Olaf’s Den
Petra heard a tap on her door. Dinner was over and she was preparing for bed. She guessed it was a servant coming to see if the room was in order. Instead, she heard a familiar voice.
‘Hullo. It’s me.’
Petra opened the door and Carmel Mendez-Klein sneaked in. Mario’s mother reminded her of a schoolgirl up to some naughty tricks, in a school dormitory, when the teachers weren’t looking.
‘There are secret passages,’ she said.
‘Where?’
‘Here in the castle. They were used for all sort of secret things in past and they still are.’
Petra guessed that Carmel hadn’t come to give her a history lesson. There had to be some other reason for her visit.
‘People want to see one another,’ she continued.
Petra wished the silly woman would come to the point.
‘One of the passages lead to Mario’s room.’
Petra got the message. Carmel thought she was yearning to spend the night in her son’s arms. She wanted to see Mario but not for that reason. They were intent of wiping out the Cabal. That’s why they had come to the castle and that was what they intended to do.
‘Mario has amigo …’
Carmel fed in one seductive detail after another.
‘He take you to him. His name is Olaf. Mario perhaps tell you about Olaf. He is living with us for very long time. He know the passages …’
The schoolgirl chatter continued. Petra wondered if Carmel had ever grown up. She decided to go along with her silly game.
‘Could I go down one of those passages?’
Carmel seemed pleased to have got the message across.
‘Olaf take you,’ she smiled.’
‘How do I find him?’
‘You don’t. He come to you.’
A panel on the wall moved. It had looked secure a moment earlier. Now it was sliding to the side. Mario had described what Olaf looked like. Petra decided that if anyone else appeared she would scream and make a dash for the door.
That wasn’t necessary. The person who emerged from behind the panel could be none other than the brilliant inventor, turned assassin. His long fair hair was tied in a ponytail and he wore a woolly hat. The face beneath was boyish. The rest of him was overweight and middle-aged.
‘Hi. I’m Olaf.’
He turned and headed back the way he had come without saying another word. Petra followed and the panel returned to its original position.
‘Mind your head.’
Olaf flicked his torch and she saw pipes and electric cables. Carmel had talked about secret passages. This was more like a service area for the adjoining rooms. Spy holes peeped into them. Mario said Olaf was the Cabal’s chief spy. He seemed to have a special interest in what went on in bedrooms and bathrooms. They turned a corner and ancient stonework appeared. Mario was waiting there. He grasped her arm.
‘Olaf is going to take us to his den.’
The den turned out to be a snug little room in the castle tower. A narrow spiral staircase led there. Olaf squeezed up sideways. Petra and Mario followed behind. She looked around. A small window provided a view to the north. Lights of a town shone in the distance. Olaf said it was called Foix and two of Charles Paget’s agents were based there. They would be meeting them soon.
According to Olaf, they were a mother-and-son team, known as the Hansens. The son, Humphrey, was rumoured to be Charles Paget’s son. Olaf said he had checked that out and it didn’t compute. Humphrey’s mother, Kirstin, didn’t meet Charles until after Humphrey was born … but they had been lovers.
Petra listened with growing alarm. Everyone was related. It was sounding more and more like a family affair. The old man, Steven Mason, was a close friend of her grandfather. David was Charles Paget’s nephew and Kirstin Hansen had been Charles Paget’s lover.
What sort of team was this? They had just dined with some of the world’s most powerful people. Was Olaf planning to set Humphrey and Kirstin Hansen against them? They might be Charles Paget’s agents. What good was that? He was probably dead. He certainly looked near death when they dumped him in the emergency wing of a hospital eight days ago.
Olaf had a vague notion that the Hansens could set some international law enforcement agency against the Cabal. He could supply the evidence to convict them. Petra was unable to hold her tongue.
‘Why haven’t you done that already, Olaf?’
‘Done what?’
‘Given the information to the Hansens.’
‘I wasn’t sure it was a good idea.’
‘No. It’s not a good idea, Olaf.’ Petra glared at him. ‘The Cabal will sabotage the investigation before it gets started. There is already one underway. That’s why they are here. People are asking difficult questions about the disappearance of Flight-145. They intend to shut them up before they discover anything that is really incriminating.’
‘There is an investigation,’ Olaf agreed.
‘And they want to sabotage it.’
‘Perhaps …’
‘Not perhaps, Olaf.’
Petra leant forward like a prosecutor in a court case.
‘They want to sabotaged the investigation just like you sabotaged my father’s plane … isn’t that right?’
Olaf looked stunned.
‘Yes,’ he wheezed.
Petra pointed a finger at him.
‘Do you want to make amends?’
‘Yes,’ he sobbed.
Tears rolled down Olaf’s cheeks.
‘There is only one way.’
‘What’s that, Petra?’
‘Do to them as they would do others.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Drone them, Olaf!’
‘You mean make their plane crash?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’ve thought of that and it won’t work.’
‘You did it to my father’s plane.’
‘But that was just one plane. They have their own planes. I can’t make them all crash. It only works if they are all together.’
Mario strode forward.
‘They are all together now.’
Olaf stared at him.
‘But they are not in a plane.’
‘No, Olaf. They are here in this castle. All of the senior members of the Cabal are here. Now is he time to act. We won’t get another chance.’
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Blast them away.’
‘How?’
‘With explosives!’ Mario pointed out of the window. ‘You are using them to blast out the galleries for the tourist centre. There’s enough gelignite down there to destroy the castle ten times over.’
‘But it’s stored in a secure area.’
‘We’ll find a way to get in.’
‘Then what do we do?’
‘Bring it up here in one of the delivery trucks. I’ve driven them. We can park in the tunnel beside the kitchens. It’s directly below the Great Hall. The best time is 10 pm when the staff are leaving. Security is slack then. Cuthbert and his friends will still be there. They won’t leave until well after midnight. You can detonate it when the staff are well clear and we won’t be killing innocent people.’