Day of judgment, p.21
Day of Judgment, page 21
‘I know that.’ Kubel switched on the radio. Reception was very clear. The voice said, ‘Adopt course three-four-zero for Allersberg airbase. I will follow you down.’
Kubel switched off the radio. ‘This doesn’t look too good. Those cannon of his could blow us to pieces.’
‘Is there anything you can do?’
‘In this kind of contest a jet’s speed can be a disadvantage. I’m really too slow for him to handle. I’ll go down low and see if I can make him do something stupid.’
He banked to port and went down fast and the MiG banked too in a sweeping curve that would bring him in on the Storch’s tail. He started to fire his cannon, too soon, his speed so excessive that he had to bank to starboard to avoid collision.
Kubel was at six hundred when the MiG came in again, and this time the Storch staggered under the impact as cannon shells punched holes in the wings.
The MiG turned away in a great curve, then came in again, and once more the Storch shuddered under the impact of cannon shell. The windscreen disintegrated and Kubel cried out sharply.
Vaughan said, ‘Are you all right?’
Kubel’s flying jacket was ripped just under the left shoulder. When Vaughan reached over to touch it, he found blood.
‘Never mind that, I’ll live,’ Kubel said. ‘Just hang on tight because this time, I’ll show the bastard how to fly.’
They were now down to five hundred feet, the countryside clear below them, the border very close. The MiG came in for the kill, sliding in on their tail perfectly. Pieces flew off the wings as the cannon shells struck home and Kubel dropped his flaps.
The Storch seemed to stand still in midair and the pilot of the MiG, totally unprepared, banked steeply to starboard to avoid a collision. Too steeply and the MiG, with no space to work in, ploughed straight into the forest below.
There was a mushroom of flame, spectacular in the night, and then it was behind them, already fading as they pushed on to the border.
The engine seemed to miss a beat and Kubel worked at the controls frantically. ‘Come on, you bitch. Don’t let me down now.’
Vaughan checked Conlin. The old man was still unconscious, but his breathing seemed regular enough.
‘Is he okay?’ Kubel shouted.
Vaughan nodded. ‘Are you?’
‘So I’ve taken a little steel in the back. I’ve had worse and this time it was worth it.’ He laughed out loud. ‘Don’t you see, Simon? I’ve got my one hundred and fiftieth.’
A moment later, they coasted across the border and he banked to starboard and commenced his descent for Bitterfeld.
Franz closed the barn doors and barred them with a baulk of timber. Like the others, he was dressed in the uniform of the Volkspolizei. They stood by the field truck in the rain, each man with an AK rifle slung across his chest in approved fashion.
Konrad peered out through the side gate anxiously. ‘Come on,’ he whispered. ‘Where are you, Margaret?’
Gregor moved to join him. ‘It’s no good, we must go. It is only a matter of time before our tunnel is discovered. We can’t afford to stay here any longer.’
There was the sound of running footsteps and Berg appeared from the darkness, face distraught, totally panic-stricken. Konrad brought him to a halt and held him at arm’s length.
‘What is it? Where’s the girl!’
Berg, struggling to catch his breath, had difficulty in speaking. ‘He’s got her. Van Buren’s got her.’
Konrad shook him. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘She went to see the priest to see if there was anything she could do, but he was dead. Then Van Buren turned up.’
‘And?’
‘They took her away in a Vopo fieldcar. To Schloss Neustadt.’
Konrad gazed at him in horror, still holding on to the front of Berg’s coat. Berg said urgently, ‘We must go, don’t you see? It’s only a matter of time and they’ll be here.’
‘He’s right,’ Gregor said gently to Konrad. ‘Remember Major Vaughan’s orders? We were to wait for no one.’
‘But we can’t leave her,’ Konrad said. ‘We must do something.’
‘She’s at Schloss Neustadt by now,’ Gregor said. ‘We can do nothing.’ He prised Konrad’s fingers away from Berg’s jacket. ‘You get in the back of the truck.’ He turned to the others. ‘All of you – mount up.’
