Temple

'Yes' the big man said, smiling. 'And just saved your life, Professor William Race of New York University. In your bid to save Renee on the catamaran, you tackled the right man. If I'd been a real Nazi, I would have put a bullet in your brain right away. My name is Special Agent Uli Pieck, but around here I am known as Untersharführer Uli Kahr.'

And then suddenly in Race's mind, it all made sense.

'The manuscript,' Race said. 'You're the one who got the BKA their copy of the manuscript.'

'That's right,' Uli said, impressed.

Race recalled Karl Schroeder telling Frank Nash about the BKA's plan to beat the Nazis to the idol. He remembered Schroeder's words clearly: “To do that, we obtained a copy of the Santiago Manuscript and used it to find our way here.'

It was only now, though, that Race realized he should have known from that moment that the BKA had a man inside the Stormtrooper organisation.

The BKA's copy of the manuscript was a Xerox of the actual Santiago Manuscript. But the actual Santiago Manuscript had been stolen from the San Sebastian Abbey in the

French Pyrenees several days earlier by the Stormtroopers, Hence, the Xerox of the manuscript that the BKA had in their possession must have been sent to them by someone within the Nazi organisation.

A spy.

Uli.

'Come on,' Uli said, hurrying over to the body of the fallen Nazi. He quickly stripped the dead man of his weapons, tossing his G-11 and a couple of conventional hand grenades to Renee, and then throwing the Nazi's black kevlar breastplate and Glock-20 pistol to Race. 'Hurry quickly! We have to stop Ehrhardt before he arms the Supernova!'

Heinrich Anistaze and Otto Ehrhardt were standing in one of the glass-enclosed offices inside the boat-house, surrounded by a bank of radio and communications equipment.

In front of them stood Dr Fritz Weber—the former member of Adolf Hitler's atomic bomb project the Nazi scientist who during World War II had conducted excrements on human subjects and been sentenced to death for it. Although his body was eighty-seven years old, hunchbacked aiad gnafleG his mind was as all ice as ever.

Weber held the Incan idol out in front of him

'It's beautiful" he said. 

At eighty-seven, Fritz Weber was a decade older than Ehrhardt and two feet shorter. He was a small bespectacled man with lard appraising eyes and a wild Einsteinian mane of hair that flowed all the way down to his shoulders.

'What word from the European and American governments?'

Ehrhardt asked him.

'The Germans and the Americans both asked for more time to raise the money. Nothing from the others,' Weber said. 'It's a ruse, a standard negotiator's stalling tactic; They're trying to buy more time until they know for sure that their own teams haven't found the idol first.'

'Then let's show them who has the idol! Ehrhard growled. He turned to face Anistaze. 'Make a digital image of the idol now. Time it and feed it into the computer and send it to Bonn and Washington direct. Tell the presidents that the device has left armed and set to detonate in exactly thirty minutes. It will only be disarmed when we have confirmation of the transfer of one hundred billion dollars into out account in Zürich.

'Yes, sir,' Anistaze said crossing the room to switch on digital camera

'Do it, Weber,' Ehthardt said.

'Yes, Oberstgruppenführer?'

'When the Obergruppenführer is finished taking the digital image, I want you to take the idol to the control booth and arm the Supernova immediately to a thirty- minute countdown and start the clock'

“Yes, Oberstgruppenführer'

Race, Renee and Uli hurried back up the dirt path toward the boat-house.

Uli and Rene carried G-11s, Race the small Glock that he had taken from the dead Nazi at the refuse pit.

He now wore the dead Nazi' black kevlar breastplate over his T-shirt. He hadn't easily noticed the Nazis body armour before. But now—now that he was wearing it he looked at it more closely.

First of all it was incredibly light and easy to wear—it didn't impede his movement at all. Secondly, however, he noticed a tange A-shaped unit attached to the back of the breaia covering his shoulder-blades. The A-shaped unit was so light, and like a spoiler on a sports car, it had been smoothly corporate into the design of the kevlar breastplate so as not to run its slick aerodynamic appearance,

As always, and perhaps incongruously -with his high-tech body armour, Race was still wearing his damn Yankees cap,

Digital image is complete,' Anistaze said from over by the bank of radio and electronic equipment, 'Sending it now.' Ehrhardt turned to Weber, 'Arm the Supernova,'

Weber immediately snatched up the idol and with Ehrhardt in tow behind him quickly headed out of the office.

Over there! Renee yelled pointing at one of them  carrying an object wrapped inside a cloth, the idol!

Uli ad Renee left the dirt path, plunged into a section of low foliage heading in the direction of the crater, Race followed them.