B004U2USMY EBOK (29 page)

“Okay, so I go upstairs, sleep with Gabriela.
Let’s say it takes me an hour. Seven hours on the road, just to be
safe. We arrive in Paris at three in the morning.”

“And there’s a small problem entering the
city. I know the colonel in charge of the checkpoints that run in
a ring from Saint-Denis, around the east side, and down to the
south of Paris. A real by-the-books officer. I can’t drive into
the city through any of those checkpoints. Too risky that I’ll be
spotted. The regime thinks I’m in Kiev.”

“At least we still hold Kiev.”

“For now. There’s not much of a city left.
You think Paris is hungry.”

“You don’t have to tell me,” Helmut said.
“I’ve got requisitioning contacts in the Ukraine. The Kievans have
been deemed ’superfluous eaters.’”

“If the Gestapo discovers me in Paris, I’ll
find myself a superfluous breather.” Gemeiner shook his head. “I
can’t be seen on the east side and we don’t have time to circle
around and approach from the west. We’ll stop and I’ll climb in
the trunk before we reach the city.”

“Okay, so we make our way to the
Egyptienne
. It’s now three
o’clock in the morning.”

“Where the party will still be in full-swing,
from what I understand.”

“True, but Hoekman won’t be there,” Helmut
said. “He’ll be in bed, resting up for a full day of arrests and
torture.”

“Unless he has just received an urgent
message from Gabriela that she has information about the
simple
soldat.
She’ll insist on meeting him at the
Egyptienne
for her own
safety. A back room, the kind reserved for private debauchery.
He’ll have no reason to suspect a trap, not in such a public
place. Soon as they’re alone, she pulls out a gun, and murders
him.”

“Hmm.”

“The girl thinks we’re waiting to drive her
to safety.” Gemeiner said. “Instead, I kill her, dump her in the
Seine with a soggy, but readable suicide note.”

There was a sick feeling in his stomach.

Gemeiner leaned over and rested a hand on his
shoulder. “It’s a war, my friend. Horrible things happen. We can’t
go soft.”

“I’m not getting soft.”

He pulled his hand away. “Good, there’s no
room for it.”

“And me? Where am I while you’re stabbing her
in the back?”

“In a bakery truck, speeding toward the
French Riviera with a cargo full of gold.”

“Just like that?” Helmut asked.

“Just like that. Or rather, as the French
would say:
voila tout
.”

Chapter Twenty-three:

Helmut found Gabriela sitting in the chair by
the window when he returned.

“Helmut, I don’t know what’s wrong, but I
think we should talk. First of all—”

“Shhh, please. I have to think.”

He couldn’t figure out how to wiggle free
from the situation.

Technically, there was little fault with
Gemeiner’s plan. Helmut believed the man could handle the
checkpoints. He thought Hoekman would fall for the trap. Gabriela
had the nerve to pull the trigger. There might be some difficulty
getting her out of the
Egyptienne
after she fired the pistol, but he guessed Gemeiner had a plan for
that.

The plan was risky, of course, with a million
things that could go wrong. But that described everything these
days. Still, it stood an excellent chance of succeeding. Other
than that, it was all wrong.

“Helmut?”

“Just a minute.”

“You’re scaring me. Talk to me, please.”

“I’ve got to think. Please, give me a
moment.”

“This isn’t about what just happened between
us, is it?”

“No, it’s not,” he admitted.

“Something’s wrong. No, something
new
is wrong.”

A hint of a plan started to form in his head.
He turned to Gabriela. “Two things happened you might find
interesting. First, I ran into a friend downstairs at the bar. He
offered to drive us to Paris tonight.”

“Tonight? Well, if that’s what you want,” she
said after a moment of hesitation. “We can go back instead of
spending the night here.”

“Second, I learned Colonel Hoekman is going
to be at the
Egyptienne
tonight. We’ll get there before he leaves, you can lure him to the
back room and we can be done with the matter once and for all.”

“Oh.”

“Unless you’re not ready, if you don’t think
you can do it. If you need more time. . .”

“I can do it.”

“Are you sure?”

