Angel in Red

by Christopher Nicole

  ‘The Embassy,’ Andrews said, and sat beside Anna. His hands were shaking. He knew he was suffering from a certain amount of shock at the startling and uninhibited violence he had just witnessed, his feelings accentuated by his glimpse of the naked body of this utterly beautiful creature seated beside him, who now presented the picture of a docile and innocent, if slightly dishevelled, young woman.

  But she was not entirely as cold as ice. ‘Will they not send behind us?’ she asked. Her voice was low, and the fingers holding the file were perfectly steady.

  It was time to match her calm. ‘No. For two reasons. One is that Beria, and I suspect Stalin himself, will not be sorry to see the back of Comrade Chalyapov. The other is that the last thing the Russians want to do right now is fall out with us. That file . . . is it very important?’

  ‘It is to me,’ Anna said.

  *

  The marine sentry presented arms as Clive entered the Embassy. In the hall a male secretary was waiting for him. ‘Mr Andrews is expecting you, Mr Bartley. First floor, door five.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Clive took the steps two at a time, was out of breath when he opened the door. Andrews stood before his desk. ‘Where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for the last twelve hours.’

  ‘I’ve been busy. I believe you know the Countess von Widerstand?’

  Clive turned, his jaw dropping. Anna had been seated on a settee against the far wall, but was now standing. She wore a dressing gown, and her feet were bare. Her hair was loose, and unusually untidy. ‘My God! How did you do it?’

  ‘I used a method recommended by, if I remember correctly, Napoleon Bonaparte, who said, “the bigger the lie, the more chance there is of it being believed”. Although I am going to have to do my damndest to make sure that at least part of it turns out to be true. I imagine you two would like to be alone for a few minutes.’ He went to the door. ‘Oh, please don’t get agitated about her appearance. She is merely waiting for some clothes to be prepared for her. Her own were rather past their best.’

  He closed the door, and Anna came forward. ‘He is quite a man.’

  Clive took her into his arms and kissed her. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘Yes. Although it will be a long time before I feel like taking a cold shower again.’

  ‘My God, to have you back . . But what’s this about a few minutes?’

  ‘They have to get me out of the country immediately.’

  ‘I’ll get you out of the country.’

  Anna shook her head. ‘They can arrange for me to get back to Germany. You cannot.’

  ‘But Anna, you can’t go back to Germany.’

  ‘I must. You know I must.’

  ‘You have not carried out Heydrich’s command.’ He frowned. ‘You didn’t assassinate Stalin, did you?’

  ‘I never got near Stalin, Clive.’

  ‘He won’t believe that. Or he’ll believe that you deliberately got yourself arrested so you wouldn’t have to complete the assignment.’

  ‘He will believe what I tell him, because I will prove that it is the truth.’

  ‘I will never see you again.’

  She kissed him. ‘We will be together when this is over. Until then, there is always Antoinette’s Boutique. But listen . . . I would like my jewellery back.’

  ‘How do I do that?’

  ‘You give it to Joe. He will have it sent to his embassy in Berlin, and I can pick it up from there.’

  ‘Hmm. This fellow Joe . . .’

  ‘He saved my life, Clive. He is doing that now.’ She gave a little gurgle of laughter. ‘And you are jealous. He has never touched me. But listen, as it may be a little while before we can get together again, and we have fifteen minutes . . . It has been so long.’

  *

  Andrews knocked and opened the door. ‘The dressmaker is ready for you, Countess . . . Oh! Ah!’

  Anna rolled off Clive and the settee at the same moment, stood up, and put on her dressing gown.

  ‘I sure am sorry,’ Andrews said. ‘I didn’t mean to interrupt . . .’

  ‘Your timing was perfection,’ Anna told him, and went to the door.

  ‘It’s the next room,’ Andrews said.

  She nodded, and the door closed.

  Clive was still panting. Andrews sat behind his desk. ‘Do you know,’ he remarked, ‘only a few hours ago I saw that girl kill two people, just like that.’ He snapped his fingers.

  Clive got up and began to dress. ‘So now you know all her secrets.’

  ‘Does anyone know all her secrets?’

  ‘Good point. But you’re still going to help her?’

  ‘God, yes. Not helping Anna, not preserving Anna, is unthinkable. Just so long as she’s on our side. You’re sure about that?’

  Clive knotted his tie. ‘I’m sure. Just remember, old boy, that you are in possession of an especially important secret. It has to remain that way. At least until the war is over.’

  ‘And you guys have won it. You sure about that?’

  Clive grinned. ‘Aren’t you?’ He held out his hand. ‘You take good care of my little girl.’

  ‘I’ll contact you when the delivery has been made.’ It was Andrews’ turn to grin. ‘If I’m still alive.’

  *

  ‘Anna?’ Reinhard Heydrich got up and came round his desk.

  ‘Heil Hitler!’

  ‘Heil! They told me you had been arrested by the NKVD.’

  ‘That is correct, sir.’

  Heydrich embraced her ‘My dear girl. My dear, dear girl. But how are you here?’

