‘Only a year or two older than myself.’
‘She looked a good deal older. You . . . well . . .’
‘I do not look my age. Actually, that has often been an advantage. London will confirm my command, Herr Doctor. But now, shall we begin with scales?’
*
Not for the first time Anna had been forced to place her life in the care of someone she did not altogether trust. She had no doubts about Corda’s patriotism, his commitment to Czechoslovakia, to the death of Heydrich. But she had to have doubts about his nerve.
Her sense of isolation grew, and increased when, at her next lesson, although Corda swore the message had gone off, there had been no reply.
‘I do not like it,’ he complained. ‘They must have decided to abort.’
‘I cannot believe that. Is the team still in Prague?’
‘It is in the country,’ he said cautiously. ‘Awaiting orders. They are becoming very anxious.’
‘Aren’t we all? But the confirmation will come. Be patient.’ It was the name of the game.
*
‘Well?’ Clive demanded.
Baxter knocked out his pipe. ‘Operation Daybreak will go ahead.’
‘Even if—’
‘It means sacrificing Anna? I put this to them, and their decision was that the death of Heydrich was more important than the life of one of our agents, no matter how important that life may be to you.’
‘That is barbarous.’
‘As I keep trying to knock into that thick skull of yours, war is by definition barbarous. People get killed. Only the end result matters. Send Corda a message with a question to ask Anna which only she can answer. That should satisfy him. And, Clive, I am sorry about Judith.’
‘As I am sure you will be sorry about Anna,’ Clive said bitterly.
‘Look, her instructions have not changed, except in so far as she is now dealing directly with the operators. She is still required only to supply place and time, not to get personally involved.’
‘Anna always gets personally involved,’ Clive reminded him, and left the office.
*
‘I have heard from London,’ Corda announced at their next lesson.
‘Well, thank heavens for that,’ Anna said.
‘They have sent me a question to ask you, which they say only the genuine Belinda can answer. I do not understand it myself. Are you prepared to hear it?’
‘Of course I am.’
‘They say I must ask you to give me a number. If it corresponds with the number they have given me, then you are genuine. It sounds like some kind of magician’s game. Does it make any sense to you?’
‘I think so. The number you want is twenty-one.’
Corda gazed at her, then looked down at the sheet of paper in front of him. ‘How could you possibly have known that?’
‘It is the number of people I have been forced to kill in the course of my profession.’
Corda’s head came up slowly. ‘You have killed twenty-one people? How old are you?’
‘I am coming up to my twenty-second birthday,’ Anna told him, ‘but I started young. Now let’s get down to business. What is the size of the team?’
‘We have three operatives. They are Czechs who left when the country was taken over by the Nazis. They have been serving with the British Army, and are of course volunteers.’
‘Do they regard this as a suicide mission?’
‘Only as a last resort. There are plans to get them out of the country when the operation is completed. Do you wish to meet them?’
‘No.’
Corda raised his eyebrows.
‘My orders are not to become personally involved, and under no circumstances must I risk being identified. Had it not been for Sotomayer’s catastrophe you would not know I exist. Now, tell me how many locals are involved.’
‘I have a team of ten.’
‘Ten?’
‘The operatives have to be housed and fed and concealed. They have now been here for some time, waiting to be informed as to their next opportunity. You know what happened the first time?’
‘I set it up.’
‘They had bad luck.’
‘Well, the next opportunity may be the last, if the task is to be completed before the quarry returns to Berlin for good. What is the armament situation? How much high explosive do they have?’
‘There is no high explosive. London asked us to procure some, if necessary by raiding Nazi armouries, but this has proved impossible. Your predecessor knew this.’
And never thought to tell me, Anna thought. On the other hand, Judith had also been told that she was not to be involved in the actual operation. ‘So what do they have?’
‘Pistols, a tommy gun, a high-velocity hunting rifle, and some grenades.’
Shit, she thought. Shit, shit, shit. ‘Do they realize that, as the plan to use the rifle misfired, and is not likely to recur, with those weapons it will be a matter of getting very close to the victim?’
‘Can’t we wait until he takes another train journey?’
‘It is unlikely that he will use the train again until he leaves for the last time. If we wait until then, and that again misfires, then the operation is a failure.’
‘Then what are we to do? Can they be smuggled into the castle?’
‘No.’
‘You must have a plan.’
Anna had already realized that in view of the limited weaponry available there was only one possible plan. Do not under any circumstances become involved, Clive had said. But Clive had also said that the operation had to be successful. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘But it will involve a direct confrontation with the bodyguard.’
‘You mean a shoot-out in the street?’ Corda was aghast. ‘They will have no hope of getting away. Heydrich always travels with bodyguards both in front and behind his car. And then there will be traffic, and people . . .’
‘I am aware of all of these things. But I believe it can be done, and that the operatives will be able to get away afterwards. You have a map of the city?’
Corda spread it on his desk.
‘Now,’ Anna said. ‘This is the route he always takes, from the house he is using to the castle.’ She traced it with her finger.
