“I think so,” said Nemo. “Another thirty seconds and they would have seen me for sure. But I don’t think they did.”

“So what’s that mean?’ ” said Alex. “Did we do it?”

“I think maybe we did,” said Nemo, a broad smile blooming across his face.

Alex and Bob took the truck to Vaduz, on the assumption that Weiss’s delivery crew would rejoin her. Nemo drove Bob’s car back to the bank and followed Weiss’s truck, just in case it headed somewhere else.

It did not.

5:00 a.m.

Nemo had followed the truck all the way from Zurich to Vaduz and into the car park behind the hotel. Hardly inconspicuous, he thought, but of course Weiss and her associates believed they had finished the job, that they had hundreds of millions of euros in gold sitting safely in a vault at a Swiss bank. Bob and Alex had parked the other truck on the outskirts of town, but once the drivers of Weiss’s truck disappeared into the hotel, Nemo phoned them and by 6:00 a.m. they had switched the registration plates back and all seven of them sat once again in a luxurious hotel suite.

“If we leave now we can be back in Brenner by nine o’clock,” said Patton. “We find a nice wooded area near the chapel, you shoot me with one of Alex’s German guns, and they’ll pin it on Ingrid Weiss and her cohorts. You won’t have to worry about a thing.”

“I’m not fond of that idea,” said Nemo.

“Did I just hear the word ‘fond’ escape your mouth?” said Patton.

“What about the police?” said Franklin. “They’re bound to be prowling around investigating the explosion.”

“So we go nearby but not too nearby,” said Patton. “And you use a silencer.”

“Honestly,” said Ted, “I’m not all that fond of the idea either. What exactly do we accomplish by killing Patton?”

Everyone looked to Bob, and Patton felt perfectly content. She honestly didn’t care what he said. They had taken the gold away from Ingrid Weiss and Patton believed that these six people would use it well. She trusted Nemo with much more than her life, and she knew he would have no qualms about eliminating anyone who got out of line. If her time had come, fine. If the three soldiers could kill her and pin it on Ingrid Weiss, so much the better.

“When will you call Ulrich?” said Bob.

“As soon as you decide what to do about Patton,” said Jean.

“I think what I’d like to do with Patton,” said Bob, “is introduce her to some widows.”

“Honestly,” said Patton, “facing them would be a lot harder than facing the muzzle of Alex’s gun.”

“I know,” said Bob, with a wry smile. “I also know that you saved my life, and that has to be worth something.”

“She saved your life?” said Franklin.