She drew in her breath. Again, a long moment
of silence. “Helmut, is there something you’re not telling me?”

“There are a lot of somethings.”

“You left here insisting you wouldn’t let me
kill Hoekman.” A slight tension in her voice. “Downstairs, you
happen to run into a friend who somehow knows where a Gestapo
agent will be several hours from now.”

“I know, it’s funny how that happened, but—”

“Funny? Don’t insult me by claiming this is a
coincidence.”

“Listen to me for a second. You already know
Hoekman is my enemy. I’d like nothing better than to see him dead.
You might be the tool to do that.”

“The tool? I’m a tool?”

“No, not a tool. That was a poor choice of
words. Listen, we both need the same thing, is that so bad?”

“There’s something wrong here. Why do I feel
like you’ve been lying to me?”

“I haven’t told you the whole truth, no.”

“Oh, Helmut.” There was disappointment in her
voice. “I should have known. You’re just a man, you just wanted
what a man wants.”

“What a man wants? If that’s all I wanted, I
would have slept with you just now. I would have sent you in there
to your death but I tried to talk you out of it. Don’t pin crimes
on me I never did.”

She walked to the curtain, lifted the corner,
and peered down at the street. When she turned back, the anger was
gone from her face, replaced by something flat and cynical. “I
see. It’s a practical relationship. Well, let’s not pretend it’s
something it’s not or pretend we had something we didn’t.”

“I know I should have told you more, told you
earlier,” he said. “You’re angry, I understand. You have a right
to be.”

“Don’t be an idiot. I saw my father with part
of his brain cut out. I tried to seduce the man who arrested him.
I spread my legs for your friend so I could get something to eat.
And I just told a
boche
war profiteer that I was falling
in love with him.”

Her words felt like a punch to the gut.

“Well, are you going to say anything?” she
demanded. “What’s this all about? Who are you and what do you
want?”

“I’ll be honest with you,” he said.

“I doubt it.”

“Yes, I will. I won’t tell you everything,
but everything I say will be the truth.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“I’m an enemy of the Reich.”

“Come on, you don’t expect me to believe
that. I saw you at the rail yard, ordering those men. They were
stealing the wealth of France and shipping it east.”

“I didn’t say I was an enemy of Germany,”
Helmut said. “But I’m an enemy of the Nazi regime. There are a lot
of us. People try to kill Hitler all the time. They fail, and
generally their goal is to overthrow the government and prosecute
the war in a more intelligent fashion. We’re not like that. We
accept that the war is lost, our enemies are too strong and we’re
surrounded.”

“Surrounded all the way from Brittany to the
steppes of Russia. Of course.”

“That’s an illusion. The German war machine
is like a runner who sprints to a big early lead, but has nothing
left to finish the race. I’m not sure we could beat just the
Russians, and with the Americans massing in England and North
Africa, it’s hopeless.”

“Anyone who is not German has figured that
out a long time ago. So how do you plan to save Germany if you
have no hope?”

“We have no hope of winning the war, but we
can choose who we lose to.”

“What do you mean?”

“If we lose to the Soviets, Germany dies
forever. What takes its place is a crippled client state,
populated by the offspring of Soviet troops and their German sex
slaves. The German men will finish their short, miserable lives in
Siberian work camps.”

“And if the Americans win?”

“I don’t know what will happen if the
Americans and British defeat us, but it will be better. It
certainly couldn’t be worse.”

“This all sounds fine,” she said, “but how
can you possibly determine which of your enemies defeats you?”

“I can’t tell you that part.”

“Hmm, but you want me to kill Colonel Hoekman
for you. Why?”

“He’s a threat to our plan. He’s been
distracted by Alfonse, but that won’t last. We were fortunate.
Alfonse isn’t and never has been part of our conspiracy.”

“Of course not. Alfonse doesn’t care about
anything but Alfonse. And he talks too much. Only a fool would
include him in a conspiracy.”

“Colonel Hoekman is looking for us, that’s
what brought him back to France, not Alfonse’s petty
embezzlement.”

“Never mind, you don’t need to tell me any
more. Say I kill Hoekman for you, then what?”