Konrad said in a dead voice, ‘What a thing to happen after all this. As if she hasn’t suffered enough.’ He turned and his voice was savage now. ‘You know something, Gregor. This God I’ve been serving all these years – I’m beginning to wonder whether he’s at home anymore.’
He climbed up behind the wheel and Gregor got in beside him. Konrad pressed the starter and drove out through the gates.
The sound of the engine faded into the night, the courtyard lay silent and deserted. It was a good twenty minutes before there were the first sounds of movement inside the barn and someone started banging on the door.
‘The Resurrection was astonishing,’ Van Buren said. ‘If true, that is, which I’ve always doubted but your case, Margaret – that’s what I call a miracle. Old mother Elbe was supposed to take you to her bosom weeks ago.’
She sat there beside the desk, hands folded in her lap, very calm. ‘I’ve nothing to say.’
‘Nothing new in that,’ he said. ‘You always were an introverted little thing. Under standable, of course, after the kind of conditioning you went through.’
The door opened and Süssmann hurried in. ‘A manhole cover on the lower level gives access to a sewer pipe from the war days that’s never been used. We found a tunnel from it leading under the cemetery, emerging in the barn at the Home Farm.’
‘The Home Farm?’
‘The Franciscans.’
Van Buren laughed out loud, head thrown back. ‘Oh, but that’s beautiful. That really is a pearl. They’re not there now, of course?’
‘No. The place is deserted.’
Van Buren turned again to Margaret Campbell. ‘So that’s where you’ve been hiding out for the past few weeks?’
She made no reply. Süssmann said, ‘Berg, the caretaker, appears to be missing, also Schaefer.’
‘Schaefer?’ Van Buren said sharply. ‘But of course, that would fit very nicely. Schaefer and the priest. I always did wonder about him.’
‘Another thing. There’s been a report of a light aircraft landing and taking off again in the vicinity of the river some time during the past hour.’
‘Is that so?’ Van Buren appeared curiously indifferent.
‘For God’s sake,’ Süssmann said. ‘What are we going to do?’
‘I don’t know,’ Van Buren told him amiably. ‘Call out the guard. Alert the border. After all, you’re the military genius around here.’
‘But we must get Conlin back again,’ Süssmann shouted, ‘or we’re all finished, and this bitch can tell us where he is.’
‘You obviously weren’t very good at mathematics when you were at school,’ Van Buren said patiently. ‘If a plane landed and took off again within the past hour, who the hell do you think was on it?’
Süssmann turned and strode angrily from the room, slamming the door behind him. He went down the staircase quickly and entered his office where he found Becker waiting.
‘What happens now?’ the sergeant asked.
‘God knows, Rudi,’ Süssmann said. ‘We could all find our heads on the block for this one. Get on the phone to HQ. Send out a red alert to all Volkspolizei units between here and the border to pick up anyone they find on the roads who is in the slightest way suspicious.’
Becker went out. Süssmann lit a cigarette and paced up and down nervously.
‘Schaefer,’ Van Buren said. ‘He has to be the key figure. I should have known after he knocked hell out of Becker so superbly. He won’t get far.’
‘The plane,’ she said serenely.
‘He was also on board, was he? So he’s safe and that pleases you.’ He leaned back, watching her closely. ‘Are you in love with him?’
‘Too late for games,’ she said. ‘You’ve lost. If I were you, I’d be packing my bags right now.’
‘But where would I go?’ He smiled gently. ‘I’ve been everywhere, that’s the problem. But to get back to Schaefer. If he was on the plane, that means he left you and that doesn’t fit. He isn’t the type.’
She was silent and he continued. ‘You were supposed to leave with the others, weren’t you? And then you heard about Hartmann and just had to play doctors. He isn’t going to like that, Schaefer, or whatever his name is.’
‘Vaughan.’ There was pride in her voice. ‘Major Simon Vaughan.’
‘English? Now, there’s a thing.’ He nodded slowly. ‘He’ll come back for you.’
‘Don’t be absurd.’ She was genuinely alarmed now.
‘He’ll come back for you, Margaret. That kind of man always comes back. It’s my business to know these things,’ he said cheerfully.
