“The TNT had been taken there for use in bargaining with the Voitar, but for some reason they lost interest in it. Colonel Landgraf three times requested its removal, but Berlin had not gotten around to it.” He shrugged. “The manpower shortage, I suppose. It was certainly not something they’d send interned Balts or Frenchmen to do.”
Hauser spread a map on his desk. “Your quarry escaped the Schloss in one of our trucks there, taking with him three of the four surviving psychics: a man, a woman, and a ten-year-old. They left with him willingly. Yesterday, forest workers covered the truck abandoned here, hidden in the forest.” He pointed at an X penciled on the map. “Obviously they intend to escape via Liechtenstein. He was undoubtedly provided with military maps, and well-briefed on routes out of the country. So he knows he will have to take one of these.” The finger moved decisively, there and there and there. “He will know that with a woman and child, anything more difficult is impossible, whether on horseback or on foot.”
“If pressed, he will no doubt abandon the horses first, then his companions, but he will set out on one of those routes. Even so . . .”
Hauser paused, clearing his throat like a lecturer. “The nature of the terrain and the shortage of men make it impossible to scour the country looking for them. Too much is forest, and there are small, boulder-littered ravines beyond count. But, there are a limited number of places through which he can cross. That is the key.”
Again he paused, looking uncomfortable with what he was about to add. “I must mention that the other psychic insists this Montag-McCarthy can make himself literally invisible. I would reject the notion out of hand, except for two things: the havoc he has wreaked, and that he is a certified psychic. Even with confederates inside, to accomplish what he did. . .” Hauser shook his head. “And it is questionable that the people he took with him could have contributed much. A nurse, an academic, and a child. They are not the type.”
Krieger grunted. Listening to Hauser’s lecture, he’d gotten a deep, intuitive sense of his quarry. This Montag would not abandon the people with him, of that he was certain. And as for routes-he was likely to select one which men like Hauser would not expect, perhaps carrying the child and bullying the others. As for invisibility- If it was real, Krieger had no doubt he could see through it.
“Anything else?” he asked.
“There was one thing, but Captain Reiter rejects it, and I agree with him. The psychic who informed on them believed that Montag-McCarthy had outside confederates, other Fallschirmjager A small parachute was found caught on a nearby pasture fence. It was marked U.S. Army, and carried fuse and detonators, so we had the surroundings searched. Only a single large parachute was found, concealed beneath shrubs in the woods. There was no evidence, none at all, of any other intruders. And in such an operation, to such a man, stealth is more practical than firepower.”
His Captain Reiter is a sound detective, Krieger decided, and seemingly the major himself is not bereft of intelligence. Or integrity; he gave credit where credit was due.
“I am told,” Hauser went on, “that you will hunt them from the air. That should simplify matters. If you find them, you need simply fly past and machine-gun them.”
“I will take him alive.”
“Alive?1”
“I have two squads of our own Fallschirmjager at my Parachutists Landing in the high Alps.” Lunacy! The air is too thin! “But if this McCarthy is invisible, how will they find him? How will you find him?”
Krieger half grunted, half snorted, and his eyes seemed to ow. “I will find him,” he said. “In daylight or dark, I will nd him. I always do.”
Hauser’s short hair bristled, and any doubt he’d had, died.
39
Progress
The four fugitives started their second day before sunup, and by midmorning came to a high pasture, with what in Oregon would be called a cow camp, though here the cows were milk cows, not beef. They bypassed it, keeping out of sight in the forest. Afterward they worked their way up a rocky draw above it, riding at first, then leading their horses. The draw top ed out at a notch, which on the other side overlooked a deep and narrow valley that Macurdy thought of as a canyon. He hadn’t been sure, from the map, if they could take the horses down into it or not, but one way or another, they had to reach the bottom.