Helmut said, “My friend downstairs doesn’t
care what happens to his tools after they’re used. He’s planning
to throw you away when he’s done with you.”

“In other words, I do your dirty work and
then you let the Gestapo kill me?”

“Not quite, but close enough. Don’t worry,
I’ve got a plan to get you out of there. I’m not going to let
anything bad happen.”

“How very noble of you.”

#

Downstairs, at the phone cabin, Helmut placed
a call. He looked first to see if Gemeiner was lurking about, but
the older man seemed to have made good on his word to prepare the
way at the first checkpoint. There was no sign of him or of his
Opel.

The call took most of his phone tokens and
two switchboard transfers. And then the phone rang and rang and
rang at the house in Traunstein.

At last Loise picked up. “Hello? Who is it?”

Her voice was small, practically overwhelmed
with static. The phone lines were shockingly degraded since last
time he’d called.

“Hello, it’s me. Are you alone?”

“What? I can barely hear you. Helmut, is that
you?”

“Are you alone? Can we talk?”

“What? Helmut? Are you okay?”

“I’m okay. Listen, remember what we talked
about last time, about Switzerland? I need you to get out. It’s
time, you have to go. Tonight, if possible, but if not, first
thing in the morning. You have to get out of the country, do you
understand?”

“Helmut? What? Can you repeat that?”

He repeated his instructions, reminded her
about the box in the basement with the Swiss francs and the papers
and the bank information. Without saying box, basement, or Swiss
francs, of course. Couldn’t take a chance that a switchboard
operator was listening. Again Loise interrupted, unable to hear
him, and again he repeated it.

“Did you get all of that? Loise? Loise?”

The line was dead. How much had she heard?
Any of it?

He looked down at the tokens in his hand. He
didn’t have enough to try Germany again and still make the call to
Paris. And without the call to Paris, he had nothing.

He called his man in Paris. David Mayer
picked up on the second ring.

“David?”

“Who is this?” The voice was cautious.

“It’s von Cratz. I’m in Strasbourg and I need
your help.”

“Hey, boss. Sorry, I didn’t recognize your
voice. Did you get the Belgian order shipped?”

That was code.
This call is unexpected.
Is everything okay?

“Day after tomorrow,” Helmut said, which
meant that he was not under any duress. “But let’s hope we don’t
have an overly inquisitive switchboard operator. I’m full of risky
calls tonight. My luck is bound to run out.”

“You don’t have to tell me about risky
calls.”

“Been chatting with your banker friends
again?”

“How did you guess? And ordering gefilte fish
for the gathering of the Elders of Zion in Berlin next month. I
hear Dr. Goebbels is going to be the keynote speaker. No, I had a
conversation with a cousin. Still alive, thank god, far
underground.”

The tenor of the conversation started to
worry Helmut. If they were being listened to—and every minute they
kept chatting increased that likelihood—they’d now put David’s
cousin at risk and anyone that man might be helping or hiding.

“Listen, David,” he said. “Do you have the
Dupuis papers?”

“Yes, they’re here. Safe.”

“Tonight is when you will use them.”

“Tonight as in tonight?” David’s voice
tightened. “What is it?”

“There’s no immediate risk. Wake your wife
and daughters, pack everything of value. But nothing. .
.religious, you understand. Nothing that would give you away. You
have several hours to get them to the train station. You will pick
them up in the car in Dijon.”

“You’re sure? You’re positive they’re not in
danger?”

“I’m in danger, David, not you, and not your
family. But I need your help.”

“You know I’ll do anything for you. Except I
can’t risk my girls, you understand.”

“I’m not lying. You’re perfectly safe for the
moment. By the time you’re no longer safe, your family will be out
of the city and you’ll be on your way to Geneva. I have an account
there under the Dupuis name with more than enough for your needs.”

“So this is it, then. I’m done.”

“You’re done,” Helmut confirmed. “Thank you
for your years of service, enjoy your retirement, etc. After
tonight, it will no longer be safe for you in France, if it ever
was. I’ll be sorry to lose you, but there’s a good chance the
Gestapo will roll up the whole organization.”

“You’re kidding, everything? After all we’ve
worked for?”