Heroes by David Hagberg (reading cloud ebooks TXT) 📗

There he was known as Robert Mordley. He was an engineer. Married, with one child. A son.”

“We will arrest him.”

Canaris shook his head. “It will be difficult. He is no longer there, in Tennessee. From what we understand he has fled.”

“Our FBI …”

“Your FBI is not good enough. Our man is very good. He will not stop with this material. He will gather more. The next time it comes across, I may not be in a position to intercept it.”

“What are you saying to me?”

Canaris looked away. This was the part he dreaded most.

Schey wouldn’t have a chance. “In the package are photographs of Schey. He has a contact in Washington, a woman with money and ration books and identification. Her name and description are there as well.”

Both men were silent for a long time. Dulles finally broke in.

“What do you want, Admiral? I don’t know if I can give it to you.”

“No, you cannot. I want peace. I want happiness …”

“We all do.”

“Your agents in Germany …”

“I will not betray them,” Dulles said.

“I knew the procedure for contacting your man in Berlin.”

“By now he is long gone.”

“I cannot believe he or the others have left the city. They will remain. But very soon now, the purges will begin. Anyone with knowledge will pose a serious threat to you.”

Dulles stepped close. “Kill him,” he hissed.

Canaris was rocked back by the nearly physical impact of the words. “Kill whom?”

“Hitler. Assassinate him. You have the people dedicated to such an end. We know you do.”

Canaris shook his head, aghast. He had not thought it would come to this. “I have handed you your atom-smashing bomb on a platter.”

“Once Hitler is dead, your general staff will listen to reason.

Your soldiers will lay down their weapons. The war will be over.”

Canaris stepped back. “No,” he said. “What do you take me for?”

“That has already been established, my dear admiral,” Dulles said without sensitivity. “We will make it known what you have done here this morning, if necessary.”

“How do you know I was not lying, Dulles? How do you know I don’t have a copy of the bomb documents?”

“You would not have come here.”

“Don’t be so smug. If our positions were reversed, could you do for your country what I have done for mine?”

“The war will be over sooner or later. Why prolong the suffering?”

“Why do you think I have come here?”

Dulles said nothing. “Could you return to Washington and assassinate Roosevelt after coming here and turning over the greatest secret your country could possess?”

Dulles reached in his coat pocket and pulled out a pistol. “I cannot let you go away from here, Admiral. Not with what you know.”

Canaris found that he was no longer frightened. The thing he had dreaded most, he had already done. Nothing else was threatening. “So you will shoot me now?” He shook his head.

“If need be.”

“Then perhaps my pilot will manage to kill both you and your pilot, and like a good, loyal German soldier, he will return with the package I have given you. And then what?”

“You are in an enemy country at the moment.” *

“You are in an occupied country,” Canaris snapped. “I have given you your guaranteed victory in Japan. That’s all I came for.” He looked deeply into Dulles’ eyes. “You are a good man.

Capable at your job. But I do not believe you will shoot me.”

For a long time they stood there in tableau. Finally Dulles lowered the pistol. He shook his head. “No, I cannot shoot you, even though you are the enemy.” He put the pistol back in his pocket. “Where do you go now?”

“Back to Berlin.”

“It must be … very difficult there now.”

“It is. For my people as well as yours.”

“How much longer will you be able to hold on?”

“As chief of the Abwehr?”

“Yes.”

Canaris managed a very slight, wry smile. “The Abwehr as an independent service is finished. The SD will take it over very soon. I suspect I will be fired as soon as I return.”

“And then what?”

Canaris thought a moment. “Whatever fate brings me will be better than the Abwehr,” he said, and he really meant it.

He and Dulles shook hands again, and Canaris turned and headed back to Hewel and their plane. He did not turn around until he got to the end of the field. Dulles had already reached his own plane, and he and the pilot were climbing in.

Hewel had his Luger out. Canaris smiled. “That won’t be necessary, Erich. The meeting went well. They swallowed everything I had to tell them.”

“Now what, Herr Admiral?”

“Now we return to Lyon for the rest of the crew and then back to Berlin in time for lunch.”

The Piper Cub’s engine started, warmed up, and then the tiny plane taxied up to the end of the runway, opposite where Canaris and Hewel stood watching.

Dulles waved, and then the American plane was bumping slowly down the runway, gathering speed, and easing up into the night sky.

The jeep bearing the high command devices on both front fenders stopped at the security gate leading into Maybach II at Zossen. The guard commander approached the jeep, but when he saw who the two officers were in the back, he came to ramrod straight attention and saluted. The barrier came up, and the two officers mechanically returned the salute as their vehicle continued into the compound.

Neither of them had spoken very much on the trip out from the Fiihrer bunker near the Tiergarten in the city.

They did not like what they were about to do, but they were good soldiers, and they would follow their orders.

The jeep pulled around to one of the bunkers and stopped.

First out was Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, who strode up the walk, his tall boots gleaming. Colonel General Alfred Jodl, who was head of the armed forces operations staff, followed closely behind.

Inside, they were immediately escorted into Canaris’ office.

The admiral stood.

“Wilhelm,” he said pleasantly. “Alfred.” He knew what was coming. |

Captain Meitner closed the door on them. ‘

“Hello, Willi,”