The words died on his lips. I had left the porthole to put down my glass on a low table. Incredulity and amazement showed in his face as his eyes fell on the opening in my shirt, which sagged open, buttonless, as I bent down.
The Knight's Cross hung on its golden chain.
He started forward and snatched it so that the chain broke.
'Where did you get this?' he managed to say in a strangled voice.
'Read the back,' I said.
His hands were shaking so that he could hardly turn it over.
'"Korvettenkapitan Dieter Rhennin. L7-68.. May 1942." Did… did you find Dieter's body?'
'No,' I replied. 'I didn't find a body. I found a graveyard, though. First I want to know who Dieter Rhennin was.'
'He was my brother. Is he dead?'
I told him about Shelborne's death-in-life acre overlooking the sea. He sat down hard on the desk chair. The strip lighting blanked out his right side, etching the left in severe, tired strokes. In the middle of what I started to say he got up and splashed three more brandies for us, without asking.
'What was Dieter Rhennin doing at Mercury?' I asked.
He said slowly, 'I was once a German Naval Intelligence officer. I mean to find out.'
'At the expense of the Mazy Zed project?'
'No,' he said. 'Let me tell you.' He ran his hand through his hair and closed his eyes. 'I used to be personal staff officer to the Oberbefehlshaber der Marine — the High Command Number One. You get used to sorting things out.'
'But you didn't sort out your brother's death — that's why the sight of that gave you a shock. What has Dieter's death got to do with the Mazy Zed?'.' I demanded.
'I knew he was in the area. He and five U-boats. A whole U-boat Rudel, a wolf-pack as you call it.'
'What were they doing?'
He replied, 'Korventtenkapitan Rhennin was one of the most daring of the latter-day U-boat aces. He was too late for the great early battles in the North Atlantic, but still he won this…' He balanced the diamond-studded Knight's Cross in his hand. 'He had the same dash, the same intuitive flair for the Schwerpunkt as the great captains…'
'Schwerpunkt?'
He gestured with his hand. 'Our U-boat terms — the British and the Americans hardly understood them. The U-boat men used words which began as having one meaning and then, in the Western Approaches, the blood and the flames and sinkings passed into the words and they mutated. They had a name for diesel oil which meant death by choking, death by flame. Death could come via a crack in the casing under the depth-charges… There were delicate nuances of meaning… It could come through nothing more than a blurred periscope graticule…'
Mary prompted him: ' Schwerpunkt?'
'Ah, yes,' he replied. 'The centre of gravity, perhaps we might translate it thus.' The English term was bald and cold compared to the mystic savour he gave it; he had been at the heart of the U-boat offensive. 'A convoy, a port, a warship, any of these might be a Schwerpunkt. Not a target. A pivotal point, whose destruction might be success or failure. It takes a great captain to know where that centre of gravity is when everything is fire, explosion, sudden death.'
We waited. The air conditioner whined, the pumps thudded.
His words became a torrent: 'They gave Dieter four of the finest U-boat captains. He himself was the fifth; there was no doubt about the choice of leader. The boats were all new — the IXC class, all of them, eighteen knots on the surface, seven submerged; each had six torpedo tubes and a crew of forty-eight. They made up Gruppe Eisbar, the Polar Bear Group. They sailed to destroy the British round the Cape of Good Hope. My brother sent a signal. The attack was ready…'
I thought of the almost magical prognostications of the Submarine Tracking Room at the Admiralty.
They were all sunk,' I said.
He looked at the Knight's Cross. 'I wish to God I knew.' In his agitation he repeated himself. 'They rendezvoused and sent a signal. Then — Gruppe Eisbar vanished.'
Mary said, 'The British knew the rendezvous? Where was it?'
Rhennin's voice was thick. He waved to the porthole. 'Angras Juntas. The bay of the meeting of the captains.'
The old Portuguese name for the bay! Four hundred years ago Henry the Navigator's captains had gathered here to find a way to sail across the world. What had been Gruppe Eisbar's mission?
Mary was obviously mystified by the dramatic disappearance of the crack squadron.
Rhennin went on, 'There are four faces to the kill when the U-boat is hunting. Dieter — first, the awareness of the victim: tension, lips thrust forward, eyes leftwards under the Turcoman cap he always wore in action; second, close for the attack, cap gone, lips parted, death and pity, the eyes shadowed; third, the widening of the nostrils, the head thrown back, the desperate ticking of the seconds on the stop-watch while the torpedoes run; fourth, the smile, the relaxed smile of success.'
