Betrayal

by J. Robert Janes

1 While there were, even in England, vast differences from area to area in what was and was not available, a reference to a Dublin visit in February 1942 gave the peace of lighted streets and consuming all the butter, meat and alcohol wanted. Even in 1944, a hotel menu taken back to London produced tears. There were shortages but in general these were never as harsh as in England. Fuel was the major concern and it became desperate.

  2 By the war’s end, those who had left to work in factories in Britain had all but cured Southern Ireland’s unemployment.

  3 A nanny.

  9

  From the gatehouse and the barbican, the rampart walk ran westwards for a good three hundred feet to the cantling tower. Buffeted by the wind, Mary stood alone, first looking uncertainly towards the tower and then back at the door through which she had just come.

  When she tried to return, she found that door locked. There were no sentries in evidence, no machine-gun emplacements, just the rampart walk with its crenellated battlements, the wind gusting and, in the near distance atop the tower, a ragged flock of rooks tearing across a cloud-riven sky.

  Trant had washed his hands of her. He must have had a note delivered straight to the German High Command: Have Kramer and the other officers of U-121 sent to his office immediately. No time for her to figure out what to do or say, none even to try to hide. There’d be no bullet in the back or messy trial, simply another murder in a prison full of German officers some of whom had already done in one of their own.

  It would stick all right because she could have named them as the killers of Bachmann. Trant wouldn’t want the High Command to hear the complete message nor the prisoners to get their hands on the rest of the dynamite, would have to let them kill her.

  The castle’s warren began with a corridor that was far too wide and a drawing room that was huge, barren of every last stick of furnishings and so cold and empty, her steps sounded hollowly as she ran. She would try to reach the great hall, would try to barricade herself in the library. Helmut Wolfganger would help her. Helmut wasn’t like the others and neither was Philip Werner. They wouldn’t let Bauer get near her …

  At the sound of rushing steps on one of the stone staircases, she darted into a room and threw her back against its innermost wall.

  The steps ran past—there were several of them. Prying off her shoes, she started out again but in the hush there was nothing but the terror of knowing she alone stood between Bauer and the others and the hangman’s noose. Never mind their orders. Never mind the escape or that Nolan had someone else inside the castle. She was now simply too much of a threat and Trant had seen to this.

  Room fell upon room and she realized, as she slipped into each, that the mustiness of disuse and the high and ornately plastered ceilings of the derelict meant that this section of the castle had never been open to the prisoners.

  Coming to what must once have been the main ballroom, she saw that there were murals on the walls and ceilings. Scenes of the hunt, stags being torn to pieces, medieval times …

  Mary hesitated as she put her shoes back on. There were four doorways leading into corridors. Five men were watching her. Five! Hans Schleiger and Erich … Erich was just staring at her from across the room, she not knowing if she could make it to the emptiest of those doorways.

  ‘Franz!’ The rest of what he shouted was in Deutsch and she couldn’t understand all of it and raced for that one doorway, heard them all coming after her, darted down a staircase, hit the door at the bottom, found it open, and raced out into the bailey, knew then that Trant would be watching for just such a thing.

  Dragging in a breath, she ran past the main entrance and up the steps of the keep and in at that door. She had to make it to the great hall, had to get into the library but now there were men everywhere. They filled the corridors, turned their backs on her and when she tried to get through, sometimes stood in her way. ‘Please, you don’t understand. I had to tell Trant and the colonel. I had to!’

  When Bauer broke through to cut her off, she darted into the stairwell that was just beside the washroom—took the stairs two and three at a time, climbing, spiralling up and up, then went along the corridor to her right, he so close behind she tripped and cried out as he gave her a brutal shove and sent her stumbling blindly up the last flight of stairs to burst into the room at the top.

  The room where she and Erich had made love.

  Bauer slammed the door behind himself. There was a knife in his right hand and he gripped it as if she had one too. Forced up against the far wall, she began to edge her way towards the window …

  ‘Bauer, stop this at once.’

