Ghosts of War by Brad Taylor Page A

anything.”
    Aaron said, “Jennifer?”
    Jennifer patted my hand and said, “Okay, knuckle dragger, you do know about the fighting in Eastern Europe, right?”
    Now on more comfortable ground, I said, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I can hold my own there. Warsaw uprising, Stalingrad, what do you want to know?”
    â€œProject Riese?”
    Now I was getting aggravated. I had no idea what that was. Shoshana grinned, which didn’t help my mood.
    Jennifer smiled at me, knowing it would defuse my anger. Whichit did. I noticed Shoshana staring intently at the small exchange, as if she were studying a couple of lizards in a jar.
    Jennifer said, “That wasn’t a fair question. Riese wasn’t a fight. It was a system of tunnels built into the mountains in what’s now western Poland. In World War Two, it was German territory. Anyway, to make a long story short, Hitler was building a gigantic complex—
riese
in German means ‘giant’—for reasons unknown and debated to this day. Some say it was a final command complex for the führer, others that it was for building next-generation weapons. A sort of Hydra-like complex straight out of the Avengers, except it was real. And a lot of it is still unknown.”
    I took that in and said, “So this complex might be hiding the missing trains?”
    â€œWell, that’s what the treasure hunters say. They claim they found one of the trains in a previously unknown tunnel that had collapsed. They even had radar images to prove it.” She turned to Aaron and said, “But the last I heard, the government explored and found nothing.”
    Aaron said, “That’s because they don’t want a riot over claims, like happened with that Hungarian train you mentioned. They found it, but it wasn’t forty-four cars loaded with gold. It was one car, and it held a couple of cases of gold products, mostly candlesticks and that sort of thing, some artwork, and something special to us.”
    I said, “What?”
    â€œThere might be a very, very old Torah from a synagogue in Plonsk, Poland. David Ben-Gurion’s birthplace.”
    Even I understood the significance of that. Ben-Gurion was the father of Israel. It would be like finding a bible owned by George Washington.
    He continued, “If it’s the right Torah, it will be over four hundred years old.”
    Scratch that. Make it a bible that had been passed down for generations until it reached Washington’s hands.
    Aaron said, “It is something the State of Israel would very much like to confirm, but they can’t do so openly. Officially, they don’t know it exists, which is where you come in.”
    â€œUs? We’re not Jewish.”
    â€œNo, you’re not. But you
are
the owners of Grolier Recovery Services. A facilitation company for archaeological work.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œAnd Poland would never let in a group of Israelis to look at the Torah. They’d be petrified we’d raise an alarm and cause trouble over the entire find. But they don’t have an issue with a husband-and-wife team from the United States who happen to be experts on ancient Jewish texts, especially when they’re being escorted by such an esteemed company. You did, after all, find a pyramid in the Guatemalan jungle.”
    I brushed off the blatant flattery, saying, “And this husband-and-wife team would be you and Carrie here?”
    Shoshana nodded and said, “Yes. We just want to use your cover to make us legitimate. Get us over there to take a look.”
    â€œHow do you guys even know all this?”
    â€œLet’s just say that certain elements of our government have determined all this, and that the Polish government is trying to ascertain what they found. They’ve made discrete inquiries to various universities asking for help in determining the provenance of some of the artwork, and we managed to interject