Traitor's Gate

by Michael Ridpath

Theo closed his eyes.

  ‘What’s in it?’ Conrad asked.

  ‘Everything,’ Theo answered. ‘Timings, targets, participants, although I have used codenames for those.’

  ‘Will Klaus be able to break the code?’

  ‘Probably.’ Theo glared at Sophie, his eyes full of fury. ‘You ignorant, stupid bitch! You know you have consigned all those people to death? Including me and Conrad and probably yourself?’

  Sophie’s eyes flashed with anger. ‘That’s what you’ve always thought of me, isn’t it? That I’m ignorant? That I’m stupid? That I’m a bitch? I’ve loved you totally, completely, and you’ve taken me for granted. Of course I put up with it – I was desperate not to lose you, so I put up with it. But I have my opinions too! I did what I thought was right. You of all people should respect that.’

  ‘What you thought was right?’ Theo sneered.

  Conrad reached out a hand and grabbed his arm. ‘Theo! Stay calm. You must stay calm. We have to work out what to do.’

  Theo shut up, but his eyes were burning. Sophie crumbled as her anger turned to misery. She covered her face with her hands and slumped in her chair, head down, sobbing. A group of Luftwaffe officers a couple of tables away turned to look.

  ‘We have to get Sophie’s notes back, before Klaus shows them to his bosses,’ Conrad said in a low voice. ‘There’s still time for the Gestapo to thwart the coup.’

  ‘It’s probably too late,’ muttered Theo.

  ‘Not necessarily,’ said Conrad. ‘Sophie, what did you copy Theo’s notes into?’

  ‘A school copybook I bought a few days ago,’ Sophie said between sobs. ‘It’s blue.’

  ‘And you gave this copybook to Klaus?’

  ‘Yes. Only half an hour ago. In the Tiergarten. I came straight here afterwards.’

  ‘Was this the first time you told him about the plot?’

  ‘No. I told him a few days ago, but he said he needed written evidence. It sounded as if he had to convince someone.’

  ‘And how much is written in there?’

  ‘Several pages,’ Sophie said. ‘I spent nearly two hours doing it, in the kitchen, while Theo was asleep.’

  Conrad was thinking. ‘Right. If Klaus has to convince someone that the plot is real, he will want to read the notes carefully before he shows it to anyone. Perhaps try to work out who the codenames refer to. We might still have some time, if we can find him. Sophie, do you know where he lives?’

  ‘No,’ said Sophie. ‘But I have his telephone number at home and at Gestapo headquarters.’

  ‘Even if we could track him down, what if he is at Gestapo HQ poring over the notes right now?’ Theo said. ‘We could never get at him in there.’

  ‘We need to lure him out.’ Conrad tapped his chin, thinking rapidly. ‘Sophie, will you help us?’

  ‘Help you do what?’

  ‘Get the notes back.’

  ‘No,’ Sophie said. ‘No. I gave them to Klaus for a reason. To save the Führer.’

  ‘Sophie,’ Conrad said softly. ‘Sophie, listen to me.’

  Sophie sniffed, but her large moist eyes were on Conrad.

  ‘Tomorrow, the Führer is going to order the preparations for the German army to attack Czechoslovakia. The British and the French will stand by the Czechs. Do you know what that means?’

  ‘The Sudeten Germans will be freed?’ Sophie answered.

  ‘There will be a war, Sophie. A world war. As big as the last one, perhaps bigger. The Führer wants a war. You know he does, you’ve seen him speak.’

  ‘But if there is a war, we will win it.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ said Conrad. ‘But hundreds of thousands of people will die first. It won’t be glorious, it will be bloody. You don’t want that, do you?’

  Sophie didn’t answer.

  ‘The reason that Theo is planning to do what he is planning is that he wants to arrest the Führer before he has a chance to start this war.’ Conrad could see doubt in Sophie’s eyes. ‘Trust him. Trust me. Trust Anneliese.’

  ‘I can’t,’ said Sophie, shaking her head slowly. ‘I can’t help you.’

  ‘You know they’ll execute me,’ said Theo quietly.

  ‘No they won’t. Klaus promised me they wouldn’t.’

  ‘Klaus is a Gestapo officer. You can’t trust his promise. You know that, don’t you, Sophie?’

  Sophie closed her eyes and, as she did so, more tears ran down her cheeks.

  ‘Don’t you, Sophie?’ Theo’s voice was more insistent.