Mary was staring at him. I remembered Shelborne's symbols of life and death.
'You hear death in the noise of your own motor alternator when they've forced you 400 feet down, those British destroyers above with the ping-scratch of the Asdic. You've got to use the compass gyroscope and hydrophones in spite of the noise of that motor. You know it is death to use it; it might be death not to.'
It was fully a minute before I broke in, he was so carried away. 'Why Angras Juntas, Felix? There's more to this than meets the eye, — it's like Shelborne. Five U-boats… a powerful raiding force like Gruppe Eisbar does not simply disappear. There are signals, prearranged exchanges, orders between such a group and operations staff. It is still easy to check back: all the records of U-boat operations were published at the time of the Nuremberg trials.'
'Seekriegsleitung was a highly efficient machine,' replied Rhennin. 'I should know. I was at headquarters.'
'Why didn't Seekriegsleitung order Gruppe Eisbar to rendezvous on the high seas in the safe area south of St Helena? Dieter wasn't after shipping at the Cape, was he? Was he looking for what you are looking for: diamonds!'
A slight flush spread up Rhennin's face. For a moment I thought he would get up and thump the table in the best German officer manner, — instead he poured himself another stiff drink, tossing the Knight's Cross up and down in his palm.
'Yes, John, you are right, they were after diamonds. This is the story: it was a double mission. I'm speaking of June-July 1942. British shipping was pouring round the Cape in the build-up of men and supplies for the Battle of El Alamein. SKL — Seekriegsleitung — guessed that the British knew after they had sunk the Bismarck in 1941- that we had a refuelling rendezvous deep in the South Atlantic near St Helena. The British patiently gathered their information. Then they struck. I forget how many vital supply ships we lost when they did. So Seekriegsleitung decided to assign Gruppe Eisbar a land rendezvous. Angras Juntas would be safe, we reckoned. It was out of range of the land-sea patrols and the nearest radar was 300 miles away. There were no humans except a few Bushmen in the desert.'
Mary said, 'I remember the excitement in Cape Town when the U-boats came close.'
Rhennin smiled faintly. That must have been later. Before Gruppe Eisbar the U-boats had left the Cape route alone. Polar Bear was meant to be the big — the first — surprise. In June 1942 a convoy of fifty-three ships was to gather in Table Bay, headed by the Queen Mary, with a whole division of troops aboard. There was also the Mauretania, the Aquitania, the lie de France, all big ships. Gruppe Eisbar had orders to annihilate the convoy.'
'Indiscriminately?'
Rhennin nodded. 'Indiscriminately. At anchor, in Table Bay. Cape Town's defences were worth nothing: the air patrols were poor and the radar useless.'
Rhennin was too sure, too confident. Gruppe Eisbar had probably foundered on similar cocksureness.
'I suppose Gruppe Eisbar finished up in the British minefields guarding the port.'
Rhennin shook his head. 'No. We knew where the minefields were. The British had put a new channel into use just before the c
onvoy arrived. We had sent another U-boat in weeks before to reconnoitre. We could scarcely believe her report that a hostile port was so lightly defended. Everything was like peace-time. There was no black-out and the lighthouses were all shining.'
'Walvis Bay was an alternative mustering-place for the deep-sea convoys.' I added.
'I know,' he went on irritably. 'We all knew. The Rudel, the Gruppe Eisbar wolf-pack, followed our surface raiders' Route Anton — the German secret route through the South Atlantic where U-boats were forbidden to attack — and they were off Angras Juntas on schedule. One of the boats — U-504 I think it was — had some trouble with her hydroplanes, but she kept station. The captains used to say later that the hydroplanes of the big boats were too small to keep them steady in the heavy seas of the Cape of Storms and you only have to read their logs to see how many torpedoes they wasted because of this…'
Mary said diffidently, breaking in, 'I suppose the Royal Navy intercepted Gruppe Eisbar.'
'No! no! The British never sank Gruppe Eisbar! I've been through all the Nuremberg records. The British South Atlantic Command knew that U-boats were on the way to attack the Cape, but only in a general way, nothing particular. No, Gruppe Eisbar simply vanished. It caused the greatest dismay and heart-searching at headquarters.'
