The unknown warriors, p.20
The Unknown Warriors, page 20
Abrienda rolled over, took a cigar from the case on the nightstand, and offered one to Nika, who declined. “He was very upset and when I told him it had happened every day for years asked why I didn’t tell him.”
She drew heavily on her cigar and puffed smoke rings that drifted languorously towards the ceiling. “I told him I was brave enough to face it. His friend Captain Andrasko once told me I was brave and wanted to prove him right. My father was furious. He took me out of that school the same day, then bankrupted it by withdrawing the endowment he had given and persuaded others to do the same. He hired private tutors for me except for history, geography, German and Spanish. Those he taught me himself. I already knew how to speak Russian.”
“I think he loved you very much,” Nika said.
“He did. He was able to spare me so much of his time because we were, after all, independently wealthy,” Abrienda said with a wry smile, thinking about that night outside Fort No. 7. “But was a lonely life until you started watching me at Slavia’s. Tomorrow is the anniversary of my father’s death. Will you come with me to visit his grave?”
“Mary and Jospeh, of course I will,” Nika replied. “Now, make love to your insatiable stepsister.”
Next morning, Abrienda informed Nika that General Gajda was stopping by to look over a mediaeval manuscript he was considering buying, a manuscript she had bought from Herr Bohm some time ago and would be joined by a friend of Bohm’s who would buy it if Gajda did not. “Happily, it will not interfere with our plans. They’ll each have an upstairs apartment for the weekend, and we’ll leave them in peace while they consider whether to make an offer or not.”
Gajda and von Braband arrived at 9 am. Fortunately, Nika was in the bath, so Abrienda could make the introductions, escort her guests to their rooms and offer her sitting room as a place for their discussions without involving her. The two men expressed surprise she would not be with them.
“There is no reason why I need to be. You know my position, Count von Braband, and what I hope for our two nations. In everything else, General Gajda speaks for me.”
Nika came out of the bedroom.
“Miss Nika Molnar, this is Count Wilhelm von Braband, Military Attaché at the German Embassy in Prague standing next to my dear friend General Radola Gajda.”
At last, Nika met the man she suspected of being her romantic rival. “General Gajda, Abrienda has spoken so much about you; I feel like we are already old friends.”
Gajda smiled. “Any man would be fortunate to count you as a friend, old or new,” and kissed her hand.
Von Braband was equally courteous, and Abrienda motioned the two men to a table where a mediaeval Czech manuscript Bohm loaned to her for the occasion lay open.
“Take your time considering it, gentlemen. My stepsister and I have things to do in town and won’t be back until late afternoon.”
After a restful lunch, Abrienda bought flower bouquets and walked the short distance to the private cemetery where the De Soza family was laid to rest. They were greeted at the gate by the caretaker, who came out the door of a small house next to the cemetery and doffed his cap.
“Hello Janos! Nika Molnar, please allow me to introduce you to Mr. Janos Opálka. He is our caretaker and a close friend of the de Soza family. Janos, this is Nika. She is from Hungary.”
Janos again took off his cap, gave Nika a short bow, then started speaking quickly to Abrienda, though a severe speech or mental impediment that to Nika made his words sound like gibberish but Abrienda appeared to understand perfectly.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I will take care of it Monday.” He started speaking again and appeared apologetic, but Abrienda merely waved her hand and shook her head.
“No, no, you’re right, we can’t have that, not at all! I will take care of it Monday, I promise.”
Janos again spoke to Abrienda and pointed at Nika.
“Yes, Janos, the same country where Ondrej is studying… no, no, they live in different cities, far apart.” She turned to Nika.
“Jamos asked if you knew his son.”
Janos’ wife waved and called to Abrienda from the kitchen window of the house and again, Nika could not understand a word she said. “Hello, Mrs. Opálka… yes, Janos explained everything. Don’t worry, I promise to take care of it Monday morning—oh damn!” she cried and stamped her foot. “I brought you something from Prague but left it at home! I’ll bring it over tonight, good?” and the woman laughed and waved back.
She turned, smiling, to Janos. “Got to go!” and Janos again doffed his hat, although this time Abrienda shook her head and affectionately put her hand to his cheek. “Please don’t do that. You and your family are part of my family.”
After this display of what appeared to Nika a lovingly archaic scene of noblesse oblige between them, Janos opened the gate and she and Abrienda stepped inside. Abrienda switched to French.
“Janos is what our highly sophisticated friend, the Duke of Windsor, would call Hradec’s ‘village idiot.’ When I was ten years old, I was playing by the Elbe and fell in. I can’t swim and would have drowned but for the ‘village idiot’ who jumped into the water and saved me. A few hours later, my father went to where he lived with his wife and son—you couldn’t call where they lived a house, more like of a shack—and when my father went to give him money Janos refused. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘You saved my daughter’s life. Now I will change yours.’ He made Janos caretaker of the family cemetery and built a small house for him and his family next to the gate. With a job and a real house came respectability, and as he was now working for us, people stopped mistreating him and his family for fear of my father. I came here often bringing small cakes and we’d sit on the tombstones and eat together. Soon I learned to understand him quite well. His wife has the same affliction but not their son Ondrej. He now studies violin in Győr. Strange, no? That is why Janos asked if you knew him.”
