by Ian Andrew
Chapter 40
07:30 Thursday 21st May 2020 – London
“Professor Lippisch?”
Konrad was locking the door to his car and hadn’t noticed two of Heinrich’s SS troopers approaching him.
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry Sir, but Standartenführer Steinmann was wondering if he could have a word?”
“Certainly. Where is he?”
“Over in the detention centre with the Reid prisoner.”
Konrad checked his watch display but didn’t really look at it. He knew that Heinrich wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t important and he also knew he had no real choice. He picked up his briefcase and began to walk with the two men. Halfway to the building Konrad began to wonder why there were two escorts. The fear he felt gnawing at the back off his mind was something he had been used to for a long time. His lifestyle meant that he had always been vigilant and a little paranoid. Mostly he controlled the anxiety and continued to present the outward image of a confident and successful scientist. As they reached the detention centre’s main entrance one of the SS men held the door open for him. Another soldier was waiting inside and he escorted Konrad through the central corridor and then swiped him into the north-eastern cell block.
“Straight ahead. End of the corridor on the right.”
He’d never had a need to visit the newly built facility before and so he hesitated a little.
“Professor Lippisch? Just to the right at the end of the corridor,” the soldier repeated.
Konrad entered the unfamiliar hallway and noted that the escort didn’t follow him inside. As he walked forward he saw Heinrich appear out of a door a little way in front of him.
“Good morning Heinrich, what can I do for...” Konrad’s cheery greeting stopped short when he looked at Heinrich’s expression. He concentrated on keeping his gait steady and resolved to be as strong as he had always hoped he would be. He had often thought about the possibility of this moment and his greatest fear had been finding that he was a coward. Now, at least, he knew he wasn’t. His fear dissolved away and was replaced with calmness. He walked up to Heinrich and shook his outstretched hand.
Heinrich nodded his head gently toward the cell. Konrad looked into the small empty room. It wasn’t Mary Reid’s cell. It was his. He felt a terrible loneliness.
“I’m sorry Konrad.”
“Me too Heinrich, me too. May I ask how?”
“Surveillance tapes, Marseille.”
“Ah, I see.”
“I’ll need your swipe card, keys and other belongings.”
“Of course.” Konrad reached into his pockets and began to drop the trappings of his position into the evidence bag Heinrich held out for him. “I appreciate you doing it this way Heinrich. Thank you.”
Konrad had to lower his head to enter the cell and then sat on the small fold-down cot attached to the wall.
“I’ll need your laces, belt and tie as well. When I’ve gone you can change into the overalls there on the bed.”
Konrad merely nodded and then thought to ask, “No uniform with a triangle?”
“No.”
“Thank you again. Why so kind, Heinrich?”
Heinrich shrugged, “You seem like a good person. I see no reason to humiliate you.”
“Be careful who you confide that to Heinrich. You’ll be in a cell next to me.” He shrugged off his tie and looked up at Heinrich with resigned eyes, “How long have I got?”
“I’m not sure. Berlin will confirm later,” Heinrich lied.
“No trial? No appeal?”
“No need.”
“Is there anyone up the food chain that I can talk to?”
“I only know one higher than the Reichsführer-SS and I’m not sure he’ll take calls.”
“I feel special already,” Konrad gave a flat chuckle and added, “the Reichsführer himself? At least I know they considered keeping me for a moment or two.”
“Is there anything I can get for you, do for you?” asked Heinrich.
“Tell me who knows and what the story will be?”
“No one in your team yet and I’m not quite sure what they’ll be told.”
Konrad was removing his laces from his shoes as he spoke, “Ah well, you can always borrow from history.”
“Professor?”
“Never mind Heinrich. Just the fact that some of our brightest and best scientists and, yes, I can now immodestly include myself, have been whisked away to new posts almost overnight. Or at least that’s what we were all told at the time. Of course it turned out that those new posts were ones they were tied to before being shot.” He stood and removed his belt, “Here you go.”
Heinrich almost said thank you but stopped himself. Instead he took the items and went to leave.
“Heinrich, who will take over from me?”
“Leigh,” he said and he watched the refined features of Lippisch relax and smile in genuine warmth.
“Good. Not before time to be honest. She’s been my protégé since she was a young under-graduate all those years ago. She’ll do a great job,” he hesitated and then added poignantly, “I wish I could see her to say goodbye.”
Heinrich left the cell, closed the door and locked it. He checked through the observation window and watched solemnly as Konrad Lippisch began to weep.
When Heinrich got back to his office Peter Vogel was hovering outside his door. The Junior Officer came to attention and saluted. “Standartenführer, I was wondering if I may have a word?”
“Of course Peter. In fact I was just about to call you so well done on saving me the bother,” Heinrich said as he returned the salute and ushered him inside. “What’s on your mind?” Heinrich put the evidence bag on a shelf, set Lippisch’s briefcase to one side, sat behind his desk and expected the young man to sit down in the chair opposite but he remained standing and looked a little embarrassed.
“Come along Peter, what’s concerning you?”