‘Do you not think we have been over this a thousand times?’ Corda asked. ‘It is a very carefully selected route. Heydrich may know nothing about Operation Daybreak . . .’ He paused to give her a sidelong glance, as if wondering if even that was true. ‘But he is not a fool. He knows how hated he is, and that one day a patriot may take a pot shot at him. So the route is through the very heart of the city, at rush hour every morning, when the streets are packed. The traffic is mostly bicycles, of course; only the Germans or their supporters are allowed a petrol ration. But in addition to the mere numbers of people, the crowds are always infiltrated with Gestapo watching and listening. There is no possibility of anyone drawing a pistol, much less waving a tommy gun, without instant pandemonium.’
‘I know all of that,’ Anna said. ‘But suppose the quarry were to turn off here, preferably without at least part of his escort . . .’ She indicated the corner. ‘That leads away from the business centre – goes round it, in fact – and rejoins it just before the castle. There are never many people there, and certainly no Gestapo.’
‘But why should he do that?’
‘Leave that with me. I will let you know the day, and all you have to do is place your men. Can you arrange a hand-pushed dray cart?’
‘I should think so.’
She picked up a pencil from the desk and made a mark on the street plan. ‘It should be positioned here. If all goes well the first escort will overshoot the corner. Heydrich’s car will turn sharp right. As it does so, the dray should start to cross the road, in front of the rear escort.’
‘If the rear escort is an armoured vehicle, as it usually is, will it not simply push the cart out of the way?’
‘Almost certainly.’
‘Then
what will be gained?’
‘A minute. Perhaps two. Even as much as five. Every minute counts. Now, you will have a man here, just round the corner, but in a position where he can be seen by the executive operators. A wave of his arm will indicate that this far everything is going to plan. No wave will mean either that something has gone wrong or that Heydrich is simply not turning off. But I am quite sure that he will do so.
‘Now, your two executives will be here, at the next corner, where there is the very sharp right-hand bend. One here, with the tommy gun, and one here with a pistol. The car will slow to make the turn. When it does, the man with the tommy gun should be able to spray it with bullets and make his escape before the escort can arrive. They will, in any event, be more anxious to make sure Heydrich is all right than thinking of taking off after the assassin. I will let you know, at one of these lessons, the day the operation can be carried out.’
‘How can you be sure he will take this diversion, at any time?’
‘I will be in the car.’
‘You? But . . . you will be killed. I will have to tell my people . . .’
‘No,’ Anna said. ‘They must be thinking only about killing Heydrich. That a woman is riding with him is her bad luck.’
He stared at her. ‘You wish to die?’
‘No. And as I know what is going to happen, I should not die. But this is the only way it can be done.’
*
Confident words, Anna thought, as she returned to the Castle. She was exceeding her orders, and putting herself in extreme danger. But there was no other way it could be done, no other way Heydrich could be persuaded to place his head in the noose. And if she made a mistake? She would have to rely on Himmler’s promise that he would look after her family. As for Clive, and Joe and Wild Bill and Baxter, they would surely be able to deduce what had happened, what she had done; there would be no reason for the Germans to suppress the name of the woman who had had the misfortune to be sitting beside the Reich-Protector when he was killed, and who had died with him.
The question was, when would she be able to make it happen? That depended on her being able to spend the night at Heydrich’s house.
‘It has been decided,’ Heydrich said. ‘I am to hand over my duties at the end of May, and return to Berlin on the first of June, when the official announcement of my new position as Deputy Fuehrer will be announced.’
‘Oh!’ Anna said.
‘You don’t look very pleased.’
‘It’s just that I can’t shrug off this feeling that once you are back in Berlin and installed as Deputy Fuehrer, you will have no more use for me.’
She was seated at her desk, and he leaned over to kiss the top of her head. ‘I shall always have a place, and a time, for you, Anna. I have become very fond of you, you know.’
‘Have you, Reinhard?’
‘You are about the only rock in my life. You know the situation. We live in a society filled with envy, with plots, with selfish determination to climb on other men’s, and women’s, backs to reach the goal we seek.’
She wondered if he realized he was talking about himself as much as anyone else.
‘But you,’ he went on, ‘you are different. You wish only to serve the Reich, and within the Reich, me. You are the most faithful of aides.’
Anna swallowed.
His hand caressed her neck. ‘Oh, I know that you were coerced into working for us. But I am growing to feel more and more with every day that you are now truly one of us. One of mine. My treasure.’
He was going to have her weeping in a moment. ‘I wish only to be at your side, Reinhard.’
‘And you will always be at my side, Anna. You have a birthday coming up, haven’t you?’
‘May twenty-first.’
‘When you will be twenty-two years old. May twenty-first. That is just a little too early for what I have in mind. Oh, we shall celebrate your birthday, but that will have to be here in this office. Do you remember that week we spent together in my villa in Bavaria, just before you went to Russia, two years ago?’
‘Yes, I do.’
‘I have the fondest memories of that week.’
No doubt he does, she thought. He had been at his most brutally sadistic, and she had had to gurgle with pleasure at everything he had done to her.
‘Are the memories pleasant for you also?’
‘Of the week, oh, entirely. But it was so closely followed by the Meissenbach affair, and then Russia.’
