Unyielding: Love and Resistance in WW2 Germany (World War II Trilogy)
Page 18
Hilde laughed. “How would that work? Should we always drag along a cable reel? Maybe loop it around our necks.”
“No, it would need to work without a cable.” He furrowed his brows and crossed his arms over his chest. “In fact, a few years back, the Canadian David Hings invented a portable two-way radio and called it a Walkie-Talkie. The problem with those Walkie-Talkies is that their range is very limited, and they work even less reliably in a city with many buildings, but I might be able to–”
“Q, you digress. Tell me about the meeting with that…man.”
Q relayed what happened, closing with, “I have to replicate as many technical instructions as possible until next week.”
“I could help,” she offered.
“You? No way. I’m not dragging you into this.” He plopped on the couch. “Is there dinner left for me?”
Hilde smiled. “Yes, I kept it warm for you. And nice change of topic.”
“You know me too well.” Q smirked. “But I am hungry.”
“Fine. I’ll set the table for you.”
Hilde thought this was the end of the discussion. Since the birth of Peter, Q had been overly protective and had tried to keep her away from his resistance work. It was a wonder he’d told her about the Russian agent.
She frowned at the memory of his hilarious suggestion to make her leave after a feigned fight. Over my dead body. An icy shiver ran down her spine, and she pushed the foreboding away. There wouldn’t be any dead bodies. Not hers. Not Q’s. Not anyone’s.
But three days later, Q came home from work with a pile of papers and asked her to typewrite them later in the evening.
Hilde eyed them suspiciously. “What’s this?”
“Just some technical stuff,” he said without going into further detail.
But Hilde knew.
She retrieved the children and seated them at the table for dinner. Q’s face shone with pride as he looked at his sons. While Volker was the spitting image of his father, Peter took after his mother. Barely six months old, he was already sitting at the table with them and eating the same, albeit mashed up, food.
After dinner, Q read a book to Volker while Hilde rocked Peter to sleep on her lap. When both children were sound asleep, Q and Hilde retreated to his study.
She’d often done the writing and copying for him, and sat down at the typewriter, ready to have him dictate the technical texts to her.
“No, wait,” he said. “I want you to layer several papers on top of each other.”
Hilde observed him layering white paper, blueprint paper, and brown paper before he handed her the pile. “Here, put this into the machine.”
“Why do I need to do this? We haven’t done it this way before.”
“Hilde, I just want to try it this way. Besides, it’s better that you don’t know everything. You need to be able to say you had no knowledge about the technical stuff you were typing.”
She exhaled a long breath. “Fine. Let’s start.” I bet this has to do with meeting that Russian agent.
When she had filled the paper, she took it out, removed the white paper from the pile, and replaced it with a new one. The letters on the white paper were slightly smeared, but still legible. Why did he want the letters to be smeared?
Chapter 38
Q now met with Gerald on a weekly basis. Together with Erhard and Martin, he handed him all the intelligence they could possibly gather, not only from Loewe but also from every source they had access to. Erhard and Q were still active members of several scientific circles, and Martin often got hold of classified material via his Party connections.
Gerald always praised the good quality of the information, and more than once, brought back a message from Moscow on how much they appreciated the detailed intelligence about position finder beacons, a bomb that automatically steered according to light, and even a technical paper on the use of hydrogen peroxide to propel torpedoes of V-weapons – weapons of retaliation.
“Do you think this will help to shorten the war?” Q asked.
Gerald tried to say something uplifting but then shook his head. “I’m afraid not. Despite the messages of endurance from the official channels, there’s nothing that gives me new hope. The Wehrmacht is overrunning our Red Army, and I’m afraid Russia is in danger of losing the battle of Stalingrad.”
On the next meeting, Gerald was strangely withdrawn. He avoided eye contact with Q and even stopped joking about the pep talks from his superiors.
“Something wrong?” Q asked him.
Gerald squirmed. “No. Everything is all right, I guess all the tension is taking a toll on me.”
“Me too? You have no idea how often I wanted to jump ship.”
“No. Now’s not the time. We might be getting closer to victory.” Gerald said.
Q doubted that, but he had an ace up his sleeve: the assassination attempt of Goebbels. It had to happen soon because winter was coming and the Wannsee might freeze up. Preparations had been ongoing throughout summer, and despite various setbacks and postponements, they had finally settled on a date. December 1st 1942.
He knew he was playing a dangerous game and wanted to get it over with before he met Gerald again. Then he’d be able to bring some good news. I hope.
“I think we should wait and not meet again until December. I’m swamped with work and can’t give you much useful info at the moment.”
Gerald flinched. “No, we have to meet before that. Moscow depends on your intel. We’re so close to making progress in the battle of Stalingrad.”
“Fine.” Q sighed. “Give me at least two weeks and let’s meet at the end of the month.” It would be two days before the assassination and might even give him a small reprieve to have something else to think about.