  ‘I was freed by the intervention of an officer in the American Embassy in Moscow.’

  ‘An American got you out of the Lubianka? But how? And why? Sit down.’ Anna sat before the desk, and he returned behind it. ‘So?’

  ‘He was my lover, sir.’

  ‘Chalyapov was supposed to be your lover.’

  ‘Yes sir. He was. But this was a genuine attachment. I did not let it interfere with my mission.’

  ‘I see. You are not supposed to form genuine attachments. Would this be the man you were meeting clandestinely in the Hotel Berlin?’

  ‘You knew of that, sir?’

  ‘Groener suspected it. He had some information which he did not specify. I dismissed it as speculation. Now it seems I owe him an apology. So, you had an illegal affair with an itinerant American . . .’

  ‘I am sorry, sir. I have my passions. And if I had not had that affair, I would not be here now.’

  ‘But you failed in your mission. There has been no indication that Marshal Stalin is dead.’

  ‘No, sir. Marshal Stalin is alive. I was prevented from completing my mission.’

  ‘Is that not the excuse of every failure? Oh, I do not suppose it is a vital matter. This war with Russia was planned six months ago. The date had to be postponed because of that Balkan imbroglio, but it was going to happen whether or not you succeeded. On the other hand, the decision that Stalin should be eliminated immediately before the commencement of hostilities was taken at the highest level. I am going to have to report your failure to the Fuehrer, and I cannot say what his reaction will be.’

  He paused to stare at her, but Anna’s face remained as calm as her voice. ‘I can proved that I was betrayed, Herr General. And by whom.’

  ‘Then you had better do so.’

  ‘Yes sir.’ Anna opened her handbag and laid the dossier on his desk. ‘This I secured from the files of the Lubianka Prison before leaving. The information was supplied to them by Chalyapov, after he had received it from the Gestapo office in our Moscow Embassy.’

  Heydrich regarded her for several moments, then looked at the sheets of paper. ‘It seems to outline your intentions, and your background, very convincingly. But to say it came from the Gestapo Office . . . there is no proof of that.’

  ‘If you will read it again, Herr General, you will see that it seeks to prove that I am an assassin by relating the facts of tha
t incident in Prague last year. As you will recall, sir, only four people know those facts: yourself, Herr Feutlanger, myself . . . and Herr Meissenbach. At your command, the business was hushed up as regards anyone else.’

  Heydrich read the paper again, then raised his head. ‘You are accusing both Groener and Meissenbach of betraying you? Betraying the Reich? That is incredible. Why should they do something like that?’

  ‘Herr Groener, because he hated and distrusted me from the moment I arrived in Moscow. Herr Meissenbach, because he wished to be my lover and became very angry when I rejected him. As you will see there, the traitor, or traitors, outlined exactly what my instructions were, and these were known only to you and me. They must have opened your last letter to me.’

  Heydrich stroked his chin. ‘This is a very serious matter. To think that two such men would betray the Reich to avenge themselves on a woman . . . I will report the entire incident to General Himmler.’

  ‘And what will happen then, sir?’

  ‘They will be tried, and on the evidence you have provided, they will be executed.’

  ‘Ah, with respect, sir . . .’

  ‘Don’t you want them to be executed?’

  Anna smiled. ‘I would prefer them to be sent to a concentration camp, Herr General. That way, with your permission, I can go and visit them, from time to time.’

  Epilogue

  ‘And were they imprisoned?’ I asked.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ the Countess said.

  ‘Did you visit them?’

  ‘Once. I did not know anything about concentration camps, then. I don’t think many people in Germany did, whatever the rumours and the suspicions. It was safer not to speak of it. But I found that visit nauseating. I certainly had no desire to repeat it.’

  ‘What happened to Greta?’

  ‘She went to Ravensbruek. In the Nazi philosophy, the wife of a traitor was, by definition, a traitor herself.’

  ‘Did you feel guilty about that? I mean, she never actually harmed you.’

  ‘I felt guilty when I heard that she had been arrested. But under questioning she admitted that her husband had told her what he was going to do, and she was all in favour of it. That is no way to make friends,’ Anna said, somewhat ingenuously. ‘However, unfortunately, she did not stay in prison long. She had money, and she had friends in high places.’

  ‘Don’t tell me you met her again?’

  ‘I met her again.’

  I waited, but she did not elaborate. ‘And so you were back in the clutches of Heydrich.’

  ‘Yes. But not for very long. Within a year of my return from Moscow, Heydrich was dead.’

  ‘My God, yes! I’d forgotten about that. I don’t suppose you had anything to do with that?’

  Anna Fehrbach stared at me, and I could feel the heat in my cheeks. ‘I should have known better than to ask. Will you tell me about it?’

  ‘As I am telling you about everything else.’

  ‘But before then, Washington. Did you ever meet Joe again?’

  ‘Joe was my reason for going to America, Christopher.’ She smiled enchantingly. ‘I think you could say that I got to know him rather well. After all, did he not save my life?’

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