He had to think. Ponder the consequences of meeting Werner von Blomberg. The reality of his dangerous life in Berlin had come crashing into the blissful enjoyment of the last few weeks. No matter how much he wished it were not so, they were never going to be completely safe.
Not in this world. Not as long as the Nazis were in power. Not even on their honeymoon.
Chapter 8
Hilde could tell that the events of the last hour had shaken Q to the core. Despite his calm exterior, it took only one look into his eyes to recognize the turmoil boiling inside him.
Without speaking a single word, they walked along the beach, his pace increasing until she could barely keep up with him. Hilde slipped her hand out of his and stopped, unsure if he’d even noticed because he kept on walking. A smile flickered on her lips. He’d come back when he was done thinking.
She sat down on the beach and patiently waited for his return while looking out at the horizon. Fleecy clouds floated across the deep blue sky, bringing a pattern of light and shadow to the ocean. Doubts and fears overshadowed the joy in her heart, dimming what should have been another wonderful day on the beach in the Mediterranean.
Q returned half an hour later, took her hand, and pulled her up against his chest. They held tight onto each other for a minute and even before he voiced the first word, she sensed his inner struggle.
“That was close. Too close.” Q’s voice could barely be heard above the waves.
“It was close, but everything turned out okay.” She paused and took his hand, dragging him along the beach. Some thoughts demanded movement to be worked through. “We had a few weeks to pretend life was blissful, but we both know that danger is a constant part of our lives. Even here.”
Q shook his head. “I feel so guilty for dragging you into this mess. We’re supposed to be on our honeymoon–”
“Shush.” She stopped. “Liebling, don’t get so worked up. It wasn’t your fault, and,” she tilted her head to the side, “I love you, and I cannot imagine my life without you. I would rather die by your side than live without you.”
Q turned her into his arms and kissed her with as much passion as desperation. They were both breathless when their lips parted and he said, “I want out.”
“Out?” Her heart constricted, and a shiver ran down her spine as she leaned back in his arms to explore his blue eyes.
“The intelligence work. I want to stop.”
Hilde breathed again.
After considering his words for a moment, she asked, “Would you be able to look me in the eyes every single day, or – more importantly – be able to look at yourself in the mirror, if you stopped?”
Q rubbed his chin, considering her question for a long moment. “Probably not.” He looked out to sea and then asked quietly, “But what do I do about the Generalfeldmarschall? I sure don’t want to work for the Ministry of War, but I don’t see any way out.”
Hilde nodded. “You probably don’t have a choice. You’ll have to go and at least talk to the man once we’re back in Berlin.”
“But I don’t want to work for him,” Q insisted.
“I know.” She reached up and caressed his cheek. Q had a tendency to overthink things. “You’ll go and meet with the man and then see how to continue from there.”
“But–”
“No buts. In this case, it’s best to take things day by day. We don’t know what the future brings, and by the time we’re back in Berlin, he may already have forgotten about the job offer.” She didn’t believe in her own words.
“You’re right, my love. What would I do without you?”
She grinned. “Sit in some lab working on some important invention?”
“You know me too well.”
***
The next morning, they woke up to a grey sky. Dark stormy clouds loomed on the horizon. It was their first day of bad weather since they’d left the Alps. But Q was determined to not let anything ruin their honeymoon – not the meeting with the Generalfeldmarschall and certainly not a thunderstorm.
He suggested spending the day at the most luxurious hot spa in town. While their hotel also offered a small pool, the town spa boasted several basins with different temperatures.
They entered the establishment through an ancient portal, and once inside, Hilde gasped at the sight. The original Roman architecture had been lovingly reconstructed. The main bath was surrounded by a walkabout covered in colorful tiles. While the pool was open-air, the walkabout featured a richly decorated roof, resting on sturdy columns with the heads of Roman Gods overlooking the area.