That night, Q returned home and dropped a bomb on his wife. “We’re going to assassinate Goebbels.”
Hilde swayed and held on to the table before plopping down on her chair. She gulped several times. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Dead serious.”
A nervous giggle escaped her mouth. “Why you?”
Q stroked her head. “It has to be done, and I’m in the best position to do it.”
They sat on the couch into the wee hours of the night, holding onto one another. Hilde whispered, “Two weeks. I’m afraid.”
“I’m afraid too. But I have Martin and Erhard covering for me. Nobody will ever know I was near that bridge.”
Martin would help him attach the bomb the day before the planned attack, and he would cover for him at Loewe while Q was sitting on the water in his boat waiting for Goebbels’s limousine to cross the bridge.
Hilde trembled in his arms. “Please calm down,” he urged her when she started to cry. “Tell me what you’ve done this week.”
Hilde dried her tears. “I started weaning Peter. He’s such a big boy now and eats so well with us. It’s a bit sad but will give me more independence.”
Q hugged her. “Yes, our baby is growing rapidly. And Volker, he’s such an intelligent boy. When this war is over, we might add a little girl to our family, what do you think?”
She leaned against him and laughed. “With our luck, it will be a third boy.”
“Doesn’t matter. Let’s go to bed and practice.”
As they passed the nursery, Hilde disappeared inside to give them a kiss and then returned with a winter coat in her hands.
“I finished this today. I made it for Volker from one of your old jackets. Now he will at least have a memory of you if you should die.”
Q took her into his arms and promised to take every precaution. “Even if I get caught, there’s nothing they can hold against you. Remember that. I will love you for eternity.”
He took her to their bedroom and made sweet love to her, holding her afterwards until the sun rose over the horizon.
Chapter 39
The days crawled by at a snail’s pace as Q prepared for the assassination. Everything was finished, and all the
y had to do was wait.
Meeting Gerald after work was a welcome distraction from Q’s anxiety. He didn’t have much to report because his thoughts had been focused solely on the attack. But still, he’d managed to copy a few construction drawings.
Q arrived at Potsdamer Platz by underground and surfaced onto the square. The November wind chilled his bones and fog wafted across the vast square.
As he approached the meeting spot on the stairs leading up to the train station, he was suddenly surrounded by Gestapo officers. “Halt! You’re arrested.”
Q’s heart sank. Did they mean him? He looked around, seeing no sign of Gerald, only six Gestapo officers bearing down on him. His pulse raced, and despite the cold, sweat formed on his forehead. “Is there a problem, officers?”
“Put your hands up! You are arrested for crimes against Germany and the Party.”
Q did as he was asked, putting up no resistance as two officers grabbed him rather roughly and dragged him to a waiting car. They pushed him inside, and the car took off with him and the three Gestapo men inside.
“What have I done?” Q asked, trying to keep the fear and nerves out of his voice.
The senior officer looked at him and sneered, “You will be informed of the charges against you, but not here. You are coming with us.”
Q sent up a silent prayer to the Gods above to keep his family safe. The image of Hilde holding Peter in her arms, with Volker standing by her side as he left this morning, filled his mind.
I love you, my darlings!
After ten years of spying and trying to bring down the regime, he’d finally been caught.
It is over.
***
As you may imagine, Q’s resistance work may be over, but there’s still much more to his story. Book 3 UNWAVERING will be about his time in prison, and also tell you what happened to Hilde and her two sons.
Pre-order here: http://getbook.at/Unwavering
And don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter: CLICK HERE to get an email reminder as soon as book 3 is released and to receive exclusive background material about the true story behind this book.
Thank you for taking the time to read UNYIELDING. If you enjoyed it, please consider telling your friends or posting a short review. Word of mouth is an author’s best friend.
Thank you,
Acknowledgements
First of all I want to thank all my fantastic readers who’ve given me personal feedback or reviewed my first book Unrelenting. Without your encouragement I wouldn’t have persisted to write part 2 and part 3 (in the works).
My terrific cover designer Daniela from www.stunningbookcovers.com, has once again taken my ideas and made them into a wonderful cover, that – in my opinion – captures exactly the mood of the book and the times back then.
And a book could never be complete without a thorough editor. Lynette Patterson has once again provided immensely helpful advice for the first draft, as well as found a thousand and one typos in the finished manuscript.
Many thanks also to JJ Toner who thoroughly checked and proofread my manuscript.
Contact Me & Other Books
I truly appreciate you taking the time to read (and enjoy) my books. And I'd be thrilled to hear from you!
If you'd like to get in touch with me you can do so via
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/MarionKummerow
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/AutorinKummerow
Website
http://www.kummerow.info
Other books written by Marion Kummerow:
http://kummerow.info/my-books