by Greg Iles
building."
"We?" Hitler said disparagingly.
"The Friekorps, my Fuhrer."
"I thought the communists in the Hauptbanhof were wiped out to a man."
"The real communists were. It was a massacre. But one Friekorps spy-a
loyal young German who provided critical information during the
crisis-managed to escape. With Friekorps help, of course. His name was
Heimut Steuer, and he became known among the communists as the 'Survivor
of Munich. ' "
"And what has this Helmut got to do with your plan?"
"Everything. But these early details are important.9' Heydrich smoothed
his thinning blond hair. "After the Party began to assert itself in
Germany under your inspired leadership, it was decided in the interests
of security to infiltrate informers into the communist cadres of our
past and probable future enemies-England and France. The agents were
sent into whatever countries their language abilities suited them for.
It was a primitive program, but quite remarkable considering the state
of our security services at the time. A few men were sent to Paris, a
few to Marseilles. Those who had no second language stayed in Germany.
And a very few were sent to England. Four went to Manchester and Leeds
to work in the mills, three to the mines around Newcastle.
Helmut Steuer, however, was a unique case. He had a fair grasp of
French, but his real gift was English. He'd worked the Rhine packets on
the English runs for most of his life and spoke the language like a
London dockworker. With little else but a prayer, Helmut was sent to
London.
"Being something of a communist hero after Muhich, Helmut was welcomed
into the London cadres with open arms. They considered him a great
fugitive-a celebrity of sorts. He worked the docks for a few years,
always doing his bit for the Party, selling the Daily Worker like a good
Bolshevik, but never doing quite enough to bring the British police down
on him. He wasn't really much use to us at that point, but he was
ordered to stay- He had possibilities."
Heydrich felt himself coming into stride. He clearly had the Fuhrer's
attention now.
@n in 1936, Heimut did something crazy. He packed a suitcase and set
out for Spain with the English communists who went to fight in the
International Brigades. And stmgely enough! my Fain, that,s when he
became a real owt. He drove an ambulance for the RePublican lo@ all the
while passing information to FranCO's fascists and our Condor Legion. No
one knew why he was doing it-he hadn't been ordered to-but I believe
that he simply acted out of patriotism. He was a loyal German; he saw
the Reich supporting Franco; so he did what he could from the POsition
he was in.
,An excellent man!" Hitler cried. "Why have I not heard of him
before?" ,m not sure, my Famr," Heydrich said smugly. - Perhaps
Reichsfiihrer Himmler never considered Helmut's reports important enough
to bring to Your attention-"
"Ridiculous! I need men with initiative! Like the English commandos!
This Heimut sounds like just that type of man!"
"He is better than that, my Fuhrer. After the Spanish War, Helmut
returned to England in disfavor with the British government, but an even
greater hero to the British communists.
It was then that I suggested the idealwhich now makes Plan Mordred
possible."
Hitler's eyes glowed with anticipation.
"I instructed Helmut to organize his own group Of COMmunist activist"and
case d isolate them from the local Party cadres. You know the standard
communist procedure: they organize small groups called cells, which are
subordinate to various committees and finally the national party
executive. Anyway, Helmut did as I asked, and out of genius or by
accident he hit upon a remarkable ideaIn short order he welded together
a small, highly committed group of combat veterans, all rabid
communists, all of whom had been wounded either in the Great War or in
Spain."
Heydrich tilted his narrow head forward. "Can you imagine the value of
this group, my Fuhrer? While they appeared to be merely a handful of
the thousands of English patriots who'd barely survived the Great War,
in reality they were dedicated radicals, men so violently disillusioned
with their government that they would strike at its foundations whenever
they got the chance!"
Hitler sat spellbound; Heydrich breathed harder.
"Helmut started small. He reported the movements of the British Fleet
in and out of port, estimated factory capacities, things like that. But
I always believed the time would come when his group could do some real
damage." Heydrich held up his arms in admiration. "In Plan Mordred, my
Fuhrer, you have created the perfect opportunity to exploit their
special talents! Remember, these men are combat veterans trained by the
British Army!"
"And this Helmut," Hitler said, his voice tremulous, "you believe he can
talk these Englishmen into carrying out our will?"
"He already has," Heydrich said exuberantly. "In small ways, of course.
A bit of sabotage in the munitions factories, improper packing of ships
in London. But with the right cover story-" Hitler silenced Heydrich
with a stab of his right hand. I "Why haven't these men been recalled
to duty in the British Army?" I Heydrich faltered a little.
"When I said they were wounded, my Fuhrer, I meant it. In Helmut's
signals, he refers to his unit as the Verwunden Brigade-the Wounded
Brigade. One of the men has only one leg, another has but one hand.
One man is internally damaged. Helmut himself has only one eye.
He lost the other at Guemica."