‘I am, after all, one of the world’s better psychologists.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘No!’ as if by repetition she could make it so.
He poured himself an enormous brandy. ‘You’ve got a problem, I can help you.’ His grimace was painful. ‘The only trouble is, and this will make you fall about laughing, I could never understand my own. Problems, I mean.’
There was silence while he brooded. For no accountable reason she said, ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Well, that’s handsome of you. Excuse me for a moment, will you?’
Instead of going out, he simply picked up the phone and dialled Klein’s office number. Frau Apel answered at once.
‘Working late, aren’t you?’ he said. ‘Is he in?’
‘I think so, Professor.’
A moment later Klein came on. ‘Hello, Harry, I was just leaving. What’s the news at your end?’
‘All black,’ Van Buren said. ‘Conlin escaped.’
‘What?’ Klein said. ‘That isn’t possible.’
‘My dear Helmut, anything is possible in this wicked old world of ours,’ Van Buren told him. ‘I’d have thought a man of your varied experience would have realized that by now. The details aren’t important at the moment. The fact is that an assorted group which included that damn priest of yours, got Conlin out of Schloss Neustadt earlier this evening and flew him out by light plane. For some obscure reason, I wanted the pleasure of telling you all this myself.’
‘You’re sure of your facts?’ Klein said. ‘You’re certain he’s got clean away?’
‘Goodbye, Helmut.’ Van Buren put down the phone and poured another brandy.
‘What happens now?’ she asked.
‘We wait,’ he said. ‘We wait to see if I’m right about this Major Vaughan of yours.’
Süssmann was just about to leave his office when the phone rang. When he picked it up, Klein was on the other end.
‘I’ve just heard from Van Buren. I want your version of what’s happened there tonight. Quickly now.’
Süssmann told him, leaving nothing out. When he was finished, there was silence. He said tentatively, ‘Colonel, are you there?’
‘Yes,’ Klein said. ‘I was thinking.’
‘What do you want me to do, Colonel?’
‘You’re a promising officer, Süssmann. A pity to see you pulled down by your association with a man who is most certainly a traitor to the State. The only conceivable explanation for this whole sorry affair. I should be there in about a couple of hours to interrogate Van Buren personally. Naturally, if he attempts to leave before I arrive, you would be within your rights to prevent him by any means possible. Such action would rebound to your credit. You understand me?’
‘Perfectly, Colonel.’
‘Good, I’ll see you later.’
Süssmann put down the phone, then he took out his Walther and checked the clip.
* * *
After speaking to Süssmann, Klein turned to the rows of books which lined the wall behind him. He removed several to reveal a small wall-safe which he opened quickly. He took out a very ordinary-looking office file and a set of false identity papers which he had long had ready for such a day. The file contained a list of the identities of all agents of his department at that time operating in West Germany.
He slipped it into his briefcase and checked the false identity papers. A good thing that as a security chief, his face was not generally known to the military. He slipped the papers into his breast pocket, pulled on his coat and picked up his briefcase.
Frau Apel was still at her desk. She glanced up. ‘You’re going now, Colonel?’
‘Yes. Good of you to stay so late, Clara. Get yourself home now and I’ll see you in the morning.’
He went out, whistling cheerfully. Twenty minutes later he passed through a little used checkpoint near Koenigstrasse and presented himself to the policeman on duty on the other side with the astonishing request that he be put in touch at once with General Reinhardt Gehlen, Director of the Federal Intelligence Service.
It was still raining at Flossen where Bulow paced up and down outside the guard hut impatiently. At nine-thirty he had received the red alert signal from the HQ which meant no traffic of any description to be allowed through. His wife was already safe on the other side with their child and all he wanted now was to join them.
Hornstein, who had moved a little way up the road, turned excitedly. ‘There’s a vehicle coming.’
He moved to the sergeant’s side. They waited anxiously and then a Volkspolizei field truck moved out of the night and braked to a halt.
Konrad leaned out of the window. ‘I believe you’ve been waiting for us.’
Bulow didn’t even bother to reply. Hornstein was already raising the barrier.
