someone's brains spattered in their coffee cups, they'd still try and mind their own fucking business.' He chuckled at the idea and then shook his head, talking over me when I tried to reply.
'But what are we talking about?' he said. 'There's no need for us to fall out.
No need at all. You're right. Maybe I should have explained before now, but if you have been recruited by the Org then you've undoubtedly been obliged to sign a secrecy declaration. Am I right?'
I nodded.
'Maybe you don't take it very seriously, but at least you can understand when I tell you that my government required me to sign a similar declaration, and that I take it very seriously indeed. It's only now that I can take you into my complete confidence, which is ironic: I'm investigating the very same organization which your membership of now enables me to treat you as someone who no longer poses a security risk. How's that for a bit of cock-eyed logic?'
'All right,' I said. 'You've given me your excuse. Now how about telling me the whole story.'
'I mentioned Crowcass before now, right?'
'The War Crimes Commission? Yes.'
'Well, how shall I put it? The pursuit of Nazis and the employment of German intelligence personnel are not exactly separate considerations. For a long time the United States has been recruiting former members of the Abwehr to spy on the Soviets. An independent organization was set up at Pullach, headed by a senior German officer, to gather intelligence on behalf of CIC.'
'The South German Industrial Utilization Company?'
The same. When the Org was set up they had explicit instructions about exactly who they might recruit. This is supposed to be a clean operation, you understand. But for some time now we've had the suspicion that the Org is also recruiting SS, SD and Gestapo personnel in violation of its original mandate. We wanted intelligence people, for God's sake, not war-criminals. My job is to find out the level of penetration that these outlawed classes of personnel have achieved within the Org. You with me?'
I nodded. 'But where did Captain Linden fit into this?'
'As I explained before, Linden worked in records. It's possible that his position at the US Documents Centre enabled him to act as a consultant to members of the Org with regard to recruitment. Checking out people to see if their stories matched what could be discovered from their service records, that kind of thing. I am sure I don't have to tell you that the Org is keen to avoid any possible penetration by Germans who may have already been recruited by the Soviets in their prison camps.'
'Yes,' I said, 'I've already had that explained to me in no uncertain terms.'
'Maybe Linden even advised them on who might have been worth recruiting. But that's the bit we're not sure about. That and what this stuff your friend Becker was playing courier with.'
'Maybe he lent them some files when they were interrogating potential recruits who might have been under some suspicion,' I suggested.
'No, that simply couldn't have happened. Security at the Centre is tighter than a clam's ass. You see, after the war the army was scared your people might try to take the contents of the centre back. That or destroy them. You just don't walk out of that place with an armful of files. All documentary examinations are on-site and must be accounted for.'
'Then perhaps Linden altered some of the files.'
Belinsky shook his head. 'No, we've already thought of that and checked back from the original log to every single one of the files which Linden had sight of. There's no sign of anything having been removed or destroyed. It seems our best chance of finding out what the hell he was up to depends on your membership of the Org, kraut. Not to mention your best chance of finding something that will put your friend Becker in the clear.'
'I'm almost out of time with that. He goes to trial at the beginning of next week.'
Belinsky looked thoughtful. 'Maybe I could help you to cut a few corners with your new colleagues. If I were to provide you with some high-grade Soviet intelligence it could put you well in with the Org. Of course it would have to be stuff that my people had seen already, but the boys in the Org wouldn't know that. If I dressed it up with the right kind of provenance, that would make you look like a pretty good spy. How does that sound?'
'Good. While you're in such an inspired mood you can help me out of another fix.
After K/nig had got through instructing me in the use of the dead-letter box, he gave me my first assignment.'
'He did? Good. What was it?'
'They want me to kill Becker's girlfriend, Traudl.'
'That pretty little nurse?' He sounded quite outraged. 'The one at the General Hospital? Did they say why?'
'She came into the Casino Oriental to oversee me losing her boyfriend's money. I warned her about it, but she wouldn't listen. I guess it must have made them nervous or something.'
But this wasn't the reason that K/nig had given me.
'A bit of wet-work is often used as an early test of loyalty,' Belinsky explained. 'Did they say how to do it?'
'I'm to make it look like an accident,' I said. 'So naturally I'll need to get her out of Vienna as quickly as possible. And that's where you come in. Can you organize a travel warrant and a rail ticket for her?'
'Sure,' he said, 'but try and persuade her to leave as much behind as possible.
We'll drive her across the zone and get her on a train at Salzburg. That way we can make it look as if she's disappeared, maybe dead. Which would help you, right?'
'Let's just make sure that she gets safely out of Vienna,' I told him. 'If anyone has to take risks I'd rather it was me than her.'
'Leave it to me, kraut. It'll take a few hours to arrange, but the little lady is as good as out of here. I suggest that you go back to your hotel and wait for me to bring her papers. Then we'll go and pick her up. In which case, perhaps it would be better if you didn't speak to her before then. She might not want to leave your friend Becker to face the music on his own. It would be better if we could just pick her up and drive out of here. That way if she decides to protest about it there won't be much that she can do.'
After Belinsky had left to make the necessary arrangements, I wondered if he would have been so willing to help get Traudl safely out of Vienna if he had seen the photograph which K/nig had given to me. He had told me that Traudl Braunsteiner was an MVD agent. Knowing the girl as I did it seemed utterly absurd. But for anyone else most of all a member of CIC looking at the photograph that had been taken in a Vienna restaurant, in which Traudl was evidently enjoying the company of a Russian colonel of MVD, whose name was Poroshin, things might have seemed rather less than clear-cut.
Chapter 26
There was a letter from my wife waiting for me when I returned to the Pension Caspian. Recognizing the tight, almost child-like writing on the cheap manilla envelope, crushed and grimy from a couple of weeks at the mercy of a haphazard postal service, I balanced it on the mantelpiece in my sitting-room and stared at it for a while, recollecting the letter to her that I had positioned similarly on our own mantelpiece at home in Berlin, and regretting its peremptory tone.
Since then I had sent her only two telegrams: one to say that I had arrived safely in Vienna and giving my address; and the other telling her that the case might take a little longer than I had first anticipated.
I dare say a graphologist could easily have analysed Kirsten's hand and made a pretty good job of convincing me that it indicated the letter inside had been written by an adulterous woman who was in the frame of mind to tell her inattentive husband that despite his having left her $2,000 in gold she nevertheless intended divorcing him and using the money to emigrate to the United States with her handsome American schStzi.
I was still looking at the unopened envelope with some trepidation when the telephone rang. It was Shields.
'And how are we doing today?' he asked in his over-precise German.
'I am doing very well, thank you,' I said, mocking his way of speaking, but he didn't seem to notice. 'Exactly how may I be of service to you, Herr Shields?'
'Well, with your friend Becker about to go to trial, frankly I wondered what kind of detective you were. I was asking myself whether you had come up with anything pertinent to the case: if your client was going to get his