  Sophie nodded.

  ‘It’s as though you have tied the noose yourself,’ Theo said. ‘They’ll probably hang me for treason. Unless they decide to behead me as a spy.’

  ‘Can’t you just run away?’ said Sophie, her eyes open wide, pleading. ‘Just leave now. Run to Britain or somewhere. Conrad will help you.’

  Theo slowly shook his head. ‘You know me. You know I can’t run away. Only you can save me.’

  Sophie bit her lip.

  ‘If we can get the notebook back from Schalke I might live.’

  Sophie started to say something. Her lip trembled.

  ‘I know you loved me yesterday. Do you still love me today?’

  Sophie muttered something so quiet that neither Theo nor Conrad could hear it.

  ‘What was that?’

  ‘Yes. I said yes,’ said Sophie. ‘But I’ve just betrayed you. You must hate me.’

  ‘If you help us get the notebook back from Conrad, I will forgive you.’

  ‘Will you really?’ said Sophie, hope in her eyes. She was desperate to believe him.

  Theo nodded.

  ‘But what if the Führer is killed?’ Sophie said. ‘I can’t be responsible for that.’

  ‘He won’t be,’ Conrad said. ‘The idea is to arrest him and keep him safe until the Czech crisis can be solved peacefully.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  Conrad could see the doubt in her eyes. He had to convince her. ‘I give you my word.’ His eyes held hers. That was when he discovered he was a very good liar.

  Sophie turned back to Theo. Conrad could see that despite all her doubts she wanted more than anything else to believe him, to trust him, to save his life.

  Finally she sniffed, wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘What do you want me to do?’

  36

  Klaus’s hands were shaking, literally shaking, as he leafed through the blue copybook, its pages covered in Sophie’s clear schoolgirl handwriting. He was in his office at 8 Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse. He wasn’t quite the only man in the building; the Gestapo were hard-working and there were always cases to be caught up on. But he knew that what he had in front of him was for Heydrich’s eyes only, and he knew Heydrich was at home in Schlachtensee.

  Twice he reached for the telephone, but both times he hesitated. As he read it became clear that the likely timing for the coup was 28 September, the very next day. He knew that he had to move fast. But before he spoke to Heydrich he needed to answer the most important question: who was involved in the plot? Von Hertenberg had used codenames for the plotters. Some of them were obvious, others more difficult.

  He pulled out some sheets of typing paper and made notes, trying to pull it all together. As he worked, the codenames became clearer. Hertenberg himself was ‘Eagle.’ Oster was ‘Owl’. Canaris was ‘Lion’. Canaris! So the conspiracy went right to the top of the Abwehr. ‘Jaguar’ was a general, probably Beck, possibly Fritsch. But then there were others, including ‘Zebra’, who was going to lead the government once Hitler was overthrown. Klaus had a feeling that Zebra might be Göring. It would be just like him to turn the army against the SS, overthrow Hitler and then take power himself. Or it could even be Goebbels. It would be vital for Heydrich to know whom he was up against before he reacted to the news Klaus was going to bring him.

  He decided to see how much he could work out in an hour and then call Heydrich.

  The telephone rang. He picked it up.
‘Schalke.’

  ‘I’ve found something else.’ Klaus recognized Sophie’s urgent whisper. ‘It’s a list of animals with names next to it. Meet me at the same place in twenty minutes and I’ll give it to you.’

  Klaus’s heartbeat quickened. ‘Wonderful. Perhaps you could just read them out over the telephone. Who is Zebra?’

  ‘I have to go! Meet me there.’ The telephone went dead.

  Klaus rubbed his hands and checked his watch. It was half past midnight. It was a shame Sophie couldn’t just have read out the vital codenames, but she was obviously under pressure. He should be able to meet her, get the list and call Heydrich by three o’clock. That would still give the Gestapo time to respond before the coup was launched. He picked up the copybook and hesitated as his eyes fell on the mess of paper on his desk. He stuffed all the notes in a drawer and locked it, putting the key in his trousers. Then he grabbed his coat and headed for the Tiergarten.

  Ten minutes later, Kriminal Assistant Fischer made his way along the corridor to Klaus’s office. He couldn’t stop yawning. He hated late nights, but he had promised Klaus the report on Wilfrid Israel by the following morning.

