Chapter 8

"Lorraine! Open up!" Sully hit the door again, not caring about the other houses nearby. All the better, actually, if they heard him. "Lorraine! It's not that late, get up!"

Cutter was walking the perimeter, checking for anything out of place. Sully tried looking through the door, but everything was dark. All of the flood lights were off, as well as the one above the door. Sully had a bad feeling, Cutter finally coming back. "Back door's locked, but it's easy to open. She didn't put the pole against the door. House doesn't even look like it has security on."

"Then let's get the god damn door open," Sully growled, leading the way. Sully had the door open almost right away, carefully stepping through the door frame, listening for any other intruders. Gun sturdy in his hand, he and Cutter carefully entered the home, giving a careful sweep. Lorraine was nowhere to be found. Sully turned on a few lights, heading to her desk and looking around for the original blueprints that she had shown him.

He pulled open a drawer, seeing an envelope with his initials in a cursive scrawl. He carefully opened it, quickly reading through the letter, Cutter keeping quiet for the moment. "She's gone," Sully finally muttered, handing the letter to Charlie. "She went to Argentina to work with Keller."

"But she doesn't even believe in the treasure," Cutter mumbled, reading through quickly.

"Hard to say now. If Keller is offering her a lot of damn money, then she may be swayed."

"Well, as least she knows she's working with our enemy," Cutter said, handing the letter back. "Let's get some grub and head back to the room, shall we? We have a bit to plan out now, since the sources are disappearing to Argentina left and right."

They locked up her house, leaving quickly. Cutter drove back to the hotel, Sully lost to his thoughts.

I'm sorry, Victor. I have been asked to leave the country and fly south as soon as possible. Don't come after me, as I don't believe what this man wants is in a green forest. I think your trail is much warmer. Remember what I just talked to you about, and keep your nose around Germany. I don't know this Axel Keller, but I hope your brain and ghost accomplice can find something soon. I'll be back as soon as I can.

He wanted to read the letter again, but it was too dark. He was tired, frustrated, beginning to feel like he was in a little too deep. We need to get a hold of Nate. I need to know what's going on. I can't keep up with these little bits of information. We need a solid path to start with.

After a quick dinner run, the two silently went up to their room, Victor pulling out the maps and the notes they got from Lorraine. He started making X's across the map, circling others. He completely scribbled out Argentina. "What if we need to see something down there when Drake calls us?"

"As far as I'm concerned, the god damn country doesn't exist. Nothing good has come from there after I left with Nate years ago."

"All right, I don't know anything about your past, forgive me, but at the moment, it might be useful to at least have an idea of where Drake or Lorraine might be headed."

Sully had his palms pressing against the table over the map. He kept his head down, feeling like he was being backed into a corner. He didn't know where to go. There weren't any clues. They didn't have the apparent money that Keller possessed. "I don't care where they're headed. That's all another path. What we have to work with is right here in front of us. We need to find a contact to talk to, we need books, an outline, files of some sort to look through." He glanced back at the country in black, then to the red scribbles outlining Europe. "We need to focus over here, if you're still with me on this."

He heard Cutter shift, the soft steps coming closer to him. "Look mate, you need to eat and take a short break so you can get your head on straight. Then we can start tackling this one country at a time. I might know a person or two who can probably give us a slight bit of a lead. It's late and we can't do anything else until the morning. Eat, take another look at the map, and then we should get some sleep before taking another stab in the dark. How about that for a game plan?"

Sully finally relaxed, bringing his hands off the table and looking back at Cutter. "Thanks for not dipping out on me. It's only been a day down here and already things are flying crazy. I don't know how Keller got his hands on Lorraine, but I need to know why. Maybe something happened to Nate, and he needs to call in back up."

"Or, maybe Keller needs another set of eyes. You never know."

Sully focused on Cutter's deep green eyes, pointing a finger at him. "You don't know what the hell I saw, so my anger isn't directed at you. When I last saw Nate, he was on something, listening to an old accomplice who was likely bought out by this Axel Keller. Imagine yourself suddenly turning on your father and a nemesis of yours is pointing a gun at your father while you steal from right in front of him. But, you can't help yourself. You're unable to disobey the orders of your nemesis. That's what I'm worried about for Lorraine."

Charlie didn't break contact, but his breathing spiked. The room was silent for a moment, the smell of the fries and burgers settling its scent throughout the room. Finally, Cutter tilted his head slightly to the left, turning away, walking to the balcony and sliding door. "All right, I can see how dedicated you are to these people. This is like a huge undercover operation, almost. I mean, it's all fair game, but what this man is doing to get people to join him is unbelievable. Either buying them out, or doping them up. Doesn't seem fair. I'm with you on this mate, I won't back out. My curiosity is peaked."