From the walkabout, several openings led to smaller private baths in different sizes and shapes, each one more elaborate than the next. The boiling hot thermal water bubbled through a set of open channels, flowing into the stone pools. The farther the water had to travel, the colder the receiving bath was.
Q and Hilde climbed into a heart-shaped pool. She reclined in the bath, tipped her head back, and waved a hand towards Q. “Where is the slave girl that is supposed to wash my hair?”
Q looked around the small area with a frown upon his face. “What are you talking about?”
Hilde giggled as she explained herself. “This looks so real, I was envisioning what life must have been like during the Roman and Greek empires. I’m a Roman lady with a multitude of servants at my beck and call.”
Q laughed at these silly romantic and sentimental games. “You do have a vivid imagination.”
“Right now I’m waiting for my servant to help me get ready to receive my lover because my husband is always traveling to countries far away.”
“That I cannot accept,” he said and tickled her in response.
Before Hilde could reply, Luise and Werner appeared in the entrance. Luise spotted them and came over, sliding into the hot water beside them. “Ahhh, aren’t these Roman baths wonderful?”
Q and Hilde exchanged a look, and he said dryly, “Yes, they were.” Until you arrived.
As Werner entered the pool, Q breathed against a constricting wall around his chest. Werner, though, grinned jovially at him. “The Roman Empire perished, but the Third Reich will prevail a thousand years. Our legacy will be even more glorious than those of the Greeks and the Romans.”
Q nodded and added with a serious voice. “I believe generations to come will remember Hitler and his doings.” He glanced over to Hilde, who’d been hogged by a chatty Luise. She rolled her eyes in his direction, and he raised his voice, “My love, your cheeks are reddening. We’ll have to get you out of the hot water.” With an apologetic glance to Werner and Luise, he added, “My wife is very susceptible to the heat.”
As pleasantly as possible, they said their goodbyes, then hurried to the changing rooms and left the town spa. Back at the hotel, Hilde said, “We need to leave. Soon.”
“Luise seems quite taken with you.”
“And Werner likewise with you. If we stick around a few more days, we could all become best friends,” Hilde said with a twist to her mouth.
Q chuckled. “I can see how eager you are for that to happen.” He exhaled a long breath, going through all the possibilities before finally nodding. “We’ll leave first thing in the morning.”
While it was the wise thing to do, Q also wanted to stay until he was able to meet with the Russian contact. Unfortunately, he had no means to let him know where they were headed.
Chapter 9
Hilde and Q left the next morning, taking a bus inland to a small village located at the bottom of Mount Etna, a volcano on the east coast of Sicily. It was a tiny and peaceful place in the mountains and soon enough they returned to their blissful honeymoon state.
The Generalfeldmarschall was as quickly forgotten as the danger of Q’s clandestine intelligence work. Some days later, they decided to walk up to the crater of the volcano. It was a very strenuous hike, and yet so beautiful.
After every turn, another beautiful view greeted them, each one more breathtaking than the one before.
Below them lay green fields with blooming yellow bushes, and in the distance, the dark blue Mediterranean with a few white boats bobbing on the waves. The blue sky was a shade lighter than the ocean and cotton ball clouds flocked to the horizon.
As they neared the top of the volcano, a strong smell of sulfur greeted them and Hilde covered her mouth and nose with the thin scarf she’d tied over her hair before leaving that morning. “We must be almost to the top.”
“I believe so,” Q said.
Ten minutes later, they were gingerly peering over the edge of a cliff at the red, glowing lava several hundred feet below. The view from that height was amazing, and after glimpsing their fill of the bubbling guts of the mountain, they retreated a short distance away to enjoy the view of the valley below.
The mountain rumbled like a man with an empty stomach and Hilde jerked up. “Please, Q, let’s hike down.”
Q chuckled but obeyed when he saw the fear in her eyes. “Okay, let’s go. I don’t think it’ll erupt anytime soon, though. The last big eruption occurred nine years ago and a smaller one in 1931. Geologists believe the volcano is in recess for at least another five years.”
