‘Paul! Please stop! I will shoot!’
‘I don’t believe you will, old friend,’ said Kramer softly as he thumbed abutton on the intercom. ‘Security detail to my private laboratory on the double,please.’
A tinny voice acknowledged the order over the desk speaker.
Kramer looked up at him. ‘I’d hoped we could face this together, Karl. After allwe’ve been through.’
‘Do you not see? You’re not well. You’re tired. You’re not seeingthings clearly. Send the guards away and you and I can talk.’
Karl could already hear the clatter of boots on the hard floor outside the lab. ‘Callthem off, Paul. This is madness.’
A rap on the double door, a muffled voice outside. ‘Security detail, sir!’
‘Enter!’
Karl quickly lowered his gun. The SS Leibstandarte guards would shoot even him, theReichsmarschall, if they saw a weapon raised at their beloved leader. The door swung open andfive SS Leibstandarte entered. The oberleutnant leading them glanced at Karl, the pistol heldloosely in his hand now aiming down at the ground.
‘
Kramer sighed, his shoulders sagging. ‘I’m so very sorry, Karl.’ He steppedaround a nest of cables towards his friend, gently easing the unloaded pistol out of his handand placing it on the workbench.
‘Paul,’ said Karl quietly, ‘you must listen — ’
Kramer put a finger to his lips, hushing him. He reached out and affectionately clasped hisshoulder. ‘I consider you my closest friend… perhaps my
Karl bit his lip, realizing it would be foolish to push Kramer any further right now. Assecond-in-command of the Reich’s invasion force, he might still be able to reason withthe guards, the higher echelon officers… but not right here, not like this.
Kramer took a step back. ‘Trust me,’ he said softly, barely more than a whisperfor Karl’s ears only. ‘This is a kindness for you.’
‘Paul? What are you — ?’
‘Oberleutnant?’
‘Sir?’
‘Execute Reichsmarschall Haas.’
The young officer’s eyes widened in momentary confusion.
‘Do this right now, please.’
Karl was turning round to sharply bark a counter-order when two precisely aimed shots endedhis life and scattered tissue and blood across Kramer’s workbench.
CHAPTER 68
1957, woods outside Baltimore
‘All right, Bob? You understand what you’ve got to say tothem?’
‘Affirmat-’
Liam raised a finger and cocked a scolding eyebrow.
‘
‘Better. This has to be convincing. You need to come across sounding sort of like someOld Testament prophet, and not like a bloody robot.’
‘I understand.’
‘You remember it all?’
Bob looked down at the tattered sheet of paper in his hands, and Liam’s untidyhandwriting littered with words crossed out, phrases rewritten, and written again.
‘It is stored in memory.’
‘Right, then I suppose we should get a move on.’
‘Correct,’ rumbled Bob, ‘Washington is fifty-seven miles south-west fromthis location. We will need to travel quickly.’
Liam led the way out of Bob’s shelter and blinked at the early-morning sun piercing thebranches and pine needles above them and dappling the hard-trodden snowy ground with pools ofwarmth and light. The camp was already stirring with activity, some of the men already up andreviving the smouldering campfire to cook breakfast and heat an urn of coffee.
He could see Panelli interviewing more newcomers eager to join the fight,even more eager to catch sight of the legendary Captain Bob in action.
‘Come on,’ he whispered to Bob, ‘you better lead the way.’
Bob strode past him towards the clearing in the middle of the camp. When he stepped out fromunder some low branches, the camp’s hum of activity died down to an expectant silence asthey stared in awe at their magnificent heroic leader.
The newcomers, about thirty of them, surged forward excitedly, keen to get a closer look atCaptain Bob.
‘Hush!’ cried out Panelli. ‘It looks like he has something tosay!’
Bob stood beside the fire, legs planted apart, his hands on his hips — just as Liam haddemonstrated — his cold grey eyes panned slowly across the people before him with asolemn gravitas.
‘The time has come for me to move on… O people!’
Liam winced at the way Bob’s flat voice delivered the lines. It had sounded pretty goodon paper as he was scribbling it out and reading it to himself. However, right now, with Bobbelting it out in a one-tone voice, it sounded painfully embarrassing.
‘I have received a calling from above, to leave you now that my work here isdone… and I am to form other groups of fighters across the nation to fight this evilinvader. This dark force of evil. Satan’s army of minions and the devilry of theirinventions and weapons.’
Liam felt his cheeks colour.
‘But you will continue the fight here. You shall continue God’s work. I, CaptainBob, captain of the Lord’s army, will return again one day. I shall return… andtogether we shall destroy the enemy and return freedom to this great nation,’ announcedBob with all the passion of a bored teacher taking morning registration.
The forest was still and silent for a long time. Too long for Liam, whowondered if between his appalling creative-writing skills and Bob’s emotionless drawl,they appeared as ridiculous as he suspected they did.
Then one of the men, the pious young corporal, dropped down on to one knee and gruffly said,‘Amen.’ As did another, and another.
Panelli looked down at them and, keen not to be outdone, did likewise.‘Amen.’
In ones and twos, the rest of the men standing there in the forest followed suit, dropping totheir knees solemnly.
‘Your leader has spoken and th-’
Liam nudged Bob’s elbow gently. ‘We should probably go,’ he hissed out ofthe corner of his mouth. ‘Whilst we’re ahead.’
Bob nodded and stepped forward and gestured his hand in the way Liam had demonstrated in thetent. ‘Blessings upon you,’ his deep voice boomed to the man nearest him as hetouched his shoulder. ‘Blessings upon you,’ he said to another as he strodepast.
Liam followed in his wake, smiling self-consciously at the men he passed by.‘We’re uh… we’re going to leave now, to uh… you know, to spreadthe good word.’
