superiors are holding him back because of the Hess business, and he
doesn't.
have nearly enough evidence against Prefect Funk. You could provide
that evidence, Captain. You must trust me.
'I want the same thing you do-to clean those scum out of Berlin.'
Schneider turned his broad hands upward. 'I know you don't know me, but
you must have known my father.
Max Schneider. He was a Kripo investigator too. Big like me.
Hauer searched Schneider's face for a full minute. Two rivulets of
blood trickled down from the sweatband of Schneider's hat. Behind
Schneider, Gadi was moving the dead Russians into the bathroom, while
Aaron worked on the professor. The professor's revelation that he had
made a copy of the Spandau papers pulsed in the back of Hauer's brain
like a second heartbeat. The situation had changed.
Profoundly. A copy of the Spandau papers, combined with the evidence he
and Steuben had already compiled, meant that direct action in Berlin
might now be possible. Things were moving too quickly here in South
Africa. Hans's betrayal, Stern's sudden appearance, the Russian
assault, Schneider's unexpected rescue. Schneider ...
'Your father wore a hat like yours,' Hauer said absently.
'You did know him,' said Schneider.
Hauer turned and stared pensively out the window. 'You say you're
working with the Americans?', 'Yes. Colonel Godfrey Rose, of Military
Intelligence.'
'Can you get him on the phone?'
'Yes.
'Do it.'
4.00 P.M. The Voortrokker Monument, Pretoria
After forty-five minutes of lying blindfolded in the backseat of the
speeding Range Rover, Jonas Stern had lost all sense of direction.
The Zulu driver who had met him at the Voortrekker Monument drove with
the windowsdown, and Stern could smell rain on the wind. He had peeked
around his blindfold once, and it seemed to him that night had fallen
early. In fact the darkness was caused by the thick ceiling of storm
clouds Hans had earlier seen rolling in from the north. It was part of
a front that had blown in from the Indian Ocean; it stretched southward
from the Mozambique border almost to PretoriaStern tensed as the Range
Rover swerved onto a rocky shoulder and shuddered to a stop.
He heard the driver's door open and close. Stern pulled off the
blindfold and looked around. Down the highway, he saw a small speck of
light. It shone from the direction they had come. Yet as he tried to
focus on the yellow glimmer, it winked out. The Zulu driver turned to
Stern, the whites of his eyes flashing angrily. He jabbed a finger
toward the blindfold. Pulling the black scarf back around his eyes,
Stern heard@r thought he heard-the sound of an automobile engine in the
distance.
The Zulu clambered back into the Range Rover and screeched onto the
highway, accelerating to a ridiculous speed. He raced on that way for
three or four minutes; then he geared down and turned off the highway
again. When the Rover finally stopped, he leaped out and ran away.
Stern moved the blindfold enough to see his surroundings.
The Rover had stopped at some type of roadside park. A knot of brightly
dressed Africans lounged around the single building. Several held
liquor bottles in their hands. Their focus seemed to be a public
telephone mounted on a wall. One of their number was talking into it.
Stern watched as his Zulu driver approached the men. Rather than slow
down, the Zulu swiped the air with a broad sweep of his arm. The
tribesmen scattered like frightened children. They knew the Zulu, Stern
thought.
The Zulu shouted into the telephone for a minute or so, bobbing his head
up and down like a bird. Abruptly he ceased this motion and looked back
down the highway. Stern followed his gaze. The light was there again,
but larger now-and it was no longer one light, but two.
Hauer Stern thought suddenly. Damn him!
As the Zulu came running back to the Rover, Stern stiffened, fearing the
bullet that had been promised if anyone followed the pickup vehicle.
None came. The driver's door slammed shut; then the Rover roared out of
the park and accelerated to 150 kilometers per hour.
Over the edge of his blindfold Stern saw the Zulu checking his rearview
mirror every few seconds. So Hauer's still there, he thought.
How the hell did he get past Gadi?
The engine screamed as the Zulu pushed the Rover to a frightening speed.
Stern wondered if the driver really expected to shake Hauer by this
simple tactic. On a paved highway Hauer's rented Ford could overtake
the Range Rover without much trouble.
Suddenly the Zulu savagely twisted the wheel, dirow the Rover into a
two-wheeled skid that hurled it down a shallow slope onto the hard,
rolling veld. The vehicle decelerated rapidly, but the torturous
terrain more than made up for the reduction in speed. No conventional
automobile could catch them now. Stern tried to keep his head from
slamming into the roof as the Rover vaulted humps, leaped ditches.
When the Rover finally shuddered to a halt, Stern collapsed against the
door and tried to catch his breath.
The Zulu wrenched the door open, jerked Stern out and I ripped off the
blindfold. On all sides Stern saw the seemingly limitless veld, lit by
an eerie blue light filtering through the storm clouds above. The first
heavy drops of African rain smacked against the roof of the Rover. Then
the clouds opened with a crash. Following the Zulu's line of sight,
Stern spotted the fast-approaching headlights, now jinking wildly up and
down as if manipulated by some mad puppeteer. The African raised his
face to the dark clouds as if beseeching some native god to lift him up
and away from his pursuer. While Stern stared through the rain,
hypnotized by the dancing headlights, a new sound rumbled into his,
ears. At first he thought it was rolling thunder.
Then the engine of the pursuing car. But the sound grew nearer much
faster than the headlights. Soon it was a buffeting roar' terrifying in
intensity. When Stern finally looked up, he saw that the roar had
blotted out the sky. He crouched beneath the blast of the rotors and
shielded his eyes against the whipping rain, but the Zulu jerked him up
