“I’ll take that drink.” Henry strode across the room to the desk and poured himself a couple of fingers worth. He emptied the glass and pointed to Lillian. “What about this name? This other thing? I thought we were just here for the codebook.”
“Not now.”
“Yes, now. What are you not telling me?”
“It’s a personal thing,” Lillian asserted. “Between James and me.”
Elsa said, “If there’s something you have to say, I’d like to hear it as well.” Her tone was icy. “But I’m less interested in that and more in this book you keep talking about.” She turned to her husband. “James, what have you done?”
“Nothing.” James poured himself a glass of whiskey and gulped it down. “Yet.”
“James.” Lillian’s tone took on a menacing, somewhat worried tone. “Talk. Where is the book?”
James Geiger inhaled deeply and stood ramrod-straight. “There is no codebook.” He tapped his temple. “It’s all in here. If you want what I know, you’ll have to get me and my wife to England.”
CHAPTER 37
Lillian Saxton stood rooted to the floor, speechless. Her vision dizzied. She reached out and steadied herself on a chair. She frowned at the floor, studying the weave. What did James just say?
Confusion. Anger. Disbelief. All swirled within her and more. She sputtered a few sounds that were supposed to be words, but none came out of her intelligibly.
Henry proved the first one to speak. “Are you telling me there is no codebook?”
James looked up at him. “That’s right. It’s in my head.”
“You can’t possibly know the code and how it works.”
Lillian’s brain and mouth finally teamed up and made sense. She nodded. “Yes, he can.” She took a few deep breaths. “James Geiger is a genius in mathematics. That’s what he studied at Oxford. A few times he even took the professors to task. Late in our senior year, he was invited to return as a guest lecturer. If he’d wanted to, he could have gone on straight to Ph.D. work. He’s that smart.”
She turned to James, staring at him in disbelief. “But that’s not what he wanted to do. He wanted to stay in Germany. He liked the build-up of arms and the military. He liked German precision. He wanted me to stay with him. I didn’t want to.” Out of the corner of her eye, Lillian saw Elsa jump with shock. “That’s why we broke it off.” She moved closer to James. “And now, you present me with this ultimatum? You lied!” Lillian swung an arm and slapped James across the face. The strike sounded loud in the room.
Elsa moved to James. Henry stepped behind Lillian. He reached for her arm but she shrugged it away. “Back off, Henry. I still have questions for him.”
“So do I,” the British agent said. “James, are you serious about this? You want us to get you out of Belgium?”
James, a hand to his reddening cheek, nodded. “It’s the only way I know we can be safe.”
“Safe from whom?” Henry said.
“The Nazi high command. They’ve never trusted me.”
Lillian grunted. “Guess they know you pretty well.”
“What makes you think they’re after you?” Henry poured himself more whiskey. He poured another glass and gave it to Lillian, who took it.
“I’m an American,” James said in a matter-of-fact tone. He smiled sheepishly and shrugged. “It never mattered that I chose to stay in Germany. Chose to work in a munitions factory, using my skills in math to help them build better projectiles. Fell in love with a German girl and married her. None of that mattered to the Germans. It doesn’t even matter that I’m from Fredericksburg, Texas, which is like Germany but in Texas. They always had a level of distrust toward me that I could never shake.”
He turned to Henry and Lillian and continued. “It started small, so small I never noticed. My bosses at the factory would ask pointed questions of me. As good as I am with math, I’m not always the best in reading people. It took me a little while before I realized the questions they asked me were based on conversations I’d had in the privacy of my own home. They were listening in on me, on Elsa,” he paused, the finished. “And us together.”
James paced the room. “I started seeing things. Papers I’d left on my desk slightly off. Envelopes of letters with subtle signs of being opened, read, and resealed. For all I knew, I was being followed and photographed. I’d seen how the spy organization in Berlin tracks foreign nationals. I helped them create a more efficient system. The system I created then turned on me. I had no evidence, but I knew.”
Lillian threw back her whiskey in one gulp. She knew how James was. He was building a case, just as he had done to the poor mathematics professors back at Oxford right before he laid out the answer they couldn’t see.
“Things got so bad,” James continued, “that some of our friends gave us the cold shoulder. Not in any bad way, but ever since Poland, there has been a distance between us and them. Dinners planned that were cancelled at the last minute. Invitations given but declined. All the reasons were legitimate, but there started to be an isolation, a distrust. I didn’t want that. I started to think of a way to change our situation.”
James turned to Elsa. “I’m sorry, my love. This was the only way the three of us could truly be safe.”
Lillian raised her head. “Three of us?”
James put his arm around his wife. “Yes. Elsa is pregnant.”
CHAPTER 38
Something in Lillian’s stomach lurched. She wanted to throw up. Instead, she stared at James in disbelief.
“I can’t believe this. You contact me—me of all people—to come all the way here with the promise of a Nazi codebook all the while you planned on dropping this little bombshell? Why? Why me? Why not Frank? Wait, did he know about this?”
“Not at all,” James said. “Even Elsa didn’t know until just now. That’s how secret I kept it.”
