End of Spies by Alex Gerlis (best free ereader txt) 📗

of the two men who’d been following her since leaving Frau Winkler’s – not the older one, tall with a short leather jacket, or the younger one, who looked like a boxer waiting for the bell to ring. It wasn’t entirely her fault that she didn’t notice them: both men were skilled at ensuring they weren’t detected – they’d grown used to their lives depending on it.

She didn’t spot them when they followed her as far as the FSS building on Hauptplatz, or when she emerged from the same building early the following morning and walked the short distance down the icy street to the bus stop. Nor did she notice them getting on the same bus as her when it pulled in before heading north, next stop St Nicholas’s church. By now the older man was accompanied by a woman.

Frau Egger was waiting at the bus stop outside the church, shoving aside a mother and child to ensure she got a seat. She was wearing the dark brown coat and black beret of the previous day, and looked dumpier and less elegant than Frau Winkler, untidy silver-grey hair poking from under her beret and a pair of spectacles held together by tape. She sat towards the front of the bus, a few rows in front of Hanne.

The bus made noisy progress through the town, and soon the lake came into view. A few passengers alighted at Annenheim, and when they passed a sign for Sattendorf, the vehicle slowed down and Frau Egger stood up and slowly made her way to the door. Hanne waited until it had stopped, not wanting to get too close to the woman she was following.

There wasn’t much to the village, which lay on the north shore of the lake: just houses, and what appeared to be a hotel or two close to the water. More houses were dotted on the hill rising on the north side of the road, with mountains looming high above them.

Frau Egger crossed the road from the bus stop and stopped to put on her scarf and gloves. She walked faster than Hanne would have expected, up a road with large houses arranged on either side, then turned right up a narrower road with only the occasional house on it. As the road became steeper, she paused once or twice but didn’t turn round. Hanne slowed her own pace, allowing the distance to increase between her and the older woman. It was bitterly cold; the air fresh from the lake and the mountains, and the sun cast the area in an almost blinding light. At one stage Hanne turned round and noticed a couple behind her, clearly hikers out for a day on the mountains. They didn’t seem to notice her.

Frau Egger stopped outside a high metal gate and appeared to press a bell. As Hanne walked past, a young man opened the gate and hurried the housekeeper in. In the brief moment before the gate closed, she spotted a drive leading to a small but smart-looking white house. She carried on walking up the hill. The house had been the last one on the narrow road, and now she was in the countryside, the wind sweeping down from the mountain. The hikers walked past her, wishing her a good morning.

She waited until they’d disappeared and then walked through the gorse to circle round until she had a view of the house. She noticed now that the trees on the lower slopes of the mountains reached as far as the rear of the house. Despite not being dressed for the rough terrain and the biting cold, she carried on. At the start of the treeline, a well-maintained wooden fence barred entry into the woods. She managed to climb over and felt safer once in the cover of the trees. She moved through them, closer to the house. Soon parts of a white building with a red-tiled roof became visible. As she paused to catch her breath, she noticed a wire fence just a few feet ahead of her; the top strand was barbed wire. Avoiding the fence, she moved further round towards what she guessed was the rear of the house. It was then that she spotted a tree with a long branch just four feet from the ground. She pulled a log across and managed to haul herself onto the branch, from where she had a much better view of the house.

She could see a high fence surrounding its perimeter, and beyond that a glimpse of snow-covered grass leading to the house. The windows were all shuttered. As she craned her neck, she caught a movement: a man carrying what appeared to be a sub-machine gun walking along the side of the house with a large black dog by his side.

She glanced at her watch. It was nearly ten o’clock. It would be some hours before Frau Egger would leave, but her visit had served its purpose. She was sure she’d identified the house. She had no doubt this was a stopping point on the Kestrel Line. She would return to the town and brief Captain Hart, and they’d return in force once it was dark.

At that moment, she became aware of a noise beneath her, and before she could look down, she felt a tap on her ankle and heard the click of a safety catch being released on a gun.

‘Climb down very slowly, please.’ It was a man’s voice, speaking German.

‘And when you reach the ground, keep your arms in the air.’

Chapter 20

Berlin, December 1945

It was the great paradox of Kommissar Iosif Gurevich’s war, and more particularly its aftermath.

He’d spent over four years either in enemy territory or fighting them every day. It was reasonable to assume that once the war was over, there’d be a sense of absolute relief and of pleasure at life returning to normal.

And for the first few weeks – perhaps until the end of June – this had indeed been the