Sully slowly released his breath, counting to ten before turning and grabbing their food. Lorraine was a good girl, she'd comply with Keller, especially because she didn't believe in the 'trophies.' Sully was sure if Keller asked her questions, then she would simply answer with a "if you believe in that type of thing, of course."

They ate in a peaceful quiet, the news on in the background. Sully went back to the maps as soon as he was finished, looking at each of the countries. They didn't have any specific locations, but they had at least a vague idea. "Any of your contacts familiar with Spain?" Sully asked, eyeing a few places along the coast.

"Off the top of my head, no. Nor do I know enough Spanish to get by."

"I know enough. Do you think anyone can give us a clue to someone down there?"

Cutter sat back in his chair, rubbing his chin. He grabbed his phone, flipping through, shaking his head now and again. "Maybe. Those few I mentioned earlier, one of them has a wide variety of acquaintances, and he may be able to land us a small idea. This is why no one I guess has tried to chase the phantom treasure. There are too many dead ends."

"The trail's not dead. Otherwise none of this would be happening." He thought back to everything he had learned early in the Navy and World War Two. "The allies were in control at the end of the war." He looked back to the X's across the countries. "Hitler was trapped. There were Brits up north, Americans in Africa, on top of the Red Army coming from the east. Everyone wanted him dead. But yet, they didn't have a large showing of his body or proof of his death."

"Yes, true," Cutter said, his right arm hanging over the back of the chair, left foot balanced on his leg. He rubbed his thumb across his chin, watching Sully. "Surprise me with something I don't know."

"But that's just the thing! You're the god damn historian! This is why I need Nate! He just sees the puzzle and can work it out. I teach him how to control himself so he doesn't end up dead on the way to the job. We work everything out together, unless something comes up that we need to take care of on our own time. Nate's the reader, I'm the gunman."

"May I have a word then with these papers at the table that you've been hogging since we got this room?"

Sully gestured to the table, taking the chair and lighting his cigar. Cutter looked at the papers, making lines and circles, redoing some of the X's. "Don't you ever touch a map with a marker again. Pencil, lad. At least pencil erases." After a few more minutes, he started agreeing with himself, nodding, pointing and sliding his finger around, occasionally tapping South America rather aggressively. Sully had a slight idea the brash taps were because the country was completely soaked in ink.

"Okay, all right, I think I have a better idea than I expected. Okay. So, you know whatever I explained to you when we first met, and then what Lorraine told us. That's the gist of the whole picture, but what we're looking for is the trail. We can't afford to fly off to whatever country calls us with an inkle of a chance. So, planes." He raised his shoulders, dropping them in a 'easy, see?' manner.

"Yes, planes. I have one, Hitler had a lot, they're really good with transportation."

"Well done. Gold star. No, planes. Hitler could only travel to places where he could land his plane. Just because he can fly doesn't mean he can land. He needed to go to countries where he had sway over the airports and air control. What attacks have there been during the war, where suddenly an airport was taken over by Nazis, or, what of just a lot of people were mysteriously killed on their way to work at the airport, or spies, or something. Get it? Planes?"

"All right, so we need to look out further into these countries to see who followed the Germans. Being it was the day before Germany surrendered, this was kind of a last stand. Everything was in turmoil. Many people didn't know who to trust, everything was upside down. So what, a group of eight people are helping Hitler leave. In the dark I'm sure, because everything is easier at nighttime, you have two pilots at most and Hitler, maybe his wife and a close advisor. Maybe. You fly out, have three, four people working the landing area. You just need to knock out air control for a little bit, have a code to communicate in case anyone else is listening or the com is being recorded."

"Exactly! So, looking at these countries, there aren't many options. A rumor is Denmark, but I don't think his treasure or clues are up there." He pointed his finger at the map though. "But if it is, bloody right I'm going to be pissed. Spain, Spain is where we should focus. It's large, beautiful. Maybe we can try to look up old airports associated with Nazi Germany and try to land there, look for any clues. Which end of Spain he may have gone to is the question. From there, depending on what we find, he could have left on a different plane, already scheduled to head out and all that, to help lose his trail. Or, Spain is next to the sea, how much you want to bet Hitler was not apt to claustrophobia?"

Sully smiled, ashed his cigar, meeting Cutter's eye. "I like where this is heading. All right, we can do this. Spain it is. Now I can rest. We can look up more history tomorrow and head out. Thank you."