It seemed unnecessary for Nika to ask who was paid the boy’s education and living expenses.
They walked slowly past the magnificent headstones and statues inscribed with dates reaching as far back as the early 17th century. Marble warriors dressed in armor shared the grounds with pensive, sorrowful angels commemorated the soldiers, clerics and statesmen who had served the old Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The inscriptions on the graves were in Latin at first, then gave way to German but the inscription on Karol de Soza’s tombstone was in Czech and set somewhat apart from the rest. Abrienda knelt and laid her flower arrangement on the grave, then looked up at Nika.
“I did not want him to share his grave with anyone,” she said, and ran her hand across the lettering of her father’s name on the tombstone. She crossed herself, kissed her thumb and forefinger, rose, and stood next to Nika who next laid her flower beside Abrienda’s. She crossed herself, then noticed there were two inscriptions near the bottom of the tombstone: a short one in Latin and a longer one in English.
“Abri, what are these?” she asked.
“The first one is the de Soza family motto. Nulla captivis. ‘No prisoners’ or, better still, ‘Take no prisoners.’”
Nika smiled. “I’ll remember that. And this one?”
Abrienda knelt beside her. “It’s from a Norse poem, Havamal. My father had great affection for the Norse epics,” and began to recite:
“Cattle, die.
Kin, die.
Thou, thyself, shall die as well.
One thing I know, that never dies.
Judgement over the Dead.”
The women returned to Abrienda’s home and found General Gajda waiting.
“Count von Braband left for Nuremburg. He needed to return to Berlin and will catch a Berlin-bound train from there. He asked me to express both his regrets and his regards to you both.”
“Didn’t he buy the manuscript?” Abrienda asked as she and Nika sat down.
“On the contrary. Having looked it over and discussing it between ourselves, we are both very interested. Count Braband entrusted me to tender you his offer along with mine and wrote them both down, along with a few questions and other points of interest. They are on your writing desk.”
The general rose. “Unfortunately, I, too, must leave. When you are in the mood to discuss what I wrote, please contact me. I am, as always, your servant.”
He turned his attention to Nika. “We did not have the chance to become better acquainted but hope we shall sometime soon.”
With a courteous bow and a clicking of heels, General Gajda departed for the train station.
“So, that was the good general?” Nika asked.
“That was he,” Abrienda replied, swaying her hips as she walked up to her. “What do you think?”
“I like him,” she lied, and Abrienda stepped back, put her hands on her hips, shifted her weight to one foot, and raised an eyebrow in mock surprise. “Maybe I am the one who should be jealous?”
Nika smiled and nodded. “Touché, darling. I admit, I am terribly jealous. Your general is very smooth and polished and were I not so jealous would find him charming. He’s not Czech, is he?”
“Many people say I am not really Czech. Like me, his father was Czech, but born in Montenegro. He served in the Austro-Hungarian army during the war.” “Umm, that accounts for his polish,” Nika said.
“He deserted to the Russians who, not knowing what to do with him, put him in the fledgling Czech Legion… fortuitously for us.”
“Was he really guilty of attempting a coup in Židenice?”
“Yes, he was. I paid for his defense.”
“And were you involved as well?”
“Yes, deeply. I almost had to flee to Poland, but it was worth it,” She motioned to the couch and brought out cognac and glasses. “Let’s sit, drink, and talk.”
“Are you trying to get me drunk so you can have your shameless way with me, Miss de Soza?” Nika teased.
“Damned right. The good Count seemed very taken with you, by the way,” Abrienda commented.
“Was he? I didn’t notice,” Nika replied offhandedly. “Besides, I am not overly fond of Germans.”
Abrienda finished pouring. “They are either at your feet or at your throat.”
She resealed the decanter, placed it on the table, and sat beside Nika. “When the coup failed, my lawyers understood Gajda’s defense was also mine and if acquitted, I would not be pursued. He was, so I was not.”
Abrienda sipped her cognac. “It was the right thing to do then and if needed, the right thing to do again. That’s what I want to talk to you about. If you give me a few minutes, I will have something for you to pass on to your friends in Budapest. Meanwhile, how about taking a trip with me to Varnsdorf?”
“Varnsdorf?” Nika replied. “Where is that?”
“Sudetenland. On the border with Bavaria. A family friend in the army has his home there. I should say ‘had’ because it was partly burnt down by a gang of Sudeten German ‘patriots’ who, in their longing for freedom, set fire to his house when he was absent but his wife and two children not. They are now living near Prague with his parents. He’s been given leave and has asked me for a loan to repair his house so must go up there and maybe persuade him to move somewhere safer, like here or Prague.”
“Fine with me,” Nika replied, thinking she might be able to gather some useful information about the situation in Sudetenland. She took a sip of her cognac and coyly looked at Abrienda. “I’m sure you and I will find something interesting to do up there, stepsister mine.”
