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“It’s a good, respectable hotel, and you look like smart people.” He took their suitcases and put them in the trunk of his car, then drove. “You’ll be glad you made time to see Szeged. It’s the place where the best sausage and the best paprika come from.”
“I like the architecture,” said Remi. “The buildings have such interesting colors, mostly pastels, and baroque styles with all the intricate details that make them very distinctive.”
“It’s partly a good thing and partly bad,” said the driver. “The bad part happened first. In March 1879, the river—the Tisza, over that way—flooded and destroyed the whole city. The good part is that afterward, the people thought hard about what they were building.”
“It worked. For a city with a hundred seventy-five thousand people, it’s gorgeous.”
“You’ve been reading guidebooks.”
She shrugged. “It’s a way to pass the time on the train.”
He stopped in front of the City Hotel, took the Fargos’ two suitcases out of the trunk and set them in the doorway, and then handed Sam a card. “Here is my card. My name is Tibor Lazar. You can ask the people at the front desk about me and they’ll say I’m honest and reliable. I know that because two of them are cousins.”
“Thank you,” said Remi. “Should we call when we’re ready or will you wait for us?”
“I’ll wait here.”
A bellman was already carrying their suitcases to the front desk. They registered and went up to their room.
Sam sat on the bed and began to look at Google maps on his iPad. Remi whispered, “What are you looking for?”
“The field. We know that sooner or later, the kidnappers will take Albrecht to his find so he can show them where he’s dug.”
“Can you see where it is on the map?”
“I’m trying. It was on the east side of the Tisza River, north of the Mura River. I remember it in relation to the place where the two meet. He used that to orient his chart.”
“I’ve got something you want,” she said. “When we were in the lab and asked Albrecht if we could share the details with Selma, I took a picture of the chart with my phone so she’d know the spot we were referring to.” She took out her phone and showed him the picture of the chart.
He kissed her cheek. “Perfect.” He used his phone to call Selma and put her on speaker.
“Selma here. Fire away.”
“Hi, Selma. Did you get the drawing of a site from Remi last night?”
“Yes. I assume that’s the site Albrecht’s been working on?”
“That’s right,” Sam said. “He said it would be fine to bring you in on this, so Remi sent it right away. The problem is that last night the reason Albrecht didn’t come to dinner was that he was kidnapped from the lab in Berlin. The police have been watching plane and train stations, but I’m afraid these people got Albrecht out of Germany before we reported it.”
“Was it those people from Consolidated Enterprises?”
“I’m not sure. I can’t see that group of people doing something that would put them in a foreign prison for life. But the cops are detaining them for a while to be sure, which is fine with us.”
“Are you in Szeged now?”
“We are.”
“I used the computer to match the shape of the drawing to the shapes of the world’s rivers to find out where Albrecht had been digging. I knew you’d be going to the find.”
“Now we really have to,” said Remi. “Nobody would grab Albrecht for ransom. He’s not rich, just smart. They must want him to take them to his discove
ry and probably tell them all about it.”
“What can I do to help?”
Sam said, “First, e-mail me a conventional road map with Albrecht’s site marked on it.”
“I’ll have it for you in a minute.”