  The words had been in Deutsch, the lifeless eyes blinking as the knife clattered on the floor.

  ‘Herr Vizeadmiral …’

  ‘Silence! Now get out of here.’

  Huber had had only the bearing of command as his defence, yet Bauer had instantly stood to attention.

  ‘Mrs. Fraser, you must forgive what has just happened. Events here have moved far too quickly even for us. Please sit on the floor and rest yourself. What I have to say won’t take long. Major Trant is using us against you and that we cannot have. But … but you have hurt yourself.’

  Shutting her eyes, Mary gingerly probed her forehead. Blood came away. ‘It’s nothing. The bandage is still there. He … he could have removed it but didn’t.’

  ‘Please, you are in no further danger from any of us. Franz Bauer will be punished.’

  Going over to the window, Huber looked out over the bailey, taking a moment to gather his thoughts. ‘After what has happened, we can’t expect you to help us anymore. This I regret very much and apologize profusely. Bauer will be made to face the charges against him but not the others. Not Erich Kramer. Did you know he has a wife and little boy?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter.’

  Had that newfound resilience and toughness he’d experienced in her before been but a passing moment of defiance? ‘But it does matter. It was unkind of us to have used you, and now I am wondering what we can do to get you out of this mess we have created.’

  ‘Trant had me strip-searched. I can’t bring anything more in to you people. I’ll be up for treason in any case.’

  His nod was grim. ‘Then they’ll have found the bullets and will now turn the castle upside down for the gun.’

  She shook her head. ‘Not yet. In here. It … it was the only place they didn’t look.’

  Crouching in front of her, Huber gently teased a corner of the bandage away. Two cartridges were embedded in a wound from which splinters of glass glistened. How had she stood the pain and the threat of Trant’s finding them?

  ‘Ach, that cut must be cleaned and stitched. Dr. Conner is in the infirmary and while he won’t do the job your husband would, it will suffice.’

  ‘Wait, please. I … I didn’t give Trant all of the message Mrs. Tulford received from Berlin.’

  Liebe Zeit, was that toughness of spirit still with her? ‘For now just come with me and I will take you to the infirmary. There will be time enough later.’

  Huber helped her to her feet but she refused to leave until he had written down the message. ‘The CCRMR is the same ending as before, Vice Admiral. The major didn’t ask me about the message you had given me for her, only about this one, but I think he must know of it as well.’

  Did she really feel the only way out for her was to cooperate? ‘CCRMR is a code within a code. Since it is one that is not regularly used by our forces, the British may not yet have had a chance to break it, especially as repeated use is one of the very reasons codes are broken.’

  ‘Trant will only ask me what it means and if I don’t tell him something, I’ll be sent straight to prison. The CCRMR is what made him send for Erich and the others. I … I fudged it and some of the other groupings, and he … well, he realized I had.’

  To have memorized the grou
pings alone had been one task, to deliberately and quickly ‘fudge’ them in the face of such a threat, quite another. ‘The CCRMR means Heidi, which is the code name for the escape and for yourself.’

  Heidi. ‘What does it say?’

  She had not averted her gaze, but could he trust her after what had just happened to her? The message would take about five minutes to decode.

  Mary waited. Huber exuded a confidence that was comforting, but she knew that at the first sign of weakness she would be forgotten. He struck a match and burned what he’d written.

  ‘In essence, it means, Terms agreed. Fix rendezvous zero one hundred hours, twenty-three November.’

  Again he paused, and she had the thought then that he must be deciding whether to tell her something or not.

  ‘Kill Heidi,’ he said, not averting his gaze. ‘It ends with that, and for this I am sorry.’

  The woman didn’t flinch. Perhaps she was simply beyond this. If so, she would now need encouragement. ‘Ach, Berlin are so distant from this little place of ours, Mrs. Fraser, it is an order I can only rescind. On this you have my word.’

  ‘And what of the charges Trant will bring?’