They both scrambled over the tailgate, helped by willing hands as the field truck started to roll again, moving across to the West.
Pascoe was in the control room at Bitterfeld on his own when Böhmler came in to tell him that the truck had arrived safely. They went across to the hangars together and found a state of some confusion. The Franciscans were standing by the truck talking to Teusen and Meyer.
As Pascoe entered, Meyer said passionately, ‘Madness, that’s the only word for it. He goes to his death.’
‘What’s going on?’ Pascoe demanded.
‘I’m afraid we lost Doctor Campbell, Professor,’ Konrad told him. ‘She is now in Van Buren’s hands at Schloss Neustadt.’
‘Simon says he’s going back for her,’ Teusen said.
There was the sound of footsteps. They all turned and Vaughan entered the hangar once again in his Vopo uniform and dispatchrider’s raincoat. The AK was slung across his chest and he was fastening his helmet strap.
Pascoe said, ‘There’s no point to this.’
Vaughan ignored him and said to Konrad, ‘Is there much activity over there?’
‘Oh yes,’ Konrad said. ‘We passed several patrols, but no one bothered us. They assumed we were after the same game.’
‘So why should they treat me any differently?’ Vaughan mounted the Cossack and kicked the engine into life.
Teusen said, ‘Don’t be a fool, Simon.’
‘You want to do something for me, keep that crossing point open for as long as you can.’ Vaughan opened the throttle and roared away.
There was silence. Pascoe sighed and turned to Sergeant Bulow and young Hornstein. ‘It would seem you gentlemen are going to have to return to duty for a while.’
‘Oh no,’ Bulow said. ‘That wasn’t in the contract.’
‘But my dear man, you must see the necessity. If your HQ phones through and you’re not there to answer, they’ll come looking.’
‘That may have happened already,’ Bulow said.
‘We’ll just have to take our chances on that one.’
‘No!’
There was an AK rifle on the driver’s seat of the truck. Pascoe picked it up and cocked it. ‘I’m not disposed to argue. You go back over there and I’ll go with you.’
‘Let me,’ Teusen said.
Pascoe smiled wearily. ‘No, Bruno, for once, this is my show. I was always good at sending other men out into the field, but not this time.’ He turned back to Bulow. ‘After you, Sergeant, if you please.’
Vaughan drove up the narrow approach road to Schloss Neustadt with care and when he went over the crest of the hill, he found a sentry standing in a box at the tunnel entrance out of the rain.
Vaughan brought the Cossack to a halt. ‘Dispatch for Professor Van Buren from Berlin.’
The sentry waved him on without hesitation and Vaughan drove in through the dark tunnel. This time there was no sentry at the other end and he moved on across the cobbled square past the main entrance, following the narrow passage between high walls that brought him finally into the rear courtyard.
He switched off the engine and dismounted, remembering Berg’s description of the private entrance to the commandant’s quarters. It had to be here somewhere. He unslung his AK and moved forward.
Margaret Campbell lay on the bed in Van Buren’s bedroom in the dark, her eyes open. She was thinking about Vaughan, wondering what had happened to him. But most of all, she was praying that he wouldn’t act in the way Van Buren had predicted.
At that moment the door opened and the light was switched on. Van Buren stood looking at her, a glass in his hand. ‘Come in here,’ he said, and went back into the other room.
When she joined him, he was standing by the fire pouring another brandy. He seemed more than a little drunk. ‘He disappoints me, this boyfriend of yours. Where is he?’
There was a slight creak, a sudden cold draught. They both turned as the narrow door in the far corner swung open and Vaughan stepped into the room, holding the AK at the ready.
Margaret Campbell ran to his side. ‘Oh, you fool – you marvellous bloody fool. Wasn’t once enough for you? Haven’t I been enough trouble?’
He smiled. ‘I decided to forgive you all that.’ He put an arm around her.
Van Buren laughed delightedly. ‘You see, I’m never wrong. The mind of man is an open book to the great Van Buren.’
Vaughan said, ‘If you make a sound, I’ll cut you in half with this thing.’
