They Used Dark Forces (64 page)

Uttering hardly a word, Gregory listened for over an hour to these extraordinary pipe dreams; then they returned to the bunker.

On the following day, the 15th, to everyone's astonishment Eva Braun appeared. It was said that at times she could be temperamental if denied the only thing she asked—to be
constantly in Hitler's company. But never before had she been known to disobey an order from him. When it had first been thought that the Russian armies might possibly reach Berlin he had packed her off to Munich. Now news that Berlin was really threatened had brought her back determined to share her Adolf's fate should he decide to remain in the capital.

At first he ordered her to return to the south, but she flatly refused. He then gave way and welcomed her with open arms, declaring that the more he was called on to face calamities and treachery the more his thoughts had turned to her.

Gregory was presented to her, and his stock went up still higher from Malacou's prediction that in mid-April the Führer would unexpectedly receive from a female source great comfort and support in his trials.

Eva was given a bed-sitting room and tiny dressing room adjacent to Hitler's bathroom, which she shared with him. The vegetarian cook, Fräulein Manzialy, with whom he always took his meals in Eva's absence, was banished to the kitchen and Eva again presided over the teacups and cream buns at the interminable evening sessions.

With the object of endeavouring to show herself superior to the roughnecks who made up such a large percentage of the Führer's entourage, she had given some time to studying art, but Gregory soon saw that her culture was no more than superficial and that basically she was a typical, healthy, fresh-complexioned German woman with bourgeois tastes, and that her real happiness lay in an outdoor life of winter sports and mountain climbing.

For the next two days Hitler seemed a new man. He was cheerful, friendly to everyone and laughing off the news of fresh disasters that continued to come in from the battle fronts. But by the third day it had again got him down.

There was no indication whatever that Roosevelt's successor, Mr. Harry Truman, intended to make any change in the attitude of the United States to Germany; and at the midday conference on the 18th it emerged that the situation was rapidly becoming desperate.

The British were reported to have reached the outskirts of Hamburg and Bremen. General Alexander had captured
Bologna and his troops had broken through into the valley of the Po. The French had arrived on the Upper Danube. The Russians were in Vienna and were now threatening both Dresden and Berlin. The Americans had crossed the Elbe and it now looked as if any day they would meet the Russian spearheads, thus cutting Germany in two.

To the acute discomfort of Hitler's so-called advisers, sitting silently round the conference table, he again went berserk. Foaming at the mouth he declared that Stalin had been right in 1937 to kill off nine-tenths of his General Staff. He had been lucky to find out before the war that they were conspiring against him. It was now clear that the Army was deliberately betraying Germany. The weak-kneed cowards wanted peace at any price. And not only the officers. The men, too, were now thinking only of saving their own skins. They should be shot. All of them! All of them!

Hours later, hoarse, exhausted, staggering, the demon-possessed Führer was led back to his room by the ubiquitous Bormann and handed over, first to the ministrations of the slimy Dr. Morell, then to those of Eva. After resting for two hours on his bed, restored to some degree of calmness, he sent for Gregory to walk with him in the garden.

Up there, in a still strained voice, he repeated the gist of the reports that had been submitted to him at the conference; then he went on callously, ‘The Russians will capture Berlin. That seems certain now. But what of it? That is the fault of these traitor Generals who ignore my commands. Not mine. If the Berliners have to suffer it is the Army that will be to blame. I now have a more important thing to think of—my own future. The really bad news is that General Patton has begun a drive with his armour towards the Bavarian Alps. Of course, it is difficult country. But he is a determined man. This new drive of his threatens the Obersalzberg—Berchtesgaden itself. Can I trust the troops who are defending it? Shall I be safe there? Shall I be safe?'

