‘MI6.’
‘Because she says so?’
‘I was given this information by a senior member of that organization. She works for the Brits. She works for the SD simply in order to keep her family alive. That is also confirmed by MI6.’
‘Well, I guess we have to hope that she, and they, are worth all of these dead bodies she seems to leave lying about. Now, we need to know what she is doing here. Is she spying, or killing? And who is she doing it for, the Brits or the Krauts?’
‘That is what I propose to find out, sir. But she has to be handled carefully.’
‘I’ll bet.’
‘What I mean is, I can’t accomplish anything if the FBI are breathing down her neck and mine.’
‘So you would like me to warn Hoover off.’
‘Do you have the clout to do that?’
‘The President tells me that I have the clout to do anything I want, providing I don’t interfere with his prerogatives. That sort of power kind of leaves a man breathless. But it has to be used with the utmost responsibility. You’re sure it wouldn’t be best just to round the young lady up and put her on a boat back to Europe? That would sure be most convenient, and prevent any sore toes.’
‘With respect, sir, I feel that would be desperately counter-productive, for two reasons. The first is that if we start picking up German Embassy employees, certainly those with diplomatic status, and bouncing them back across the Atlantic, they’re liable to do the same to our people in Berlin. The second is that now she is here in our back yard, this is our opportunity to find out a lot more about her, her employers, and their plans. And maybe even to turn her a little further.’
‘And the third reason,’ Donovan said, ‘is that this is your opportunity to renew your acquaintance and perhaps get up close and personal.’
‘Well . . .’ Andrews flushed.
Donovan grinned. ‘I’m not blaming you, Joe. Maybe I’m a little envious. I’d like to meet the young lady, if the opportunity presents itself. OK, you got it. I’ll clear away all possible weeds. But, Joe, God help you if anything goes wrong. I’m particularly thinking about the possibility that one of our top people suddenly has a heart attack. Good luck.’
*
Joe knew that Donovan was absolutely correct in his initial reaction that the safest course would be to have Anna immediately deported, but his heart was singing like a rampant canary at the thought that she had just been delivered exclusively to him. Supposing he could handle it. Handle her! But as he had been given carte blanche . . .
‘Margaret,’ he said. ‘Have we got anyone worthwhile in the German Embassy?’
‘Several, I would say.’
‘I’m not talking about the FBI. I mean us, the OSS, exclusively.’
‘Well, no, sir. I mean, we’re still operating on a skeleton staff. Mr Donovan is very sticky about who he takes on. He wants only the best.’ She paused to regard her boss with arched eyebrows; Joe had been one of Donovan’s first choices.
‘I want you to find someone who might be prepared to work for us, exclusively. We’d make it worth his while.’
‘Well, strictly off the top of my head, there’s Hans Luckner. He’s a junior filing clerk, but he’s been very helpful to the Bureau in the past, and he’s always short.’
‘Good enough. Get hold of him and tell him I want a rundown on the movements of the Countess von Widerstand, who has just joined the Embassy from Germany. It is urgent.’ He looked up and found Margaret gazing at him. ‘It is also confidential.’
‘Yes, sir.’ Margaret left the room, and Joe leaned back in his chair.
She was there, only a few blocks away. Would anything come of it this time? Could anything come of it? That of course would depend on what she was here to do. But if she really was working for the Brits . . . The last time, Clive Bartley had been very much in evidence, and their relationship had been too obviously intimate for him to consider intruding. But had it really been an emotional relationship? Or merely a matter of keeping in with the boss?
And suppose she was here for the Nasties, with something very nasty in mind? Well, he reckoned he could cross that bridge when he came to it. But as he had told Donovan, it had to be handled very carefully, and he had to find out everything he could about her before reminding her of Moscow, just in case. Patience, boy, patience.
*
Bridget Losey could tell her boss was in a bad mood. Lawrence Fisher stamped into the outer office and threw his hat at the stand. It missed. ‘Get me an interview with the Chief,’ he snapped.
