Chapter 18

A few weeks later, the contractors had been chosen and earthwork had begun. Rummy called Helen at her home office. They went over a variety of details, as the work that was beginning required careful supervision. So far, there had been no unexpected discoveries of springs or rock formations as the initial trenches were begun. The major excavation, the big hole where the machinery spaces and pools would be built, seemed at this stage to be as expected — trouble free.

"Anything else, Rummy?" Helen asked. "Sounds like you've got things under control."

Rummy said, "I'm glad Hoch und Tiefbau won the bid on this. We've worked with Werner before and he was ready to go when we were. He's already saved us a bunch of time.

"But there is one thing, Helen. I noticed a big S-Class Mercedes parked in front of the office this morning. It had Geneva license plates. I spoke to the engineer at the desk and asked who it belonged to.

"He said it was some fellow came in just after I did. I looked at the contact log, It was Raul Sauter. He went off somewhere: the guy on the desk said Sauter planned to see some of the subs."

Helen said, "I want you to go out and find Werner, Rummy. Tell him to find Sauter and get him off the property. Not only is he a competitor of Werner's, he simply has no business there. We're not insured for sightseers — or whatever he is. Tell Werner, if he needs to, to say that I ordered it."

"Right, I agree. That's what I planned to do, but since I was talking to you, I thought I'd mention it."

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

In Freiburg two weeks later, Helen and Rummy walked around the site, checking progress with the various contractors. Helen wore a hard hat, a man's white dress shirt and jeans with stout boots. Rummy, somehow naturally, looked like another workman despite his dress shirt, tie and jacket. There was earth-moving machinery everywhere, digging and dumping in what appeared to be, but was not, a random manner. Here and there the roar of heavy machinery and the bleat of back-up warnings was deafening.

As they moved toward the widest of the excavations where the main buildings of the resort would be built, a burly man with a closely trimmed beard waved and moved toward them. Clad as they were, he also wore a yellow vest with the contractor's logo on the back.

"Rummy!" he called, and strode up to them, towering over Helen — though not over Rummy. "Morgen, Frau Wallace. Glad to see you here. Where's Dumont?" His voice carried over the noise of equipment everywhere. The man was Werner Siegmann, site manager for the general contractor, Hoch und Tiefbau.

"Haven't seen him today, Werner," Helen replied, extending her hand to be swallowed in his. "Do you need him?"

"No, Helen. In fact I'm glad he's not here. I wanted to ask you something." He looked at Rummy. "You brought her up to date?"

Rummy shook his head. "No, just that you wanted to talk to her."

Werner looked back at Helen. "Dumont came to me yesterday. He said he could get me some laborers and some form workers at a good rate. Named a price that's about two thirds what I pay for Bau workers. You know anything about it?"

"No, Werner. What did you tell him?"

"I told him no. I said I can't take the chance of the Man from Bau getting wise to it," he paused.

"And?"

"He said he could assure me there would be no trouble about that." He took off his hard hat, drew a handkerchief from his pocket and mopped his forehead. He looked at Helen. "Now, normally, I wouldn't even speak to him again, but Rummy said, if something like that happened, to stall and let you both know. You know I don't mess with shady stuff like that. But, I told him I'd think about it. Next time I see him, I'm going to tell him off. I don't need that kind of trouble."

Rummy nodded. "That's the best thing to do, Werner. Tell him you won't get your hands dirty because you're sure we'd find out and you can't afford to get in trouble with us."

Werner grinned. "And that's the truth, isn't it?"

Helen spoke up, "The absolute truth, Werner. But thanks for stringing him along." She thought for a moment, then continued, "Actually, I'd appreciate it if you would keep it up just a little longer. Get him to give you numbers. How many, how much, what crafts, what skill levels. See if he wants a 'commission.'" She rubbed her fingers in the traditional gesture. "Ask him about the crafts he knows you need. Take notes and let us know what his deal is. I'm thinking we need to carry this further. I'm not sure where Schellen is in this, but Dumont works for him. I think I'd better find out what's going on."

Werner agreed, though somewhat reluctantly, and catching sight of something that needed his attention, strode off in another direction.

Helen, too, found something of interest and began to walk across the uneven ground toward a trench being dug by two huge Liebherr Litronic excavators, known in German as Bagger. They were poised tail to tail, dumping the soil they lifted onto heaps at their working ends. She and Rummy walked to the space between the two machines, where Helen unrolled the site plan she had been carrying.

"Rummy, is this where it should be? I don't recall there should be a trench here. And why are they piling it up, not loading it for removal?"

Rummy moved beside her to look at the drawing. "I'm not sure, Helen," he said, and bent to study it. He looked up after a moment to check the relation of the site to other features nearby. A change in the noise around them, a peripheral glimpse — he never recalled what — triggered his instinctive reactions.

"DOWN!" he cried, grabbing Helen and throwing her to the ground. Both machines had swung completely around, their buckets passing inches above their backs as they lay prostrate on the damp soil.

"What?" Helen mumbled, trying to lift herself from the dirt. "What's happening?" She looked up. The digging bucket of one of the machines had swung back and was poised above the two of them, about to strike downward at them.

"Underneath!" she shouted above the noise. "It's going for us." She scrambled for the underside of the machine, grabbing a towing lug, sliding her legs underneath and between the tracks. Rummy followed suit on the other side of the gap, rolling under the other machine. The bucket smashed into the ground where they had lain, onto the site plan they had been reading and that she had dropped at Rummy's warning. The bucket rose immediately and the second bucket smashed down.

From her position, Helen could see that the buckets could not reach them under the machine bodies, but that it would be possible for the machines to move on their treads to give the operators a better chance of reaching them. Indeed, after a moment's pause, as though the operators had had a moment to consult by gestures or signals, both machines began to move. Too close to the edge of the trench to turn, they first moved closer together. Fortunately, there was enough room between the undercarriages and the uneven ground that both Helen and Rummy were untouched. But soon, the machines began to move away from each other. Helen knew they would try to open the space enough to be able to make another attack with the shovels. She looked across at Rummy. Rummy gestured, pointing toward open ground, and began to rise on his hands and gather his feet beneath him. Helen did likewise, ready for the first opportunity to try an escape. Rummy raised his arms and, placing his wrists together, formed a "Y". Helen nodded her understanding: they should split up as they ran.