“No, I’ll be fine. I suspect we’ve got some very long days ahead, so grab some rest while you can.”

“Okay, chief. Have you got everything you need?”

Vargas glanced down at the two film cans lying on the office floor. “Not quite. I urgently need a working 8-millimetre film projector.” He paused for a moment. “And some McDonald’s would go down well too.”

Vargas worked, methodically, through the paperwork in the three files and made copious notes on his laptop. An astonishing picture started to emerge, which was almost too overwhelming to take in. The first file contained papers that were over sixty-five years old, documenting the secret arrival of Adolf Hitler, Martin Bormann and Eva Braun to Argentina in June, 1945. Evidently, they had escaped from Europe on a small cargo boat that had sailed to the industrial port of Río Gallegos on the south-east coast.

The documents also recorded the name of a fourth German civilian who had travelled with the Führer on the boat. His name was Doctor Friedrich Hipke. A quick Google search informed Vargas he had been a distinguished plastic surgeon, based in Berlin, who’d disappeared after the war. A black-and-white photograph, which was clearly taken on board, showed Hitler and Bormann standing either side of a third man brandishing a steel scalpel in the air, who Vargas deduced must be Hipke.

There was also a photograph of Eva Braun. She had a huge grin on her face and held her right hand close to the camera lens to show off the gold band on her finger, which was set with three large diamond stones. Another photo showed Hitler and Bormann standing next to a heavily decorated officer, who appeared to be the boat’s captain. Vargas suddenly spotted something else in the photo that sent a cold chill through his body. On the floor next to Bormann was a black leather case. He brought the picture closer to gain a better look. There was no doubt about it; the one in his office was the same as that in the grainy black-and-white photo. He moved over to it and slowly ran his fingers over the gold initials which represented Martin Bormann’s name.

Vargas returned to his desk and started work on the second file. Mixed in among the papers, some of which were written in German, were three Argentinian photo ID cards. The first one clearly showed the pretty face of Eva Braun, except her name had now changed to Emilia Franklin. The other two cards portrayed the identities of Gerald and Ronald Franklin. Despite the undoubted skills of Doctor Hipke, Vargas could still detect the unmistakable faces of Adolf Hitler and Martin Bormann staring back at him. They all appeared to share the same address; a farmhouse called El Blondi in the town of El Calafate, located in the Santa Cruz province.