“Well, it’s Doctor Wilson Sir.”
“Yes, what about her?”
“She came in here whilst you were in Berlin and asked to speak to Reid. She said it was important that she checked on the prisoner’s reactions to the Projection. But she said it all had to be done straight away.”
Heinrich frowned, “Didn’t I tell you she was coming in?”
“Yes Sir, you did.”
“So what’s the issue?” Heinrich was immediately on guard that Peter may have overheard something that could have compromised Leigh.
“May I speak freely Sir?”
“Of course Peter.” Heinrich dreaded what was coming.
“I think you need to speak to Doctor Wilson.”
“Why’s that?”
“She ignored our regulations and tasered the prisoner.”
“Pardon!”
“She tasered the prisoner.”
Heinrich was momentarily blindsided. He knew nothing of what Leigh had done and so decided to go on the offensive. “And how Untersturmführer, did she get a weapon into one of my cells?”
Vogel immediately looked very uncomfortable. “She didn’t declare it to me Sir. She just took it in.”
“And what, she just used it on Reid?”
“No, not, um, well, yes.”
“Make your mind up, yes or no?”
“Yes, she used it on Reid but in self-defence. The prisoner tried to attack her.”
“Okay, let’s stop right there Peter! Sit yourself down and tell me what happened.”
Peter sat and began, “Well she and Reid were arguing from the moment they began to talk. Doctor Wilson was almost baiting her and eventually Reid tried to attack her. That’s when she used the taser. Reid dropped like a stone and Doctor Wilson asked for me to come let her out. We had to clear up the cell and clean up Reid before we handcuffed her to the cot. I confiscated the taser and then Doctor Wilson went back in.”
“So, Doctor Wilson took a weapon into a cell and although she shouldn’t have it appears that it w
as just as well she did?”
Vogel said nothing and looked down at his feet.
“Well?” Heinrich barked the word.
“Yes Sir.” Vogel sat straighter.
“Did you tell her there were no weapons allowed in?”
“No Sir.”
“Did she manage to conduct her interview in the end?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Well then,” he said more relaxed, “no harm, no foul.”
“I suppose so Sir.”
“I suppose so too. Now, anything else?”
“She broke our camera.”
Heinrich fought hard not to laugh at Peter’s petulant tone. “Reid did?”
“No, Doctor Wilson did. When she discharged her taser the camera shorted out.”
Heinrich took a moment and quietly reflected on what Leigh had been up to. She had worked out a way to disable the camera and put the blame on Peter for not having stopped her in the first place. Genius. “Well I’m sure the budget can stretch to a new camera. Let’s not worry about that. Anything else?”
“No Sir,” Peter said in a flat tone and looked decidedly dejected.
“Well I have two things for you Peter. Firstly, well done on all your actions over the last few days. I’ve been very impressed. We’ll let the incident with Doctor Wilson and her taser slide under the carpet of momentary lapse and say no more about it. I was actually very impressed by how you managed the arrival processing and initial handling of Reid. You and your team did well.”
“Thank you Sir,” and with that Peter had perked up again.
“The second thing is that our prisoner quota has doubled. Rather like proverbial London busses. We have no one and now we have two at once. But I need you to make sure a few things happen.” Heinrich flicked a notepad across to Peter and waited for him to get a pen out of his pocket.
“The prisoner is Professor Lippisch.” Heinrich waited for a shocked Peter to ask questions but he didn’t. He just looked calmly back at Heinrich waiting for more details.
“I want all of your people briefed that if the identity of our prisoner leaks, I will have the source of the leak taken out and shot. There is a team on the other side of this complex who do not know that their boss has been arrested. I need to figure out how to inform them and do not need the information pre-empted. Clear?”
Heinrich received a nod.
“Ring Pascal Debouchy down at Gestapo Central and ask him to assign a team to Lippisch’s home address. He should have the arrest and seizure warrants already sent through from the Reichsführer’s office.”
“Do I assume Lippisch is not returning home anytime soon?”
“Correct. He’ll be picked up for transfer over the weekend, not sure what time but Whitehall will let us know. Reid won’t be getting picked up. Berlin’s authorised us to handle her here. The execution is by firing squad in the central courtyard at dawn on Sunday. Select your firing party and get them down to the range. Run them through their drills. I don’t want any mistakes Peter, nor do I want any treatment that is not beyond reproach for either of our inmates. Both of them have served the Reich with loyalty and devotion. The fact they’re now in disgrace is neither here nor there. We owe one a dignified short stay and the other a dignified death. Yes?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Lastly, you’ll have to get in touch with either Bradford or Aberystwyth to find out if they can send over a disposal crew.”
“Not Harrow Sir?”
“She worked there and they would have been her clean-up team. I don’t think we should make them do that, do you?”
“No Sir, I suppose not.”
“Ideally we’ll want the corpse taken away immediately. Any questions?”
“No Standartenführer,” said Peter as he flipped the notepad closed and stood ready to salute and leave.
“You don’t want to know what Professor Lippisch is charged with?”
“Will it make a difference to how I treat him or what we do for him?”
