offer. 'We need a car,' he said.
'Done,' Ochs said simply.
'We need something to wear besides these uniforms. Do you have anything
that might fit us well enough not to draw attention?'
Ochs smiled. 'Am I not a tailor? I won't be a minute with the clothes.
Take whatever food you can find in the refrigerator. If you're going
through East Germany tonight, you won't be stopping for coffee.' He
turned and started for the hall.
'Herr Ochs?' Hauer called.
'Yes?'
'What kind of car do you have?'
Ochs's eyes twinkled. 'British Jaguar. She runs like the wind.'
'Petrol?'
'Both tanks are full.' The old man took a step back toward Hauer.
'You stop these men, Captain. Root them out.
Show them what the German people are made of.'
turned and scurried down the hall.
'Is he right?' Hans asked. 'Are you talking about real Nazis?'
Hauer shook his head. 'I don't think so. Germany is the last place
fascism could take hold again. We have the strongest democracy in
Europe. And even if we didn't, NATO and the Warsaw Pact would vaporize
us before they allowed another German dictator. I think we're dealing
with accelerated reunification@conomic, political, and military. There
are massive profits to be made, and Phoenix knows that the nationalist
button is the one to push to get the German people behind them. Funk
and his clowns are just foot soldiers.
Moneymaking drones.' Hauer knitted his brow. 'Goddamn it, the answer
is right in front of me and I can't pin it down!
All of this fits together somehow: Phoenix, reunification, the Spandau
paper . s-' Hauer stopped dead. 'My God. What if Hess's papers
contain something that could be used as leverage against NATO?
Against England and the U.S.? Or even Russia? People have always said
Hess knew some terrible secret. What if it's something Phoenix could
use to pressure the Four Powers on reunification? Even to pressure one
power?'
Hauer thrust the VW keys into Hans's hand. 'Move your car down the
block. We don't want to set the dogs on this old fellow. He's been
through enough hell for one lifetime.'
As Hans disappeared through the front door, Hauer opened the
refrigerator. He couldn't remember when he'd last eaten. As he reached
for a jar of Polish pickles, an image of Rudolf Hess flashed into his
mind. Tall and cadaverous, the solitary specter shuffled silently
through the snow-covered Spandau courtyards. What could that old man
have known? he wondered. What did he leave behind?
Something big enough to blackmail a superpower? Could anything really
be that big?
'If it is,' he told himself with a shiver, 'I'm not sure I want to
know.'
Hauer pressed down a wave of guilt. He had lied to Hans earlier-he had
seen Erhard Weiss tortured. And he could not blot out the memory. Funk
and his goons weren't sophisticated enough for chemicals; they used
beatings and electricity. On the face, up the anus, clipped to the
penis. And they enjoyed it. Especially Luhr.
Young Weiss had screamed until Hauer thought his jawbone would pop out
of its socket.
The poor boy would have shot his own mother to make them stop, but Luhr
had wanted information, and Weiss hadn't had any. And Hauer-the brave
captain-had stood by in rigid silence while it happened. He could have
tried to stop it, of course, but he would soon have taken Weiss's place
in the torture chair.
Weiss is dead, he told himself. You can't bring him back.
Concentrate on the living. Hauer hoped Hans's wife had made it to
Wolfsburg, but he didn't think much of her chances of getting safely out
of Berlin tonight. If she had been caught, he hoped it was by the
Russians. God alone knew what Jiirgen Luhr would do to a woman if he
got the chance.
CHAPTER TEN
10.40 Pm. -Polizei AbschniH 53.' West Berlin Prefect Wilhelm Funk
appeared on the verge of a myocardial infarction. A critical situation
he thought admirably under his control had suddenly exploded in his
grossly veined face, and he could do precious little about it. A
genetic bureaucrat, Funk searched instinctively for scapegoats, but the
unfortunate Rolf already lay dead in the basement cell with Weiss's
mutilated corpse. Now Funk sat fuming in his office, accompanied by his
aide Lieutenant Jijrgen Luhr and Captain Otto Greener of the Kreuzberg
district.
'They cannot escape, Prefect,' Luhr said, trying to calm his enraged
superior. 'We have men at every checkpoint.
Even the smugglers know that taking Hauer out would be fatal. I made
the threats myself.'
Funk's fury eased a little at this news. Luhr had always been his
favorite. The man had almost no human weaknesses, mercy least of all.
'Where do you think Hauer might run, Jijrgen? And why in God's name
would he betray us to save some green sergeant?'
'It doesn't matter. None of that matters. We'll find him.
it's only a question of time.'
'Well, that's the point, isn't it!' Funk exploded. 'Who knows what
that traitorous bastard's gotten hold of! He could destroy years of
work and planning!' Funk leaned forward and put his face in his plump
hands. 'At least you got the damned Russians out.'
'I'm not sure Kosov bought the lie detector charade,' Luhr said
thoughtfully.
Funk waved away his concern. 'You said it yourself, Jiirgen, it's just
a matter of time before we run them down.
And when we do, our problem is solved. All Bruderschaft men have the
shoot-to-kill order, and the rest of the force will probably do the same
out of anger. The Spandau papers will be confiscated, and that will be
that.'
'What if we don't catch them before they leave the city?'
