Max Weber came in after half an hour. Threw a latte in a plastic container in the trash. Greeted Loretta. Nodded to Wagner, who patted him kindly on the back. Showed him where he could set up his little command center.
Weber was around thirty. Looked like a Scandinavian. A wet Hitler's dream. Blonde. Blue eyes. Swimmer´s shoulders. Wore tight, ripped jeans and a T-shirt with Kafka quotes.
Under his arm he had two laptops and two dolls15. A small MacBook Pro and a larger HP. He plugged into the power strip. Drew cords. Wired in mouse, keyboard. Tablet. External hard drive. Paired screens that they set up with the dolls. Plugged into the computers. Loretta linked him up with the museum's IT-manager. Granted access to their network. The IT-manager piloted him through their file system. Showed him where everything was, how it was stored, etc.
Gruppeninspektor Wagner looked at his group. Berger and Mayer. Weber. The best he had was not a cop. He had worked with Max many times before. He was young and smart, with almost as high work capacity as his own. Knew all that he himself had not mastered. Ones and zeros. Wagner could sniff a lot in reality. According to him, he was damn good at it. But Max had the electronic nose.
He instructed Max to help the stars to put up a bulletin board with all the pictures taken of the guests the night before. Pair them with their names.
It took a few minutes. Alexander spoke to Loretta about the evening. If she had registered any discrepancies. If she had any suspicion on the lye. He noticed after a while that the work on the board took too long. He was impatient and went to help.
Half an hour later, everything in the center was finished. Julian and Tobias went out to buy coffee and relieve abstinence with a cigarette. Max fueled16 over the video material to his external hard drive. Wagner sent forensic experts who arrived from Schottenring to secure biometric material at the crime scene.
They lit up the room with UV light. Penciled with toner for securing fingerprints on the glass case.
An hour later, they had not found anything. Wagner allowed them to continue while he himself sat down and started going through surveillance films with Max. the computer technician briefed him on the movies he had seen so far. Wagner said.
”We must assume that they were at the event. According to the guards no one came in or out once all the guests have arrived. We can trust them until further notice. They have caftans wearing when they go through the hallway here and we have no pictures of when they switched clothes. Is that true?”
Max nodded.
Wagner thought that the theft had nothing to do with the incident at the City Hall Offices, given that the floor plan of the museum was stolen from there. But evidence from the crime scene was substandard and not much to build on.
A large, round man stood behind the two. It was the Safety Manager at the museum. He breathed audibly. Wagner and Max turned around. He said.
”Excuse me, Mr. Wagner, my name is Florian Müller. I am a security officer here at the museum. I heard you were talking about the caftans their eventual dressing room. I think it's possible that they switched on the toilet outside the corridor here. We still have no camera there. As you can see, we have both CCTV and CCDP-systems here. We are about to replace and modernize our surveillance and have not been able to cover that area yet. I'm afraid the old CCTV cameras are of rather poor resolution.”
”I understand”, muttered Wagner. He turned to his technician.
”Bring out the pictures of the theft itself. I want to see if they made a mistake.”
Müller was still hanging. They looked at the movies a few times. Examined how the thieves struggled with the glass case, how they ran away.
”I want to follow their every move. One more. Do we have a different angle?”
Max fingers danced like drumsticks over the keyboard. Alexander looked away from the monitors. Became slightly nauseated of all the windows that bounced back and forth.
”Well then, we have an abundance of cameras. Most of the older standard of CCTV with rather poor resolution, as Mr. Müller told you about.”
Max turned to Florian.
”What kinds of video recordings do you have here? 25-hour? Do we have the whole evening, someone hasn´t committed any mistake?”
Florian Müller cleared his throat.
”No, I double checked with the officer in charge an hour ago. We have a schedule and the bands were replaced as routine, shortly after the museum was closed to the public yesterday. The CCDP-feed have no such practice, as you probably know, because we store them digitally directly.”
They looked at the file from a different perspective. Alexander leaned forward. Julian and Tobias came back. They smelled coffee and stank of smoke. They gave a plastic cup to Alexander, who waved off the gesture and ignored them. He said.
”Wait. Rewind. What the hell is he doing, you see, Max?”
In the corner of his eye he saw one of the stars rubbing his hand in his stubble as he processed the material in his empty ball. Looked confident. Certain of discovering those little details that real cops just might discover.
”I think so. Wait. I think we can see better from another angle.”
Max opened a file on the external hard drive where he had moved the material.
”That's it.”
Max enlarged frames. It became somewhat blurred but still looked slightly better. They squinted.
”What does he have in his hand, a pocket knife?”
”I would say it”, said the pro Julian to Alexander. He took two steps forward and put on a detective face. Wagner ignored him.
”What does he do, he tries to get it together or what?”
They enlarge the images with 10x zoom and 1/32 of the speed of uptake.
They saw one of the perpetrators struggle with getting together what looked to be a pocket knife.
