closet.”
“I saw them.”
Interesting how danger stimulated desire. This man, a navy captain with good looks, modest brains, and few guts, attracted her. Why were weak men so desirable? Her husband was a nothing who allowed her to do as she pleased. Most of her lovers were similar.
She propped the shotgun against a tree.
And kissed Wilkerson again.
“W HAT KIND OF PROOF? ” M ALONE ASKED .
“You look tired,” Christl said.
“I am, and hungry.”
“Then let’s get something to eat.”
He’d had enough of women jerking his chain, and if not for his father’s involvement he would have told her, like her sister, to stuff it. But he actually wanted to know more.
“All right. But you’re buying.”
They left the hotel and walked in falling snow to a café a few blocks away in one of Garmisch’s pedestrian-only zones. Inside, he ordered a slab of roasted pork and fried potatoes. Christl Falk asked for soup and bread.
“Ever heard of the Deutsche Antarktische Expedition ?” she asked.
The German Antarctic Expedition.
“It left Hamburg in December 1938,” she said. “The public purpose was to secure a spot in Antarctica for a German whaling station, as part of a plan to increase Germany’s fat production. Can you imagine? People actually bought that story.”
“Actually, I can. Whale oil was then the most important raw material for making margarine and soap. Germany was a huge purchaser of Norwegian whale oil. About to go to war and dependent on foreign sources for something that important? Could have been a problem.”
“I see you’re informed.”
“I’ve read about Nazis in Antarctica. The Schwabenland, a freighter capable of catapulting aircraft, went with what—sixty people? Norway had recently claimed a chunk of Antarctica they called Queen Maud Land, but the Nazis charted the same region and renamed it Neuschwabenland. They took a lot of pictures and dropped steel-barbed German flags all over the place from the air. Must have been quite a sight. Little swastikas in the snow.”
“Grandfather was on that 1938 expedition. Though one-fifth of Antarctica was mapped, its real purpose was to see if what Einhard had written in the book I showed you was true.”
He recalled the stones from the abbey. “And he brought back rocks with the same symbols on them as in the book.”
“You’ve been to the abbey?”
“At your sister’s invitation. But why do I get the feeling you already knew that?” She did not reply, so he asked, “So what’s the verdict? What did your grandfather find?”
“That’s the problem. We don’t know. After the war the Ahnenerbe’s papers were confiscated by the Allies or destroyed. Grandfather had been denounced by Hitler at a party rally in 1939. Hitler didn’t agree with some of his views, especially his feminist slants, which asserted that ancient Aryan society may have been ruled by priestesses and female seers.”
“A far cry from the baby machines Hitler believed women to be.”
She nodded. “So Hermann Oberhauser was silenced, his ideas banned. He was forbidden from publishing or giving lectures. Ten years later his mind began to fail him, and he lived the last years of his life senile.”
“Amazing Hitler didn’t simply kill him.”
“Hitler needed our factories, oil refinery, and newspapers. Keeping Grandfather alive was a means to have legitimate control over those. And unfortunately, all he ever wanted to do was please Adolf Hitler, so he willingly made all those available.” She removed the book from her coat pocket and freed it from the plastic bag. “There are many questions raised by this text. Ones I’ve been unable to answer. I was hoping you’d help me solve the riddle.”
“The Charlemagne pursuit?”
“I see you and Dorothea did have a long talk. Ja. Da Karl der Große Verfolgung. ”
She handed him the book. His Latin was okay, so he could roughly decipher the words, but she noticed his struggle.
“May I?” she
“I saw them.”
Interesting how danger stimulated desire. This man, a navy captain with good looks, modest brains, and few guts, attracted her. Why were weak men so desirable? Her husband was a nothing who allowed her to do as she pleased. Most of her lovers were similar.
She propped the shotgun against a tree.
And kissed Wilkerson again.
“W HAT KIND OF PROOF? ” M ALONE ASKED .
“You look tired,” Christl said.
“I am, and hungry.”
“Then let’s get something to eat.”
He’d had enough of women jerking his chain, and if not for his father’s involvement he would have told her, like her sister, to stuff it. But he actually wanted to know more.
“All right. But you’re buying.”
They left the hotel and walked in falling snow to a café a few blocks away in one of Garmisch’s pedestrian-only zones. Inside, he ordered a slab of roasted pork and fried potatoes. Christl Falk asked for soup and bread.
“Ever heard of the Deutsche Antarktische Expedition ?” she asked.
The German Antarctic Expedition.
“It left Hamburg in December 1938,” she said. “The public purpose was to secure a spot in Antarctica for a German whaling station, as part of a plan to increase Germany’s fat production. Can you imagine? People actually bought that story.”
“Actually, I can. Whale oil was then the most important raw material for making margarine and soap. Germany was a huge purchaser of Norwegian whale oil. About to go to war and dependent on foreign sources for something that important? Could have been a problem.”
“I see you’re informed.”
“I’ve read about Nazis in Antarctica. The Schwabenland, a freighter capable of catapulting aircraft, went with what—sixty people? Norway had recently claimed a chunk of Antarctica they called Queen Maud Land, but the Nazis charted the same region and renamed it Neuschwabenland. They took a lot of pictures and dropped steel-barbed German flags all over the place from the air. Must have been quite a sight. Little swastikas in the snow.”
“Grandfather was on that 1938 expedition. Though one-fifth of Antarctica was mapped, its real purpose was to see if what Einhard had written in the book I showed you was true.”
He recalled the stones from the abbey. “And he brought back rocks with the same symbols on them as in the book.”
“You’ve been to the abbey?”
“At your sister’s invitation. But why do I get the feeling you already knew that?” She did not reply, so he asked, “So what’s the verdict? What did your grandfather find?”
“That’s the problem. We don’t know. After the war the Ahnenerbe’s papers were confiscated by the Allies or destroyed. Grandfather had been denounced by Hitler at a party rally in 1939. Hitler didn’t agree with some of his views, especially his feminist slants, which asserted that ancient Aryan society may have been ruled by priestesses and female seers.”
“A far cry from the baby machines Hitler believed women to be.”
She nodded. “So Hermann Oberhauser was silenced, his ideas banned. He was forbidden from publishing or giving lectures. Ten years later his mind began to fail him, and he lived the last years of his life senile.”
“Amazing Hitler didn’t simply kill him.”
“Hitler needed our factories, oil refinery, and newspapers. Keeping Grandfather alive was a means to have legitimate control over those. And unfortunately, all he ever wanted to do was please Adolf Hitler, so he willingly made all those available.” She removed the book from her coat pocket and freed it from the plastic bag. “There are many questions raised by this text. Ones I’ve been unable to answer. I was hoping you’d help me solve the riddle.”
“The Charlemagne pursuit?”
“I see you and Dorothea did have a long talk. Ja. Da Karl der Große Verfolgung. ”
She handed him the book. His Latin was okay, so he could roughly decipher the words, but she noticed his struggle.
“May I?” she
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