‘Yes, sir. Ah . . .’
‘What?’
‘Mr Kronsky is waiting to see you.’
‘What in the name of God . . . Where is he?’
‘I gave him a seat in the lobby. It was his idea to wait.’
‘Well, I guess I’ll have to see him. Put the Chief on hold.’ He arranged his features into a smile, opened the door to the lobby. ‘Comrade! What can I do for you?’
The Russian was a heavy-set man with a permanently sad expression. ‘It is an urgent matter.’
‘Isn’t it always? Come in.’ He ushered his visitor into his office, closed the door. ‘Have a seat and tell me your troubles.’
The Russian looked more pained than usual, but over the past few months he had become accustomed to the peculiar American sense of humour. ‘We need your assistance, your co-operation, in a small matter.’
‘I was under the impression that you were getting our assistance, and our cooperation, in every possible matter.’
‘It is very reassuring to hear you say so, Mr Fisher. It has recently come to our attention that you are harbouring in this country one of the world’s most dangerous criminals.’
‘Tell me about it. Which one did you have in mind?’
‘A woman who masquerades as the Countess von Widerstand.’
Fisher, who had been moving gently to and fro in his swivel chair, came to a halt and sat up. ‘Say again?’
‘The title is of course entirely spurious. It does not exist. Her real name is Anna Fehrbach. She is an Austrian by birth, and she is an agent for the Nazi Government of Germany.’
Fisher regarded him for some seconds before speaking. ‘And as such I can see that you would regard her as an enemy. But as you know, the United States is not at war with Nazi Germany. Therefore, providing their travel documents are in order, there is nothing to prevent a German citizen from visiting us. That is of course presuming that you are right and that she is in the country. May I ask, what is your interest in the young lady?’
‘My dear Mr Fisher, you know she is here. You have just revealed that knowledge by describing her, accurately, as a young woman. As for our interest, we wish to . . . interview her regarding her attempt on the life of Premier Stalin, not three months ago.’
‘Attempt on the life . . . You guys have got to be mixing this countess up with some other female. According to her passport, she is only just twenty-one years old.’
‘You do seem to know a lot about her,’ Kronsky remarked. ‘And she may be just twenty-one years old, but she is a highly skilled assassin. That is what she does for the Nazis. She works for the Sicherheitsdienst. You know of this?’
‘I know of the SD,’ Fisher muttered. ‘But I still can’t believe it. She’s . . . well . . .’
‘A very handsome young woman. The use of her beauty is her stock-in-trade. But she can kill, and does, with knife, gun or her bare hands.’
‘You have got to be kidding. How do you know all this?’
‘She spent most of the past year in Russia. During that time we know, because there are witnesses, that she killed two senior Soviet officials, in the course of her escape from the Lubianka Prison, and she is strongly suspected of two more suspicious deaths in Moscow. So—’
‘Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!’ Fisher said. ‘You’re losing me. You are saying this dame escaped from the Lubianka? No one escapes from the Lubianka.’
‘We were tricked. Fe
hrbach was being held there awaiting trial for her attempt on the life of Premier Stalin, which fortunately she was prevented from carrying out. However, an American diplomat, a Mr Joseph Andrews—’
‘Holy Jesus Christ!’ Fisher said.
‘Absolutely. This Andrews tricked Commissar Beria into releasing her into his custody, to be brought to the United States, where she would be tried for the attempted murder of President Roosevelt.’
Fisher stared at him.
‘The order of release was actually rescinded before Andrews could remove Fehrbach from the prison, so she killed the two people who tried to re-arrest her, one of whom was a senior commissar, and she and Andrews left the country before our people could catch up with them. You must realize that this took place on twenty-third June, the day after the Nazi invasion began, and there was a considerable amount of chaos.’
‘Yeah,’ Fisher conceded. But his mind was already roaming elsewhere.
