'Almost lunchtime,' Stern answered, half-asleep already.
'How do you feel?'
'I feel like getting some answers is how I feel,' Natterman grumbled. 'I
think it's time you told me your half of the story.'
Stern opened his eyes and turned irritably toward the professor, but the
large white bandage over Natterman's lacerated nose kept him civil. He
jerked his head toward Gad reminding the professor of their agreement
not to discuss anything- about Rudolf Hess. 'What do you want to know,
Professor?'
'Everything. What about this Phoenix AG? Why did you come to Berlin in
the first place? I want to know why Ilse was taken to South Africa.
What's the significance of that?'
Stern looked over at Gadi. 'I've thought a lot about that,' he
murmured. 'And I'm sorry to disappoint you, but your Nazi angle doesn't
fit here. At least not in the way you think. The Afrikaners are white
supremacists, of course, but that's no secret. They fought against
Hitler during the war, and damned valiantly. And in spite of their
prejudice against blacks, they@ve got a pretty good record on Jews. They
allowed a great deal of Jewish immigration during the war, which is more
than a lot of countries did.'
'What about the present day? What are their ties with Germany?'
Stern shook his head. 'Limited. During the past several years, South
Africa has quiedy developed extremely close relations with another
country in a very similar geopolitical situation. That country is not
West Germany, however, but Israel. It doesn't sound like we're flying
ifito a nest of neoNazis, does it?'
'No,' Natterman agreed. 'But you obviously have some suspicions about
South Africa and Germany. Where is the fox in the henhouse?'
'South Africa's nuclear program. The darkest corner of this dark
country.'
'Does South Africa actually possess nuclear weapons?
I've heard it speculated in the news, but never confirmed.'
Stern smiled wryly. 'Oh, I can confirm it for you. In 1979, an
American VELA satellite detected a distinctive double flash off the
South African coast, in the South Atlantic. That flash was the result
of a joint nuclear test carried out by South Africa and Israel.'
'How do you know that?'
'Because for all practical purposes, Professor, Israel gave South Africa
the bomb. Nuclear weapons are one of the main pillars of the
Israeli/South Africa relationship.'
' What? '
'it was an inevitable partnership. Israel developed its first bomb in
1968, but we had several limitations. We couldn't test our weapons
without being detected; South Africa had vast deserts and two oceans. We
needed raw uranium and other strategic minerals; South Africa had
extensive reserves. South Africa also had a great deal of ready cash.
But the main tie was psychological, emotional. As the world closed
ranks against apartheid, South Africa grew ever more isolated. Before
long it was an international pariah surrounded by hostile enemies. The
siege mentality was a natural reaction, and we in Israel are the masters
of that particular neurosis.'
'But how do you know all this, Stern?'
The Israeli looked at Natterman for a long time. 'You asked me before
if I worked for the Mossad, Professor.
Right now I am exactly what I told you in the beginning, a retiree. But
I have done a bit of work for several government agencies.
Shin Beth and the Mossad, yes, but my longest service was with an agency
called LAKAM. Have you heard of it?'
Natterman shook his head.
'LAKAM is Israel's nuclear security force. Not in the sense of
operating the weapons, but in protecting them.
LAKAM safeguarded Israel's nuclear program from inception to completion.
That's why I know so much about the South African program.'
'And is this LAKAM work what led you to Berlin? To Spandau?'
'Not exactly. What led me to Spandau was a chain of facts. A very
fragile chain with four links that spans three decades. The first link
wag a warning note-an anonymous, cryptic note written in Cyrillic
handwriting and delivered to Israel in 1967. It warned of terrible
danger to Israel and spoke of 'the fire of An-nageddon.' This note
claimed that the secret of this danger could be found in Spandau.
That, of course, was a very broad hint. Did the writer mean Spandau the
city? Spandau the prison? What? Two days later, the Six-Day War broke
out and the note was dismissed as a warning of the Egyptian attack,
probably written by a Russian with a conscience.'
Stern rubbed his temples. 'Now, ump ahead to the early 1970s. I was
working for LAKAM by then, and we in the agency became aware that
certain German scientistsformer Third Reich physicists-were working in
the rocketry section of South Africa's nuclear program. This by itself
was not unusual. After all, it was German scientists who built the
bombs for America and Russia. But when you c sider that the prime
minister of South Africa in 1979-the year of the secret Israeli/South
African nuclear test-was John Vorster, a man who had supported the Nazis
during World War Two, it takes on a rather different significance.
'Now, let's jump ahead again, to the 1980s. It was then, through
contacts in the Mossad, that I became aware of a neo-fascist police
organization called Bruderschaft der Phoenix, headquartered in West
Berlin-'
'Phoenix!' Natterman exclaimed. 'Hurry, Stern, tell me!'
'Again, this by itself was not of great import. It took the fourth and
final link to join the others in my mind. Just three weeks ago, the
Israeli Foreign Ministry received a typed warning from an anonymous
source. The writer obviously knew of the secret Israeli/South African
nuclear partnership, and stated that he had personal knowledge that
there were some in the South African defense establishment who had
anything but Israel's best interests at heart.
The writer claimed he believed that Israel might actually be in danger
of a nuclear attack, and that the best line of inquiry for us to pursue
was with a South African defense contractor called Phoenix AG.'
Natterman caught his breath. After several moments, he said, 'Forgive
