Angel in Red

by Christopher Nicole

  ‘I am sure that it will be a privilege for me as well, Herr Captain,’ she agreed.

  They were out of Berlin and following the road she remembered so well.

  ‘Then, as we are to be, shall I say, intimate, shall we not be more friendly? My name is Gunther.’

  ‘Gunther Gutemann,’ Anna mused. ‘I do not think your parents liked you, Herr Captain. I also do not think that our intimacy should extend beyond, shall I say, office hours. We have not yet reached the office, have we?’

  He flushed, with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. ‘They told me that you were an unnatural creature,’ he remarked. ‘So beautiful, but so cold.’

  ‘Well,’ she said, ‘would you not agree that I am engaged in an unnatural pursuit?’

  He digested this for some moments, then ventured, ‘And if you were instructed by our superiors to have sex with me, would you still be as cold as ice?’

  ‘By no means. I am a professional. I would make you the happiest man in the world.’

  ‘Then . . .’

  ‘Equally,’ she added, ‘if immediately afterwards I was instructed by our superiors to kill you, I would do so without hesitation. But it would be as quick and painless as possible.’ At last she looked at him and smiled. ‘As I said, I am a professional.’

  He moved across the seat, as far away from her as possible.

  *

  The camp seemed exactly as she had left it two years before; it could have been yesterday. She was not even sure that it wasn’t the same sergeant at the desk of the female barracks.

  ‘Fraulein Fehrbach, it is good to see you again. Doctor Cleiner wished to see you the moment you arrived.’

  ‘I shall just place my valise in my quarters,’ Anna said.

  ‘I will do that for you, Fraulein.’

  ‘Thank you. Are there any other ladies in residence?’

  ‘There are two, Fraulein. They will be overwhelmed to meet you. But Doctor Cleiner comes first.’

  ‘Of course.’ Anna went to the outer door, where Gutemann had waited for her. He fell into step beside her as she walked along the gravelled path towards the doctor’s offices.

  ‘I see you know your way about this place,’ he suggested.

  ‘Why, yes. Did you not know that?’

  Once again he fell silent. But she had a fairly good idea of what he was thinking – how much he would like to have this arrogant bitch in his power for even a few minutes. She found that amusing. She was in the mood, as she had been since that terrible meeting with her mother, to indulge her dislike for the entire human race.

  Their walk took them past the parade grounds, filled with sweating, panting recruits being introduced to the weapons they would use in combat. All were under the imperious eyes of their drill sergeants but none could resist the temptation to look at the beautiful young woman in their midst.

  Anna reached the command house, went up the short flight of steps, and tapped on the door.

  ‘Enter.’

  She opened the door into an outer office where a hard-faced woman sat behind a desk and a typewriter. ‘Ah!’ the woman said, ‘you will be Fehrbach. The doctor is waiting for you.’

  Anna crossed the room to the inner door. She knew Gutemann was immediately behind her. She stopped and turned. ‘I am sure the doctor will wish to see me alone.’

  He gazed at her uncertainly, but she opened the door, stepped through, and closed it behind her before he could react.

  ‘Anna!’ Doctor Cleiner hurried round his huge desk and took her in his arms for a bear hug. He was overweight, bald, wore horn-rimmed glasses on a pudgy nose, and sweated. It was several seconds before he released her, his fingers running up and down her spine as if he was looking for a dislocated disc. Then he stepped back, now holding her arms, allowing his hands to slide down her short sleeves and then her forearms to hold her hands. ‘It is so good to see you again. And looking so well. Do you know, I would swear that you have not changed a bit in the last two years.’

  ‘Neither have you, Herr Doctor.’

  ‘Ha ha! And I am to make sure that you are as fit, mentally and physically, as when last we met. That is good.’

  Cleiner returned behind his desk, sat down and picked up the sheet of paper lying there. ‘You are to undergo the complete course, as if you were a novice. But this time I am sure you will find it very easy. And I am sure there are some aspects in which you no longer need instruction. You have enjoyed the experience of being a married woman, have you not?’

