Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Thirty-One
6th February 1961
Near Oswiecim, Poland
The engine of the Kombi was chugging away as Job drove it down the road, a narrow band of asphalt between fields that were covered in snow. Every minute or so a gust of wind would catch the slab-sided cargo van and try to push it off the road. Job did his best to keep it in the right lane, but he supposed that it was a good thing that there wasn’t a whole lot of traffic on the road today.
That was because it was one of those days where Spring seemed like it would never come. It was bitterly cold and when the sun had come up that morning it had not become light, only slightly less grey. The snow was holding off, for now. Job didn’t wasn’t to be on the road when that changed. Fortunately for him the air-cooled engine of the Kombi didn’t mind the cold, it tended to run hot anyway so this weather suited it. Just that morning, Job had seen that one of the Opal lorries that was used by the company that employed him had its radiator freeze overnight. The Manager had been furious with the idiot who he assumed had filled it with water as opposed to antifreeze. Still, this being Upper Silesia and Southern Poland that they were operating in, it was anyone’s guess where the antifreeze had actually ended up. While Job didn’t think that any of his coworkers were crazy enough to drink it, he wouldn’t put it past them.
Job had finished the morning deliveries and was planning on having a meal in Oswiecim before getting the afternoon deliveries that were to be waiting for him in the depot there. The freight order would be in the depot or it would not, this time of the year it was a bit of a crapshoot. If it wasn’t there, then he would be perfectly happy to drive back to Hindenburg and go home early on a day like today.
That was then that Job came across the scene of an accident. A Kombi similar to the one he was driving had run off the road and through a fence before getting stuck in the snow. As Job slowed to a stop, he saw the young woman trying to get his attention. When he opened the door, the icy blast of air came as a shock after the warmth after how warm it had been in the Kombi. There was a look in her eyes, like if she were scared of something. Probably having just run off the road if Job had to guess. He was aware of the snow crunching under his feet as he walked to the side of the road.
“We have to go” The woman said frantically as she walked past him to his Kombi, “Now.”
“But weren’t you just in an accident?” Job asked in reply as he turned towards her, “Shouldn’t we wait for the authorities or at least inform the property owner about their fence.”
The woman was pulling open the door on the passenger side of his Kombi. Job was getting the impression that something was happening here that he wasn’t picking up on.
“You aren’t just going to abandon your Kombi out here, are you?” Job asked.
“It’s not my…” The woman started to say, but then the look on her face became one of total horror as she looked past Job.
With that much warning Job barely managed to deflect the blow upwards, so the knife missed his neck. Instead, the injury he had suffered nearly two decades earlier saved his life. When the shell fragment had punched through his skull it had left a depressed fracture. The surgeons had been unable to do anything about the sliver of metal lodged in his brain, but after cleaning up the fracture they had installed a stainless-steel plate to protect the weakened portion of his skull. It was of far sterner stuff than mere bone so instead of being killed, the knife hit steel and leaving him with a superficial cut on his scalp. When Job spun on his heel and threw a punch that connected with his attacker’s face, he heard a satisfying crunch even as pain blossomed in his hand. Job had never been a weak man and while his injury might have damaged his mind, there was nothing wrong with his ability to hold his own in a fight.
In the corner of his eye he saw the woman climbing into his Kombi. The man who Job had just punched was scrambling to get back to his own vehicle. He could remember the Feldwebel who had led his Squad saying that there were times when he needed to know when it was time to fall back. Job’s head was hurting and he could feel blood trickling down his neck from the cut on his scalp. This was one of those times. Climbing into the driver’s seat, Job started driving in the direction of Oswiecim. The woman was fearfully staring at Job, waiting to see what he was going to do. Seeing her up close, he realized that she was younger than he had thought, little more than a girl. He also saw that one of the knuckles on his right hand looked misshapen. He would need to have it seen to.
Tempelhof, Berlin
It was early evening when Kat received the call from Sven. After months of frustration, they finally had a break in the case. A young woman had excepted a ride from a stranger into town because she didn’t want to walk because there was a winter storm blowing in. When she became suspicious of the driver of the Kombi and had the presence of mind to grab ahold of the steering wheel, deliberately running the Kombi into a field when she saw the man had a knife. Another Kombi had come along and the driver had fought off her attacker before they both escaped into town. According to Sven, they now had a description and the name Joachim, which was what he had told the young woman to call him. It wasn’t much, but it was far more than they’d had before.