Hitler's mouth fell open. "What! You speak of cripples?
A one-eyed man leading a rabble of cripples against the British security
services? How can they possibly do what is necessary to carry out your
plan!"
"They can do it," Heydrich said evenly. "Helmut is the most remarkable
agent I have ever come across. But you I pinpointed the problem with
your very first question, my Fuhrer. How do we get Helmut's Verwunden
Brigade to assassinate Churchill and the king at the place and time of
our choosing?"
"Just as I said!"
Heydrich's face assumed a surgeon's impassivity. "As I said before,
motivation is not a problem. These men believe that Churchill is
dragging the English working class into yet another worldwide slaughter
for capitalist greed. They've already proved their sympathies by
sabotaging the British war effort, albeit in small ways, and they
certainly have no moral compunction against killing. No, my Fuhrer, the
problem is one of authority. These men idolize Helmut, but Helmut alone
simply hasn't the authority to order an action on that arty execuscale.
Not even Britain's National Communist Party could order the
assassination of a head of state-much less two. An order like that must
originate"-Heydrich looked Hitler dead in the eye-"from Moscow."
"Then we are lost!" Hitler bellowed, leaping to his feet. "I told you
about my Rum
anian oil fields! How can I possibly persuade Stalin to
mount an operation like this? That crafty old bear would immediately
guess our true intent!"
"You need not persuade Stalin of anything," said Heydrich. "I've solved
the problem already. That is what took me two months, my Fuhrer,
solving problems like this.
But I have the answers with me tonight. All of them."
,I'm tired of this game, Heydrich! Get to the point!"
The young SD chieftain nodded slowly. "MY Fuhrer, do you remember a
@Russian nwned ZinovievT' Hitler knitted his brow. 'The Bolshevik
leader of 1917?"
"No." Heydrich cracked a reptilian smile. "A Russian as opposite from
a Bolshevik as any man could be- He was captain in the Okhrana, the
tsar's secret POlice.@ Hitler tugged at his forelock. His eyes darted
around die ry here but at Heydrich. The fire had teahouse, looking eve
w died, but neither man noticed. Finally Hitler sat down again,
perching on the edge of the leather easy chair. "Proceed," he said.
As trim and hard as a rapier, Reinhard Heydrich stood before the most
powerful man on earth and outlined the plan that would place him first
in the line of succession to the black throne of the Nazi empire.
With each new revelation, his voice rose in excitement, and Hitler-,
spellbound, followed him up the scale.
"And the genius of the concept," Heydrich exulted, with the duill of
consummation, ,the -beauty of it, is that England will not simply be
neutralized, it will join us in our war against Russia! Think of it!
Paralyzed by grief, the British people will cry out to their new leaders
for guidance, and they will be told by those leaders-your men-to do
exactly what they so desire to do-take revenge on the godless enemy ! On
Russia, the cradle of assassins! And to do that they must reach out to
you! Barbarossa will become an Aryan crusade!"
Hitler's facial muscles had seized into an almost catatonic spasm.
His right hand shook as if from palsy. The genius of Heydrich's plan
had burst into his brain with the brilliance of a dying star. All his
life Hitler had fed upon the intellects of more timid men, seizing upon
their revolutionary ideas and charging forward without looking back.
Now-given Heydrich's plan like a gift from heaven itself-he reveled in
the knowledge that he would once again beat all the odds, once again
prove himself right and all his generals wrong!
This certainty coursed through his veins like a blast of morphine.
Visions of conquest flashed behind his eyes: the Kremlin, shattered and
smoldering in black ashes; tall young Germans tilling the great fields
of the Ukraine; German ships sailing forth from Odessa and Archangel "I
see it!" Hitler cried. "I see it all now!" @e' scurried around the
table like a human lightning rod attempting to discharge itself "It can
work! Churchill is going to die!"
"And the king!" Heydrich added euphorically. "My Fuhrer, Helmut
assures me that it can be done. Zinoviev is already preparing for the
mission!"
"My God," Hitler murmured, suddenly mortified. "How do you communicate
with Helmut?"
"I don't. It's always been a one-way conduit. "Because of that@'
"Yes?"
"I had to send a man into England with a message."
" What? "
"I take full responsibility, my Fuhrer. I felt that this mission was
simply too important to risk by using radio communications.
I trust no one. I never even contacted Lord Granville."
"And what if your messenger had been captured?"
"He wasn't."
"And what if he read your message, Herr Obergruppenfiihrer? What if he
decided to sell it to the highest bidder!"
"The message was in code," Heydrich replied evenly. "He simply
delivered an envelope and returned with a one-word answer: Ja."
.Hitler's voice went shrill with-paranoia. "And you think this courier
knows nothing? Can reveal nothing? What if he decides to sell his
knowledge now?"