  There was no other chair in the room, so Anna remained standing before the desk. ‘As you say, Herr Doctor.’

  ‘Did you enjoy it, Anna?’

  ‘I was doing a job of work, Herr Doctor.’ She wanted to change the subject. ‘I understand you have two trainees in residence.’

  ‘Ah, yes. They came in this morning. They are very excited at the prospect of working with you.’

  ‘So, it seems, is Captain Gutemann. Is he necessary?’

  ‘Well, you know he is. But you also know he is not allowed to touch you – or any of the others – unless so commanded by me.’ He looked at his watch. ‘It is an hour until lunch. There is time for me to give you a physical examination. Undress.’

  ‘I do assure you, Herr Doctor, that I am as fit as, or perhaps even fitter than, I was two years ago.’

  ‘And even more modest? I cannot believe that, Anna, as you are a married woman.’

  ‘I was a married woman, Herr Doctor.’

  ‘You still are, my dear girl. Your husband may be suing for divorce, but these things take time. You are likely to remain married for another year.’ He chuckled. ‘Unless, of course, you were to fall into the hands of the British, when they would terminate matters by hanging you. You are still an English citizen, are you not?’

  ‘You say the most encouraging things, Herr Doctor.’

  ‘But it is not our intention to let that happen. Now come along, Anna. I wish to look at you. I do enjoy looking at you.’

  Anna sighed. She had formed a plan as to how to deal with the coming crisis; it was a matter of whether or not he would believe her – and how soon he would divulge what she told him to her superiors. She took off her bandanna, shook out her hair and removed her dress.

  ‘Lay it on that table,’ he suggested.

  This she did, carefully spreading the material so as to avoid crushing it. Then, with her back to him, she took off her cami-knickers.

  ‘Everything,’ he said.

  Anna sighed again, although she had known he would require this. She stepped out of her shoes, released her suspender belt and, bending over, rolled down her stockings. She heard him come across the room, and a moment later his hands closed on her buttocks. Instantly she straightened. ‘Are you examining me, Herr Doctor?’ she asked innocently.

  ‘Why, yes. Turn around.’ Anna did so and he looked her up and down. ‘As you say, perfection. There can be no more delightful vision than a beautiful naked woman. Even if he discovered you were a spy, that man Bordman must have been out of his mind to divorce you. But do you know, Anna, after what I have read in your file, I almost expected to find a pistol strapped somewhere.’

  ‘I do not need a pistol, Herr Doctor. You taught me not to need a pistol.’

  ‘I did indeed. Although you may remember that I also taught you how to use one. Tell me, how many people have you killed since you shot that fellow here in this camp?’

  ‘At your command, Herr Doctor,’ Anna reminded him. ‘As for how many others, is it not in my file?’

  ‘Two are listed. Elsa Mayers and Gottfried Friedemann. Both are recorded as enemies of the Reich; one was killed with a bullet, the other with a single blow to the carotid. I taught you that blow, Anna. I am proud of that.’

  ‘May I get dressed, Herr Doctor?’

  ‘Oh, no. I have not yet examined you.’

  She waited while he peered at her, keeping her breathing under control. The moment of truth was approaching. Needless to say, he foun
d it necessary to finger her breasts before slowly moving down her ribcage and suddenly bending forward. ‘What is this?’

  ‘A bruise, Herr Doctor.’

  Cleiner looked more closely, taking off his spectacles as his nose almost touched her flesh. ‘I never thought you would lie to me, Anna. I never thought you would dare. You may have become a valuable member of the SD, but in this camp I retain the power of life and death over any one of my pupils.’

  ‘Herr Doctor . . .’

  Cleiner touched the blue mark with his finger. ‘This was a bullet wound.’ He straightened. ‘There is no record in your file of you having been shot. Why is this?’

  Anna licked her lips. ‘It was a private matter, Herr Doctor.’

  ‘How can being shot be a private matter?’

  ‘Because it had nothing to do with my mission. My husband shot me.’