On their hike up, she’d only had eyes for the beautiful land and seascape, but on their way down, Hilde noticed the evidence of the big eruption in 1928. Lava had spilled from the mouth of the volcano and flowed down the mountainside on its way to the ocean – swallowing an entire village.
Hilde shuddered, and Q paused to wrap his arms around her. “There’s no need to worry.”
She wasn’t so sure about that but tried a brave smile and pointed at the path of destruction the now cooled lava had left in its inky path. “I think everyone is wrong. The earth is rumbling like an angry bear, ready to spit out a load of death and destruction.”
“You’re exaggerating.” Q tried to appease her.
“I’m not, and you know it,” she insisted. “We’re sitting on a barrel of explosives, just waiting for someone to ignite the fuse.”
Q looked confused at her. “You’re not talking about the volcano, are you?”
Tears wetted her eyes as she shook her head, trying to keep her voice steady. “War is coming. It’s inevitable.”
“Sadly, I believe you’re right.” He took her hand as they continued their hike down.
“Look at the desolate landscapes the lava left behind. Much like a moonscape.” Not that any human had – or ever would – set foot on the moon.
Q helped her down a steep part of the mountain before he answered, “A war will be worse than this.” She knew he was fifteen when the Great War ended.
After a pause, he continued, “While I’ve never been on the battlefield, I’ve heard enough stories from my older brothers to imagine the destruction. And with all the newly invented weapons, the coming war will be even more destructive.”
Hilde shuddered at the thought that her entire country or maybe all of Europe might look like this stretch of devastated land on the slopes of Mount Etna. It was best not to go down that road, but to concentrate on the present.
Climbing up had been hard, but going down wasn’t proving to be much easier. Two hours later, they reached the road again and stopped to rest their strained knees.
She took a big gulp from their water bottle, then leaned against Q. “I couldn’t possibly have wished for a better life companion than you.”
He kissed her nose. “I love you, Hildelein. I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you in the movie theatre, and after three years, I’m still amazed that every day my love for you has grown even more.”
She hugged him tight, lost in her thoughts. She didn’t regret her decision to marry him, even if it meant exposing herself to danger. His intelligence work was honorable, and with every passing day, she was more convinced that the Nazis were out to destroy the entire world. Someone had to stop them. And if Q could be a small spoke in the wheel, she’d be proud and happy – with him.
Still, the thought of returning to Berlin terrified her. She sighed. “I wish we didn’t have to go back.”
Q was thoughtful for several minutes before suggesting, “We could stay in Italy.”
Hilde stared at him, trying to process the implications of his words. “You would really consider such an idea?”
“Yes. The situation in Germany will only get worse. Right now, we’re safer than we might ever be again.”
They continued to discuss the possibility of never going back to Germany, but the idea was only that – an idea. Neither of them were truly serious about it.
When they’d almost reached the village, Q stopped when he spotted a lone man coming up the mountainside. “Stay here for a moment,” he urged Hilde, putting a hand on her arm as he waited to get a better look at the man coming towards them.
Hilde squinted her eyes and then gasped. “Isn’t that the Russian agent you were supposed to meet with?”
“It is. It would seem that Sicily is not so big after all.”
***
An hour later, Q left his wife at the hotel room to get cleaned up and changed for dinner and promised to return soon. Just outside the village, Q met the agent, who introduced himself as – yet another -- Pavel, and they embarked on a walk through the fields.
“I still can’t believe you found me.”
“That’s my job,” the man said with a smirk. “Thanks again for warning me about von Blomberg. Now that your wife is safely back at the hotel, will you tell me what you discussed with him?”
Q couldn’t be sure, but he believed he heard suspicion in the agent’s voice. “He offered me a job.”
“A job?” Pavel asked open-mouthed.
“Yes, he wants me to work for him at the Ministry of War. I declined.”