Berlin, September 15
Major General Hans Oster was too serious a man to show the euphoria he felt that a vital part of his plan to overthrow Hitler had fallen into place. “Gentlemen. I have been contacted by Count von Braband who has met with ex-general Gajda. If there is any chance the current Czechoslovak government will capitulate to Hitler’s demands, the Gadja will lead a coup and install one that will not. Thus, if Hitler initiates Operation Green for the invasion of Czechoslovakia, there will be war, at which point, we act.”
He nodded to the man sitting closest to his left. “A storm group of officers led by Lieutenant von Blumenthal will seize the Chancellery, dispatching with extreme prejudice any SS guards who try to resist and arrest Hitler. Once that is accomplished, the Großer Generalstab under general Halder with the support of generals von Witzleben, Brauchitsch and Stülpnagel will declare a state of emergency, the arrest of the remaining Nazi hierarchy and the absolute suppression of any resistance. Generaloberst Beck will come out of retirement as head of the new government and announce that the army, as the supreme custodian of the state, was obliged to take action to prevent another war that would surely lead to the annihilation of the Fatherland and all Europe. This will be immediately followed by a statement from the Czechoslovak government recognizing the new government along with a pledge to settle the grievances of the people in Sudetenland on terms acceptable to both sides.”
Lieutenant von Blumenthal was given permission to speak. “May I suggest that after Hitler’s death…”
“You mean ‘arrest’ do you not, lieutenant?” a senior officer asked.
“Your pardon, Herr Major. After Hitler is arrested, may I suggest offering General Lettow-Vorbeck a position in the interim government? He is immensely popular with the public and the army. He also has the trust and respect of the British. That could prove invaluable.”
“Excellent idea,” replied Oster. “I know your families are close and he is no fan of this regime.” He suddenly smiled. “But we have a nephew of the general with us. Is it true, lieutenant, that when Hitler offered your uncle the ambassadorship in London, he told the Chancellor to go fuck himself?”
There was a round of muted laughter which the lieutenant waited to subside. “That’s right, except I don’t think he said it that politely.”
The laughter was now unforced, and when it subsided the lieutenant was again given permission to speak.
“What of the Nazi leadership—Göring, Goebbels, Himmler, and the rest?”
“I think we must wait until they are in our hands before determining their future,” Oster replied enigmatically, and noticed von Blumenthal suppressing a smile.
“The chances of Göring coming around are high once he’s made to see the light,” a senior officer offered. “Unser Hermann is a condottiero. Threaten to take away his loot, and he’ll put a bullet in the back of anyone we tell him to put it. And I do mean anyone.”
“Our plans are set.” Oster continued. “We all know our tasks. Our duty is to save Germany and Europe from another war, this time under the leadership of a madman, even should it require giving up our lives in the process. Gentlemen, long live Sacred Germany.”
When the meeting ended, Oster called von Blumenthal aside. “I know what your intentions are when you storm the Chancellery.”
“What I intend is to ‘long knives’ every single one of those canailles I can lay my hands on,” he answered coolly, “whether they resist or not. This is no joke, Oster. It’s life and death, not just for those of involved but for the Fatherland, Europe, and perhaps the entire world.”
Oster shook Blumenthal’s hand. “Agreed. There can be no half-measures. Having been given the opportunity to surrender, they regrettably died while resisting a lawful order.”
Von Blumenthal saluted and turned to leave.
Oster was not finished.
“And lieutenant? That includes Göring.”
Varnsdorf, Sudetenland, September 17th
The women arrived by train in Varnsdorf by train next day and met by Captain Pavlik at the station. Abrienda introduced Nika as her recently discovered stepsister, secured a room at the only acceptable hotel in town and accompanied him with a local builder to see what remained of his house. It was in bad shape, and Pavlik’s wife and children had barely escaped. When the builder quoted a price for repairs ridiculously high to Abrienda, making it easier to suggest her friend move his family nearer to Prague where they would be safer, advice to which he eventually relented. The loan would now be to meet the cost of buying a new home and as it was late, Abrienda suggested they meet tomorrow morning to finalize the terms with a lawyer present before she and Nika return to Hradec.
Next morning, the couple was awakened by gunfire just below their widow followed. They dressed hurriedly and went to the hotel lobby where Captain Pavelik had just arrived. “Good morning, ladies. A company of Sudetendeutsches Freikorps has invaded the town. They shot and wounded a gendarme and occupied the train station. The gendarme commander went unarmed to confront them and the mob of locals who has joined the Freikorps lynched for his trouble alongside the wounded gendarme. Follow me, please.”
Captain Pavlik took the women to the gendarme station and took command. Only eight gendarmes were on hand to defend the station, and the captain worried about the windowless storage room at the rear of the building which had a wooden door he thought could be forced.
Pavlik was chagrined at having placed however inadvertently Abrienda and her companion in such danger. Since her father’s death he had been like an older brother, yet the scale of was happening in Varnsdorf surprised everyone.
“The mood in the whole region turned decidedly unfriendly over the past months,” he explained to Abrienda and Nika as he tried to make them more comfortable. “Black and red Sudeten flags sometimes showed up in town, but the Freikorps outside are not locals and crossed the German border early this morning. I called for help but was told similar attacks are taking place to the south and southwest just before the phone line went dead.”
“Captain! Someone is approaching,” a gendarme called out.