I shook my head. 'Five U-boats, armed to the teeth, with fighting crews, don't vanish without a trace. There would be some wreckage, oil, clothing — something.'
'I know! I know!' He clenched his fists. 'I know! Listen!' He wrenched open a drawer of the desk and pulled out a paper. 'This is my brother's sighting signal. It was in code, of course, but here it is plain: Commander Eisbar to OKM. Rendezvous on schedule. No sign defences or enemy activity. Shore recognition signal satisfactory.'
'Shore recognition signal?'
He laughed uneasily. 'I see you are both bursting to know about the diamonds. After all, whether or not Gruppe Eisbar was lost or not lost, and whether my brother lived or died, is purely of academic interest to you.'
'Are you looking for U-boat wreckage with the Mazy Zed's equipment and not for diamonds at all?'
'No, Mary, it's diamonds I'm after all right.'
I added, 'And Dieter was after diamonds too.'
'Not the same diamonds or in the same way,' he replied. Some of the tension seemed to go out of him. 'You remember, Caldwell's concession was countersigned by Goering, Reichskommissionar for the Protectorate of Luderitzland, the Luftwaffe chief's father? Doctor Heinrich Goering had the same love of finery and medals as our Field-Marshal. Bismarck sent him out originally to get the local native and Hottentot chiefs on Germany's side. South-west Africa was then the centre of a big diplomatic game. Doctor Goering, in white uniform, cocked hat, sword chased in gold, rode in as the conqueror. He had an army with him — twenty half-castes, riding broken-down donkeys! Goering himself rode an ox. It was pure comic opera.'
'Luftwaffe Goering wasn't comic opera,' said Mary.
'Nor was this Goering really,' said Rhennin. 'He was in fact very shrewd. He also became one of the world's richest men. He could have bought out a brace of Rockefellers.'
'So Goering sent out a powerful U-boat raiding force…'
'Goering didn't. But Gruppe Eisbar was, nevertheless, to bring home the bacon, the Goering bacon of diamonds to Germany. He had enough stashed away in a cave on the Sperrgebiet coast to have made a big impression on neutral countries at a time when Germany's economy was on the rocks…'
'Come, come,' I interjected. 'Not enough to make any difference to Germany's bankruptcy. I don't believe it.'
'We wanted the hoard as a showpiece to create the impression among South American neutrals that we had millions and millions more like it,' Rhennin replied.
'And Dieter required five U-boats to convey the cache, which at most could not have weighed as much as a quarter of a sack of coal?'
Rhennin flushed at my tone. 'No. I said, it was a double operation. The shore recognition signal was from a spy who knew exactly where the sea cave was. It wasn't situated at Angras Juntas, that I know. I never saw Dieter's secret orders. Dieter, as commander of the Gruppe, would carry the diamonds. The U-boats would then go on to the Cape and destroy the great convoy. Tormentoso, the British gave it a code-name. Not very imaginative.'
'Cabo Tormentoso — the Cape of Storms,' echoed Mary.
I said, 'Divide the cache between four U-boat captains and 240 men, and you still have a sizeable fortune left for every individual. Winner's pickings to the commander, too, in the best piratical style.'
Rhennin didn't explode, as I thought he would do. 'The same was said by even those who knew and trusted Dieter,' he replied levelly. 'Every German agent in South America was warned to watch out for Korvettenkapitan Rhennin and his- notorious Gruppe Eisbar, if he showed up. He never did. Gruppe Eisbar simply vanished.'
'Where was the sea cave?' asked Mary.
'It was somewhere close to Angras Juntas — .the spy knew where. Local knowledge was essential to find it.' -
I said quietly. 'Below Mercury lies just such a sea cave — the Glory Hole. No one has entered it. In the graveyard above I found that.'
Mary exclaimed, 'Shelborne could not have done it!'
Rhennin's eyes blazed. 'No, one man cannot destroy a whole U-boat pack. But we shall go and have a look. I, too, mean to see what is inside the Glory Hole.'
'So do I,' I said. I went into some detail of my dispute with Shelborne aboard the Gquma and then of his oddly co-operative mood, by contrast, at Mercury itself.
'The key to it all seems to be, who was the spy?' said Mary.'
'Shelborne?' I followed up.
