The Robber Princess

Chapter 14. War and the Heart

Chapter 14

Brickelstein was even quieter than usual during the early morning flight back to Lyon. Folkering wondered why and arrived at three possibilities. One was that Brickelstein was still embarrassed at Regina getting the better of him yet again. Folkering had seen the look on his friend's face when, after an hour of looking, he finally found him cuffed to the window bar with his own handcuffs. Brickelstein might as well have been chained up naked-it had been that humiliating. The second possibility was that something had happened to destroy his love interest in Regina-or worse, strengthen it. Folkering thought it better not to ask; if Brickelstein wanted to confide his love life any further, he would-and Folkering hoped he would do so rather than keeping it bottled in.

The third possibility was that Brickelstein was simply disappointed. They had waited in Rome overnight but no further leads had emerged. The number from which Regina had called Brickelstein the day before had not been used again. Neither had her Rochevauxian cell phone number, which Interpol finally had obtained courtesy of-and privately from-Prime Minister Dutillieux at the direction of Queen Rega. The usual lookouts at the airports and train stations reported no further sightings, but after Buenos Aires and St. Petersburg, none had been expected.

"There is one good outcome from yesterday," remarked Folkering. Brickelstein, not feeling that anything good had come out of the previous day, could only raise an eyebrow. "We know Interpol's new technique for tracing phone calls works," Folkering continued. "Regina surely used a spoofing app-that's what any of us would do and she's too smart not to take that precaution-but Colonel Mason's new anti-spoofing system defeated it completely."

"You're welcome," said Colonel Mason, looking pleased with himself. Brickelstein continued to glower out the aircraft window, wondering if any of the mountains on the horizon were in his homeland. He was, however, attentive enough to the conversation around him to make a mental note to ask for Colonel Mason to be assigned to the case full-time.

Upon the group's return to Lyon, the S-G had grave news. "Gentlemen," he said, "Eidelmark has declared war on Rochevaux. The Eidelmark Army invaded about an hour ago."

"What??" exclaimed Folkering. "Why?" But Folkering knew the answer the second he asked the question. "Mein Gott!" he spat with disgust as he stormed out of the S-G's office.

"Where are you going?" called Brickelstein after him.

"To call Mother on the secure line!" shouted Folkering as he ran down to the office bay that had been dubbed the Eidelstein Center.

Brickelstein stayed behind in the S-G's office to solicit Interpol's further help in tightening the dragnet. It frustrated Brickelstein that Regina was able to move so easily across national borders and even oceans. "Clearly she is traveling by air. But why is she not being detected?" he asked himself out loud.

"False passport," mused the S-G, "maybe several. By the way, we've asked ICAO to check all private aircraft registrations to see if Princess Regina is connected with any of them, but I'm not optimistic that we'll find anything."

Brickelstein shook his head in agreement. "No, she's too smart for that. I think our best strategy is to monitor the cell phone numbers that we know are hers. By the way, Colonel Mason has been very helpful to us-it was he who tracked the Princess to Rome. Can he continue to work with us?"

"As long as you're in residence here, then yes," assented the S-G.

Brickelstein continued. "I think our larger strategy should be to deny the Princess all potential safe havens." He patted his chest over the inner jacket pocket containing his flash drive. "I've obtained an address list from Marcelo Mastrandrea's hard drive." The S-G's eyebrows shot up but Brickelstein ignored his predictable reaction. "Although I don't think everyone on this list are his associates, I do think all of his associates are on it."