“Brilliant. You’re so damned perfect when it comes to keeping secrets. But again, why me?”
James grinned. “Because of who you have become.”
Lillian frowned at that. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Lil, you’re a soldier now. And, more important, you’re an American soldier, one that the spies in Germany don’t know about.” He spread his arms, palms up. “What better person to help us escape Europe than a soldier from a country with which Germany is not at war? And from a neutral city.”
Lillian narrowed her eyes and jammed a finger in James’s chest. “You played me! My brother’s killer. That just another carrot you dangled in front of my eyes?”
James shook his head. “I know his name. Get us to Britain and you’ll get his name.”
Lillian reached out and grabbed his lapels. She hauled him directly in front of his face. “Tell me now. I’m in no mood to help you do anything.” She ground her teeth and snarled at James. “You like that I’m a soldier now. That means I’ve learned ways to make people talk. Want me to show you?”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”
Henry moved next to them. With his powerful grip, he unclenched Lillian’s fingers from James’s jacket. “This isn’t the time or the place.”
“Why the hell not? He lied to you, too.”
“No. You did.”
Lillian started. “What are you talking about?”
Henry gave her a steady gaze. “In all the talk about the codebook and avenging Ludlow, never once did you mention anything about getting the name of your brother’s killer.”
“That’s because it’s personal.”
“Maybe, but it became something more when I got involved.”
He pulled her arm away from James. She wrenched it out of his grip and walked across the room. She put her back to everyone in the room. She wanted to make sure none of them saw how angry and bitter she was. She listened instead of saying anything.
Henry said, “In case you haven’t figured it out, I do work for the British government, but I’m not an accountant.”
“I know,” James said.
Lillian turned. “What?”
Henry’s head was cocked. “How?”
“You were part of our group in Liverpool,” James said. “One of our agents, Johannes Bauer, sent us a photograph of you. We didn’t suspect you were British Intelligence, but it was obvious when I saw you sitting at the table downstairs.” He took Elsa’s hand in his. “It’s why I am formally requesting asylum in your country. I can work with your government and tell everything I know about Nazi codes. In exchange, after the war, I want safe passage to America where my wife and I can raise our children in peace.”
Elsa yanked her hand away. “James, you never asked what I wanted.”
He took her hand in his again. “Elsa, it’s too dangerous here. The war has started. The invasion is imminent. Let’s flee to safety before something goes wrong.”
At the door came the sound of a key entering the lock. The key turned, the lock chunked back into place, and the door opened. All eyes turned to the person who entered the room.
Henry Clark drew his gun and had it at the ready.
James and Elsa Geiger turned to face the door. They still held hands.
Lillian Saxton plunged her hand into her purse. Before she withdrew her gun, however, she saw who stood in the doorway. Her jaw dropped open.
CHAPTER 39
“Professor Graf?” Lillian Saxton stared at the man in the doorway. He looked like her old history professor from her semester abroad in Berlin. James and Frank had both gone with her. It was the time in which she chose James over Frank.
The man standing in front of her was older and grayer, but still possessed a light in his eyes. This man, if it was Graf, wore a Nazi uniform. He also held a gun aimed at the room.
“I’m so pleased you remember me, Miss Saxton,” the man said in near-perfect, lightly accented English. “I’ll admit I’m very surprised that you are the mystery woman my agents have been talking about these past few days.” He gave a slight shrug. “I guess I should have assumed it might’ve been you considering Frank Monroe and James here are involved. But seeing as how it ended those years ago, I didn’t think James would have the stupidity the call you. But call you he did, and now you’re here.”
Graf whistled. Two men and one woman entered the room. All of them wore Nazi uniforms. All carried pistols.
“Agent Clark,” Graf said to Henry, “it would be advisable if you hand over your weapon.”
“What if I don’t want to?” Henry still had his gun aimed at Graf. “I could drop you where you stand.”
“And my people would drop you. Is that what you want?”
“One less Nazi colonel in the world would make the sacrifice worth it.”
“Maybe,” Graf said. “But I could say the same thing about one less British Intelligence officer.” Raising his voice, he called, “Get your hand out of your purse, Miss Saxton.”
Lillian’s hand froze. She weighed her options. It didn’t take long. She had none. Graf’s partners all had their guns trained on her, Henry, James, and Elsa. Henry had two aimed at him.
Not now. There will be another time.
“If you’re the soldier James says you are,” Graf went on, “then you will have determined your position is hopeless. Same for you, Agent Clark. Make your decision.”
Henry and Lillian exchanged a glance. She nodded. “Removing my hand,” she declared. Slowly, she lifted her hand out of her purse. The woman Nazi snatched the purse from Lillian’s grasp.
Spreading his hands wide and lifting his pistol high into the air, Henry surrendered as well. One of Graf’s men took the pistol while the other one frisked Henry. The Nazi was thorough and found Henry’s knife. He took the blade and pocketed it.
“What about them?” the woman soldier asked. She spoke German.
“I don’t think they’re carrying,” Graf said, also in German. “Search them anyway.”
The woman soldier did the honors for both James and Elsa. James was decidedly uncomfortable at the thoroughness of the search. The woman soldier grinned maliciously.
