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She peeked out, then darted into the gloom

The boat’s engines gurgled to life Gray smoke burst from the manifolds and filled the boathouse The water beneath the stern turned to froth and the boat surged forward, nosing through the doors and disappearing into the drifting snow

“Sail true,” Sam said, then turned and ran

CHAPTER 49

He had taken three strides out the door when he heard a snow-muffled voice to his left shout, “There!” Unsure whether it was for the escaping speedboat or for hi, then sprinted onto the lawn in the direction of the sextant statue If Kholkov and his partner were in fact after him he didn’t want to lead them back to Remi

When he saw the statue appear ahead, he dove into a headfirst slide that took him behind the pedestal He flipped onto his belly and looked back the way he’d co on gravel Through the blowing snow he sao figures appear around the corner of the building and duck into the boathouse Now the question was, how long would it take Kholkov to reverse his own sabotage? The solenoid ould take less than athe flywheel to its proper position would be trickier The longer it took, the harder their automaton boat would be to find

One rowled to life and revved up After a few seconds it faded, ot up, circled to the rear of the chapel, and found Remi crouched in the semidarkness of the woodshed

“I heard,” she said “The question is, how much time did it buy us?”

“Ten, fifteen minutes at least In this weather it’ll take the just to find our decoy Come on”

He helped her to her feet They clih

After the wind and snow, the relative warrand exterior, the chapel was surprisingly simple, with reddish brown stone tiles, scarred wooden pews, and white walls bearing fraious icons Above their heads a balcony spanned the rear wall, while the vaulted ceiling was filigreed in light pink and gray paint Tall mullioned s on the side walls cast the interior in ht

They made their way down the center aisle to the far end of the chapel to a narrow door Through it they found a crescent-shaped room dominated by a spiral staircase They started upward After thirty or forty steps they found the hasp and padlock The padlock wasn’t locked

“Looks like somebody missed an item on the evacuation check-list,” Remi said with a smile

“Our good luck Wasn’t looking forward to defiling a Bavarian national landmark”

Sam removed the padlock and slid back the hasp bolt He carefully lifted the trapdoor, clih, then helped Reht seeped through the shuttered slit s, the octagonal space was dark They clicked on their flashlights and began looking around