”I can´t believe it´s true. It looks like he does not get it together. Rewind”, said Wagner.
They looked again. Max said.
”Yes, that's right. He takes off his glove.”
Alexander patted Max on the back and said.
”And that my friend, you stumble and make your first mistake.”
They watched as he staggered and had to rely on the floor with his naked hand.
Alexander called for the forensic scientists. Showed them the recording. Sent them back with carbon powder and brush.
Meanwhile, Wagner called to Haag to speak with Europol agent Nora Smith that he had cooperated with in other cases. He asked for access to the biometric databases that Interpol administrated and the databases of United States, US-VISIT and IAFIS.
He spoke quickly and gave orders. He hung up and turned to Max, who was used to working fast.
”Bring out the IP range we are on here so that Haag can enter it. They will call back in five minutes with a login name and key. Now you fucking bastards we are rolling the ball!”
Alexander went into the forensic techniques with attack adrenaline. He did not think he would feel this good. According to Wagner, it was ten minutes into the first half and he had already kicked a ball in the cross.
Even Julian and Tobias looked elated out. Nodded at each other. They had helped with their weight and experience.
But even if it currently looked good for Alexander and his team the situation would not at all develop in the way they thought. It were about to get much more complicated.
Wagner cheered, indeed the pocket knife man had left a trail of bread crumbs like Hansel and Gretel. The forensic technicians secured the fingerprint, photographed it and scanned it. Max took it up on one of the screens. Enhanced contrast. Wiped out the noise.
Nora Smith called back. They had access to the databases.
Max uploaded the image into the interoperability program for fingerprints. Several points analyzed in the fingerprint and compared against databases abroad.
At the same time they runned it against their own database in Austria and rather quickly found that they had no impact.
”H
i, please tell me that we have a file on this guy.”
Max sat facing the screen. Shook his head.
After a while, a green box popped up on one of the screens. It was the database US-VISIT (IBIS). They had received a hit from America's famous, controversial database of biometric data of all travelers who came to the U.S. after September 11. He who had stumbled near the glass case had visited the United States in recent years.
”Perfect. Now we check his whereabouts. If he lives nearby or has used a credit card at a hotel.”
Reluctantly Alexander turned toward one of the stars.
”Tobias, you check with the credit card companies. Ask someone at the House17 to fix records also. If you have problems, you call Nora Smith in Haag.”
Tobias trotted off with his phone. He was escorted by Julian who stopped at the bulletin board, and occupied himself with some decent reconnaissance of the old school. He was looking for eccentric facial expressions. The debt that was written on the face. Great judge of character that he was.
The Pro was back surprisingly quickly with details of their suspect. He had got hold of credit cards, phone numbers, occupation and details of accommodation. He gave the information to Wagner.
”Oh, it was not far. Let's hope he's there.”
Alexander stood up and summoned his troops.
”It seems that we can finish this faster than I had thought. Julian, you call for reinforcements. Max, you stay here and get more evidence if you can with our forensic scientists. Okay, here we go!”
Alexander left the central with Julian and Tobias going towards the State Opera and Hotel Sacher.
29
Rome
Year 1599
* * *
Ciriaco my friend
The crowds are full of life outside Castel Sant'Angelo. We will arrange newly pressed editions of the Nolan´s book, The Shadow of Ideas. I suggest that we let the bookshop at Via Ripetta (Girolamo) near Augustus Mausoleum press this edition. Also make sure that the other bookshops increase production and distribution of pamphlets. The time for the Truth is now. Pay them double if they are scared.
When you are there, let the kind Girolamo show you his exquisite print of Dante's Divine Comedy. That you will not forget.
Our girl was quicker than the Jews and informs me that she had found someone. He will be the Martyr of Theatre. But unlike Paul and Peter, he will not know about it or even want it. But he will do it anyway.
your brother
Rome in the holy year MDIC
The jurist Constantino della Porta burned the seal on the letter. He walked down the stairs to Piazza San Luigi dei Francesi and submitted it to a runner. He returned to the faculty, bolted the door of his room at Sapienza University and sat down again at his writing desk. He took ink from his inkwell. Turned up a linen paper and wrote another letter.
* * *
Master
The events are proceeding as Master Pletho anticipated.
The Nolan reveals himself to them.
Your humble servant
Rome in the holy year MDIC
30
Hotel Sacher, Vienna
June 15
Ludwig was awakened by a loud noise. There were sirens sounded outside. Pictures of the C-Building and his jump over the wall flickered but they disappeared quickly. He flew out of bed and glanced out the window. He saw a caravan of police cars that went to the direction of Operngasse against Albertinaplatz where Ludwig´s window was.
His heart was pounding.
The sweat came right away.
The cars turned one by one into Philharmonikerstrasse where the hotel entrance was. Ludwig ran to the salon but no windows had views towards the entrance. He screamed.
”Damn it!”
August rushed out of his room.
”What is it, Ludwig?”
August immediately heard the sirens. Looked to Albertinaplatz.
