idea that one did not need to shout to be heard over the telephone.
`Yes, Father.'
`And damned time too, Kuno. I want to speak to you, naturally, but I am also in great need of an opportunity to pass water. You know the state of my damned outside plumbing?'
Kuno von Dodenburg did. It resulted from 'living well but not too wisely', as the old General was wont to bark whenever the doctor had to be called to deal with the problem. In spite of the gravity of the situation he smiled, and imagined the old man sitting on his old regimental saddle in the dark library, filled with the dusty tattered momentoes of ten generations of his family's service in the cause of the Hohenzollerns (2) and what came thereafter: the tattered old flag which had flown at Bluecher's side at Waterloo; the large ornate chandelier looted at Metz in '70; the great sword a remote ancestor had wielded for the Great Elector; the letter under glass which had been written to a von Dodenburg by Old Fritz - a score of items proving the von Dodenburgs' loyalty to their masters. And now that family was preparing to betray its leader for the very first time.
`The East is lost,' his father was saying matter-of-factly. 'At night we already can hear the guns here. The Reds have proved better than us. They have transformed their country into a perfectly organized inhuman ant-heap producing more guns, tanks, soldiers than we can ever do. Soon the Red tide will overrun us, if we don't do something to stop it now.'
Kuno von Dodenburg attempted a joke.
`Well, you've got your defences organized in the estate, haven't you, Father?'
`Naturally I won't be taken personally without a fight. After all I am - I was - a soldier. But that is not what I meant. We cannot stop the Reds militarily any more. That is obvious. We must do so through a combination of political and revolutionary means.'
Von Dodenburg caught his breath. Now he realized, for the first time, the full extent of what the man standing next to him had planned. 'Revolutionary, what do you mean, Father?'
`Politically, by surrendering what we have taken by force in the East - and in the West naturally - and revolutionary - well, it's self-evident isn't it, Kuno? If your Führer does not agree, then we must get rid of him.'
`How?' Overhearing the contempt in his father's voice, he forced himself to ask the impossible question, 'how will you get rid of him, Father?'
`By force, of course. Wake up, boy - by force ! ' his father snapped testily.
`But that ... that would be rank treason,' he breathed in horror, 'you cannot do that!'
`Of course, it's treason, Kuno, and of course we are playing for high stakes. But it must be done for the sake of our country, even if it means breaking our holy oath as soldiers and von Dodenburgs too.' He paused for breath. 'Are you still there, Kuno?'
`Yes, Father.'
`I must go now, but look after yourself, boy. You are the last von Dodenburg.' Then the phone went dead.
Schellenberg looked across at Kuno von Dodenburg as he took the phone from the pale-faced young officer's hand and replaced it in its cradle, but he said nothing. Wagner spoke for him, the humour gone from his voice now.
`If I may take the liberty of summing up your present situation, Major von Dodenburg,' he said slowly, 'you are faced by two alternatives. You join us and save, not only Germany, but your father's life too, for we shall be found out if we do not act soon. That is obvious. Or you betray us and thus deliver us into the hands of the Gestapo.' He smiled faintly. 'In the language of the front-line swine, my dear Major, we have you truly by the short and curlies, haven't we?'
Ten
The brother of the whore pushed a glass of weak wartime beer across the stained counter in the smoky little pub opposite the station.
`No good,' he said, hardly opening his lips lest he be overheard by the mixed company of black marketeers, soldiers waiting to catch their trains back and the whores, who filled the
`Yes, Father.'
`And damned time too, Kuno. I want to speak to you, naturally, but I am also in great need of an opportunity to pass water. You know the state of my damned outside plumbing?'
Kuno von Dodenburg did. It resulted from 'living well but not too wisely', as the old General was wont to bark whenever the doctor had to be called to deal with the problem. In spite of the gravity of the situation he smiled, and imagined the old man sitting on his old regimental saddle in the dark library, filled with the dusty tattered momentoes of ten generations of his family's service in the cause of the Hohenzollerns (2) and what came thereafter: the tattered old flag which had flown at Bluecher's side at Waterloo; the large ornate chandelier looted at Metz in '70; the great sword a remote ancestor had wielded for the Great Elector; the letter under glass which had been written to a von Dodenburg by Old Fritz - a score of items proving the von Dodenburgs' loyalty to their masters. And now that family was preparing to betray its leader for the very first time.
`The East is lost,' his father was saying matter-of-factly. 'At night we already can hear the guns here. The Reds have proved better than us. They have transformed their country into a perfectly organized inhuman ant-heap producing more guns, tanks, soldiers than we can ever do. Soon the Red tide will overrun us, if we don't do something to stop it now.'
Kuno von Dodenburg attempted a joke.
`Well, you've got your defences organized in the estate, haven't you, Father?'
`Naturally I won't be taken personally without a fight. After all I am - I was - a soldier. But that is not what I meant. We cannot stop the Reds militarily any more. That is obvious. We must do so through a combination of political and revolutionary means.'
Von Dodenburg caught his breath. Now he realized, for the first time, the full extent of what the man standing next to him had planned. 'Revolutionary, what do you mean, Father?'
`Politically, by surrendering what we have taken by force in the East - and in the West naturally - and revolutionary - well, it's self-evident isn't it, Kuno? If your Führer does not agree, then we must get rid of him.'
`How?' Overhearing the contempt in his father's voice, he forced himself to ask the impossible question, 'how will you get rid of him, Father?'
`By force, of course. Wake up, boy - by force ! ' his father snapped testily.
`But that ... that would be rank treason,' he breathed in horror, 'you cannot do that!'
`Of course, it's treason, Kuno, and of course we are playing for high stakes. But it must be done for the sake of our country, even if it means breaking our holy oath as soldiers and von Dodenburgs too.' He paused for breath. 'Are you still there, Kuno?'
`Yes, Father.'
`I must go now, but look after yourself, boy. You are the last von Dodenburg.' Then the phone went dead.
Schellenberg looked across at Kuno von Dodenburg as he took the phone from the pale-faced young officer's hand and replaced it in its cradle, but he said nothing. Wagner spoke for him, the humour gone from his voice now.
`If I may take the liberty of summing up your present situation, Major von Dodenburg,' he said slowly, 'you are faced by two alternatives. You join us and save, not only Germany, but your father's life too, for we shall be found out if we do not act soon. That is obvious. Or you betray us and thus deliver us into the hands of the Gestapo.' He smiled faintly. 'In the language of the front-line swine, my dear Major, we have you truly by the short and curlies, haven't we?'
Ten
The brother of the whore pushed a glass of weak wartime beer across the stained counter in the smoky little pub opposite the station.
`No good,' he said, hardly opening his lips lest he be overheard by the mixed company of black marketeers, soldiers waiting to catch their trains back and the whores, who filled the
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