‘Well, it was supposed at the time that Andrews was following an agenda of his own. But we did have his assurance that she was being returned here for trial. Instead of which, here she is – what do you say? – as bold as brass. And entering this country from Germany, which would indicate that Andrews never brought her back here in the first place, and probably never intended to do so. We wish her arrested, and tried and convicted for her crime here, or failing that, handed over to us for trial in Russia.’
‘And conviction, of course,’ Fisher suggested.
‘Oh, she is certainly guilty.’
‘Well, Comrade, I will certainly look into the matter.’
‘Look into it? Mr Fisher, this woman is certainly here to commit some crime or other.’
‘As you say. Unfortunately, you see, we don’t go in for preventive detention, and she has not as yet committed any crime in the United States. She is also here as a member of the German Embassy staff. That is to say, she has diplomatic immunity. Now, if we can find out, and prove, that she once tried to assassinate President Roosevelt, or participated in any un-American activities, we can demand her expulsion, but that will be done by the Germans themselves, and she will necessarily be returned to Germany.’
‘Germany is the enemy of all mankind.’
‘I’m inclined to agree with you. But right this minute, she is not legally our enemy.’
‘You are refusing to assist us in bringing a known international terrorist to justice.’
‘I am going to assist you in every way I can. However, in this country, we don’t make up the laws as we go along, we merely abide by them. I will have this lady thoroughly investigated, and then I will come back to you. Until that investigation is completed, Comrade, I most earnestly entreat you not to do anything stupid.’
Kronsky stared at him for several seconds, then got up and left the room.
‘He doesn’t look a happy bunny to me,’ Bridget remarked as she came into the room. ‘Don’t tell me the Reds have managed to lose another army, or whatever.’
‘Listen,’ Fisher said. ‘Get me that spot with the Chief. And this really is urgent.’
*
‘The view is spectacular, don’t you think?’ Erich Stoltz spoke anxiously. He was an earnest young man who had never cut a great figure with women; his inferiority complex had prevented him from ever trying. That he had been instructed to squire the most glamorous young woman he had ever seen had left him completely out of his depth.
The Countess von Widerstand was not, on the surface, a difficult woman to escort. She was always pleasantly good-humoured, fell in with most of his suggestions, was both punctual and utterly graceful in her habits as well as always being perfectly dressed and groomed. But she was obviously far more important than her apparent position as a Chief Secretary at the Embassy indicated. For one thing, the very posting of Chief Secretary was a bit much for a girl of twenty-one. For another, the Ambassador treated her with an inordinate amount of respect. And for a third, she had been thrust straight into the whirl that was Washington society, attending a cocktail party or a dinner party virtually every night. In no more than a month she had become a social phenomenon, with no hostess feeling that her party was a success unless her guest list included the Countess von Widerstand.
But today she was having a quiet lunch with him in this restaurant on the seventh floor of the hotel overlooking the Potomac. As always she was attracting glances, but that was entirely because of her looks, dressed demurely as she was in a pale blue summer dress hemmed just below her knees to reveal her superb calves, a high-necked but extremely well-filled bodice, her long, straight, silky golden hair floating down her back and restrained only by a single pale blue band on the nape of her neck. Her jewellery was enough to attract admiring glances, the small gold bars dangling from her ears, the delicate gold crucifix resting on her bodice, the gold Junghans watch on her wrist, and above all, the huge ruby solitaire on the forefinger of her left hand.
Today was also the first time Stoltz had observed a certain tension in her demeanour, a slight impatience. As if she were waiting for something to happen, and was irritated that it had not yet done so. Now she said, ‘Yes, it is a lovely view. Do you suppose we could order?’
‘Of course. I do apologize. The clams here are very good.’
‘Then let us have the clams.’
He snapped his fingers and the maître d’ hurried over. Stoltz ordered, then looked up in concern as he discovered another man standing beside them. But the man ignored him, preferring instead to address Anna.
‘Countess! What a pleasant surprise.’
‘And for me, Mr Andrews.’