“No.”
“Then if it’s all the same, no Sir, I don’t.” Peter saluted and Heinrich acknowledged it in the typical SS half-arm, relaxed manner from his seated position.
As Peter turned to leave there was a buzzing and vibration from the evidence bag on the shelf.
“Grab that will you?” asked Heinrich.
Peter reached into the bag, retrieved the ForeFone and handed it over. Heinrich saw it was a call from Professor Faber and realised he was probably calling to see why Lippisch wasn’t in work yet. Heinrich nodded for Peter to leave and close the door behind him.
“Professor Faber, hello.”
“Konrad?”
“No Professor. It’s Heinrich Steinmann. Professor Lippisch will not be in. I’m afraid I have some news that may be difficult for both you and your team.”
“Is he ok, has he been in an accident?”
Heinrich hesitated slightly and that allowed Wolfgang to make the next logical assumption.
“Is he dead?”
‘Not yet’ thought Heinrich but actually said, “No Professor. No accident and not dead. Reichsführer Friedrichand asked me to speak to you directly rather than him phoning you.”
There was a pause.
“Ah. I understand.” The older man said, suddenly sounding all of his years.
“May I come over and see you?” asked Heinrich.
“Of course.”
The line disconnected.
Chapter 41
“What’s he charged with?”
“Crimes against the State,” Heinrich said.
Wolfgang Faber actually tutted at him, twice. “My dear Standartenführer we need to come up with a better excuse than that.”
“That’s the official charge Professor.” Heinrich made a show of the palms of his hands, as if to say he had no more to offer.
“Yes well that’s all very good for the Gestapo but what’s the real reason?”
Heinrich merely shook his head slowly.
“Pathetic is what it truly is. How many times are we going to take our best and brightest away?”
“Professor, I must caution...”
Faber cut him off, “Do NOT dare to caution me young man. I’ve been around quite long enough to know when and how I can criticise my Party and my Nation and this is one of those times. It is pathetic!” he slapped his hand down on an overflowing in-tray and papers cascaded onto the floor behind his desk. The professor distractedly watched them fall before continuing, “It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last. Leave aside the fact that one of my good friends and colleagues has been ripped away from me, this will set our work back considerably.”
“Please Professor,” Heinrich said it in as gentle a way as he could, “please, don’t put me into an even more difficult place.”
The Head of Laser Research for the Reich Security Directorate’s Technical Division visibly sighed and his shoulders slumped. “What age are you?”
“Pardon?”
“Indulge me, what age are you?”
“Thirty-nine.”
“Well, when you were being born I was at the Arcand Institute in Canada. I assume you’ve heard of that?”
Heinrich merely nodded.
“I’d started there in 1978 and eventually, around about the time you were celebrating your first birthday, we matured the technology of weaponised Lasers.” The professor tutted again, “I can see from your face, you’re wondering why I’m mentioning this.”
Heinrich gave a small half-shrug of his shoulders.
“Well, let me enlighten you. Scientists had been trying to turn Lasers into weapons since the start of the Reich with no success. It was the University of Toronto that were finally making progress and that’s why the Arcand Institute was founded over there in the fifties. Professor Dr-Ing Becker was the project lead. He was an outstanding scientist, the son of a respected General and he’d led his team for over fifteen years. They were on the brink of a breakthrough in the late sixties
when he was removed overnight.” The professor snapped his fingers to emphasise his point. “It put the research back ten or fifteen years.” He shook his head, “I really thought we’d progressed but here we are nearly sixty years later and doing the same thing.”
“What do you expect me to say Professor?”
“Nothing. That’s the point. We all say nothing. We might fume and rant in private but we say nothing when it matters. We didn’t before and we won’t now.”
They sat in silence and Heinrich waited whilst Faber calmed a little. He considered the cluttered desk and wondered how the man coped on a daily basis. There was no free space at all. The desk phone poked out of a stack of report files like an island in a sea of brown cardboard waves. He surreptitiously looked around the rest of the room, or at least all of it that he could see without making it obvious. The office could have been quite spacious had it not been for the jumble of papers, books and old briefcases scattered randomly on bookshelves, spare chairs and across the floor. There were at least four pairs of glasses that he could see, the insides of what resembled a pop-up toaster in the corner and what seemed to be at least two removalist boxes with various magazines spilling out of their open tops. The wall behind the professor had a pin board that was a blur of notes and cuttings, the one to Heinrich’s left had a blackboard with a swathe of scribbled equations and what appeared to be a shopping list chalked on it. Remarkably the blackboard on the right hand wall was clean and unmarked.
Eventually Faber sighed yet again and said, “I suppose it’s only because our beloved security services don’t change their ways that we are all so well versed in coping.” He aimed another look of disgust at Heinrich, shook his head in disappointment and said, “Well, we shall need to make a start.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“Firstly we get Doctor Wilson in here. Your organisation’s responsible for this mess so you’re going to tell her why she’s just been appointed Acting Director. I don’t envy you your task. You have no idea how incredibly close Konrad and she are,” he hesitated, “were.”