  ‘Franz Bauer will be told he must hang for the murder of Bachmann, but the others must be allowed to go free. You will therefore tell the major that only Bauer was involved and that this is all you will swear to in court.’

  ‘Is Erich that important?’

  This one was being very direct. ‘For what we need, he is by far the best. Now come. That forehead of yours must be attended to.’

  Mary reached out to stop him. ‘I … Look, I don’t want anyone to be killed, Vice Admiral. I … I couldn’t bear it.’

  To have a conscience at such a time was, in itself, a warning that he could not overlook but something would have to be said. ‘Then rest assured the gun will only be used if necessary.’

  ‘And the explosives? I managed to get most of what was in the box out of the loft of our stable.’

  ‘But will tell this Nolan only when necessary, and that if harm should come to you, he will have to answer to me.’

  Again Mary stopped him. ‘Trant will force me to give him the complete message and will demand to know what it means, so I must give him something so close to the truth, he won’t question it.’

  This was no ordinary woman and they had best not forget it. ‘We will have to use the code again—perhaps two or even three times …’

  ‘He’ll have to be satisfied, Vice Admiral. He may even decide simply to have me arrested. I really don’t know. One never does with him.’

  ‘Then tell him, Terms agreed. Fix rendezvous. Forward via Heidi.’

  As the needle went in again, Mary lay on the makeshift operating table with her head tilted back. Dr. Connor had removed all of the glass but had said she’d have a scar and that this could not be helped.

  He pulled the suture tight; she heard the scissors snip it off. ‘There now. Back in four or five days and right as rain.’

  The lamp was switched off. Blinking, she looked up to see him grinning down at her. ‘Liam said I was to take good care of you, and by God I have, even if I do say so myself.’

  It was Huber who laid a hand on her arm to stop her from sitting up, Connor flicking a glance at him before saying, ‘You weren’t to know, but under the circumstances, the vice admiral here thought it best.’

  ‘You’re Nolan’s other contact.’

  ‘That I am. It’s your husband’s misfortune to have received a rap on the head for misbehaving at the colonel’s party, and mine for being his replacement.’

  ‘Did Nolan threaten you?’

  ‘Ah and sure you’re not to worry yourself.’

  ‘Your wife and children?’

  ‘Look, let’s just do as we’ve been told and pray t’ God we get out of this.’

  Connor had the pudgy grey and lined face of the heavy drinker. The eyes were grave, blue, tired and watery, the hair all but gone. A bit of sticking plaster clung to his chin, another to the left cheek. A man of perhaps forty-five but looking near to sixty.

  ‘If you’re finished with that scrutiny of yours, the vice admiral would like a word.’

  He turned away. She sat up. ‘Doctor …’

  ‘M’am?’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Ah think nothing of it. I’ll just see to my bag.’

  Huber told her to rest. ‘The major will be along at any moment.’

  Waiting, Mary lay there not knowing what would happen, but all too soon Trant barged in and she had the two of them standing over her, one on either side.

  ‘Well, what the devil’s been going on, eh?’ demanded Trant. There were three armed men with him.

  ‘Major, regrettably Mrs. Fraser was attacked on her way to the library and suffered a fall that reopened a cut on her forehead and required a few stitches.’

  ‘Rubbish. Where are Kramer and the others? I specifically asked that they be sent to my office.’

  ‘They are in the other room. Major …’

  ‘Well, what is it now?’

  ‘Franz Bauer went after Mrs. Fraser. Erich Kramer and the others had to restrain him. Bauer will confess to the hanging.’

  Trant swiftly took him in and snorted derisively. ‘Bauer wasn’t alone. All five of them were in on it.’

  ‘But he will confess, Major,’ said Huber.

  A fait accompli, that it? ‘Then bring the bastard in and let’s hear what he has to say.’ They’d get precious little out of Bauer. Sweating him would do no earthly good but he might yet have his use. There was a dungeon in the cellars below the cantling tower. Bauer could be held there pending trial and would be well away from the others. And Mrs. Fraser? he demanded of himself. He’d have to hear what she had to say, but later.