  ‘As I suggested, he must have been mad. Why did he shoot you?’

  ‘He thought he had found out that I was having an affair.’

  ‘I see. When did this happen?’

  ‘In August last year.’

  Cleiner sat down at his desk to look at her file, replacing his spectacles. ‘It says here that in August last year you fell down a flight of stairs and broke several ribs. You were in hospital for over a month.’

  ‘That was the story given to the press, Herr Doctor. Bordman was an important man. We were prominent in London society. If it had come out that he had shot me, the scandal would have been tremendous.’

  ‘I see. So, tell me, had you had an affair?’

  ‘Certainly not.’

  ‘Because you basically do not like men. Or sex.’

  ‘That is correct, Herr Doctor.’

  ‘That must have been very frustrating for him. Had I been your husband, I would probably have shot you without the excuse of adultery. Tell me why this incident was never reported to your superiors?’

  ‘As I said, sir, it had nothing to do with my assignment. I did not report it because it would have unnecessarily complicated things.’

  ‘But you went on living with Bordman for another nine months.’

  ‘When he realized his mistake, he was utterly contrite. Besides, I still had my work to do. Being the Honourable Mrs Ballantine Bordman was the very core of my work as an agent. The information I was able to gather in that position was invaluable.’

  ‘And he had nothing to do with the eventual betrayal which caused you to flee England?’

  ‘No,’ Anna insisted.

  ‘Well, you understand that I must enter this in your file. It is possible that General Heydrich may wish you to explain it further. Now get yourself dressed and join your fellow pupils.’

  *

  Gutemann was waiting for her outside. ‘I trust all went well, Fraulein?’

  ‘Why, yes, Herr Captain. Did you suppose it would not? I can find my own way back to the barracks.’

  She stepped past him and walked along the path. She carried her bandanna in her hand and let her hair float behind her. Her heart was pounding. Cleiner had been simple because, like so many of her adversaries, he suffered from the handicap of being more than a little in love with her, but she did not feel that Reinhard Heydrich was capable of being in love with anyone – save perhaps Reinhard Heydrich. But having adopted that cover story she now had to stick with it.

  The problem was that the date of her ‘accident’ was recorded as 25 August 1939. This was the same date as Hannah Gehrig was recorded as having disappeared, just as it was also the day before news had been released of the Nazi–Soviet Pact, which had created the favourable conditions for this war to be started in the first place. She knew that Gehrig had been ordered to flee England, as she had not taken out British citizenship, and would almost certainly have been arrested when the news broke. That she had successfully escaped had always been accepted. That her charge and accomplice had fallen down a flight of stairs, while no doubt in an agitated state of mind, had also been accepted. But that that accomplice should have been shot by her husband on the same day that Gehrig had disappeared was perhaps moving into the realms of extreme coincidence.

  At the barracks she smiled at the sergeant, went along the corridor and opened the door to the dormitory, which had not changed in two years. There was the same row of neatly made beds along one wall, the same lockers beside each bed, the same shower and toilet facilities at the far end, and the same high, barred windows.

  There were also two young women sitting on adjacent beds, engaged in animated conversation, both of whom sprang to their feet as she entered. She smiled at them in turn. ‘I am Anna,’ she said.

  ‘Anna Fehrbach!’ gasped one of the girls; they were both younger than she.

  Anna frowned. ‘You know my name?’

  ‘We were told it at training school,’ the other girl said. ‘Do well, they told us, and you could be another Anna Fehrbach.’

  Anna looked from one to the other. ‘Well then, I think you should introduce yourselves.’

  ‘I am Lena Postitz,’ said the first girl. She was a short, dark-haired young woman, with small, somewhat tight features.

  ‘Lena,’ Anna said, and turned to the other girl. She was taller, also dark-haired, but with much stronger, handsome features. There was something vaguely familiar about her. ‘And you?’

  ‘I am Marlene Gehrig,’ the girl replied.

  Chapter Two – The Boutique

  For a moment Anna could not think.