At last there had come the moment for which through six weeks of strain and danger Gregory had striven. With Malacou's help, however questionable its source, he had won Hitler's complete confidence. He had never had the faintest
hope of persuading him to ask for an armistice; but he had planned a campaign that, if he could achieve his object, might result in shortening the war by several months. Now was the time to risk everything by speaking out. He said firmly:

‘
Nein, mein Führer
. You must not seek refuge in the Obersalzberg. Any attempt to prolong the war there would be futile. There is no sign of an American change of heart and, at most, you could hold out there only for a few weeks. You spoke to me a few days ago of remaining here until the end; of going down fighting in your capital as an example for all time of courage and devotion to the German people. That is the course you should adopt; and in future time, which is endless, I am convinced that you will never regret it.'

For a moment Hitler was silent, then he asked, ‘Have you any idea what the future holds for me?'

‘Yes,' Gregory declared, without a moment's hesitation, ‘I have consulted Malacou. You will be reborn on Mars.'

‘Mars! But the Planet is almost burnt out. There is no life on it except, possibly, vegetation.'

‘
Mein Führer
, on that you compel me to contradict you. Owing to its smaller size Mars has aged more rapidly than Earth. But it has passed through exactly the same stages of development. And what would man do here when the seas gradually began to dry up and shrink? Even with science as far advanced as it is at present he could devise ways to prolong life on the Planet. Alternately, each spring and autumn, a great part of the ice-caps melt. That last reservoir of water would be conserved and used to bring fertility to plains in the old temperate zones in which there are great areas of crops. And that the Martians have done by constructing their fifty-mile-wide canals. But they are now in peril of extinction.'

‘Why so, if they have solved their problem?'

‘This solution was the best they could achieve; but it could not save them indefinitely. Evaporation decreases their water supply a little every year, and the time has come when the amount of ice that melts is no longer sufficient to fill the more remote canals. They must now seek some other solution to their difficulties, or they will perish. But it is written in the stars that they will find it and continue to survive.'

‘How will they do that?'

‘Their scientists are far in advance of ours. They have already solved the problem of overcoming gravity and sending manned space-ships up into the stratosphere. Since Mars is becoming uninhabitable they intend to invade and conquer another Planet where crops, fruit and animal life are still abundant. Earth is their objective. They will need thirty or forty years to improve their spacecraft and build a fleet large enough to send sufficient forces to overcome resistance here. But when they do come they will have weapons of a type we have not even conceived; so, just as happened with Cortés in Mexico, a few hundred of them will be sufficient to overcome a whole nation. All they will need then is an outstanding leader.'

‘A leader!' Hitler echoed. ‘A leader! Do you really think …?'

‘You,
mein Führer,
' Gregory lied with every ounce of conviction of which he was capable. ‘That is your future. Malacou is certain of it, and so am I.'

‘To conquer the world! The whole world! And with a really determined people behind me, instead of these cowardly Germans. What a prospect! It would make death welcome.'

Gregory stole a glance at the maniac beside him, then hammered home his grandiose deception. ‘It would, indeed,
mein Führer
. With that in view, to struggle on against overwhelming odds and risk becoming a prisoner of the Allies would be madness. How infinitely better to make a spectacular end of things here in Berlin, with the ruins of your capital about you. My most fervent prayer is that I may be permitted later to join you on Mars and become one of your lieutenants in this new and greater glory.'

‘You shall! You shall,' muttered Hitler, now utterly bemused by this prospect that had been held out to him of becoming Emperor of the World. ‘You have given me more than new hope: a vision, the sooner to attain which I could die happily.'

It was on the following evening that Goering sent for Gregory. The Reichsmarschall had spoken personally to Koller on the telephone and said that the matter was urgent; so, reluctant as Gregory was to leave the bunker now he had, temporarily at least, manœuvred Hitler into a position where he might soon be dead, he set off in an Air Ministry car for Karinhall.