“They’re clean,” the woman said. She came to stand next to Graf as did the other two soldiers.
Graf relaxed. He holstered his pistol and smiled. “This is like a class reunion. Who knew I’d have the chance to see you again, Miss Saxton.”
“It’s Sergeant Saxton,” Lillian blurted.
Graf raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. “Sergeant Saxton, then. As such, of course, that makes you a prisoner of war. A valuable one at that. Are you here in a military context?”
“No. Just seeing an old friend.”
Graf’s features took on a mock doubting appearance. “Secret Nazi codebooks, the promise of asylum for a German citizen and her traitorous husband? That is the very definition of a military operation. We’re already at war with you.” This last Graf said to Henry. “But you, Sergeant,”—he turned back to Lillian—“ here, in Europe. That is something der Führer can use in his propaganda.”
After her initial surprise and shock, Lillian finally started thinking like the soldier she was. It was clear to her that this was neither the time or place to make a stand. Instead, it was was time to gather some intelligence.
“So James was correct when he feared he was being watched. Why?”
“He said so himself. He is an American. No matter how much he professes his loyalty to das Veterland and der Führer, some in my government didn’t trust him. I told them Herr Geiger could be trusted. Look who’s the fool now.”
Lillian kept her hands in view, but walked over to the desk. “Whiskey?” She poured herself some, then added some of the brown liquid in another glass. She carried it over to Graf and offered it to him.
He took it. “Thank you.” They both sipped while everyone in the room watched. Graf said, “Who would have known you would turn out to be a soldier? I thought you were destined to spend your days as someone’s little wife.”
In her mind’s eye, Lillian saw herself tossing her whiskey in Graf’s face. With a comment like that, Graf deserved that and more. A few strategic punches to the face and weak spots would easily have Graf sputtering on the ground.
But he wasn’t alone. Even with Henry helping, Lillian knew she couldn’t take out these four Nazis and escape. Who knew if there were any more around? Even if she and Henry fought their way out, what would the next move be? Go back to Britain without the codebook? Without the name of her brother’s killer? That was not an option. Not here and not now.
Instead, she merely smiled.
“What’s so funny?” Graf asked.
“The idea that people don’t change.”
Graf himself laughed out loud at that. “Sergeant, in all my years of teaching, if there’s one thing I have seen is that people, by the time they are in university, have pretty much been set in their ways. I am basically the same man I was twenty years ago.”
Lillian finished her whiskey. She took Graf’s glass from his hand and returned both to the desk. “So, what happens now? We’re in a neutral country. You have no jurisdiction here. You’ll just have to figure out a way to get us out of here.”
“That part is already taken care of.”
“How?” Henry said.
“Simple. We merely have to wait for the Wermarcht to get here.”
It was Henry’s turn to laugh. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Graf checked his watch. Lillian noted the time on the clock on the wall behind him. “Eleven p.m. An hour before midnight.” He spoke with deadly seriousness. “It means the invasion starts in five hours.”
CHAPTER 40
“How can you think of sleep at a time like this?” Lillian Saxton demanded of Henry Clark.
It had been half an hour since Colonel Graf and his minions had stormed into the room and taken them all captive. After the colonel’s bold declaration that the invasion was soon to start, he had told his prisoners they would be confined in the Geigers’ suite until the Wehrmacht arrived.
“I suspect it will be days,” Graf said. “I mean, it’s only the Belgian Army that stands in our way.” He and his staff had chuckled at that. The four prisoners remained stoic.
The suite was simply a large hotel room. The full-size bed sat on the east wall, with a writing desk and chair on the south wall and a closet and bathroom on the west wall. The north wall housed the only door out of the room and a small coat closet. The south wall also sported the only window. Patrons could open the window to let in air. A small wrought-iron barricade covered the lower third of the open space that led to the concrete ledge outside.
Soon after the Nazis had left, Henry started giving orders. “You have any weapons in your bags?”
James shook his head no.
To Else, he said, “How far along are you?”
“Six weeks, maybe seven.”
“Good. That’ll make it somewhat easier when we escape.” He nodded. “Okay, we need to get some sleep. The Geigers get the bed. Lillian and I will sleep on the floor.”
Lillian, who had watched this display of leadership, finally asked her question.
“First order of warfare: be as rested as possible.” Henry held a blanket from the coat closet. “Shall we share this?”
“That’s not the point,” Lillian asserted. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
Henry indicated the door with a slight nod. “Not tonight.”
Lillian pointed at the window. “What about that?”
Henry spread his arm out to indicate James and Elsa. Fear at their situation and anger at her husband clouded Elsa’s face. James appeared impassive.
“Not with them.”
Lillian frowned. “What?”
“They are the mission now. Well, James is. Look, before Ludlow died, he didn’t entirely trust you. Turns out his instincts were correct.” He let that insult sting Lillian for a few moments. “The last thing he told me was the only thing that mattered was the codebook. Well, we don’t have a codebook, but we have his brain and knowledge. Thus, the only mission is him.”
Ulterior Objectives: A Lillian Saxton Thriller Page 20