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He squeezed my hand, but I let go when something caught my eye.
“Stop!”I screamed.
“What?”Reaper asked after slamming on the brakes.
“Something’s wrong. Magnet, tell the others to turn around.”
“I’ll do it,” offered Flick.
“Schön? What is it?” Magnet asked.
“Look near the retaining wall on the bottom right of the chalet. There’s a flashing red light.”
“Fuck. It’s a trap.”
“Bomb?” Reaper asked.
“It’s Macht,” I said when my cell rang.
“Put the call on speaker.”
“Schön,where are you?” His voice was frantic.
“At the chalet?—”
“Get out! Hurry!”
“Macht, we’re about forty meters away, still in the SUV,” Magnet reported.
“I am on my way with the bomb squad. Do not go inside the chalet.”
I jumped out of the SUV and ran toward my house before he finished his sentence. “How long have I got until it detonates, Macht?”
“No, Schön!Do not go near, I beg you.”
“How long, Macht?”
“Less than ten minutes.”
“I only need five.” I ran as fast as my feet would carry me and dropped my phone but didn’t stop. There were things I had to save, things I thought about when I believed the chalet had burned.
I heard Magnet screaming my name, but I kept going. I just hoped that, by the time he reached me, I’d already be inside and halfway to the master bedroom.
“Prisca!For the love of God, do not go in there!” I heard him yell as I raced in the lower-level door and up the stairs. Once there, I grabbed as many photos of my parents and me as I could hold. As I rounded the corner to enter the bedroom to get the rest, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
“Hallo, Schön.” I looked into Gebieter Schmid’s eyes and heard him cock his gun. Behind him, the precious contents of the box I’d raced inside to retrieve were scattered on the bed.
“My God, Oskar. My uncle removed me from Swiss intelligence, so now you want to kill me?”
His lip curled. “I have one last mission for you, honey trap, and you played into my hands perfectly. As soon as your team comes inside to save you from being blown to bits, we will all go up together.”
“We?You would give up your life?For what?”
“You got too close. I blame myself for letting you live as long as I did. I never dreamed you were smart enough to piece it all together. Now that you have, I am a dead man anyway.”
I heard footfalls coming up the stairs and turned to run. Another man I hadn’t seen grabbed me around the waist. “Magnet! Get out of the house! Go!” I screamed before the guy holding me covered my mouth.
“It is over. It is already too late,mein Schätzelein,” said Schmid.