  As Bauer was led in by Erich and Hans Schleiger, Mary knew at once that he’d kill her if ever the chance arose and that Trant, who never missed a thing, had seen this and would use him if necessary.

  ‘Major, you wanted them to kill me.’

  ‘My dear young woman, I wanted you to see how tenuous is your position here. Those men are Nazis—Huber, Bauer, Kramer, even Wolfganger. Bauer will put his neck in the noose and gladly for that Führer of his. He’s been ordered to, God damn it!’

  ‘There’s no need to shout. I understand perfectly.’

  She hadn’t flinched at the sound of his voice but was looking rather pale. ‘Admit that you’ve been taking things into Tralane.’

  ‘Books, that’s all. And … and messages, of course.’

  And still trying to be tough about it—was that it, eh? ‘Treason, damn you. Treason! Need I say more?’

  ‘Look, I’m sorry I lied to you about the message but I was afraid and very angry about what you and the colonel had ordered that woman to do to me.’

  ‘Then let’s have it, and while you’re at it, write down whatever it was Huber told you it meant, and he must have done, mustn’t he, otherwise you’d have nothing to give O’Bannion and the others.’

  Snatching up a pad and pencil, he thrust them at her and watched as she quickly jotted the five-letter groupings down and then wrote out their meaning.

  ‘Terms agreed. Fix rendezvous. Forward via Heidi.’

  Mary forced herself to gaze steadily at him. ‘That is what I was told it meant, Major. I think the vice admiral wanted me to know I was trusted and essential to the escape.’

  Correction, thought Trant. He wanted O’Bannion and the others to know this. ‘What sort of terms?’

  ‘I’ve no idea.’

  ‘Safe passage to the Reich for Nolan, that it?’

  When she didn’t avert her gaze or respond, he raised his voice a little. ‘Guns, Mrs. Fraser? Ammunition and money—enough to open a second front in Ireland? Where, by God, is this rendezvous?’

&nb
sp; ‘In the South, I think. Perhaps near Kinsale—that’s where I met Fay Darcy’s sister.’

  Trant compared the coded message with the bits and pieces MI5’s Listeners had picked up. An invaluable group of dedicated ham operators scattered throughout the British Isles, the Listeners had been recruited by counterintelligence in the winter of 1938, then welded into a listening network at the outbreak of hostilities. Two further reports had come in, one from as far north as Tigharry on the west coast of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides, and the other from the lighthouse on Tory Island some 170 miles to the south-southwest of there and off the north coast of Ireland. Tory was right smack against one of the busiest shipping lanes, a convoy beacon that could not have been extinguished, but like Inishtrahull it was not a part of Ulster and not under British rule. Odd, though, that they should have responded, having picked up the Tulford woman’s exchange of signals, but then they constantly scanned the airwaves for German U-boat traffic as well as for Allied shipping.

  Huber could have twisted the message sufficiently to mislead, but it was a chance he’d have to take. ‘Mrs. Fraser, if this message is as you’ve stated, we have no choice but to also use you as our contact. You will therefore meet with the Darcy woman and the others, assuming we haven’t apprehended them first, and you will find out the time and location of this rendezvous. We’d like that U-boat intact. Yes, indeed, we would.’

  And everything else they could get. As she got to her feet, he stepped aside, but when a hand was extended, he was forced to shake it. ‘Of course I’ll do all I can, Major. I wouldn’t think of doing anything else, not now.’

  Surprisingly her grip was firm. A last shred of dignity then, or one of stiffening resistance and rebellion? ‘Well, just in case you don’t, let me remind you that Bauer is now housed in the dungeon. Cross me once more and you will join him.’

  ‘Major, you needn’t have been so brutal. Will Jimmy still keep the house under surveillance?’

  Was she being coy? ‘We mustn’t let our end down, now must we?’

  She was at the door when he asked, ‘This tunnel they’ve been digging. Where is it located?’