Beneath the Dover Sky (51 page)

The Methodist officials got up and gathered around Ben. They prayed over him.

Lord Preston nudged his daughter Victoria. “Isn’t this something, my dear?” he whispered. “Who would have guessed it? Ben Whitecross VC a missionary to Africa. You must be very proud. One accomplishment follows another accomplishment in his life. And they said he would never walk again after that airplane crash. But no, one adventure comes swiftly on the heels of another with him.”

Victoria stared straight ahead at the bishop who had placed his hands on her husband’s bowed head. “Ben Whitecross’s adventures will be the death of me, Father,” she replied without whispering or keeping her voice low.

Tubingen, Germany

“Baron?” Catherine opened the door and smiled. “What brings you to the house on such a fine summer day? I thought you’d be out on a long nature hike with Eva.”

“She’s on some sort of outing with a few of her friends.” The baron’s face was etched in sharp lines and tense. “I must see Albrecht right away. Is he at home?”

“Of course. Is everything all right?”

“The election results are official. Herr Hitler won two hundred and thirty seats. He now has the largest party in the government.”

“Oh no!” She stepped aside. “Please go directly to his study.”

“
Danke
. I apologize, Catherine.”

“For Hitler? It is certainly not your fault, Baron. Please come in. Albrecht will want to discuss this news with you.”

The baron found him behind his desk, hair uncombed, a day’s growth of beard showing on his face. Papers and books were stacked higher than his head.

Albrecht looked up from the pad he was writing on. “Ah, Gerard. What brings you here? You know, you were right after all. We should have fled to Pura or the Rhine instead of remaining in Tubingen for July and August. What was I thinking? All because of this new book the publishers are hounding me for after the success of
Mein Krieg
and
Mein Geist
—”

The baron interrupted him. “Have you listened to the news?”

“The news? No, I haven’t had the time. I’ve been chained to this desk since six this morning.”

“The votes have been officially counted.”

Albrecht took off his reading glasses. “What has happened?”

“The Nazis now have the greatest number of seats in the
Reichstag
.”

“Impossible!”

“Hitler’s star is rising. Now he is demanding that von Hindenburg make him chancellor.”

“Will von Hindenburg do it?”

“Today? No. He detests Hitler. Next week, next month? Who knows?”

“We must act.”

The baron took a seat and removed his hat, a fedora with a feather in its band. “A meeting has been called for this evening at Schultz’s home. We’ve already set a number of things in motion. It remains to determine the right place and time. There will be several target shooters in place at whatever outdoor location is selected. A grenade will also be thrown, possibly two. However we don’t want any bystanders injured or killed. Only Nazi Party members.”

“Perhaps Goebbels or Himmler can be eliminated at the same time.”

“If those sycophants are standing close to him, yes.”

Albrecht lifted a piece of paper on his desk and glanced over it. “I do not do this lightly, Gerard. I am just now writing a chapter on following in the footsteps of the Prince of Peace.”

“Yet our Lord also drove the merchants out of the Jewish temple with a whip.”

“Yes, but He killed no one.”

“Do you wish to halt the assassination attempt?”

“God forgive me, I do not. And I will have to answer to Him for my decision. But what else can be done? The more powerful Hitler gets, the more danger he puts Germany in. When is the meeting?”

“In an hour.”

Albrecht stood up and tugged on the gray blazer that hung on the back of his chair. “We should leave now.”

The baron also got up. He locked the door with the twist of the latch.

Albrecht frowned. “What are you doing? An hour is not a great deal of time to get to Schultz’s villa out in the country.”

“We’re not going there. The Brotherhood is betrayed.”

Albrecht stared at him as if he’d been punched in the stomach. “Betrayed?”

“Yes, betrayed. Hitler’s brownshirts are going to surround Schultz’s villa and burn it to the ground. Whoever escapes will be beaten to death.”

“How do you know this?”

“I have betrayed them. Wegner and I betrayed them.”

“
You
?” Albrecht moved towards the door. “Don’t spout nonsense, Gerard. If what you say is true, we must phone Schultz and the others immediately.”

The baron thrust a hand against Albrecht’s chest. “There will be no phone calls. Sit down.”

“Are you mad? How else can we reach them in time?”

“We aren’t going to reach them in time. That was the deal I struck with Wegner and Ernst Rohm, the leader of the
Sturm Abteilung
. The
stormtroopers get the Brotherhood, I join the Nazi Party, and you and your wife and children stay alive.”

“What?” Albrecht’s face lost its blood. “I have not agreed to any such terms. Let me by.”

“No.”

The two men struggled, and Albrecht quickly pinned the older man to the wall. The baron quit struggling, and Albrecht stepped back and turned to unlock the door.

