Trust only General Steyn. His loyalty to Israel is beyond dispute.
Anyone else, God only knows.'
'Great.'
'Oh, a tactical tip for you, Captain. There's some type Dr rotary
cannon on the roof here, and there could be any number of other
surprises as well. Bring enough firepower to flatten this place if you
have to. Now, could I speak to Gadi for a moment?'
Hauer handed over the receiver.
'Yes, Uncle?'
'Listen to me, Gadi. Captain Hauer is going to give you my
instructions. I want ypu to listen to him as if he were me.
Do you understand? On this mission Hauer will be in command.'
Gadi clenched the phone tighter.
'I know it @on't be easy taking orders from a German, but I believe
Hauer is the man to carry this through.'
Gadi ground his teeth. 'I understand, Uncle.'
'Good. Because we are dealing with a nuclear weapon here, Gadi,
possibly more than one. And it is targeted at Israel.
At Tel Aviv, maybe Jerusalem.'
Gadi felt his face grow hot.
'The other crazy thing you heard is also true. Rudolf Hess is alive. If
there is any way possible, I mean to get him away from here and take him
back to Israel for trial. But if I can't-or if for any reason you and
Hauer cannot raise enough force to take this house-I will locate the
weapon and try to detonate it.'
Gadi felt his heart stop. 'No, Uncle-'
'I'll have no choice, Gadi. Anything could happen before you get here.
If you get here at all. It's like the Osiraq reactor in Iraq, only a
hundred times worse.
Do you understand?'
Gadi wiped the sweat from his forehead. 'God in Heaven.'
'Once you get within a few miles of here, you and every man with you
will be within the blast radius.'
'No one else will know,' Gadi said in Hebrew.
'Good boy. There's one more thing. Once you learn the exact
coordinates of Horn House, I want you to call Tel Aviv and ask for
Major-General Gur. Explain the situation, give him the coordinates,
then say 'Revelation.' That's the IAF crisis code for imminent nuclear
emergency. I doubt Jerusalem would give clearance for a raid here, but
it's worth a tiy.
If we fail, perhaps the air force will make an attempt. Now, Gadi, I
must go. It's time to become the professor again. I hope to see you
soon, my boy. Shalom.'
Gadi swallowed. 'Shalom, Uncle.'
Stern disconnected.
Hauer stared suspiciously at Gadi for a few moments, but he decided not
to press. He shoved his Walther into his belt.
'Let's go blackmail some spies,' he said.
Separated from Jonas Stern by one thin wall, Lieutenant Jiirgen Luhr
held the silent telephone to his ear. Luhr had been unable to sleep
after the exhilaration of the battle, and his wanderings through Horn
House had eventually led him to Alfred Horn's study. He'd been standing
by the shattered picture window through which Ilse had blasted Lord
Grenville when he saw a yellow light flashing on Horn's desk.
Hesitating but a moment, he had lifted the receiver and over heard the
final few seconds of Stern's conversation with Gadi.
Now he stood still as stone, trying to comprehend what he had heard. It
seemed impossible. Apparently Professor Natterman-or the Jew claiming
to be Professor Natterman!-had made a call from somewhere inside this
house.
But to whom? From the little he'd heard, Luhr could not be sure.
He would have suspected Dieter Hauer, but he'd heard the swine on the
other end of the phone speak Hebrew, and Hauer wasn't a Jew. Luhr was
sure of one thing. Alfred Horn and his Afrikaner security chief would
be very grateful to the man who informed them not only that they had a
Zionist spy in their midst, but that they might soon be the target of an
Israeli air strike! With his pulse racing, Luhr dashed into the hall to
rouse the house.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
520 A.iw. Horn House They came for Jonas Stern as the Gestapo had come
for his father in Germany. Four heavy-booted soldiers burst through the
door with pistols drawn and snapped on the overhead light, shouting at
the top of their lungs: 'Up JUdin! Up!
Schnell!
The sudden light blinded Stern, for he had been lying fully clothed in
the darkness. He leaped from the bed with his broken fork raised, but
the click of pistol slides made him freeze where he stood. There was
only one explanation for this. The worst had happened. Somehow, on the
same night he had discovered that Alfred Horn was not who he pretended
to be, Alfred Horn had discovered the same thing about him.
Powerful hands seized Stern's arms and lifted him off his feet.
The soldiers-their khaki uniforms now replaced by Wehrmacht
gray-frog-marched him into the corridor and hustled him along at the
double. When Stern glanced up, he saw the cold black eye of a pistol
barrel. Above it hovered the face of Pieter Smuts.
'Where are you taking me?' asked Stern.
'Where do you think, Jew?' the Afrikaner jeered, walking backward. 'To
see the Fuhrer!'
Stern stared across the mahogany desk with a lump in his, throat.
Ghostlike and gray, the old man who called himself @
I r
Alfred Horn sat hunched in his wheelchair, an expression of bemusement
on his deeply lined face. As Stern stared, he felt a sudden stab of
doubt. Concealed in his shirt were the@ X-rays that he believed would
prove beyond doubt that' Alfred Horn was Rudolf Hess. And yet ... the
old man sitting across from him no longer looked quite as he had before.
Now, instead of a glass eye, Horn wore an eyepatch.
All Stern could think of was Zinoviev's description of Helmut Steuer:
Helmut had worn an eyepatch. Had Helmut Steuer survived his mission