  ‘My mother told me of you,’ Marlene Gehrig said. ‘She was very proud of you. She often told me that you were the best agent she knew.’ She smiled. ‘I think she wanted me to be like you. And then she became your Controller.’ The features puckered. ‘But I have not seen her for nearly a year. Can you tell me where she is now?’

  Anna had been making some very rapid calculations. As this girl’s name was also Gehrig, Hannah had clearly not married the father. That she had spared the time to get pregnant by any man was a surprise in itself. Having been forced to live with her for several months, Anna had had no doubt that she was a lesbian, and not of the closet variety. As she knew that the SD recruited at least as many volunteers as those they conscripted, the fact that Hannah should have offered her daughter to the services of the Reich was not the least improbable: she had been the most dedicated of Nazis.

  ‘I’m afraid I have no idea where your mother is now,’ she said with her usual convincing innocence. Save, she thought, that I am pretty sure she is somewhere in hell.

  ‘But . . . was she not in England with you?’

  ‘Of course. But she received orders to leave England the day it became certain there was going to be a war. This she did. Is she not here in Germany?’

  ‘She never came home,’ Marlene said sombrely. ‘Nothing has been heard since she left England. What can have happened to her?’

  ‘Oh, my dear girl,’ Anna said. ‘She was a most capable officer in the SD. I am sure she must be somewhere.’

  To her great relief a bugle call rang through the camp. ‘Lunch! It is not something you wish to miss.’

  *

  As Anna remembered, while they ate in the communal mess hall, the three girls were segregated from the men, and while they attracted interested glances, no one dared speak to them. The large room was entirely overlooked by several NCOs, and all conversation was necessarily in hushed whispers.

  ‘What is going to happen to us?’ Lena asked.

  ‘You will begin by learning about men,’ Anna told her. ‘How to seduce them, and how to allow yourself to be seduced by them.’

  ‘Gosh!’ Lena exclaimed. ‘Do they . . . well . . .?’

  ‘Oh, yes. You have to touch them, and they have to touch you.’

  ‘But . . .’

  Anna smiled at her. ‘You will have to make them very happy.’ She gazed at the girl. ‘You know what I mean?’

  ‘Oh, good Lord! I have never, well, seen a man. Well, I have, of course, but never, well . . .’

  �
��Had sex with one? Neither had I, when I first came here,’ Anna assured her. ‘You will get used to it. You may even enjoy it. It helps if you do.’

  ‘And you enjoyed it?’ Marlene spoke for the first time.

  Anna met her gaze, sensing hostility that could not be more than instinctive. ‘No. I did not enjoy it.’

  ‘But you passed out with honour?’

  ‘Honour? There is no such thing in our profession.’

  *

  There was little further conversation over the meal. Lena was lost in a private world; whether it was a world of dreams or nightmares Anna could not be sure. Marlene stared at her between mouthfuls. Anna would have given a great deal to know what was going on inside that brain – what things her mother might have told her.

  Well, she thought, we are only going to spend this week together, and then hopefully we may never meet again. And as only she and a handful of British MI6 agents knew the truth of what had happened, any dislike Marlene felt for her must be instinctive, and would remain so. Then she frowned. There were five others in the know: Belinda Hoskin, Clive Bartley’s fashion editor mistress; Bowen, Ballantine’s valet; and Ballantine himself, who had walked in on the scene, plus the police inspector and his sergeant who had been summoned. Clive had assured her they had all been sworn to secrecy, and she had to believe that. But the very presence of this rather intense young woman made her uneasy.

  She was relieved when the bell went to end the meal.

  *

  Anna was even more relieved to find that she was not required to attend the initial classes. She had always found it distasteful to fondle a man and even more to be fondled by him, unless his name happened to be Clive Bartley. Gutemann instead took her off to the gymnasium for a severe workout.

  She was also required to attend the hospital for an X-ray of her ribs. Cleiner joined her here. ‘It was a long time ago,’ she reminded him. ‘I am perfectly all right.’