Jean did speak German, or enough to catch bits of conversation. She managed to gather that, once they had loaded the truck, Ingrid and her cohorts would be driving to someplace called the Fox’s Den. They had mentioned the same place back in the basement in Munich. She didn’t suppose knowing their code word for a secret hiding place would do much good but listening helped distract her from the helplessness of their situation and she found herself surprisingly calm, especially given the way she had panicked back in Munich faced with similar circumstances. But a lot had happened since Munich.

“Do you really think they’re going to blow us up?” said Jean, when the conversation outside the door had stopped.

“Well, there’s no vest this time,” said Nemo. “But we know they like explosives and it would certainly help them out if the people they tried to pin the Munich bombing on died in another explosion. Covers up the fact that they pulled the wall of the chapel apart, kills us, makes it look like we were hiding out here and something went wrong. It ties up a lot of loose ends.”

“I’m not sure I like being a loose end,” said Jean.

“So what’s your plan?” said Patton, after they had sat quietly for what seemed like hours, listening to the clink of gold bars hitting one another as they slid into the truck.

“I haven’t got one,” said Nemo.

“I thought you always had a plan, that you always prepared for every possibility.”

“I did,” said Nemo, “until now. But then, as you know, I’ve broken every rule on this job—first and foremost by bringing you along.”

“I’m glad you did,” said Patton.

“At least now you won’t have to worry about those soldiers coming after you,” said Nemo.

“But we have to try something,” said Jean. “We can’t just sit here and die; and worse than that we can’t just sit here and let Ingrid fucking Weiss walk away with seven hundred million dollars.”

“Salty language for a college professor,” said Nemo. “But I’m afraid that’s all we can do. We have no weapons, not even any sharp objects. We emptied every candle and match out of this place and Weiss’s stooges emptied out everything else before they put us in here. Our assets are the clothes on our backs and, as I recall, a prayer book sitting on the counter.”

“And our brilliant minds,” said Patton.

“Yeah,” said Nemo, “those, too.”

At that moment they heard a sound they had all been dreading. The building rumbled as someone cranked the engine of the truck outside. The sound grew louder for a few seconds as the engine revved, then they heard the grinding of gears and the gradual fading of the sound as the truck pulled away.

“Timer?” said Patton.