“I don’t doubt your grandfather,” said Eva, regaining her breath. “I want Projekt Alchemie to be real as much as anyone else.”

“She’s just saying,” said Dietrich, “if we’ve turned a few old library books into two hundred and thirty-seven thousand euros, maybe we’ve got our own Projekt Alchemie. And maybe we shouldn’t spend every penny of that money on tracking down a seventy-year-old piece of paper.”

“Maybe it won’t take every penny,” said Gottfried. “The point is, now we at least have the means to take action if the message leads somewhere promising.”

“Which brings us back to Karl and Erich,” said Ingrid, lowering her weapon. “Should we use some of this money to send in reinforcements, or should we trust them to get the job done?”

“If they could be trusted to get the job done,” said Eva, “we’d be reading the message by now. We should send them help.”

“Eva’s right,” said Dietrich. “If we don’t get the message then Projekt Alchemie is dead.”

“But we don’t know where they are at the moment,” said Gottfried.

“Let me know as soon as they come back online,” said Ingrid. “Until we know more, we can’t decide anything. I swear to God when I see them again I’m going to give them a lot more than just a punch in the gut.”

“Who do you work for?” said Nemo calmly, as if he and the German with the noose around his neck were having a casual conversation at a cocktail party.

The German remained silent.

“Don’t you understand English? It’d be pretty stupid to send you to America to frame me for the murder of Jasper Fleming and then steal his paper if you don’t speak English.”

“I didn’t need to frame you for his murder,” said Erich. “You killed him.”

“Ah, you do speak English. But you are mistaken, my friend. I did not kill Jasper Fleming. But I will ask you again, who do you work for?” Again, Erich did not speak.

“Maybe you don’t know,” said Nemo. “Maybe your associate in the driver’s seat—the one who wasn’t smart enough to put on his seat belt—was the brains of the outfit. Maybe you’re not important enough to know who the boss is. After all, you were stupid enough to shoot at my friend here and careless enough to miss.” Erich, who had been staring at Nemo, now dropped his gaze to the ground. “And now you’re not even smart enough to save your own skin,” said Nemo.

“It doesn’t matter what you do to me,” said Erich, looking up again. “Whether I live or die is of no consequence. The project will be completed, the Fourteen Words will be fulfilled, and the world transformed.”

“What the hell is he talking about?” said Patton.