'You know that! I said so on the tape!' Ilse squeezed her swollen eyes
shut in anguish. She did not feel Smuts unbuckling the leather straps;
only when she felt herself lifted from the table did she look again. The
Afrikaner carried her over to the lead shield, then behind it to where
the tall, rectangular X-ray machine stood with its glowing dials and
meters.
'Look!' he said angrily. 'Look here!' I4is tanned hand pointed to a
scalloped black knob. 'This displays MAmilliamperes. It's the measure
of radiation.' He moved his bind to another dial. '7Ws is KV-Elovolts.
It's the measure of power driving the tube. Look, woman!'
Ilse looked. Both dials were set at zero. She coughed and rubbed her
eyes, fighting down waves of nausea.
'Do you understand?' Smuts asked. 'I never heard the tape you made,
but it doesn't matter. You have received no radiation! You are all
right. Your child is unhurt!'
Ilse looked into the Afrikaner's eyes for deception, but saw none.
'Why?' she stammered.
'I protect Herr Horn, Frau Apfel. At any cost. I had to know that you
would tell the truth. And you did, didn't you?'
Ilse nodded, wiping her face on her blouse.
'Good. Now get back to your room and clean yourself up.
Herr Horn is not to see you like this.' His eyes fixed Ilse with
frightening intensity. 'But you remember what that table felt like.
When Herr Horn asks you to do something, you do it, no matter how crazy
it might sound. Especially at tonight's meeting. Remember your child,
Frau Apfel. I can have you back on that table any time I decide. Any
time!'
Unable to restrain herself any longer, Ilse clenched her stomach with
both hands, double@ over, and vomited on the Afrikaner's boots.
Shaking with rage, Smuts stormed out and went in search of his Zulu
driver, leaving Ilse coughing on the floor. He could not believe he had
to put up with such outrages. Perhaps after tonight's business had been
concluded, Horn would see that the best policy was to kill the girl and
be done with it. The husband could be killed as soon as he turned over
the Spandau papers, and the Berlin police could take care of the girl's
grandfather at their leisure. Things were SO Simple, if people would
only focus on the facts. As Smuts passed through the spectacular
gallery rooms, he tried in vain to ignore the stench rising from his
boots.
958 A.m. Tempelhof Airpoil. American Sector, West Berlin, CRG Detective
Julius Schneider climbed out of the Iroquois helicopter gunship and
shook his head in wonder. Colonel Rose, bundled to the eyeballs in a
goosedown parka, stood on the tarmac beside a drab Army Ford. Sergeant
Clary waited faithfully at the wheel. Rose's face was clean shaven, but
his eyes were red and swollen. He waved Schneider into the Ford.
Pressing his hat to his head to keep the icy wind from blowing it off,
the big German ran to the car and climbed in.
Rose skipped the formalities. 'The shit has hit the fan, Schneider.
Remember my FBI guy? The one who was going to get that Zinoviev file
for us?'
Schneider nodded.
'Well, he got it. He Fed-Exed a copy to me at nine-thirty this
morning.' Rose shook his head. 'Ten minutes later he was arrested on
charge& of espionage. His computer query on Zinoviev apparently rang
some kind of warning bell at Langley, and that set the dogs on him. I
guess the FBI computers aren't as secure as the Bureau likes to think
they are.'
'What was in this Zinoviev file?' Schneider asked.
'We won't know till tomorrow when I get the file. If I get the file. If
the FBI knows he shipped it, they can probably stop it before it gets
here. If it does get here, I've got Ivan Kosov waiting to double-check
what he can in the KGB files.' Schneider scowled. 'Why do you need
Kosov?'
'When my buddy called, he told me a little about the Zinoviev file,
Schneider. He said the file claims that the United States, Britain, and
the Russians have all known for years that Prisoner Number Seven was not
Rudolf Hess.'
Schneider's eyes narrowed.
'I asked him why, ifthat was true, the Russians had kept quiet about it
all these years You know what he told me? He said it didn't matter what
the Russians knew about Hess, because in 1943 Winston Churchill
blackmailed Stalin into silence.'
Schneider looked bewildered. 'What do you mean?
Blackmailed him with what?'
Rose shrugged. 'MY guy said it had to do with Zinoviev's part in Hess's
mission, but that it was too complicated to explain on the phone. He
said I wouldn't believe it when I saw it, but that the Russians were the
good guys in this mess. I told him I would believe it, and that I
thought the Brits were still neck-deep in some kind of stinking
coverup.' Rose's eyes flickered. 'He told me I might be right,
Schneider. But I guess we'll have to wait for our copy of the Zinoviev
file to find out.'
'Where is your new partner now?' Schneider asked.
Rose hooked his thumb toward Tempelhof's observation deck, eighty meters
away. Above the rail Schneider saw a solitary figure wearing a hat and
a raincoat, the only person braving the cold of the deck.
'There he is,' Rose said. 'A week ago I'd have considered it sacrilege
to bring that bastard to the home of the Berlin Airlift.
Today I trust him more than some of my own people.'
Schneider looked skeptical. 'Why are you here now?'
'To give you a little tactical update, my friend. One hour ago Prefect
Funk arrested one of your brother officers on espionage charges. Seems
this guy was passing secret information to the British government.'
'Scheisse! ' Rose nodded in disgust. 'You should regard everything we
knew as of this morning-including the names on Hauer and Apfel's false
assports-as blown to the Brits. If you get anywhere near those cops,
Schneider, you keep your eyes peeled for British spools.'
Rose looked out the window at an F-16 fighter parked in a concrete
revetment twenty meters away. 'One more thing,' he said. 'Kosov told