"Told ya mate, just calm down and breathe. We'll get your friend and the treasure, and make out with the beautiful lady." Cutter smiled, then dropped, Sully evening out his face. "No, I mean, not make out, like, no, not that way, like, we're making out with all the good things, we win, save the day, you know?"

"I'm just messing with you." Sully stood, feeling a little more relaxed than he had in a long while. "Good night, Cutter."

/\/\/\~~

"Come on tough guy, show me what you got."

Nathan had a crooked smile on his face, arms up in defense. "Bring it, big boy, don't let my size deceive you."

The man came at him, Nathan ducking under the arm stretching out, quickly turning and taking a step back, before closing the distance, using the man's forward momentum to shove him down. The crowd cheered, Nathan quickly landing two blows on the side of the guy's face, trying to break his zygomatic. If he was able to break it, he hoped the man's eye would fall out of his socket. The man stood up, dropping Nathan onto his back. Nathan saw the leg coming down, quickly rolling to the left onto his stomach and standing back up, raising his arms again.

He tried to drown the crowd out. He didn't know how long he had before the guards came. The man laughed. "You're a quick little boy, aren't you? Do you need to catch your breath before we continue?"

"Bring it, jackass."

Nathan made the first move, rushing at the guy, taking a quick step to the right and swinging his upper body, but the man's fist landed across his jaw. He stumbled but held his balance, seeing the man step closer for another hit. Nathan rushed at him, head-butting his stomach, dragging them both to the ground. Nathan planted his knees tight against the older man's abdomen, and tried going for the man's face again. His arms though were shorter than his rival's, making it hard to actually land a blow without being hit as well. The man squirmed, trying to shift Nate, but the boy wouldn't break hold. Nathan caught an arm, trying to twist the wrist to break it.

"Is this what you're trying to do?" The man caught Nathan's arm, quickly pulling and twisting, Nathan letting out a short scream of pain, the man shoving Nathan off of him. On his back once more, the man walked up his side, spitting on him. "You're nothing more than a play toy. Remember that. Good luck with the arm in this prison. Guards don't care for injuries. Maybe they will cus you're a kid, but, we'll see."

Nathan heard yelling, felt a foot placed under his back, the leg lifting and pushing him, Nate rolling onto his wrist and front. Hands grabbed his shirt and lifted him up, issues being ordered to prisoners and guards. He heard solitary, causing him to groan. He was relieved though. The men couldn't bother him in solitary. A few had tried to approach him and get him into their gang or other activities, most of them nowhere beneficial on Nathan's part. He had managed to slip through their fingers, learning that fights got him locked away. He didn't know how long his sentence was, but this couldn't make it any worse. Sully would come up with something.

He was brought up to a metal door, a guard letting go of his arm and inspecting his wrist. Not caring to pay attention, Nathan waited silently until they finished talking about what to do with his wrist and punishment. The door was finally opened, Nathan stepping through, the guard pointing to his wrist, then Nathan's, holding up his first finger before shutting the door.

Nathan sighed, a little bit of sunlight coming through an open vent towards the top of the room. Nathan sat on his small bed, barely large enough for him. It was a few inches off the floor, simple board frame and a thin as paper mattress. A hole-filled blanket was folded at the end. He lifted his feet off the floor and crossed his legs, taking careful note of the floor. He didn't see any of the furry creatures yet. Some cells had the rats, others didn't. He hadn't been in this room before, and he still didn't know how long he was stuck. He hoped longer than a week.

The door grated open, the guards coming back with wraps and splints. One of the guards had a medical symbol on his chest, Nathan giving a slight sigh of relief. At least one of them had a slight idea what to do. The man looked at his wrist, felt it, moved it, basing where it was broken and how bad on Nathan's reactions. Breathing hard, sweat beading the teen's brow, the man instructed the other guard how to hold while the man adjusted the right placement for his wrist before aggressively wrapping it up. Nathan tried not to move, but he was repeatedly banging his knee against the wall, trying to hold back his screams of pain. Finally the men left, the guard telling him he had a week in the room. Breathing hard, sweat and tears pouring down his face, he laid on the bed, dozing in and out, about to pass out when a scuttle across the floor drew his attention.

Sitting up he scoured the small room, already darker than before. His breathing pitched, wondering where the furry monsters were hiding. His screams probably drew their curiosity. He finally caught a peek of one, swinging his foot and kicking it away. He felt a claw touch his hand, Nathan jumping up, swinging the rat at the wall. With a crunch, he hoped the skull had smashed, instead of the ribs or legs. He didn't see any others, but he knew they were there.

