was correct. The Sequoia, which had seemed like a toy on the horizon when he began, now was in front of him with the majesty of a small ocean liner. He was a hundred yards from it and could see through portholes and windows on the main deck. An occasional crew member wandered the main deck. Siegfried studied the port side of the ship, the side facing him, to check for any sailors who might be leaning against the railing. He saw none. He was fifty yards away.
Then he was within forty. And he could practically drift the rest of the way. He cut his strokes and paddled quietly to his left, moving into a giant shadow cast by the ship's hull against the lights from the shore. The stern of the ship was before him. The rudder and the screw were like appendages to a moderately sized building.
He looked up and saw nothing human. A few more strokes and he was within reach of the ship. Then he threw his hand forward and touched it.
A sense of victory coursed through him, a foreshadowing of the victory that would eventually be his. It was possible! He had reached the presidential yacht unobserved. He placed his hands against the cold steel of the Bath-built hull and exhilaration was upon him that was almost religious. He felt himself grin. He almost wanted to scream with joy.
He looked up. Again he was thrilled by the discovery. The area of the stern that housed the rudder and propeller was recessed from the main deck of the ship. This would be the ideal place to work, to bolt his bomb-the flowers-for the leftist President. In this space he could tread water unobserved from either ship or shore. Like the night, it was perfect. He examined the hull again and marked its seaworthiness and sturdiness. He made one mental note. The bomb would have to be even more powerful than he had previously estimated. He had to be sure it would blast through the steel. Siegfried would make certain that it would.
Carefully now, he rehearsed every move that he would make when he returned. He dived beneath the waterline and felt for a place where waterproof plastic cement could solidify the bomb in place in a matter of minutes. He also looked for, and found, areas of ironin the hull in case he opted for a magnetized attachment on his return. Then, using the package of bricks as his dummy, he rehearsed the placement of the bomb. Once satisfied, he pushed off from the ship and let the bricks sink into the Potomac. No use carrying the extra weight back to Virginia.
Siegfried took a final look and pushed off. The next time he saw the ship from such a distance he would be playing a game in dead earnest. The bomb would be live and triggered. It would be, in fact, ticking.
Someone would die. Probably many people. They would deserve it, he told himself, for being on board with Roosevelt. Imagine! An aristocrat leading America toward communism. Siegfried felt a wave of contempt overtake him. He spat at Roosevelt's boat. Then he saw sailors moving on the deck.
Very quietly, with hushed strokes, he turned in the water and pointed himself toward Virginia. He retraced his route, swimming easily with the current, and arrived on the opposite shore completely unobserved.
*
A chair scraped on the basement floor. The screech of wood upon the cement was momentarily the only sound in the room. Then there were the sounds of murmurs and heavy, panting breathing.
Hunsicker, his brow thick, puffed, and bruised, sat unrestrained in a wooden chair at the center. There was a single lamp at a small wooden desk. Behind the lamp sat Frank Lerrick, watching studiously as the light cast shadows like a Halloween mask across his moustache and cheeks. Bobby Charles Martin, who was an expert on things beyond basic map reading, sat to one side facing Hunsicker. He raised his eyebrows, puffed on a cigarette, and dropped it onto the floor. He extinguished it with the toe of one shoe.
He raised his gaze from Hunsicker to the two men who circled Hunsicker like hungry wolves, Allen Wilson and Jack Burns. Burns passed in front of Hunsicker and the German flinched. Then Wilson rushed to him from the side and delivered a heavy, punishing, open-handed half-punch half-slap to the side of the German's skull.
The German reeled and the chair tipped. Burns grabbed the silent German by the lapels, picked up his enormous body, and slammed it down again on the hard-backed chair. Then Burns took his own turn and delivered a similarly punishing blow from the other side. But this time his partner held the chair and the German did not fall.
Lerrick spoke almost from boredom. This had been going on for the better part of a day and a half. Hunsicker, with blood now trickling from the corner of an eye, looked at the man behind the desk with heavy, painful, dark tired eyes.
'Herr Hunsicker,' Lerrick began with an air that suggested an impending end to the kindness and the patience. 'You're a very noble man, Herr Hunsicker. You have held out for what you believe in. You have not told us anything for a very long time. Your own officers in the Gestapo would be proud of you. Truly proud. But how long can this continue? How long must it continue?'
Lerrick stared at the subject. Hunsicker's face was sweating profusely and his head sagged slightly to one side. The eyes, which had looked mean, now looked hollow and unfocused.
Burns rushed Hunsicker again, began to wind up with a tremendous punch, and Bobby Charles Martin raised a hand to halt him. The blow stopped in midair as the German flinched. 'Not just yet, Jack,' Martin said to his interrogator in kindly tones. 'Mr. Hunsicker is conversing with Mr. Lerrick.'
'Wilhelm,' Lerrick said with sincerity, leaning forward, 'I am being very candid with you. This will go on for weeks. We will not stop until you tell us what we wish to learn.' A tangible pause and: 'You have worked for the Gestapo yourself. You know that no man can hold out forever. You know that in the end the unfortunate man in your position always must talk. That is human nature.' A lesser pause, and Lerrick concluded, 'There are limits to pain, Wilhelm. There are things that you have heard about from your own people, but have barely dreamed about here. Injections. Electricity. Wires.'
There was a response from Hunsicker's listless eyes.
'Yes, Wilhelm,' Lerrick continued. 'The worst is yet to come. And that will be followed by a long imprisonment. Unless you choose to speak.'
The German's mouth moved and Lerrick smiled appreciatively.
'And after you speak with us, we will make you comfortable. We will let you sleep. A doctor will ease your physical pain. Would you like a woman, Wilhelm? We could even bring you a nice young fraulein who will take care of your other needs. Wouldn't that be much better than this, Wilhelm?'
Words formed on the German's lips. He mumbled. It was only an obscenity, but it was a start.
Then there was more silence. Lerrick glanced amiably to Burns and Allen.
'Hurt him,' he said evenly.
As Burns steadied Hunsicker, Allen Wilson stepped behind him, brought the German's wrists together, and began to pull them sharply upward. It was too much even for Frank Lerrick.
Lerrick rose from his desk and went to the door. Bobby Charles Martin followed. The men went outside into a quiet, guarded corridor in a Washington basement.
Lerrick shook his head in disgust. 'I, uh, can't stand this stuff.' He glanced at his watch. It was three in the afternoon. He lit a cigarette.
'A few more hours,' said Martin. 'He's ready to break.' He glanced at his own watch. 'He'll be talking by midnight.'
'And what if he doesn't?'
'He will,' Martin said, taking out his own pack of cigarettes. 'What are you feeling so bad about? They do worse to their own people, you know.'
'Of course, but…' Lerrick's words were punctuated by a loud piercing scream from the room behind him. He grimaced and shook his head. 'I, uh, understand national interest and all, but we never did anything like that back in Illinois.'
'Really?' answered Martin, genuinely surprised, his furry eyebrows shooting toward the ceiling. 'Back in Ohio we do it all the time.'
TWENTY-SEVEN
Questions. Answers.
Siegfried had more of the former than the latter. So did Laura. So did everyone. Exactly which type of
