“Seven hundred million dollars?” said Franklin. “Are you serious? Do you know what a terror organization could do with that kind of money?”

“Look, why should we care about any of this?” said Bob. “We came here for Patton—I say let’s do what we have to do and get out of here.”

“Are you fucking crazy?” said Nemo, stepping fearlessly toward Bob’s outstretched gun. “Why should you care? Why should you care? Other than the fact that you took an oath to support and defend the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, how about the fact that the three of you standing there are Jewish, Black, and, I’m taking a guess here, queer? How do you think your civil rights will fare in a world run by people put in power by Ingrid Weiss?”

“What do you mean queer?” said Ted. “I mean yes, I’m Jewish and of course Franklin . . .”

“Oh, you always were blind to the obvious,” said Bob. “You didn’t ask and I didn’t tell.”

“Franklin, did you know . . .”

“Of course I knew,” said Franklin. “But aren’t we straying a little off the subject here? Why should we believe anything this guy says?”

He could not have timed his question any better, for at that moment, as his words hung in the air like a cartoon balloon, the chapel exploded. The sound of the blast rent the crisp morning air and sent all seven of them diving for the cover of the vehicles as, seconds later, debris began to rain down on them. Most of what fell this far away from the explosion was pebbles and bits of plaster, but it took them all a moment or two to realize they were not in any real danger. In that time, Patton saw that Ted had dropped his Beretta and it lay right in front of her. As the others stood up and dusted themselves off, she picked up the gun by the barrel and held it out to Ted.

“This is yours, I think,” she said as Ted, looking mystified, took the gun back. “Look, I’m not going to try to escape you. I’ll stay unarmed; I’ll stay with at least one of you all the time; and when this is over, I’ll surrender to you and you can do whatever you want. But Nemo’s right. This is important. This is the last battle of World War II and we are the only soldiers available to fight it.”

“She did give my gun back,” said Ted.

Everyone looked to Bob who stared hard at Patton for a long minute.

“What happens to the gold?” he said.

“I beg your pardon,” said Nemo.

“I said, what happens to the damn gold? If we help you and get it away from these Aryans, what do we do with it?”

“Why are you asking?” said Patton warily.