"Nathan... Nathan... Nathan..."

Nate grabbed his head, groaning, breathing hard. He blinked, quickly swinging his arm up and out, knocking the other person's arm away. He was about to swing again when his arm was grabbed and pulled down, Nathan blinking again, trying to register what was going on.

"Morning sweetheart, having a bad dream?"

Nathan looked at the man in front of him, then to the side, trying to calm his breath. "Sorry, I, I, yeah, a bad dream. Sure." He looked at Nora, giving a sheepish smile, pulling his arm back. "Where are we?"

"San Carlos de Bariloche. We have finally arrived."

"I thought you said we were going to get here earlier? Why is the sun up?"

"Harry misread the map," Nora said, smiling. "He was off by a few hundred miles."

The man turned frontward, Daly pulling into a parking spot of what looked to be a small motel. "Wow, how do you feel about that Daly?" Nate asked, leaning forward and clapping a hand on Flynn's shoulder. "This man can read a journal but yet he can't read a map? How did you manage to be hired, Flynn?"

"So what, everyone makes mistakes. We're going to stay here for a short bit, get our notes organized, and head on out. We have enough cash for now to not leave a paper trail, but the goal is to get as far ahead of Keller as possible."

"Great. I need to make a phone call."

They unloaded from the truck, taking their things into the small room, a bed in the center, the tables and TV looking about as old as Nate. They brought in their things, beginning to organize, Nathan walking up to Flynn. "I need your phone."

"No."

Nate met Flynn's eyes, cool demeanor flaring between the two. "Yes. I need to get in touch with Sully. He needs to know I'm alive, and I need to know what's going on with him. You ripped me away from him, and if you want any progress made quickly so we can maintain our lead, I need to talk to him right now."

Flynn looked at him for a moment before handing the phone over. "Do what you need, but make it quick. I can't have you blabbing on it for hours."

"Don't worry," Nate muttered, stepping outside and completing the process for Sully. He just hoped the man wasn't in the air flying. "Come on, come on..."

"Sullivan here."

"Sully! Oh man it's great to hear your voice again."

"Nate? What the hell's going on? Where the hell are you, kid? Are you okay?"

"It's been quite the trip so far, not in my top five. We just got into Bariloche. I don't know what we're doing at the moment, because the treasure's not here. I do happen to have all the notes you're going to need for whatever your next plans are."

"Yeah? I have Charlie working with me and we're going to Spain. What can you tell us to help us out? God dammit Nate, what the hell happened to you? I didn't think you were alive. We found out about the man—Axel Keller."

"Charlie? You managed to get ahold of him? That's great! I don't even wanna know how you found out Keller's name, but great! That makes the story a little quicker, besides the parts I don't remember. Right now I'm with Flynn, a body guard, and this researcher who's helping me with Hitler's trail. Got myself out of Keller's clutches, and now I'm in Flynn's. At least he's safer company. We're going to continue trekking north through South America."

"Don't lose your head in this. Remember you're not alone. What can you tell me about which way I should be going? We're at a dead end."

Nate stepped back into the room, heading to the stash of notes, recognizing how he had them organized. "Let's see... I'm assuming Cutter knew about the way to Spain? That's good. You're going to need to head to Galicia. There was the man, Fancisco Franco—"

"Franco, yeah, I've heard of him."

"Great. Well, he has a summer retreat out there. It's large, enforced, and a very likely spot Hitler would have gone there. There are reports of thousands of dollars heading there from hard to trace sources, but most were banks under the Nazi's controls. You know Franco had a great time rising in his power and controlling as many sources as possible. If there's any clues, that's going to be the first place to look. There's report of German's being buried in cemeteries, and then, there's a monastery..." Nate flipped through the notes, trying to speed through his handwriting. "The Samos Monastery. There was a monk there who was close to Franco, maybe they disguised Hitler on his way out."

"Wait, wait, wait, your reports actually hold that information?" Cutter cut in, Nate assuming the phone was on speaker.

"Yeah, actually. It's CIA, FBI, papers and reports from multiple countries."

"No wonder the bloke wants you. You stole all his info. And researcher."

"What about the journal? Has that resurfaced yet?" Sully asked, cutting back in.

Nate could hear Cutter grumbling in the background. "No, not yet. Something must be important if Keller is still holding on it. I haven't seen it since...well, you. Keep a tight hold on mine."

"You know me. So, if these two places are a fluke, where too next?"

