“So what’s your idea?” said Bob. “We build a fake army?”

“Something like that,” said Patton. “Operation Fortitude worked because the Germans believed the false intelligence fed them by double agents and because Allied intelligence on the Germans was accurate—thanks largely to the codebreakers at Bletchley. We need to do two things—get intelligence on Ingrid Weiss and her cronies, and feed them false intelligence about what’s going on outside the Fox’s Den.”

“And,” said Bob, “since you were in army intelligence . . .”

“I know how to do both of those things. How long will it take us to get to the Fox’s Den?” said Patton, turning to Alex.

“Maybe an hour and a half,” said Alex.

“And is there someplace we can stop for supplies? A hardware store or something?”

“There might be someplace in Innsbruck,” said Alex.

“Great,” said Patton. “I’ll ride with Bob and Ted so they can guard me; Jean, you ride with Alex, and Franklin can ride in the van with Nemo. Now let’s get the hell out of here before someone shows up trying to find out why the Chapel of the Magi just exploded.”

No one questioned Patton’s commands. If Alex knew navigation, Patton knew intelligence, and the three American soldiers seemed willing to let their quarry be their commander for the moment.

In the soldiers’ rental car, Ted drove, while Bob sat in the back with Patton, his hand on his gun and his eyes never leaving her. After they crossed into Austria, Patton broke the silence. “I’m surprised it took you so long to find me.”

“We agreed to wait until we were all out of the army,” said Ted. “Bob stayed in for another seven years. By then you’d disappeared.”

“But then we saw that news story from Alta Vista about how someone had taken a shot at you,” said Bob.

“And we figured maybe you’d pissed off some other unit,” said Ted.

“No, that was Weiss’s men,” said Patton.

“Jesus,” said Bob. “She had guys in Alta Vista? What the hell for?”

“She thought I had information that would lead her to the gold,” said Patton. “As it turns out, I did.”

They rode in silence for a few minutes before Ted said, “If Weiss is sending snipers to remote corners of the US, then Nemo is right.”

“How so?” said Bob.

“He said we took an oath to protect and defend the United States. The way I see it, if she sends murderers or assassins or terrorists or whatever you want to call them, to operate on American soil, then protecting the United States is exactly what we’re doing by going after her.”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way until Nemo pointed that out,” said Patton.

“What do you know about this Nemo guy?” said Ted. “Who is he?”

“Do either of you speak German?” said Patton, ignoring Ted’s question.