. The visit with John Vlcek was over. It was time to face what they had all been quietly trying to ignore. There was something about this operation that they weren’t being told.

DENVER, COLORADO

She’s not going to screw up,” said Ben Matthews, as he and his partner, Dean Pence, sat in a dark blue Mazda in a parking garage downtown. “She’s a professional.”

Pence was fifteen years Ben’s senior, with black hair graying at the temples. They were discussing Victoria Suffolk.

“Really?” replied Pence. “Supposedly, so were those Russian spies the Bureau caught in New York.”