The baron struck him from behind with the butt of a luger pistol he’d pulled from his pocket. Albrecht fell to the floor, and the baron pointed the gun at him. “Stay there. Do not attempt to get up. Your wife and children are at risk, man. Think of them. It is open warfare on the streets between the Nazis and the communists. Scores have been killed. Do you think anyone will care about you or me or a dozen more at Schultz’s home?”

With blood running down the side of his head, Albrecht glared up at the baron. “How could you do this? You of all people?”

“Survival. Mine, Eva’s, yours, Catherine’s, Sean’s, Angelika’s. Wegner was an infiltrator from the beginning. Once talk turned to actual plans for assassination, he told me in confidence that the brownshirts had marked all of us for execution. Because of my prominence as a member of the upper class, I was permitted to renounce my affiliation with the Brotherhood and swear allegiance to Adolph Hitler. I did that with the understanding that you and your family would be under my protection and not be harmed. You will not go to the villa to die tonight with the others.”

“Eva will hate you for this.”

“She already knows. Once I explained I was joining the elite of the Nazi Party and not the brownshirts she was in agreement. In fact, she has joined the League of German Girls, the young women part of the Hitler youth. That is where she is today…out of harm’s way.”

Albrecht sprang for the gun, but the baron struck him on the head with it again. The professor fell back against the desk before dropping to the floor.

“Enough of your heroics, Albrecht. Do I have to kill you to save your
life and your family?” The baron could see that Albrecht was almost unconscious. Setting down his pistol on a chair by the door, he quickly removed his suit jacket, shirt, and dress pants. Underneath he wore black pants and a brown shirt with a red swastika armband, along with a black tie and black strap that ran across his chest from right shoulder to left hip. “This is in case Rohm forgets about the bargain. I am one of Himmler’s SS, you see. Untouchable, really.” He picked up the Luger again. “We’ll remain here until I receive the phone call that the villa is gone and the Brotherhood finished with.”

“How can you talk that way about our comrades?” groaned Albrecht.

“They were fools mostly, weren’t they? Do you seriously think they could have pulled off the assassination? And even if they had, would that have helped Germany or hindered it? The time for killing Hitler was five years ago. Now he is our future. There is no one else who has his vision. What I am helping you do is imminently practical, Albrecht. We shall have to do away with your books, however. I am sorry for that. There were many good and patriotic chapters.”

“Lord Preston will be furious with you.”

“I expect he will. But he has the luxury of living across the Channel. You and I must make the best of things here. Support Hitler, that is the route to take. And we are taking it.”

“Do you seriously believe Catherine will support this?”

“If she wants you and her children to live, yes. You know what the brownshirts are like, Albrecht. Wild dogs. They will catch you on the street and slaughter you all.”

“Not the children.”

“Oh yes, certainly the children.”

“Even tonight…what you’re allowing at the villa…there will be a storm of protests.”

“There won’t be. Right now large communist cells are being eliminated in Munich and Berlin. The villa will be one small part of the news tomorrow morning. More communists will be killed tonight than the tiny band in the Brotherhood. No, the greater slaughter will get the greater attention. Few will care about what happened to men who were planning to overthrow the government with bombs and bullets. Yes, that is the story that will be given out, my friend.”

“Don’t call me that. Don’t ever call me that again.”

“As you wish, but you have a poor way of thanking someone who kept you from being burned alive and your family shot.”

“They would not have dared kill Catherine and my children.”

“Certainly Rohm would have dared. Hitler already considers you an enemy because of your books.”

“You are everything I have written against that is wrong with our country. You are the bad German who will lead us into more misery.”

For the first time anger cut across the baron’s face. “If there are bad Germans, you can lay the blame at the feet of the British and the French. The Treaty of Versailles was without grace or magnanimity to a fallen foe. It not only spawned Hitler but our need for Hitler. If worse comes to worse in Europe because of Hitler, the blood is on the hands of those who threw the German people in the dirt and ground them down under their heels.”

There was a soft knocking at the door and then it opened. Catherine stuck her head through the opening. “Baron?”

“Yes, Catherine?”

“I’m sorry to interrupt your talk with Albrecht, but there was a phone call for you. The gentleman only wished to leave a message.”

“Ah, yes. What was it?”

“
Deutschland uber alles
. That’s all he said. Does that mean anything to you? He was a bit of an odd duck.”

“Thank you, Catherine. I agree the man who called is indeed a strange one. But his message makes perfect sense.”

“All right. We’ll see you two in a bit.” She closed the door.

The baron kept his hidden pistol on Albrecht and nodded. “The Brotherhood of the Oak no longer exists.”

“I suppose it gives a man like you pleasure to say that.”

“It gives me no pleasure at all, Albrecht. It was something that had to be done if Germany is to experience a resurrection.”

Dover Sky

The motorcycle came to a stop and the rider climbed off.

“I’m looking for Lord Preston.”

Lord Preston was sitting in the shade by the manor and brushing his three Belgian shepherds. “I’m Lord Preston, young man. Do you have a cable for me?”