”Hell!”, roared August.
”What do we do?”
”Relax, do not worry now, Ludwig.”
But August himself was not calm, far from it.
August pondered. A thousand thoughts raced through his head, a swarm of thoughts, which was a new situation for August who was almost always calm when he would take a decision. He told Ludwig that he would pack his stuff, computer and camera. Stand ready at the door.
The sirens bounced between the walls, but stopped after a while. The police had stopped.
It was paralyzing, a faint glow from the juice mixers appeared at the Staatsoper opposite. August and Ludwig were sure that they were outside the entrance.
August threw his stuff together and waited.
They opened a window. They thought they heard postings from an inspector.
Both jumped when the phone rang. They looked at each other. Thought it was over.
Ludwig thought. It felt like he had a vise around his head. He thought of the pocket knife and the hand on the floor at the Sapphire Box´s glass case, whether it was because of that the police were there.
August approached cautiously phone. He picked up the receiver.
It was a short conversation.
The vise tightened when August hung up. Ludwig asked.
”What did they say?”
August looked pale.
”It was the front desk. They want me to come down. There were a lot of people down there. Hardly heard what she said. It was a bloody gurgle. I did not ask what it was about before she hung up.”
They pondered the situation for a few long seconds. They had no choice. August said.
”We are going down. If there are police down there, we run through side entrance against Operngasse and take a chance that they don´t have any postings there.”
Ludwig nodded.
August tried to shake off the fear. He opened the door and went out.
Ludwig went shortly after. They went into the elevator and pressed the ground floor. It felt like the elevator went in slow motion.
August took a deep breath when the elevator plinged. The lobby was full of people. Many stood along the windows on tiptoe and looked out. The light from the juice mixers flowed into the lobby. The police had parked outside.
Some men in dark suits stood at the front desk. They looked at August and Ludwig when they came towards them.
*
Further ahead Alexander saw that a Revierinspektor already had arranged the roadblock. The tape, juice mixers, uniforms acted as a vacuum cleaner. People joined in quantities and looked for what was going on. Hands that held cell phone cameras were hovering over the heads of the people who stood outside the barricades.
The crowd prevented him from driving into Philharmonikerstrasse. The large police force and the blockade made it impossible for their guy to escape. If he was still at the address.
Alexander parked the car on the sidewalk and walked towards Hotel Sacher´s entrance.
*
The suits looked away when August came closer.
He winced as the concierge said.
”Mr. Iacobi?”
August nodded. He did it gently, trying to hide from everyone else that he was Mr. Iacobi.
Sweat beads had settled in the creases in his forehead. The men in dark suits moved closer.
”Mr. Iacobi. Can you please come with me?”
Through the window he saw Gruppeninspektor Alexander Wagner. Felt like someone cut him in the stomach.
The men in dark suits were taken care of by another desk clerk to their great surprise.
Wagner walked past the entrance.
A man in shorts and baseball cap held out an electronic plate to August. Asked him to sign. Without thinking about it, he did it. The man in shorts held out a package with large letters, it said EXPRESS.
August turned around. Looked at the people who were glued to the windows. Looked at the package. Then came the calm in tiny doses.
When they were back in the suite August and Ludwig laughed when they looked at each other in
spite of their conflicting arrangement, amazed that the plan probably had gone without a hitch.
They put the package carefully on the salon marble table. Picked up a pair of scissors. Carefully cut the tape. Ripped off the cardboard. Folded around the small velvet pouch. Lifted gently to one side. Laced up.
August shook when he lifted the Sapphire Box of Edfu and put it on the table.
”Unbelievable”, said August.
They looked at it from all angles.
On top of the box there were four cloves in a ring. Ludwig carefully held the box. Spun slowly. The crowning piece was in the middle on top of the Four-Leaf Clover. Surrounded by the four cloves. It was a gilded caduceus that rose from the Four-Leaf Clover´s foundation. Ludwig began to fiddle on the caduceus.
”No!”, roared August. ”Do not touch it for God's sake. Do not turn the caduceus. Cannot you hear how something torn inside?”
Ludwig put the box back on the table.
”How is it that no one has found what is in it, if there is anything?”
”Look at the clovers, Ludwig, they're like recessed into the surface. It does not look like they can be opened. I do not think the idea has beaten them, it is too sensational, they probably just thought that it´s a trinket.”
”How can we bring the most common symbols of this, as it says in the statement from Corpus Thoth Fraternitatis?”
August felt the area around the clovers. Found two rings. It felt as if they had springs in it. He pulled one ring counterclockwise. Nothing happened. The other counterclockwise. Nothing. Started over. After a moment he pulled the top ring clockwise and the lower ring counterclockwise. Then it clicked.
The rings fell off the box. Exposed a series of symbols.
”This is probably the real reason that nobody found what is in it. Just as Loretta said, little research has been conducted on this box over the years.”
They looked at the row of symbols that appeared. The line ran around the entire piece. It consisted of Latin letters.