‘May I join you?’
‘I would like that. In fact, Erich, would you be a dear and leave us alone?’
‘Ah . . .’ Stoltz was dumbfounded. ‘You know this gentleman?’
‘Well, that would appear to be obvious, wouldn’t it?’ Anna’s tone remained softly sweet.
‘And . . .’ He looked from one to the other.
‘Mr Andrews will both pay for the meal and see me home afterwards.’ She looked at Joe.
‘Surely.’
‘Well . . .’ Stoltz stood up. He had been told by the Ambassador that he should obey without question any instructions given him by the Countess. So he clicked his heels, and left.
Andrews sat down. ‘That was a little rough on the lad.’
‘He is such a Nazi. And you know, apart from their ideology, they are the most boring people on earth. We have ordered clams. Do you like clams?’
‘I like anything, so long as I can eat them looking at you.’
‘You say the sweetest things. But I have waited nearly a month for you to contact me. You did know I was here?’
‘I did, yes.’
‘Yet when we were finally at the same party the other night, while we looked at each other across the room, you made no move to approach me. I felt quite neglected.’
‘Seeing you took me entirely by surprise. I knew you were in the country, but I needed to do a little background work, and then some thinking. Are you saying that you are in Washington simply to see me?’
‘Well, you did save my life. In some philosophies, when you save a life that life belongs to you.’
‘Now that is a statement worth hearing. If only I could believe it.’
‘You should try me some time.’
‘That is just about my dearest wish.’
They gazed at each other, and then the meal arrived. The waiter raised his eyebrows at the replacement of one diner by another but he poured the wine and withdrew. ‘There’s a sadly puzzled lad,’ Joe commented. ‘Now, are you prepared to tell me why you’re here? I mean the true reason.’
Anna pouted. ‘I thought I already had. However, if it’s that important to you, I am taking American opinion on our decision to invade Russia. My people regard the fact that you are pouring millions of dollars worth of lend-lease into that country as a hostile act.’
‘Your people?’
‘As far as y
ou are concerned, that is how it has to be.’
‘Unfortunately, it’s not quite as simple as that.’
Anna put down her fork.
‘If you will take out your compact and powder your nose, you will be able to see, seated three tables behind you, a gentleman – I use the word loosely – having lunch.’
Anna did as he suggested, dabbed her nose with the powder puff, closed the compact and restored it to her handbag. ‘One of yours?’
‘Again, loosely. FBI.’
‘Explain.’
‘You could say that he is keeping you under surveillance at the request of the Soviets. The Reds have discovered you are here, having arrived, on your own, via a ship from Europe. I’m not quite sure what their attitude is to your having disposed of Chalyapov and Colonel Tserchenka, but they were certainly under the impression that I was bringing you back here to face trial. That was the deal with Beria, remember?’
‘And as I obviously am not in custody . . . What exactly do they have in mind?’
‘I hope we have warned them off doing anything. They applied to the FBI to have you arrested to await extradition.’
‘And got nowhere. Good old FBI.’
‘It’s not that simple in that direction either. The Bureau took the correct line that as you are employed at the German Embassy you possess diplomatic immunity. But it has discovered, on its own, that you are a German spy. Now it has been informed that you are also a German assassin. If it cannot touch you, legally, it certainly wants you out of here. That is to say, it would like to have you expelled. That could be tricky if you were to find yourself on a neutral ship bound for Europe and discovered you were sharing a table with a couple of NKVD heavies.’
‘How soon is this liable to happen?’
‘It’s not going to happen at all, as long as you behave yourself. I was able to put a block on any FBI activity, at least overt activity.’
‘But you’re FBI yourself, aren’t you?’
‘I used to be. Now I belong to a senior organization. You could call it our version of the SD, although I would hope that our hands are just a bit cleaner.’
‘But I am being shadowed by an FBI agent.’
Angel of Vengeance: The thrilling sequel to Angel in Red (Anna Fehrbach) Page 10