"That would be impossible, my Fuhrer- I shot him myself, five minutes
after he delivered Helmut's reply."
Hitler said nothing for a long while. Putting his hand to his chin, he
looked out through one of the small-paned windows near the fireplace.
Outside, the snow had begun to fall again. "Remarkable," he murmured.
He took his walking stick from its resting place on the hearth and
turned back to Heydrich. "Let's return to the Berghof- 'we can talk on
the way back."
They walked through the darkness without speaking. The crunch of
Heydrich's boots on the hard-packed snow punctuated their progress
across the mountain. Now and then the howls of German shepherds
reverberated across the rocky slope. After twenty minutes they reached
the parking area.
Hitler fixed Heydrich with his dark gaze.
"Are you confident that Helmut's Englishmen can reach their targets,
Herr Obergruppenfiihrer? Can they kill both men on the tenth of May?"
"My Fuhrer," Heydrich said confidently, .1any man can be assassinated on
any day, if one critical condition is satisfied."
"What condition?"
"That the assassin be prepared to die in the doing of the deed."
Hitler's eyes narrowed. "And you believe these Englishmen will die for
Helmut?"
Heydrich blinked against the wind. "No. They will die for their lost
ideals. They will die for their gods-Leniii and Marx. For Moscow,
perhaps. But most of all, they will die believing they have delivered
their country from the clutches of ruthless oppressors who have held
England's poor-and half of the rest of the world's-in slavejy for a very
long time. They will die to become martyrs."
"Remarkable," Hitler said finally. "You seem to have considered every
possibility."
Heydrich nodded with formal correctness.
"I shall leave you here, Heydrich- Is there anything further you require
from me?"
,Yes," Heydrich answered without hesitation. "A diversion. if you
could possibly arrange some type of limited attack on England on May
tenth-a small commando attack on a Channel port, perhaps? A U-boat raid
near London?"
"I've already taken care of that," Hitler said. "Have no fear, your
assassins will have all the confusion they need. On the night of May
tenth, I shall unleash the most devastating air attack London has ever
known. And it will be the last raid against Great Britain. At least
until Russia has been conquered. Perhaps then He trailed off, his voice
soft and ruminative.
Heydrich licked his wind-burned lips. Unexpectedly, he had discovered
the courage to ask the question which had haunted him since the night
Hitler first gave him his assignment. "My Fuhrer?" he said
tentatively.
"Yes?"
"With all respect, you have not told me much about the political side of
the mission. To be quite frank, it worries me. The success of the
entire operation hinges on a single factor, and that factor is beyond my
control."
"What are you talking about?"
"My Fuhrer, again with all
respect, do you have Englishmen ready to
assume control of the government when Churchill dies? When the king is
dead? My sources indicate-"
"That does not concern you!" Hitler jabbed a stiff finger into
Heydrich's chest. "You have Lord Grenville's name!
You know all you need to for now! Just make certain that your cripples
carry out their orders! Hess has the names. He will handle the
political side of the mission."
Too shocked to be afraid, Heydrich raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Reichminister Hess, my Fuhrer? But ... I was under the impression that
your confidence in him was waning. Both Goring and Himmler speak of him
a@' "Goring and Himmler? You should spend less time listening to gossip
and more time studying how the Party rose to the position it now holds!
Hess has done more for me than . . ."
Hitler shook his fist in the air. "Let me tell you something, Heydrich.
It took Hess just one month to do what you could not do in a year. Hess
rooted out the traitor in our midst. And that traitor is your own
boss-Himmler! Yesloyal Heinrich. Already he searches for ways to usurp
my power. And you, working right under his nose, you could not see it!"
Hitler's face suddenly darkened. "Or could you?"
Heydrich blanched. "No, my Fuhrer! I swear to you ...
What can I do to prove my loyalty? I shall arrest the Reichsfiihrer
myself!" r arr "Don't be ridiculous," Hitler s_offed"We cannot est the
head of the SS for treason. No, we shall rely on the safety mechanism
already in place."
Heydrich wiped his brow @with relief. His hand was shaking. "My Fuhrer,
a disturbing thought has occurred to me. It concerns the 'double'
program. If Reichsfiihrer Himmler is indeed a traitor, it is all the
more frightening. I think you should place all the doubles from the
Practical School under my direct command." ,What the devil are you
talking about, Heydrich?" Hitler scowled in confusion.
"My Fuhrer, consider this: if, God forbid, a traitor succeeded in having
you assassinated, the doubles could be of inestimable value to that
traitor in gaining the confidence of the people and the army- if the
traitor could present a trusted comrade of yours-Reichminister Hess, for
example-a true people Nazi who would stand at his side like an ally, the
might well accept the traitor's authority- Himmler is CeTtainly devious
enough to have worked this out."