“Are you crazy?”
Now it was Q’s turn to drop his jaw. “Why? No! I can’t possibly work for him, now can I?”
Pavel shook his head. “This is quite unusual, but it’s a perfect opportunity. Think about all the intelligence you can gather from inside the Ministry of War!”
Q hadn’t thought about that. What Pavel said made sense, but he didn’t like the idea one bit. To work with the enemy – day in, day out. No. No. And no.
“I don’t think I could do that. I’d be afraid I’d blow my cover at the first opportunity.”
The agent scrutinized him. “Maybe you’re right. But you should definitely think about it.” He handed him a slip of paper with the name of Harro Schulze-Boysen and a telephone number.
“Who is this?”
“He’s the leader of a communist resistance group.”
“Military?” Q asked. He’d heard the name but couldn’t immediately place his affiliation.
“Air Force. He’s managed to maintain contact with the Soviet Union and the American authorities and has been warning both countries about the threats of war coming from within Germany.”
Q took the paper and tucked it into his pocket. “I’ll contact Schulze-Boysen, even though I believe working alone is safer.”
“Not in this case. You must join with others who feel the same way you do and are working on orchestrating the demise of the Hitler regime. It will not be easy, but there is strength in numbers. Remember that.”
“I will. Do you have any news from Germany?”
The agent shrugged. “Nothing special. On the surface, Germany and the Soviet Union appear to be on friendly terms. But the suspicion is high on both sides.”
“This I know,” Q said.
After discussing Stalin and how he was ruining the ideas of the November Revolution, Pavel gave him a last warning. “You need to be careful once you return to Germany. War is in the air, more so now than ever. It’s no longer safe for you to visit the Soviet trade mission. We will contact you from now on.”
“How will I know it’s your people?” Q rubbed his chin.
The Russian narrowed his eyes, thinking, then broke into a broad smile. “Ask them if the hike up Mount Etna is strenuous. The answer will be, ‘Not if
you intend it at night.’”
Q almost choked on that hilarious sentence. “I will certainly remember that.”
Chapter 10
Several weeks later, it was the end of summer, and Q and Hilde returned to Berlin. After spending four months in Italy and Switzerland, they felt like a distant relative who’s the only one to notice how much a child has changed and how many new things it has learned while they were gone.
Much in contrast to the relaxed and peaceful atmosphere on their honeymoon, the atmosphere in the German capital was dire, to say the least. They felt the steady decline of everything “good and human” at every step. Swastika flags hung out of the windows, reminding the passers-by of who ruled the country. Open harassment on the streets by violent Brownshirts who didn’t even attempt to hide their abuse.
Anyone and everyone could become the victim of scorn and maltreatment by SS or SA officers roaming the streets, but the Jews had to take the biggest share of vile persecution.
During the last few months, a strict racial segregation had been implemented throughout Germany. Jews were no longer allowed in the public parks, swimming pools, libraries, and basically any place people would spend their leisure time.
The Nazis had even gone so far as to segregate the compartments on the trains and buses, and during rush hour or in certain parts of the city, Jews weren’t allowed the use of any public transportation at all. Q wondered how they were supposed to go to work.
He decided to check up on his friend Jakob Goldmann, from whom he hadn’t heard since before they left on their honeymoon. But when Q paid a visit to Jakob’s apartment in the center of Berlin, he didn’t live there anymore. The landlady recognized Q from when he’d sublet a room from Jakob. She seemed to be uneasy as she explained that she’d had to terminate Mr. Goldmann’s lease because she couldn’t afford to do business with those persons.
Q thanked her and left, fuming inside about the injustice. The landlady had repeatedly praised Jakob for being such a good tenant. Quiet, clean, and always paying on time. And now he was considered undesirable because he belonged to those persons. He fisted his hand and punched the air, murmuring curse words under his breath.
Unyielding: Love and Resistance in WW2 Germany (World War II Trilogy) Page 5