'No, no,' replied Rhennin. 'I know who he was — don't forget, I was right in on it as one of the most senior officers in German Naval Intelligence. His name was Werner, Abel Werner. He had worked for the old German Administration in South-west Africa.'
'Could have been Shelborne masquerading under another name. He knows every hidey-hole on the coast. In war-time it would have been easy for him to have slipped down the coast and taken over the spy's role…'
Rhennin laughed. 'You've got Shelborne on the brain, John. Grant you everything: so Shelborne, single-handed, disposes of five U-boats and their crews and successfully conceals hundreds of bodies and five submarine hulls? No!'
There is his graveyard…' I replied lamely; but what Rhennin said was›true.
He went on grimly: 'I intend to look into that, too, John, even if I have to break open every coffin to find Dieter's body.'
Mary shuddered. 'You know, people are as different as diamonds — they also feel different from one another. Today's diamonds were the coldest I've ever touched. Ordinarily the stones are cold — it's not like touching glass, you know — but today's from the sea were the coldest.'
Rhennin said, 'My study of the old records showed that on the Sperrgebiet coast they increase in average size as one moves north…'
I said meaningly, 'Towards Mercury and towards Strandloper's Water.'
'Schwerpunkt,' said Mary. 'Centre of gravity.'
'By God!' exclaimed Rhennin. 'Yes, by God!'
She went on: 'You are both set on going to Mercury, for the diamonds and for your brother, Felix.'
I interrupted. 'Felix, was there any indication that the Goering cache was — protected?'
'Protected? We were certain there were no defences!'
'No, not that sort of defences.'
He came nearer to me, and I thought I detected some fear in his eyes. 'Well, how were they defended then, if not militarily? The only other enemy we had was the sea.'
I picked my words. 'If there were some other guardian, a guardian capable of disposing of five U-boats and their fighting crews?'
'What are you driving at, John?'
I told them about the Bells of St Mary's, and of Koeltas's fears and those of the seal robbers. Mary seemed paler in the cold light.
Rhennin shook his head like a boxer after a head punch. 'And this — guar
dian you call it — Shelborne controls?'
'Not controls. I think he understands it.'
'Isn't he afraid of it?'
'He's afraid of it all right.'
'Why?'
'Otherwise he would have exploited his secret. I believe he also knows how the diamonds are distributed from the fountainhead to the point where the currents take over.'
There was a long silence. The thudding of the pumps echoed my heart beats.
'A guardian of the hoard, that Shelborne understands but is afraid of.' Rhennin turned it over. 'I mean to find out what it is.'
'You'll take the Mazy Zed to Mercury then?'
'We'll cut the diamond run tomorrow.'
Mary said, 'I want some fresh air after this superheated discussion. Take me up on deck please, John.'
'One last thing, Felix: your U-boats didn't carry grabs or dredges — equipment like that?'
'No. What they were after was transportable; they weren't trying to mine diamonds.'
'Was there nothing else at all…?'
'Dieter had orders to report by radio every day at 1700 hours. SKL chose that time specially for the South Atlantic because it is half-light and half-dark and a submarine surfaced is very difficult to spot. When he reached Angras Juntas, Dieter signalled dead on time. A U-boat captain would unless he were in big trouble. Then nothing. Nor ever again. But…'
'Yes?'
'One of our surface raiders, the Lohengrin, was near St Helena the day after Dieter signalled from Angras Juntas. She reported receiving a garbled message shortly before 1700 hours. It was a jumble — not code, not anything. But en clair half-way through it said plainly in German, "fouler Zauber". You could translate it by "silly humbug".'
'Lohengrin didn't get a D/F bearing on the message?'
'No. It was quite strong, but hopelessly confused. It was German, but where it came from was anyone's guess.'
'St Helena,' I said. 'She was close enough to Angras Juntas then to pick up even a weak message.'
'Or close enough to Mercury,' said Rhennin.
We left him silent, preoccupied, and went on deck. The night was dark except for Orion's studded belt. We paused at a pair of steel nozzles, each as tall as myself, in a rack. The intakes were strongly shielded by thick metal bands. These were the 'Hoovers' for the ocean bed. Compressed air, forced down a small inner pipe, bubbled and disturbed the mud, — water rushed into and up the outside pipe into the Mazy Zed's sorting machinery. It was the jet lift principle applied on a massive scale.
The River of Diamonds Page 14