Otto Greener, cut in.
'We shall!' Funk snapped. 'The alternative is impossible to
contemplate.'
'But you must contemplate it, Prefect,' Greener insisted, laying smug
emphasis on the title. An old rival of Funk's, Groaner enjoyed seeing
him placed squarely on the hot seat.
'Worry about your own district,' Funk grumbled.
'But the problem isn't in my district.'
Funk slammed his fist down on the desk. 'One small setback and already
the dogs are yapping at my heels! What would you do in a real crisis,
Greener? Loot our accounts and sell out Phoenix?'
'How can I sell out someone I'm not even sure exists?'
Funk sighed. 'Shut up, Otto. This problem will soon be resolved, and
when it is, I shall turn my attention to you.
The rotund Greener leaned back in his chair and lit a stained pipe. 'I
hope you're right, Wilhelm,' he said amiably. 'For your sake. But
somehow I don't think you are. My instinct tells me that something
unexpected has happened.
Unexpected not only here, but in Pretoria.' He raised a fat eyebrow.
'Perhaps Phoenix is not the omnipotent force we have been led to
believe.'
'Fool!' Jiirgen Luhr spat. 'Words like that could cost you your life.
You think you're in private here? Because there are four walls around
you? I'm starting to believe you think like a cow as well as look like
one.'
'You insolent swine!' Greener bellowed, coming to his feet.
Luhr stood defiantly, daring the big man to move against him. His
psychotic blue eyes and formidable physique made any question of rank
irrelevant. 'Hauer is loose in the city, and here you two sit, arguing
like children! What are you going to do?'
Groaner searched for a graceful way to reclaim his chair; Funk looked
like a dog disciplined for some reason it doesn't understand.
'Haven't I? Every car has the names and pictures.
God, every man out there knows Hauer by sight! I've convinced everyone
that he and Apfel murdered one of their own. What more can I do?'
Luhr paced worriedly. 'I'm not sure. But I'm not so certain you've
convinced everyone. Most officers will get the report only by radio.
They won't actually have seen Weiss's body. Hauer and Apfel have
friends out there, Hauer especially. Men he's been under fire with.
They won't betray him on the basis of a rumor. Particularly one started
by you.'
Funk reddened. 'But a moment ago you told me they couldn't escape!'
Luhr smiled thinly. 'I'm afraid that was to make you feel better.
I'm really not that confident.' His face hardened.
'Tell me about Munich,' he said. 'I know Hauer was demoted because of
the Olympic massacre, but what exactly did he do there?'
Funk wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. 'I don't see what that has
to do with anything.'
'Humor me,' said Luhr.
Funk sighed. 'All tight. Hauer was in the Federal Border Police then.
He was a sharpshooter or sniper or whatever you want to call it.
The Black September fedayeen were holding the Jew athletes at the
Olympic village. They'd demanded a jet to take them to Cairo. They'd
also demanded the release of Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, whom
we'd just captured that year, plus a couple of hundred Arab political
prisoners in Israel. The Israeli government asked us to allow one of
their commando teams into Germany to attempt a rescue. And that wet rag
Willy Brandt wanted to let them in! He'd offered to release Baader and
Meinhof from the very beginning! Thank God the final authority was in
the hands of the state government.'
'And Hauer?' Luhr prodded.
'I'm telling you,' Funk said testily..'The fedayeen and their hostages
were given buses and allowed to drive out to two helicopters which had
been brought to the Olympic village. Some people-Hauer among
them-thought that was the best time to try a rescue. But the state
government said no. The ambush was to be at Fijrstenfeldbrijck airport,
when the terrorists tried to move from the helieopters to the waiting
jet. Almost as soon as the choppers touched down at Fiirstenfeldbriick,
someone gave the order to fire. Hauer was one of five sharpshooters.
The light was terrible, the distance prohibitive, and the shooting
reflected the conditions.
The whole firelight took about an hour. In the end it took an infantry
assault to kill all the Arabs, but not before they had blown up the Jews
in the helicopters.'
Luhr nodded. 'And Hauer?'
'I just told you.'
'But the shooting-Hauer missed his targets?'
'No,' said Funk with grudging admiration. 'As a matter of fact he
killed one of the terrorists with his first shot, and wounded another
with his second. The fool might even have held on to his job if he'd
kept his mouth shut. But of course he didn't. He had to tell everyone
what we had done wrong, why the rescue was doomed from the beginning.
He was screaming for reforms in our counterteffor capability. He wanted
us to copy the damned Israelis.'
'So what happened to him?'
Funk chuckled softly. 'He paid the bureaucratic price, along with
everyone else associated with the massacre. He was transferred to the
civil police here, and he's been a Thorn in my ass ever since. I never
wanted that bastard in our group! I never trusted him after Munich!
He's carried a chip on his shoulder about those Jews ever since that
day.' Funk snorted. 'Imagine, losing sleep over a few Jewish
wrestlers.'
Funk toyed with a shell-casing paperweight on the desk.
'The irony is that Bonn created the GSG-9 because of Munich.
Hauer wanted to join, of course, but by the time his old friends had
lobbied successfully for his acceptance, he was too old to pass the
physical tests. You have to be practically an Olympic athlete to get
in. He coached their sharpshooters for a while, but that's it. I think
they still use him occasionally in some kind of consulting capacity.'
