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Chapters (61)
  1. Prologue
  2. Chapter One
  3. Chapter Two
  4. Chapter Three
  5. Chapter Four
  6. Chapter Five
  7. Chapter Six
  8. Chapter Seven
  9. Chapter Eight
  10. Chapter Nine
  11. Chapter Ten
  12. Chapter Eleven
  13. Chapter Twelve
  14. Chapter Thirteen
  15. Chapter Fourteen
  16. Chapter Fifteen
  17. Chapter Sixteen
  18. Chapter Seventeen
  19. Chapter Eighteen
  20. Chapter Nineteen
  21. Chapter Twenty
  22. Chapter Twenty-One
  23. Chapter Twenty-Two
  24. Chapter Twenty-Three
  25. Chapter Twenty-Four
  26. Chapter Twenty-Five
  27. Chapter Twenty-Six
  28. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  29. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  30. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  31. Chapter Thirty
  32. Chapter Thirty-One
  33. Chapter Thirty-Two
  34. Chapter Thirty-Three
  35. Chapter Thirty-Four
  36. Chapter Thirty-Five
  37. Chapter Thirty-Six
  38. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  39. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  40. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  41. Chapter Forty
  42. Chapter Forty-One
  43. Chapter Forty-Two
  44. Chapter Forty-Three
  45. Chapter Forty-Four
  46. Chapter Forty-Five
  47. Chapter Forty-Six
  48. Chapter Forty-Seven
  49. Chapter Forty-Eight
  50. Chapter Forty-Nine
  51. Chapter Fifty
  52. Chapter Fifty-One
  53. Chapter Fifty-Two
  54. Chapter Fifty-Three
  55. Chapter Fifty-Four
  56. Chapter Fifty-Five
  57. Chapter Fifty-Six
  58. Epilogue
  59. Author’s Note
  60. Acknowledgements
  61. About the Author

The dinner was a spectacular success and the affluent guests ate their way through a foie gras starter, a twenty-eight-day-aged rib of beef main and a delicious dessert of white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake, all washed down with some of California’s finest wines. The waiters were serving coffee and liqueurs as the man of the moment made his way to the back of the stage in preparation for his rallying speech. Waiting for him behind the black drapes was his father. The two men hadn’t managed to speak all evening, but now, for the first time, they were alone. They both could sense the elephant in the room. John spoke first.

“Dad, please tell me that Paz’s guys have found the contents of the box.”

“Not quite, but they are very close. They’ve got their hands on the thieves who carried out the robbery and expect to have everything in their possession in the next few hours. I told you it would all be okay, and it will be.”

John let out a huge sigh.

“That’s great news, Dad. Thank you. But until we actually have it in our grasp—”

“John, relax, it’s all in hand. Now it’s time for you to kill them out there with that motherfucker of a speech we worked on last night.”

Richard turned away from his son, walked through the break in the drapes onto the small stage, and headed towards the podium where the microphone was set.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage my son, the next president of the United States.”

Chapter Thirteen

12 June 1945

Río Gallegos

On 12 June 1945, after forty-three days at sea, Santa Cruz III arrived at the small industrial port of Río Gallegos on the south-east coast of Argentina. Although seventeen people had boarded the small cargo boat in Kiel, only sixteen disembarked. Doctor Hipke had disappeared two days before the arrival. His cabin was empty and there was no sign of his makeshift operating theatre, which had been dismantled and scrubbed clean. The VIP party of three were transported by plane on a short thirty-minute flight to the Führer’s new base: a large Argentinian-style farmhouse situated a few miles north of El Calafate, a small town on the southern border of Lake Argentino in the Santa Cruz province of Patagonia.