📸 Photo

‘When I got back to the Israeli embassy, the consul informed my that he had gotten hold of a plane and that the search would begin the next day. Thank God.

‘I went to the Swiss embassy and notified the ambassador that Marcus and Karl were missing and asked him to put in a call to Apolo to find out if they were there. I myself didn’t yet think there was any reason to worry about them, but later at the Austrian embassy the consul gave me a great reason to worry.

‘The mention of the name Karl Ruchprecter caught their attention. The clerk asked me to wait and then showed me into the consul’s office. He was a heavyset, red-faced man, smoking a pipe.

“Have a seat, my young friend,” he said. “Tell me what you know about Karl Ruchprecter.”

‘I told him briefly about Karl, what he had told us about himself, and how he had talked us into going along with him on an expedition into the jungle. I told him how he had changed plans because of his uncle.

“Uncle?” the consul asked. “What uncle?”

“He told us he had an uncle named Josef Ruchprecter, who owns a big cattle ranch in Reyes Province. Karl was supposed to bring him a truck from Chile next month.”

‘I told him the story that Karl had told you, Yossi, that his uncle was a Nazi war criminal and that that was the reason he lived in Bolivia.