Nate continued explaining the routes and paths to Sully, a little bit of his memory coming back to surface. Daly and Nora were silent, Flynn occasionally tapping his wrist or snapping his fingers to get Nate's attention. Nate finally finished up the phone conversation, Sully letting him know about his friend Lorraine and how she could probably help Keller just as well as Nate could.

"Great, so we better hurry. I'll keep in touch with you. Good luck."

"You too kid, watch your back."

Nate finally handed the phone back to Flynn, the blonde staring him down. "I said keep it short."

"I did. I haven't spoken with him for a long time. And Keller isn't as far behind us as I thought. He has a new researcher to help him. It looks like we've been replaced."

"What about me?" Nora piped up, looking nervous.

"You're fine. Remember, you're the captive right now. Keller will be coming for you. What we need to do is look at few maps and plan out where we're going. Flynn, go find some please. And string and some tacks. We need to work fast. You and Daly then can rest up the best you can, while Nora and I build a timeline and road map. We're not finished here yet. There's a reason Keller wants to be here, and I intend to find out."

"Good, I locate the temporary home base and you're already throwing out plans."

"You told me to come up with a plan. I'm working on it."

"Improvising is not going to get us very far."

Nate gave him a smile, grabbing the one map Flynn was looking at earlier. Flynn walked out, Daly getting comfy. Nora and him pulled everything out for Argentina, carefully building a route. When Flynn finally returned, Nora was pacing back and forth, holding two pages of a report, switching to a third. Flynn set down the maps, Nathan eagerly pulling them out and lining them up, eyeing the bigger maps for a moment, before some of the papers and laying them out.

"Have you figured out those two pages yet," Nathan asked, looking up at Nora.

"Yes, I believe so, but I'm still trying to find out why it seems important. This house is in the middle of nowhere, out on the edge of a cove. Trees completely surround the place. It looks like no one even lives there, but if they do, it's only accessible by boat or rough terrain. I don't believe it's necessary, but it's totally intriguing."

"So what do we know?" Flynn asked as he sat down on the bed, propping his feet.

"What do you want to know? It's all here. Pick a point where you want to start," Nathan replied, leading strings over the countries.

"Where are we going to end up?"

"Right...about...here." He pointed to the lines, a smile wide across his face. "All these lines, they lead to cities that I believe are areas where Hitler tried to develop the fourth reich and tried to rebuild Hitler's youth. It all leads to the middle of the jungle, up here by Misiones."

"So we're going to travel across Argentina to get to...what? A jungle? South America is a jungle."

"We'll have to see what we find up there. A lot of these papers cover the possible path that Hitler took. Reports of who might have seen him, who might have helped him out. But, if we're going to find anything, it's going to be in this area. The question is, should we shoot straight there, or poke around at each stop and try to figure out why he wanted to head north, and why he started so far south to have to come so far north, most likely on foot, maybe horse or donkey if they found it. They would've had to travel by night or by cover."

"So it looks like you're uncovering more questions than answers."

"Hence, are we going to jump straight to the point, or are we going to look for the answers along the way?"

Flynn leaned back, stretching. "Let's look for the answers. We better get kickin' it before Axel finds us."

"Not to worry..." Nathan went back to the notes, Nora helping translate the different languages, a silence overcoming the room causing Nathan to finally peek over his shoulder, Flynn and Daly sleeping where they were. Smirking, he looked back at the paper Nora was holding, reading the decipher. 'Police report a number of children missing since January 1st, 1946. Thirteen new cases have alone occurred in the last month. Account has not been taken for other towns along the Andes.' Nathan looked up at Nora, then back at the paper. "Do you think there was any success in the children still being a part of this now?"

"I haven't found anything yet that suggests it. It very well could have been an attempt at reforming."

"We need to get to these cities and ask around. That's our best option right now, especially in finding out how much influence Hitler may have had on these people. If they are escaped Nazi's from Germany, then they definitely would've tried to hold sway over these small towns."

Nate pulled a map out, tracing a path where they needed to travel. "We'll start looking around here. We might be able to make it a straight shot, but our goal is Misiones. There's going to be a lot of driving so we're going to need to get moving, fast. Ready to go ask some questions and make a lot of people uncomfortable?"

Nora turned and smiled, grabbing some papers. "Why not? Let the boys sleep; they're the ones who are going to be doing all the driving."

I finally found where I'm going with the rest of this story, so now I'm pretty sure i can continue. I've been pretty lost on where I was going with this, and the timeframe was a big issue...blah blah. I'm here, i'm back, and now to get the story and action rolling. Omg i'm so sorry for the wait.