  Klaus was worth pleasing. Fischer had joined the Gestapo the year before as a young policeman from the Prenzlauer Berg suburb of Berlin and an idealistic Nazi. He had imagined that he would be rooting out hardened conspirators against the regime. The reality, that he spent most of his time persecuting the weak and the mildly dishonest who had been denounced by jealous colleagues, had been a bit of a shock. But he was ambitious, and he realized two things were needed to get on in the Gestapo: to be more ruthless than the next man, and to latch yourself to a patron who could protect you. Fischer had chosen Klaus: he was intelligent, and he had a good relationship with the most important patron of all, Heydrich.

  Klaus’s office was unlocked but empty; Fischer had seen him in there only twenty minutes before, hunched over some papers in intense concentration. Fischer dropped the report, sealed in an envelope, on Klaus’s desk. He was about to leave when he noticed a single sheet of paper lying under the desk, covered with Klaus’s scrawl. Unlike Klaus, Fischer didn’t like mess. He picked up the sheet and glanced at it to decide whether to throw it into the waste-paper basket.

  A word and a date caught Fischer’s eye. The word was coup, and the date was 28 September. Fischer read. Stunned, his fatigue forgotten for the moment, he sat in Klaus’s chair and read some more.

  No wonder Klaus was working so late!

  He checked his watch. It was half past one. Fischer had an appointment with the Nazi Labour Front representative in Israel’s department store first thing in the morning, where he planned to spend a couple of hours interviewing shopwalkers and buying clerks.

  He placed the sheet of paper carefully in the centre of the desk where Klaus would be sure to see it when he came in the next morning, and went home.

  Conrad and Theo squatted behind a rhododendron bush about twenty yards away from the statue of the composer, Albert Lortzing. There was a half-moon, and the marble glimmered in the darkness. Both men were in uniform and both were armed with Lugers. Sophie was standing in front of the statue nervously smoking a cigarette. In her handbag was a fake list of codenames that Theo had quickly drawn up a few minutes before.

  Although it had been a warm day, this near to autumn the temperature cooled down during the night, and it was cold crouching in the bushes. No one else was about. The moon added a blue tinge to the dark, silent waters of the pond opposite the statue. A willow tree’s long fingers reached down to tickle the still surface. Ten years earlier the woods would have been alive with prostitutes and drug dealers, and customers for both. In these days of Ordnung, the few that were left ignored the park.

  They heard the sound of footsteps on the gravel. The unmistakable silhouette of Klaus Schalke emerged along the path into the clearing by the statue. He saw Sophie and headed towards her.

  Conrad raised his Luger; it had been decided that he should do the honours. But just as he was about to squeeze the trigger, he hesitated. Sophie had moved in front of his line of fire, so that she was standing between him and Klaus, but Klaus was so tall that Conrad had a clear shot of his head. He had never used a Luger before and he didn’t want to hit Sophie by mistake.

  ‘Get on with it!’ whispered Theo.

  ‘Hang on,’ said Conrad. ‘I’ll get a better shot in a moment.’

  But he didn’t get his moment. Metal clicked softly a couple of feet behind his skull: the sound of a safety catch being released. ‘Drop your guns. Both of you.’

  Conrad recognized the voice of Dressel. He hesitated. Should he shoot Klaus anyway and take the consequences?

  ‘You heard me.’

  There was no point. Dressel would find Sophie’s notes if he didn’t know about them already. Conrad dropped his gun. And so did Theo.

  ‘Schalke! Over here! Look what I’ve found.’

  Klaus started and then lumbered over towards them. Conrad noticed he was clutching a copybook. ‘Well done, Dressel! I knew it was a good idea to get you out of bed.’ He smiled at Conrad. ‘Well, well. A British civilian in a German army uniform! Confirmation you are a spy if ever I needed it.’

  ‘Shall I shoot him?’ asked Dressel, hopefully.

  ‘Not yet,’ said Klaus. ‘And Hertenberg. You must be a spy too. A traitor. Oh, dear.’

  ‘Run, Sophie!’ Theo shouted.

  Sophie hesitated and Klaus launched himself towards her. She turned to run, but Klaus grabbed her by the arm and threw her to the ground. Dressel hit Theo hard over the head, and he crumpled. Conrad dropped to his knees to check on his friend, but Dressel ordered him to stand up straight.

  ‘Theo!’ Sophie shouted, and tried to run over to him, but Klaus’s grip was strong.

  ‘Still! Keep still!’ he commanded, jerking her arm.

  Sophie stood still.