‘I know. I feel so guilty about having exposed you to that. It will not happen again.’
‘Sir?’
‘You are going on no more missions. You have done more than enough for the Reich. Now, as I have said, I want you at my side, always.’ His hand was still caressing her neck. ‘Take off your tie.’
Anna pulled the knot loose, laid the tie on the desk.
‘And unbutton your shirt.’
Again she obeyed, and his hand slipped inside to caress her breasts. She gave an obliging little shudder of pleasure.
‘I wish to repeat that week, and I do not know how soon my new official duties will give me the time to spend with you. Listen, as I said, your birthday is too early, but on the Tuesday, that is the twenty-sixth, my wife and daughter are leaving to return to Berlin, to put our house there in order. That gives us five days. I would like you to move in with me for those five days.’
Fortunately, he was still standing behind her, leaning against the back of her head, both of his hands now inside her shirt. He could not see her face. ‘People will talk,’ she murmured.
‘Let them. I will be gone at the weekend, and then I will be Deputy Fuehrer, beyond the reach of gossip.’
‘But if your wife were to find out . . .’
‘She too will have to accept the situation. I will make you the first lady of Germany.’
‘Do you think Fraulein Braun would accept that?’
‘She will have to. She must understand that when the Fuehrer retires she will be yesterday’s woman. In any event, she has never sought the limelight. I do not know whether this is her decision or the Fuehrer’s.’
‘And you think I seek the limelight?’
‘Whether you seek it or not, Anna, you belong in it. You belong in evening dress with naked shoulders and half-naked breasts, dripping with diamonds, with your hair loose down your back.’
What dreams men have, she thought. But she had protested long enough, and besides his massaging was now becoming uncomfortable. ‘You are turning my head.’
‘Anna . . . I would like to have a child by you. Would you not like to be a mother?’
Of a monster? ‘More than anything else in the world.’
‘Well, then, we shall start, on the five days we shall spend together before we return to Berlin. I will fuck you, morning, noon and night, and we will wear no protection.’
Shit, she thought, and not only because of the sex he was threatening her with. ‘You mean you will not be attending the office at all during that time?’
At last his hands moved. ‘I must, I am afraid. Duty before everything. There is always someone to be hanged, eh? But I shall come in on mornings only, for a few hours. The rest of the days, and the nights, will be ours.’
‘You’re giving me goose pimples.’ she murmured, turning her face for a kiss.
*
‘It must be Wednesday, the twenty-seventh of May,’ Anna said.
Corda frowned. ‘That is still a month away.’
‘It is the first time the plan will be available. But it may also be the last. There can be no slip-ups. And it will give you time to prepare, not only your people but the escape route for the operatives.’
‘And you can guarantee that he will use the route on that day?’
‘Yes. But I cannot guarantee the exact time. I know it will be early, but it may be half an hour each way. Your people must be in position from half past seven. You say you have three. Remember, one must be on the corner of the turn-off. His task wi
ll be to signal the two executives. They should be waiting at the next corner, where the sharp turn is. You say they are absolutely reliable?’
‘They are the very best, and they are dedicated.’
‘Very good. Now, you can give them the rough outline of the plan, so that they can reconnoitre the ground, but the details are not to be given until the day before, that is, Tuesday the twenty-sixth. On that day you will give them their final orders. These are that they should kill the driver and the bodyguard, who will be sitting beside him in the front, as well as Heydrich, of course. None of the three must survive to say what happened.’
‘You are taking a terrible risk. If they are spraying the car with machine-gun bullets . . .’
‘The moment I see them, I am going to drop to the floor of the car. But they must kill the men and then make off. The escort will be close behind.’
‘It is still an immense risk for you to take. You are a very brave woman, Countess.’
‘Let us just say that I am committed. But I have every intention of surviving.’ As I have done so often before, she thought. But at this level she had survived only by failing to carry out the assignment. This time there was no room for failure.
*
As so often before, the waiting was the most difficult part, especially when she had so little to do with her time. Even her music lessons were now redundant, but she maintained them as part of her plan. Every week Corda looked at her with glowing, longing eyes. He was sure she was going to die. But then, Feutlanger looked at her the same way; he knew she was on the verge of escaping him, perhaps forever.
And needless to say, there was a letter from Himmler. I need what you have, urgently. It is going to happen on June 1. To which she replied: It will never happen, my Reichsfuehrer. I have the means to stop it. You will know of it by the end of May.
And then, finally, the day itself came. Heydrich rested on his elbow as he looked down at her. ‘Last night was the best I have ever had. Was it like that for you?’
‘The best,’ she assured him.
‘Anna, I love you. Do you know what I am going to do? I am going to divorce my wife and marry you.’
Oh, my God! She could only put her arms round him and bring him down for a kiss. Only Ballantine Bordman had ever proposed marriage to her before. And this man had less than three hours to live! She hated him, and everything he stood for, everything he had made her do, everything his Nazi regime stood for. She had dreamed of his destruction for three years. And now she felt weaker than at any moment in her life.
Angel of Vengeance_The thrilling sequel to Angel in Red Page 24