For a time he thought he would never get there. Now that the Allies had overrun a great part of Germany they had the use of airfields within such easy reach of Berlin that they bombed it not only every night but all night and in the daytime as well. Five out of every six streets had been rendered impassable by bomb craters, or great heaps of rubble that had fallen from wrecked buildings. The obstructions were so numerous and new ones of such frequent occurrence that all attempts to put out diversion signs had had to be abandoned; so the progress of the car was like that of a person in a maze, who comes up against a succession of dead ends and has again and again to turn back and try another way.

Meanwhile a thousand ack-ack guns were blazing away, the explosion of heavy bombs shook the ground, scores of searchlights raked the sky and the flames from dozens of burning buildings, reflected from the clouds, gave the night sky the hue of hell. Even when they at last got clear of the city the car could proceed only at a moderate pace, as the area was now the rear of a battle front. The headlights frequently glinted on water-filled potholes, in places fallen trees partially blocked the road, and from time to time they were held up by convoys of lorries or columns of weary, marching troops. The hideous journey took over five hours; but they made it and, soon after midnight, Gregory arrived at Karinhall.

When he gave his name, an adjutant took him straight up to Goering's vast study. The Reichsmarschall was not in fancy dress but wearing a uniform of pure white silk, the tunic of which was smothered with stars and decorations, for he had collected not only every German order but also those of every country Germany had overrun.

With a curt nod he said to Gregory, ‘Sit down. I imagine you had the hell of a time getting here; but I'm glad you've come and I think you'll find the effort worth it. Have you ever heard of Allen Dulles?'

‘Yes,' Gregory replied. ‘He is the head of the Office of Strategic Services; or, to call it by another name, the American Secret Service.'

‘That is so. Well, for some time past he has been operating from Switzerland. Of course, we knew that, as we have plenty
of our people there too. He runs all the escape routes for their prisoners of war who can break camp, and a vast espionage system. But recently he's been after bigger game than that. Quite a number of prominent Germans have been into Switzerland and had discussions with him on ways in which the war might be brought to an end.'

‘I'm glad to hear it,' Gregory commented.

‘Yes. The sooner it's over now the better. No man with an ounce of sanity could contest that. Incidentally, I've been too occupied to give you a thought lately, but are you making any progress with the Führer?'

Gregory did not wish to disclose his hand; so he replied, ‘Yes and no. I felt from the beginning that there was very little hope of getting him actually to order a surrender. But I've succeeded in becoming his chief witch doctor. He now treats me as a friend, has long private talks with me and pays heed to what I say; so there is just a chance that I may succeed in persuading him to throw in his hand and let someone else take over.'

‘Good luck to you, then. Unless he alters the succession his mantle will fall on me, and I'll open negotiations with the Allies within the hour. But reverting to Dulles. He has sent an emissary to me, and the suggestion is that I should arrest the Führer, or ignore him, and broadcast an order for our forces to lay down their arms.'

‘Thank God for that!' Gregory exclaimed.

Goering frowned. ‘You go too fast. When we spoke of this before I told you that I would never betray the Führer, and I still stand by that.'

Gregory knew that it would be futile to start an argument, so he simply shrugged and asked, ‘Why, then, did you send for me?'

The Reichsmarschall heaved himself to his feet. ‘Because I thought it would interest you to have a talk with Mr. Dulles' emissary. Come with me.'

Side by side they left the lofty room, walked down a flight of stairs and along several corridors. Then Goering halted at a door, turned the handle and threw it open. In the room, near the fire in an armchair, sat a woman dressed as a hospital nurse.

Gregory's heart missed a beat. He could hardly believe his eyes. It was Erika.

Erika dropped the book she had been toying with, jumped to her feet and, with a radiant smile, cried, ‘Gregory! My darling! I thought you'd never get here.' Next moment she was in his arms.

Goering remained grinning in the doorway. When they had exchanged breathless kisses and, still holding hands, come apart, he said mischievously, ‘I told Erika I had sent for you and she suggested that you might prefer to spend the night here instead of returning to Berlin. So I had this suite made ready for you. There is, of course, a separate bed in the dressing room. I hope you will find everything you want.
Schlafen Sie wohl
.'