  ‘Do you have the list of codenames?’

  Sophie glared at Klaus, but began to open her small handbag.

  ‘Slowly!’ warned Dressel, pointing his pistol directly at her.

  She hesitated and then carefully drew out a small sheet of paper, which she handed to Klaus.

  Klaus smiled. ‘Thank you. Now, move over there, with your boyfriend!’

  Sophie rushed over to Theo, who was clutching his head and groaning. Dressel covered all three expertly with his pistol. Klaus produced a small torch and read the list.

  ‘Hah! Goebbels. I thought so.’ He scanned some more lines. ‘Wait a moment. Himmler? Heydrich? But Lion is Canaris, surely.’ He glanced at Theo, sitting on the ground.

  ‘This isn’t the real list, is it?’ Theo didn’t answer. Klaus examined it again. ‘It’s a fresh sheet of paper. You wrote this tonight.’ He shook his head, screwed the list into a ball and dropped it on the grass.

  ‘Shall we take them back to headquarters, boss?’ Dressel asked. ‘Or do we just shoot them?’

  ‘We need to find out the real codenames.’

  Still on the ground, Theo let out a sharp cry of pain as Dressel kicked him hard in the kidneys. ‘Do you want me to work on them here?’

  ‘No time.’ Klaus hesitated and then drew his own pistol and pointed it at Sophie. ‘Come here!’

  Sophie took three hesitant steps forward. Klaus held the pistol to her head. ‘Look at Hertenberg!’ he commanded. Sophie turned towards Theo, her eyes, unnaturally large at the best of times, were even wider with fear.

  ‘Now, Hertenberg. Tell me the codenames, or I will shoot her.’

  Theo rose stiffly to his feet. He looked down at the ground. ‘Go ahead,’ he said. ‘I don’t care about her. She betrayed me.’

  Sophie let out a whimper.

  ‘Of course you care about her,’ Klaus said. ‘You have been lovers for a year.’

  Theo slowly raised his eyes to Sophie’s. ‘All right,’ he said, in a soft voice. ‘I do care about her. In fact, I love her. I have never really told her that before: I should have done.�
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  ‘Then give me the codenames. Who is Lion? And who is Zebra?’

  Theo shook his head. ‘No. You will kill Sophie and me anyway. I am not going to betray any more brave men.’

  Klaus hesitated. He needed another plan. ‘Sophie? Do you know any of the codenames?’

  ‘I worked some of them out myself.’ Her voice was shaking with fear.

  ‘Don’t tell him!’ said Theo.

  Dressel struck Theo again, somewhere painful, and Theo let out a grunt.

  ‘Sophie, if you tell me the names, I can stop the coup,’ Klaus urged. ‘I can save the Führer and arrest the traitors who want to overthrow him.’

  Sophie bit her trembling lip, hesitating.

  ‘This is the man who killed Anneliese,’ Conrad said. ‘You can’t trust him!’

  Dressel was about to strike Conrad when Klaus held up his hand to restrain him. ‘Anneliese is alive,’ he said.

  ‘What?’ said Sophie.

  ‘She’s alive. I had her moved from Sachsenhausen before de Lancey could get her released. She’s in another camp. And once de Lancey is dead, I will free her.’

  ‘How can I believe that?’

  ‘I’ve kept her safe,’ Klaus said. ‘You know how I feel about her. I would never let any harm come to her.’

  ‘Don’t believe him!’ said Conrad. ‘He’s lying!’

  This time Dressel whacked him with the pistol and Conrad clutched his mouth, from which blood was leaking.

  Sophie looked from Conrad to Theo, and then to Klaus. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘Show me the list.’

  Klaus smiled and lowered his gun, and put it back in its holster. He picked up the ball of paper and smoothed it out. He pulled out his torch and Sophie stood next to him as he shone the torch on the names.

  ‘Eagle is Theo. And Leopard is Conrad.’

  ‘Yes, yes,’ said Klaus impatiently. ‘But what about Zebra?’

  ‘Zebra. I don’t know,’ said Sophie. ‘Let me ask Theo.’

  ‘How are you going to do that?’ said Klaus.

  ‘Watch,’ said Sophie.

  She moved slowly towards Theo, pursing her lips. Theo looked the other way. Conrad saw something flash in the moonlight in Sophie’s bag. A needle. A hypodermic needle. A nurse’s weapon. Sophie had come to her rendezvous with Klaus armed.